Everyday life, group formation, and struggles for urban land: Local organizations in Manila

Globalization is a process contradictory in itself: Increasing integration on the global scale is connected with processes of fragmentation and disintegration within metropolises themselves. The immediate juxtaposition of global and local, of rich and poor, of palaces and shanties is characteristic for the metropolises. Land in strategic locations has become a crucial power resource, which means, in turn, that the powerless are evicted sooner or later and lose their access to the metropolis. The persistence of many slums and squatter areas close to city centers and strongholds of globalization needs, therefore, to be explained: What are the sources of power that enable the poor to defend so many pieces of precious land against global players and other strong competitors? Based on an empirical study of several squatter areas this paper identifies communal territories as breeding grounds of organized resistance to displacement. A multitude of relations and interdependencies in everyday life become the basis of social cohesion and collective agency. Local associations in Manila have formed alliances with non-government organizations, mobilized the support of media and church people, and forced politicians, city planners and land developers to take their existence into consideration.