The Victoria Eaton Centre and the discursive construction of local politics
Date
1992
Authors
Williams, Judith-Anne
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Abstract
By Spring 1986 it was clear that the construction of suburban shopping malls in response to the outward spread of residential development had resulted in the decay of Victoria's downtown shopping core. At the same time, industrial decline meant that the city was increasingly dependent on a tourist trade attracted by the historic city. As a result, a general consensus had arisen about the need for revitalizing the core area through major capital investment by sources external to the city. Since, in Canada such redevelopment is traditionally a private rather than public undertaking, Victoria City Council was economically and legally bound to rely on the attraction of market-place forces. As the largest retailer among the array of small shops characterizing the downtown core and in need of a new store, the Eaton department store chain collaborated with a previous partner in such downtown mall projects -- multinational developer, the Cadillac Fairview Corporation to redevelop a two square block site into a store and mall complex. In May 1986 Cadillac Fairview submitted a proposal to Victoria City Council which became the most controversial issue in the municipality's recent history.
In response to Victoria City Council's apparent accommodation of the proposal, a coalition of small business owners, heritage conservationists, tourist operators, and citizens formed in community-based opposition. The "Save Our City Coalition's" position was that the socioeconomic requirements of the community would be best served by the enhancement of the heritage base of Victoria's tourist trade. Yet despite intensive public protest, the community-based opposition only achieved concessions about the aesthetics and design of the project. Thus, the question which this thesis will address is why the resistance of the "Save Our City Coalition" council's was so ineffective support for the in altering Victoria city revitalization project undertaken by transnational capital developer Cadillac Fairview?
The idea of transnational capital's "intervention" in local politics presupposes its externality to practices modelled by conceptions of the sovereign state. Hence we first explore the notion of sovereignty, as it is constituted at the local level by the relation of municipal government to community practices , as theorized by Thomas Hobbes's classic model. Since this model also establishes a particular understanding of individuals and the necessarily economic base of their communities, we next examine the constitution of community within sovereignty in terms of John Lock's theorization of the implication of economic necessity expressed in property rights. As capital is deeply implicated in the relationship ·of government and community in sovereignty, we finally suggest that effective resistance requires a thorough-going critique of capital's implication in the constitution and practices of the sovereign state at the local level of practice, and the reconstruction of community on some other basis.
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UN SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities