Abstract:
Displacement, as a consequence of capital accumulation, requires the violent expropriation of people from soil and the deployment of discursive devices to justify this forced upheaval. The redevelopment of the East Auckland state housing community, Glen Innes, exemplifies this dual process of displacement. This state-led gentrification process presents itself as urban renewal – a community-led project purported to build a mixed tenure community of social, affordable and private housing. The consequence, however, has been the eviction of existing tenants and the removal of state houses facilitated by central and local government legislation. This redevelopment project attempts to construct an idea of urban renewal as an uncontested process that will benefit both the current tenants and the future middle-class residents who desire affordable housing close to the city. The redevelopment operates on the level of consensus based politics, however excludes the voices of those that do not want to move. The redevelopment has encountered resistance from the Tāmaki Housing Group, formed on the premise of fighting the eviction and destruction of their community. The group, led by state housing tenants and supporters, breaks with the logic of consensus through a practise of dissensus – speaking in disagreement to the dispossessing power of this redevelopment project. In doing so, resistance opposes the logic of current liberal democracy, as particularised in urban planning, which attempts to suture antagonism with manufactured unity. The building of a mixed community and the appropriation of the language of community by developers attempts to expel inequality and resistance. This thesis demonstrates that when a community speaks against the current ordering of people – those that have a right to live in Glen Innes and those that do not – they are declaring that they exist and refuse displacement.
