IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ijurrs/v38y2014i5p1767-1784.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Guerrilla-style Defensive Architecture in Detroit: A Self-provisioned Security Strategy in a Neoliberal Space of Disinvestment

Author

Listed:
  • Kimberley Kinder

Abstract

Self-provisioning has long been an important component of urban political economic processes. However, it has recently become a central feature of grassroots urban governance strategies as well. In tumultuous cities of the twenty-first century, with governments either unwilling or unable to effectively enforce zoning laws, police neighborhoods or manage infrastructure, some householders have begun performing these services instead. This article examines one subset of self-provisioning practices that has emerged in southwest Detroit where residents have taken steps to secure abandoned housing as a means of exerting social control over their living environment. These actions embody many contradictions and ethical dilemmas, and the intimate scale of action has left the structural production of disinvestment in places like Detroit largely unchecked. Nevertheless, these guerilla-style spatial interventions have emerged as critically important response strategies helping residents reduce their vulnerability and stabilize their blocks even as other nearby areas continue to experience decline.

Suggested Citation

  • Kimberley Kinder, 2014. "Guerrilla-style Defensive Architecture in Detroit: A Self-provisioned Security Strategy in a Neoliberal Space of Disinvestment," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(5), pages 1767-1784, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:38:y:2014:i:5:p:1767-1784
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/1468-2427.12158
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Seth Schindler, 2016. "Detroit after bankruptcy: A case of degrowth machine politics," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(4), pages 818-836, March.
    2. Noah J. Durst & Jake Wegmann, 2017. "Informal Housing in the United States," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 282-297, March.
    3. Lisa Berglund, 2020. "The Shrinking City as a Growth Machine: Detroit's Reinvention of Growth through Triage, Foundation Work and Talent Attraction," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 219-247, March.
    4. Stefano Bloch, 2016. "Why do Graffiti Writers Write on Murals? The Birth, Life, and Slow Death of Freeway Murals in Los Angeles," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 451-471, March.
    5. Jason Hackworth, 2016. "Defiant Neoliberalism and the Danger of Detroit," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 107(5), pages 540-551, December.
    6. Bethany B. Cutts & Michael Minn, 2018. "Dead Grass: Foreclosure and the Production of Space in Maricopa County, Arizona," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 3(3), pages 16-25.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:38:y:2014:i:5:p:1767-1784. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0309-1317 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.