Monstrous Politics

Ben Gerlofs

Description

The birth of the world’s great megacities is the surest and starkest harbinger of the “urban age” inaugurated in the twentieth century. As the world’s urban population achieves majority for the first time in recorded history, theories proliferate on the nature of urban politics, including the shape and quality of urban democracy, the role of urban social and political movements, and the prospects for progressive and emancipatory change from the corridors of powerful states to the routinized rhythms of everyday life. At stake are both the ways in which the rapidly changing urban world is understood and the urban futures being negotiated by the governments and populations struggling to contend with these changes and forge a place in contemporary cities.

Transdisciplinary by design, Monstrous Politics first moves historically through Mexico City’s turbulent twentieth century, driven centrally by the contentious imbrication of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and its capital city. Participant observation, expert interviews, and archival materials demonstrate the shifting strategies and alliances of recent decades, provide the reader with a sense of the texture of contemporary political life in the city during a time of unprecedented change, and locate these dynamics within the history and geography of twentieth-century urbanization and political revolution. Substantive ethnographic chapters trace the emergence and decline of the political language of “the right to the city,” the establishment and contestation of a “postpolitical” governance regime, and the culmination of a century of urban politics in the processes of “political reform” by which Mexico City finally wrested back significant political autonomy and local democracy from the federal state.

A four-fold transection of the revolutionary structure of feeling that pervades the city in this historic moment illustrates the complex and contradictory sentiments, appraisals, and motivations through which contemporary politics are understood and enacted. Drawing on theories of social revolution that embrace complexity, and espousing a methodology that foregrounds the everyday nature of politics, Monstrous Politics develops an understanding of revolutionary urban politics at once contextually nuanced and conceptually expansive, and thus better able to address the realities of politics in the “urban age” even beyond Mexico City.
Introduction

Part I: Urbanizing Revolution
1. A Century of Monsters, Machines, and Megaurbanization
2. Crisis, Conflict, and Cárdenista Revolution

Part II: Revolutionary Urbanisms
3. Dreaming Dialectically: The Death and Life of the Right to the City in Mexico City
4. Así No (Not Like This): Resisting Postpolitics on Avenida Chapultepec
5. The Redemptive (Urban) Revolution: Political Reform and the Rebirth of the Capital City-State

