Space, Disaster and Rent: The (Re)production of Coapa as Creative Destruction

Abstract

This article discusses the way in which disasters, besides being a crude, direct manifestation of structural inequality as a condition of the development of capitalist logic, also constitute an accumulation strategy through the generation and intensification of differential rents, as well as through the maintenance and reinforcement of the class condition. Disasters are a very effective mechanism for ordering social life through unequal access to space as a means of reproduction. Using the Coapa neighborhood of Mexico City in the September 19, 2017 earthquake as a case study, this article discusses the systematic and structural ways in which we channel our “city making” efforts, which are based on the subordination of the world of life to the reproduction and perfection of the market. It also aims to illustrate different accumulation strategies in space-time that contribute to creating and fixing differentiated profitability conditions, which become more present in times of disaster and tragedy.