Global City Theory in Question: the Case of London and the Logics of Capital

GLOBAL CITY THEORY IN QUESTION: THE CASE OF LONDON AND THE LOGICS OF CAPITAL Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Delphine Ancien, M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 2008 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Kevin R. Cox, Adviser Professor Nancy Ettlinger ________________________ Professor Edward J. Malecki Adviser Geography Graduate Program Professor Darla K. Munroe Copyright by Delphine Ancien 2008 ABSTRACT Since the 1980s the greater London area has been home to an increasingly large proportion of the British population, economic activities and profits; its population growth has been quite phenomenal. Many observers over the past few years have been warning that this growth threatens to be self-inhibiting. This has to do with London’s escalating housing costs. Housing shortages in turn tend to create labor shortages in low- skilled low-paying jobs as much as for middle-and-higher-income positions. This problem is quite common in large economically-booming cities, and even more so in what have been identified as ‘world’ or ‘global cities’, such New York City, Tokyo, and London. These cities are characterized, in particular, by their concentration of command and control functions of the world economy, and especially global financial functions. These have become a crucial aspect of capitalism in an era of increased globalization and financialization of capital. However, although the world city and global city literatures appear as a very important departure point for analyzing London’s housing crisis and, crucially from the standpoint of this dissertation, the ways different agents and coalitions of actors have been approaching this issue, I argue that it is necessary to go beyond the rather standard world/global city accounts that have ensued. This is so in particular because they do not allow us to fully understand how this situation has ii emerged, the particular conditions, forces and space-time juxtapositions that have led to the production of London as a global city and the subsequent issues of labor reproduction that have to be dealt with today. In short, they are, in many instances, de-contextualized accounts. In this dissertation I address some of the shortcomings of global city theory and I argue that global cities have a political geography of a quite complex nature, one that has been constructed over time and that has to be taken into account if we are to understand their production and reproduction. Through a reinvestigation of the case of London, using mainly intensive qualitative research methods, this research aims at providing some benchmarks through which to reassess global city theory through an emphasis on the capital accumulation process. First, by resituating global cities with respect to the capitalist accumulation process – understood as a production relation rather than an exchange relation – and how it unfolds within particular ensembles of space-time constraints and possibilities – characterized sometimes by a strong happenstance element – new light can be shed on the their production and continuing reproduction. Second, the concept of the politics of scale is very useful in understanding how global cities are always embedded in wider sets of socio-spatial relations that need to be managed if they are to be reproduced. Finally, the state appears as a key aspect of different historical geographies of capitalism, including the formation and reproduction of particular global cities. iii Dedicated to my parents, François and Rosalie, to my brother, Frédéric, to Aude, Marie and Arthur iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In preparing for, researching, and writing this dissertation, I am indebted to many people and institutions in both the United States and Europe. The list is too long to record here and for those who go unmentioned, please accept my apologies and gratitude. First, I must thank the Department of Geography and the Office of International Affairs at The Ohio State University for the generous funding they each provided for this research. I would like to thank Morton O’Kelly, Chair of the Department of Geography, for awarding me the writing quarters that allowed me to devote the last few months to the writing of this dissertation. A fellowship of the European Union for attending the Eurex summerschool in Urbino, Italy, contributed to the initial development of this project: it allowed me to deepen my empirical and theoretical understanding of urban changes and gave me the opportunity to meet some scholars and friends that have been a source of inspiration since then. Special mention is due for various reasons to Núria Pascual i Molinas and Justus Uitermark. I am also grateful for the support that I received through my involvement with v the European project DEMOLOGOS. Beside the institutional support that it provided me with, in particular through the IFRESI-CNRS research center in Lille, France, I owe special thanks to Frank Moulaert and Erik Swyngedouw for their intellectual guidance and continuous support, to Bob Jessop and Jamie Peck for the insightful comments they provided on my early work, and to Stijn Oosterlynck for his friendship, encouragements and the intellectual enrichment that I have gained from many of our conversations. I would like to thank the people in London and in the United Kingdom, named and unnamed, who made themselves available and gave me their time, in particular during the fieldwork part of this project. I am not able to list all of them here, but I would like to express my gratitude to a few people in particular: John Tomaney, who recommended me to some key interviewees whom I would not have been able to talk to without his intervention; and, very importantly, Louanne and Chris Tranchell, who welcomed me in their home when I first arrived in London, after randomly meeting me once at a conference two weeks earlier. Their knowledge of London, their dedication to bettering the lives of the people there through their various activities and commitments, and their openness and kindness made my experience there such a richer one. Hours of conversation with Louanne kept feeding my fascination with London and its politics. vi Crucially, this project would not have been possible without the intellectual mentorship of my adviser Kevin Cox, his advice, critical comments, support, encouragements and patience. I cannot even recall the number of hours he has spent reading, discussing and commenting on my work, and helping me discover the subtleties of the English language. This is a demonstration of his dedication to his students and his profound interest in their research. I am very grateful for all I have learned from him and the lasting impact it will have on my work. I also wish to thank the members of my dissertation committee: Darla Munroe, Ed Malecki, and Nancy Ettlinger, who has made a real difference to my time at Ohio State. In addition to my adviser and dissertation committee members, I am grateful for the intellectual stimulation and support provided throughout my graduate studies by my fellow graduate students, my undergraduate students, and the faculty in the Department of Geography at The Ohio State University. I would like to give special thanks to Diane Carducci for her constant support in various forms. I owe many thanks to my friends and colleagues for their support and encouragements. I would like to mention especially and in no particular order other than alphabetical: Frédérique Beauvillain, Annemarie Bodaar, Eric Boschmann, Carlos Castro-Pareja, Alistair Fraser, Saghi Gazerani, Kevin Grove, Marie Julien, Suzanna Klaf, vii Céline Le Roc’h, Melanie Markusic (and Ella!), Rohit Negi, Constanza Parra, Sophie Rétif, Emily Rupp, Ryan Snyder, Marie Vergos, Hayden Vernon, Susan Wolfinbarger, and Theresa Wong. Special thanks go to Veronica Crossa for her intellectual and moral support as well as for her dedication to getting me to write this dissertation, and to Jeff Olson for the hours he spent helping me with the GIS work involved in this research. Finally, but by no means least, the following dissertation could not have been completed without the loving encouragements and unconditional support of my family: my parents François and Rosalie Ancien, my brother Frédéric Ancien, my sister-in-law Aude Ancien, and my very dear niece and nephew, Marie and Arthur. I owe more than I can express to them. The regular emails from Brittany were a very welcome source of moral support in the past few years, and especially in the last few months. viii VITA February 20, 1979 ………………..…... Born – Morlaix, France 2002 …………………………………... Diplôme de l’Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Rennes, Rennes, France 2004 …………………………………... M.A. Geography, The Ohio State University 2004 – 2006 ………………………....... Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University 2006 – 2007 …………………………... Research Associate, DEMOLOGOS project, IFRESI-CNRS Research Center, Lille, France 2007 – present ………………………... Graduate Teaching and Research Associate, The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS 1. Ancien, D. (2005) Local and Regional Development Policy in France: Of Changing Conditions and Forms, and Enduring State Centrality. Space and Polity 9(3): 217-236 FIELDS OF STUDY Major field: Geography ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract............................................................................................................................... ii Dedication.........................................................................................................................

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