Racial capitalism and self-organized houseless encampments: (En)countering banishment in Portland and Miami

Alex Farrington

Environment and Planning C, 2025, vol. 43, issue 2, 215-230

Abstract: In this paper, I contribute to the literature on self-organized houseless encampments in the United States in two ways. First, I draw on Roy’s concept of racial banishment to examine the relationship between encampments and American racial capitalism. Second, I extend Caldeira’s theory of peripheral urbanization – originally developed to describe urban informality in the Global South – to encampments in the United States. Doing so highlights how encampment residents and local government interact with one another through transversal logics. I show how both these frameworks – racial banishment and peripheral urbanization – can help us understand the creation of two self-organized houseless encampments: Dignity Village in Portland and Umoja Village in Miami. In each city, I describe how these encampments not only encountered , but also countered various forms of banishment through creative means.

Keywords: Houselessness; encampments; racial capitalism; racial banishment; peripheral urbanization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirc:v:43:y:2025:i:2:p:215-230

DOI: 10.1177/23996544231203896

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