The document summarizes Wacquant's analysis of new regimes of urban marginality that have emerged in advanced capitalist societies since the late 20th century. It identifies four factors driving this transformation: 1) occupational dualization and rising inequality, 2) the desocialization of wage labor, 3) the retrenchment of the social welfare state, and 4) the spatial concentration of poverty. Wacquant argues this new urban marginality is persistent, socially isolating, and disconnected from broader economic trends. Nation-states must choose between patching the old welfare system, criminalizing the poor, or reconstructing the social welfare state to expand social rights and mitigate the effects of fragmented wage labor markets.

1. Luca Daconto
Ph.D student in Urban and Local European Studies
University of Milan-Bicocca
l.daconto@campus.unimib.it
Wacquant L. (2008),
Logics of Urban Polarization
from Below,
in Wacquant L., Urban Outcasts. A Comparative
Sociology of Advanced Marginality, Polity Press
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2. COORDINATES
What? → new regime of urban marginality;
Where? → advanced societies of the capitalist West;
When? → the turn of the XXth century;
Why? → end of fordist age;
process of polarization from below and
process of polarization from above;
How?→ redrawing social and spatial structure of the big cities;
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3. WACQUANT'S TOPICS
1. Characterization of new regime of urban
marginality;
2. Convergence of urban poverty regimes across the
Atlantic on the US pattern;
3. New urban marginality and policies;
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4. WHAT'S HAPPENED?
Accelaration of the process of capitalist rationalization;
Transition from
FORDIST SOCIETY to POST-FORDIST SOCIETY;
- standardized industrial production; - financialization;
- mass consumption; - new international division of labour;
- patriarchal nuclear family; - knowledge-intensive industries;
- Keynesian social contract; - information technologies;
- dual occupational structure;
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5. URBAN MARGINALITY
Before: Now:
● residual or cyclical; ● persistent and permanent;
● embedded in working-class ● social isolation;
communities;
● fixated upon neighbourhoods of
● geographically diffuse; relegation;
● remediable by means of ● disconnected from macroeconomic
economic growth; fluctuations;
New urban marginality is not aaresidue from the past or aatransitional phenomenon
New urban marginality is not residue from the past or transitional phenomenon
( (cf. deindustrialization and spatial mismatch theories)
cf. deindustrialization and spatial mismatch theories)
City is the site and the fount of new urban marginality
City is the site and the fount of new urban marginality
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6. NEW REGIME OF URBAN MARGINALITY
It is the product of 4 logics:
1. Macrosocial dynamic → occupational dualization and the resurgence
of inequality;
2. Economic dynamic → the desocialization of wage labour;
3. Political dynamic → the recoiling of the social state;
4. Spatial dynamic → concentration and defamation;
«The consolidation of this new regime […] is treading diverse routes and taking different
«The consolidation of this new regime […] is treading diverse routes and taking different
concrete forms […] in keeping with the variety of national modalities of organization of
concrete forms […] in keeping with the variety of national modalities of organization of
capitalism» p. 261
capitalism» p. 261
cf. Streeck, Esping-Andersen
cf. Streeck, Esping-Andersen
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7. 1. Macrosocial dynamic:
occupational dualization and the resurgence of inequality
● Multiplication of highly skilled and highly remunerated positions;
● Deskilling and outright elimination of millions of jobs as well as the
swelling of casual employment slots for uneducated workers;
● Jobless production and growth in many economic sectors are a reality;
Urban marginality is rooted deep
Urban marginality is rooted deep
in the very structure of the new capitalism
in the very structure of the new capitalism
Rising inequality in aacontext of
Rising inequality in context of
rapid economic advancement and overall prosperity
rapid economic advancement and overall prosperity
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8. 2. Economic dynamic: the desocialization of wage
labour
Double transformation of the sphere of work:
QUANTITATIVE: - disappearance of millions of low-skilled jobs;
- occupational structure towards personal and business services;
QUALITATIVE: - deterioration and dispersion of basic conditions of employment,
remuneration and social insurance;
A significant fraction
A significant fraction
of the working class
of the working class Wage labour doesn't have aa
Wage labour doesn't have
constitutes
constitutes common temporal and social framework
common temporal and social framework
an absolute surplus population:
an absolute surplus population:
«Economic growth and expansion of the wage sector
«Economic growth and expansion of the wage sector
are part of the problem
are part of the problem
for those at the foot of the occupational ladder» p.267
for those at the foot of the occupational ladder» p.267
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9. 3. Political dynamic: the [recoiling of]the social state
Welfare states are major producers and shapers of urban inequality:
- they provide or preclude access to adequate schooling and job training;
- they set conditions for labour market entry and exit;
- they stipulate basic employment conditions and minimal standards of consumption;
- they distribute (or fail to distribute) basic public goods;
- they provide supplementary income through the mediation of public aid, social
transfers and public services;
«It is imperative
«It is imperative
to bring the state back to the epicentre of the comparative sociology of urban marginality
to bring the state back to the epicentre of the comparative sociology of urban marginality
as aagenerative institution, aaforce that not only can cure
as generative institution, force that not only can cure
but paradoxically coproduces the problems of the neighbourhoods of relegation»
but paradoxically coproduces the problems of the neighbourhoods of relegation»
p.270
p.270
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10. 4. Spatial dynamic: concentration and defamation
Advanced marginality displays a tendency to conglomerate in «urban infernos»:
territorial stigma;
creatures of state policies in matters of housing, urban development, regional planning;
sharp diminution of identification and attachment to a community of fate;
neighbourhood no longer offers a shield against the insecurities and pressures of the
outside world;
empty space of competition and conflict;
negative social and symbolic capital;
retreat into the sphere of privatized consumption and stimulates strategies of mutual
distancing and denigration;
«In the final analysis, their possible dispersion or rebuilding […]
«In the final analysis, their possible dispersion or rebuilding […]
is an eminently political question» p. 272
is an eminently political question» p. 272
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11. NEW URBAN MARGINALITY AND POLICIES
Nation-states face a policy choice with a three-pronged alternative:
1. Patching up and redeploying the existing programmes of the welfare state.
→ can contribute to perpetuating the process of polarization from below;
2. Criminalize via the punitive containment of the poor.
→ the atrophy of the social state and the hypertrophy of the penal state in the US are two
correlative and complementary transformations;
3. Offensive reconstruction of the social state:
→ structure and policies in accord with the emerging economic conditions, the
transformation of family forms ant the remaking of gender relations;
→ innovations are needed to expand the sphere of social rights and check the deleterious
effects of the fragmentation of wage labour, such as:
- institution of a «citizen's wage»;
- free education and job training through the lifecourse;
- effective guarantee of universal access to the 3 essential public goods: housing,
health, transportation;
In these contexts,
In these contexts,
what's the possible role played by sociologists, urban planners, architects?
what's the possible role played by sociologists, urban planners, architects?
A possible answer de Biase A. (2011), Replacer le regard, créer des écarts
A possible answer de Biase A. (2011), Replacer le regard, créer des écarts
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