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Spatial Poetics Under Authoritarianism: Graffiti and the Contestation of Urban Redevelopment in Contemporary China
Author(s) -
Smith Nick R.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
antipode
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.177
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 1467-8330
pISSN - 0066-4812
DOI - 10.1111/anti.12607
Subject(s) - redevelopment , graffiti , poetics , authoritarianism , neighbourhood (mathematics) , sociology , context (archaeology) , china , demolition , space (punctuation) , resistance (ecology) , public space , aesthetics , law , political science , civil engineering , geography , visual arts , architectural engineering , archaeology , art , engineering , poetry , literature , computer science , politics , democracy , mathematics , mathematical analysis , ecology , biology , operating system
This article investigates the expression of resistance to urban redevelopment in the authoritarian context of contemporary China. Where conventional channels of public expression are closed, the very space of urban transformation becomes an important medium of contestation. Through the practice of “spatial poetics”, residents manipulate the taken‐for‐granted meanings attached to urban space, challenging the spatial codes that authorise redevelopment. Working across four spatial dimensions—territory, place, scale, and network—these poetic manipulations allow residents to de‐naturalise existing power structures, escape their effects, and re‐code space with alternative meanings. The article illustrates the practice of spatial poetics through an analysis of Ciqikou, a historic district of Chongqing undergoing redevelopment. Residents expressed their resistance to redevelopment by writing slogans on buildings slated for demolition. By emphasising relationships of scale, network, and place, residents’ graffiti challenged the territorial basis of the Chinese party‐state’s redevelopment project and revalorised the neighbourhood as worthy of preservation.