City of Gauze: Medicine and the Governance of Urban Poverty

How is urban poverty governed? Scholarship emphasizes the significance of social assistance programs and criminal legal systems, but considerably less attention has been given to medical institutions. Drawing on contemporary and historical evidence across journalistic, bureaucratic, and academic texts, we conceptualize and compare three arenas for medically governing the poor in Los Angeles, California: clinical medicine, welfare medicine, and penal medicine. In addition to detailing the differences between these formations of medicine, we illustrate how each is embedded in similar political and productive relations. Ending with a call to reframe medicine as a primary institution for governing the poor, this article helps advance a relational vision of governance.