Political Economy of Expulsionary Urbanization: Subsumption and Estrangement of Spaces in Pakistan

Abstract

This article forwards the notion of “expulsionary urbanization” to explain processes of urban transformation in Pakistan against the backdrop of neoliberal regime of accumulation. The concept of expulsionary urbanization emphasizes that the production of new urban spaces is predicated on the theft of space, where one segment of the society appropriates space from another. On the one hand, expulsionary urbanization facilitates capital accumulation by creating new gated housing enclaves; on the other hand, it produces spatial estrangement for the marginalized groups. To delineate processes of spatial commodification, the article reintroduces the conceptual category of “subsumption of space” by capital, that is, capital’s drive to valorize itself by transforming land into a form of a fictitious capital. JEL Classification: B51, B55, B50, B52, A14