1203 | 252 | Necropolitics and geographies of responsibility in extreme spaces

The current global crisis has many faces. Here I focus on the increasingly unequal, unjust and often violent uses of space, which create extremely difficult situations for those living in the most dispossessed areas._x000D_
In an earlier theorization of urban margins, we described them as “reserve spaces” awaiting a new round of investment in the urban environment. In this presentation we look at those urban margins that are actually trapped in a “permanent temporality”, what we call “extreme spaces”. We understand that these extreme spaces are actually necessary for the normal functioning of the whole urban system and can therefore be conceptualized as a kind of colonial spaces (Benach, 2021)._x000D_
This argument is not entirely new, as many aspects have already been analyzed as a logic of unequal development, dispossession or spatial injustice. However, the theoretical framework presented here focuses on two particularly insightful elaborations to help elucidate causes, spatial expressions, responses and policy approaches. First, Massey’s concepts of geographies of responsibility and the politics of place behind place (Massey, 2004). Second, Mbembe’s necropolitics in relation to permanent excluded spaces, sacrificial zones, disposable lives, and the postcolony (Mbembe, 1992; Mbembé, 2003)._x000D_

Nuria Benach Rovira
Universitat de Barcelona

ID Abstract: 252

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