Rethinking Governmentality and Everyday Practices: The Boundry Work between Lo-Sheng Sanatorium and Hsin-Chuang City
Date Issued
2010
Date
2010
Author(s)
Yao, Yao-Ting
Abstract
This paper investigates Lo-Sheng Sanatorium preservation movement as an example to explore the disjuncture between urban entrepreneurialism and urbanites’ everyday life so as to tease out some implicit logic and ideology of urban governance. Established in 1930s by the Japanese colonial government, Lo-Sheng sanatorium, located in Huei-Lung area, Hsin-Chuang City, Taipei County, is an institution of life-long imprisonment and compulsory quarantine for leprosy patients. The physical distance of this institution, and associated psychological boundaries therewith, are well-maintained until 1994, when the mega urban development plans of Hsin Chuang City demanded demolition of Lo-Sheng for the construction of its MRT line in its place. This urban project gives rise to severe struggles between agents of the neo-liberal governance that prioritize development and participants of Lo-Sheng sanatorium preservation movement that aim to speak for the residents of Lo-Sheng. It is in this context that we attempt to theorize the tug-of-war with a critical geographical perspective. We will analyze how governmentality in the neo-liberal context works by mobilizing both a desire for development (MRT and mega-urban projects) and a fear of the useless (the sanatorium and the diseased, aged bodies) so as to create an impression of “social consensus” of the locals opposing the preservation of Lo-sheng. Here how media and local politicians appropriate the bio-political rhetoric of governing the diseased population to justify the developmental project will be closely examined. At the same time, this paper seeks to bring to light how the neo-liberal governance destroys the vibrant informal economy of between the locals and the sanatorium occupants. Theorizing Lo-sheng Sanatorium preservation movement, we hope to pinpoint problems with the strategies and rhetoric of urban governmentality and its impact on local people’s everyday life.
Subjects
geography of affect
governmentality
Lo-Sheng Sanatorium Preservation Movement
SDGs
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