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Uneven Development: Listening to the 'South', Listening to Vancouver

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Development Dissidents

Dec 4th, 2009 by AMunro

This video is a new story titled “Demolition Dissidents.” Reported by Patrick Brown (CBC’s correspondent in Beijing), it tells the story of a group of neighbours who gather together to combat the demolitions that the Chinese government has ordered for their neighbourhood. The story places itself in the broader context of Beijing’s modernizing processes and development, especially in the lead up to the Olympic Games staged in 2008. The video emphasizes elderly individuals and their plight to save their home, or at least receive adequate and fair compensation. The story reaches a climax as a group confronts a government official, who subsequently walks out on them, more than once. The dissidents rue that their voice is not heard as capitalist development takes over.

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This video is not quite obviously a development-related story, nor are the individuals necessarily subaltern. I chose this video purposefully because I think it shows how both imminent and immanent development works together within countries, putting citizens off against each other. Strikingly, we see David Harvey’s uneven development of capitalism as this community is seen as spatially inferior. The imminent (little ‘d’) process of capitalist development has left the individuals profiled at a disadvantage and without power. The immanent project of the government coming to bulldozing seems merely seems like the next unfolding of the imminent process.

Further, I think it is a worthwhile question to ponder whether or not these people are subaltern. In one sense, their voices and concerns are not heard as their priorities are not priorities on the hegemonic grid (their well-being and livelihood). However, in another sense, they are being profiled by a news agency of the Global North. This discursive representation of them does or will produce a material outcome: their voices are being heard by us (although mediated by the reporter). I wonder if the fact that this a news agency affects the story? Further, are these people members of the Global South? What about the Chinese government? In some ways, I think this video represents the threshold between terms such as North and South and subaltern and hegemonic.

Regardless, I think having a more news-type video can be useful as this is such a common form of representation for issues that we have talked about in this class all term. How does this medium affect the outcome? In many ways, the camera and the reporter seem invisible, although it is important to be aware that we are seeing this story through their literal and figurative lens.

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