Conclusion

Appendix: An Explanatory Note on Approach and Methods
Notes
References
Index

Sujets

• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• México, D. F.
• Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano
• Porfiriato
• México
• Sociology
• Index of urban studies articles
• Mexican Revolution
• Mexico City
• Morena
• Mexico
• Urban
• Tlatelolco
• Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 16 janvier 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780826504791
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Monstrous Politics
Critical Mexican Studies
Series editor: Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado
Critical Mexican Studies is the first English-language, humanities-based, theoretically focused academic series devoted to the study of Mexico. The series is a space for innovative works in the humanities that focus on theoretical analysis, transdisciplinary interventions, and original conceptual framing.
Other titles in the series:
The Restless Dead: Necrowriting and Disappropriation , by Cristina Rivera Garza
History and Modern Media: A Personal Journey , by John Mraz Toxic Loves, Impossible Futures: Feminist Living as Resistance , by Irmgard Emmelhainz
Drug Cartels Do Not Exist: Narcotrafficking in US and Mexican Culture , by Oswaldo Zavala
Unlawful Violence: Mexican Law and Cultural Production , by Rebecca Janzen
The Mexican Transpacific: Nikkei Writing, Visual Arts, and Performance , by Ignacio López-Calvo
Monstrous Politics
Geography, Rights, and the Urban Revolution in Mexico City
Ben A. Gerlofs
Vanderbilt University Press
Nashville, Tennessee
Copyright 2023 Vanderbilt University Press
All rights reserved
First printing 2023
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gerlofs, Ben A., 1985– author.
Title: Monstrous politics : geography, rights, and the urban revolution in Mexico City / Ben A. Gerlofs.
Description: Nashville, Tennessee : Vanderbilt University Press, [2023] | Series: Critical Mexican studies ; volume 7 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022012492 (print) | LCCN 2022012493 (ebook) | ISBN 9780826504777 (Paperback) | ISBN 9780826504784 (Hardcover) | ISBN 9780826504791 (epub) | ISBN 9780826504807 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Historical geography. | Ethnology—Mexico City. | Urbanization—Mexico City. | Politics, Practical—Mexico City.
Classification: LCC G141 .G48 2023 (print) | LCC G141 (ebook) | DDC 911/.7253—dc23/eng20221025
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022012492
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022012493
For my mother, Jacqueline Kay Gerlofs (née Lenderink), masterful and unsparing practitioner of transgressive humor and unashamed lover of Casa de Toño.
Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION
PART I. URBANIZING REVOLUTION
1. A Century of Monsters, Machines, and Megaurbanization
2. Crisis, Conflict, and Cárdenista Revolution
PART II. REVOLUTIONARY URBANISMS
3. Dreaming Dialectically: The Death and Life of the Right to the City in Mexico City
4. Así No (Not Like This): Resisting Postpolitics on Avenida Chapultepec
5. The Redemptive (Urban) Revolution: Political Reform and the Rebirth of the Capital City-State
CONCLUSION
Appendix: An Explanatory Note on Approach and Methods
List of Abbreviations
Notes
References
Index
Figures
Figure 1.1: Mexico City and its Alcaldías
Figure 1.2: Greater Mexico City urbanized area
Figure 1.3: Iztapalapa, just before the Via Crucis celebration
Figure 1.4: Iztapalapa, near the Cerro de la Estrella
Figure 1.5: Looking roughly east from the Cerro de la Estrella in Iztapalapa
Figure 1.6: The corner of Avenida 5 de Mayo and Avenida Ferrocarriles Nacionales
Figure 1.7: The village of Texcoco
Figure 1.8: Behind a market in Texcoco
Figure 1.9: Texcoco, seen from the ruins of the Los Melones archaeological site
Figure 3.1: Signs honoring Enrique Ortiz Flores
Figure 4.1: Avenida Chapultepec and surrounding area
Figure 4.2: Paseo de la Reforma
Figure 4.3: Avenida Chapultepec
Figure 4.4: The tianguis above Chapultepec Metro station in March
Figure 4.5: The site of the tianguis above Chapultepec Metro station in May
Figure 4.6: Avenida Chapultepec, near the Sevilla Metro station
Figure 4.7: Signs produced by anti-project forces
Figure 4.8: A vandalized promotional structure
Figure 4.9: A march along Avenida Chapultepec
Figure 5.1: Women’s march along Paseo de la Reforma
Figure 5.2: Women’s march along Paseo de la Reforma
Figure 5.3: Marco Rascón at El Museo de la Ciudad de México
Figure 5.4: Sergio González at El Museo de la Ciudad de México
Figure 5.5: Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas at El Museo de la Ciudad de México
Figure 5.6: Audience at El Museo de la Ciudad de México
Figure 5.7: A protester at El Museo de la Ciudad de México
Figure 5.8: Points of Encounter stations
Figure 5.9: The state of Mexico and the Mexico City metropolitan area
Figure 5.10: An advertisement on the Mexico City Metro
Figure 5.11: Distribution of votes by party, mayoral election (jefe de gobierno) of the Federal District
Figure 5.12: Distribution of votes by party, Constitutional Assembly Election of Mexico City
Acknowledgments
