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Abstract
In recent years, Berlin has been widely acclaimed for the creative enactment of alternative urban imaginaries. This article explores how such spaces of urban alterity can be theorized from a political economy perspective. The beginning section explores the extent to which the “be berlin” campaign succeeds in representing the economic diversity embodied by these alternative sites. The middle section draws on the work of Gibson-Graham and Foucault to develop a heterotopic reading of economic diversity, focusing on three distinct aspects: the ubiquity and multiplicity of “other spaces,” the (il)legibility of the spatial order, and the politics of difference articulated through heterotopias. The final section applies this heterotopic perspective by deploying the urban garden project Prinzessinnengarten as an example.
Acknowledgments
The support of a research fellowship of the Julie Graham Community Economies Research Fund is gratefully acknowledged. I would also like to thank Yahya Madra, Ceren Özselçuk, and S. Charusheela for the opportunity to discuss emergent ideas at the Joint Workshop of the Economics and Sociology Departments of Boğaziçi University and at the “Stranger Economies” conference at the University of Washington. I am equally indebted to Katherine Gibson, Maliha Safri, Aras Özgün, Jenny Cameron, Gerda Roelvink, Serap Kayatekin, and participants at the 2013 Community Economies Theory and Writing Retreat in Bolsena for insightful comments on an earlier draft.
Notes
1. This article is part of a larger project analyzing alternative economies in Berlin.
2. As a representative of visitberlin, the city's official tourism agency, put it: “Berlin is a magnet, especially for the young creative [types]. The Berlin lifestyle fascinates people worldwide” (quoted in Puschner Citation2012). Its reputation as the ultimate playground of the creative classes has even earned Berlin the title of “Europe's Capital of Cool” in Time Magazine (see http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1934459,00.html). It should be noted, however, that this philosophy of reclaiming the city competes with the conservative nation-building project, which rather successfully has been pushing for a monumental, romanticist reconstruction of the historic city center. A third contender for shaping the cityscape is capital with an interest in commodifying urban land (Duran Citation2009; Harvey Citation2012).
3. See “Entrepeneurs in Berlin,” Berlin Partner GmbH, accessed 7 December 2012, http://www.be.berlin.de/campaign/city-of-opportunities/information/entrepreneurs-in-berlin.
4. See “I Am a Berliner,” Berlin Partner GmbH, accessed 7 December 2012, http://www.be.berlin.de/campaign/i-am-a-berliner.
5. Gibson-Graham (Citation1996, 6) define capitalocentrism as follows: “When we say that most economic discourse is ‘capitalocentric,’ we mean that other forms of economy (not to mention noneconomic aspects of social life) are often understood primarily with reference to capitalism: as being fundamentally the same as (or modeled upon) capitalism, or as being deficient or substandard imitations; as being opposite to capitalism; as being the complement of capitalism; as existing in capitalism's space or orbit.”
6. See “Entrepeneurs in Berlin,” Berlin Partner GmbH, accessed 7 December 2012, http://www.be.berlin.de/campaign/city-of-opportunities/information/entrepreneurs-in-berlin.
7. See “Ideen in Berlin,” Berlin Partner GmbH, accessed 7 December 2012, http://www.sei.berlin.de/kampagne/stadt-der-chancen/informationen/ideen-in-berlin.
8. See “City of Opportunities,” Berlin Partner GmbH, accessed 10 December 2012, http://www.be.berlin.de/campaign/city-of-opportunities.
9. See “2010—Industry and Social Engagement,” accessed 7 December 2012, http://www.be.berlin.de/campaign/campaignyears/2010.
10. See Wo bleibt die Zeit? Die Zeitverwendung der Bevölkerung in Deutschland 2001/02, BMFSFJ and Statistisches Bundesamt, accessed 14 October 2013, http://www.bmfsfj.de/RedaktionBMFSFJ/Abteilung2/Pdf-Anlagen/wo-bleibt-zeit,property=pdf.pdf.
11. This lecture was given to the Cercle d’études architecturales (Circle of Architectural Studies) and constituted a revised version of a radio talk Foucault had held a year earlier. However, the manuscript was not published until 1984 when it was included in a volume for the International Building Exhibition (IBA) being held in Berlin (Foucault Citation2008, 13).
12. For an overview of the research and publications of this school of thought, see the homepage of CERN at www.communityeconomies.org.
13. See Rethinking Marxism 25 (4).
14. On this issue see also Özselçuk and Madra (Citationforthcoming).
15. In this context, see also Ethan Miller's discussion of the solidarity economy movement in his contribution to part one of this symposium in Rethinking Marxism 25 (4).
16. North's (Citation1999, 72) case study of Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) in Britain is a case in point. He argues that LETS are contested spaces “in which multiple claims about money and livelihood are raised and which then knock up against each other.” As heterotopic spaces LETS articulate a multifaceted critique of—and several alternatives to—capitalism. In the LETS that he studied, he found that while not all economic needs could be met within the network, they still had an empowering effect on members, enabling them “to live outside the mainstream economy in the here and now, as a realisable aim given the resources they had themselves rather than as a hoped-for future contingent on the actions of supportive elites and businesses” (75).
17. The name translates as “Princess Garden” and alludes to the name of the adjacent street, Prinzessinnenstraße. For more information and a virtual tour of the project see www.prinzessinnengarten.net.
18. The property had initially been earmarked for privatization by the local government. The short term of the lease granted to Prinzessinnengarten (one year, with the possibility of renewal until the property was sold off) sparked the idea of creating a mobile garden built on crates and pallets, which could easily be transported to a different location if necessary. The enormous popularity of the project, however, has led to a massive mobilization to preserve the garden, as a result of which the tenancy has been stabilized. (The concept of mobile urban gardens is also found in the work of Atelier d'architecture autogérée in Paris. See http://www.urbantactics.org/projects/rhyzom/rhyzom.html.)
19. All translations from Nomadisch Grün (Citation2012) are mine.