In conducting the research for this book and in the writing, I am thankful to have had incredible intellectual, emotional, logistical, financial, caloric, and other support from many corners within and beyond the academy. For these kind souls and generous institutions, whose geography has sprawled across much of the globe since the process began, I will be forever grateful.
At Rutgers University, Kathe Newman pushed me to think more carefully about the operation of power in urban geography, and to produce writing that lives up to my auspicious titles. Don Mitchell has been patient and supportive through intellectual and personal challenges, and I am forever realizing how influential his work and his approach have been on my own. I am always in conversation with Don, even when he doesn’t know it, fulfilling his maxim that former students never are. Bob Lake more than lived up to his reputation as a wonderful advisor, and his patience and support are much appreciated, as are his timely words of wisdom. Bob continues to gently help me figure out what it is I’m really trying to say, and help me say it better. Asher Ghertner has likewise been the very best of advisors. His advice kept me on the yellow brick road during some rocky times, and helped me find it again when I wandered off. His incredible ability to cover a seemingly infinite field of knowledge remains impressive and inspiring, and I find his influence in many of my most-prized pedagogical practices as well. Rick Schroeder also deserves immense thanks for being patient with my dogged attempts to make sense of dialectics. I was also privileged to work with an incredibly talented group of graduate students and friends at Rutgers, especially Sangeeta Banerji, Hudson McFann, David Ferring, Mónica Hernández Ospina, Priti Narayan, Sean Tanner, Rich Nisa, Evan Casper-Futterman, Brian Baldor, Juan Rivero, Ben Teresa, Ana Mahecha-Groot, Marlaina Martin, Thomas Crowley, Wei-Chieh Hung, David Eisenhauer, Helen Olsen, Erin Royals, Jonah Walters, Ali Horton, Debby Scott, Ally Sobey, Stuti Govil, Dawn Wells, Sadaf Javed, María García, Mike Brady, Diya Paul, Ariel Otruba, Jenny Isaacs, Natalie Teale, Jack Norton, Josh Randall, and Asher Siebert. I am particularly grateful to those who gave feedback on versions of several chapters as part of Asher Ghertner’s urban lab (including brilliant visitors Tom Cowan and Harry Pettit). I also benefitted from the guidance and comradery of several other faculty members, including especially Laura Schneider, Daniel Goldstein, Nina Siulc, Trevor Birkenholtz, Kevin St. Martin, and Kevon Rhiney. I owe a special thanks to Mazen Labban, who remains an incredibly generous and brilliantly insightful interlocutor and friend.
I am grateful to colleagues and friends at Dartmouth College for their tremendous support during my year teaching in the Department of Geography, especially Mona Domosh, Frank Magilligan, Tish Lopez, Kate Hall, Richard Wright, Chris Sneddon, Josh Cousins, Jason MacLeod, Susanne Freidberg, Ryan McKeon, Abigail Neely, Coleen Fox, Laura Ogden, Greta Marchesi, Elizabeth Wilson, Garnet Kindervater, Stephanie Spera, and Garrett Dash Nelson.
Princeton University’s Program in Latin American Studies (PLAS) was a wonderful place from which to think and rethink; conduct fieldwork; share and received feedback; and to research, write, and/or edit much of this book, and I am extremely thankful to PLAS and to Gabriella Nouzielles for inviting me to join them as a postdoctoral research associate. PLAS is a vibrant, stimulating, and very welcoming community, made all the more so by their fantastic staff: Rebecca Aguas, Damaris Zayas, Jeremia LaMontagne, Eneida Toner, and Director Gabriela Nouzeilles. Thanks to Ryan Edwards for insights, camaraderie, and sharing an office (even though I often work with the overhead lights off, like some kind of vampire), and to Jessica Mack, Aiala Levy, Noa Corcoran-Tadd, Bridgette Werner, Miqueias Mugge, Leonardo Cardoso, Monica Amor, Farraz Felippe, Eduardo Moncada, Rafael Sánchez, Ana María Ibañez, João Biehl, Cristina Freire, Jeremy Adelman, Marcelo Medeiros, Arturo Arias, Mario Gandelsonas, Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, Rachel Price, Fernando Acosta-Rodríguez, Vera Candiani, Aaron Shkuda, and Arturo Alvarado for sharing Princeton and PLAS with me, and for so many great events and stimulating conversations. I am grateful to Doug Massey and Gabriela Nouzeilles for mentorship and support, and to Javier Guerrero and especially Rubén Gallo for providing helpful feedback on an early chapter of this book.
My new colleagues within and beyond the Department of Geography at the University of Hong Kong have been extremely welcoming and supportive (especially with a harried arrival amid the global COVID-19 pandemic), and have made Hong Kong a fantastic place from which to finish the manuscript’s final edits. In particular, I am thankful to George C. S. Lin, Becky P. Y. Loo, He Wang, Ben Iaquinto, Patrick Adler, Frank van der Wouden, Mia Bennett, Junxi Qian, Nicky Y. F. Lam, P. C. Lai, Jim Lenzer, Peter Koh, Yongsung Lee, Wendy Chen, Steven H. S. Zhang, Calvin Tribby, Lishan Ran, Zhenci Xue, Jinbao Li, Yanjia Cao, Jimmy Li, Wes Attewell, and Peng Gong. Outside of the department, I am thankful to Mon