City as site.

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Each of my incursions are site specific and within each Act I explain my motivations for each site.  However, the main site of my investigations has been the city of Melbourne. I consider the city as my primary site of protest as it is where the major economic, cultural and political stake holders are based. It is also a site that the whole population of Melbourne would have at sometime accessed. All roads, trains and trams lead into the city, and all major sporting and cultural events mostly take place in or around the city. These factors make it the ideal site for protest. 

I was lucky to hear Saskia Sassan speak at the Living Cities Forum at Deakin Edge (july 2018). She coined the term, 'the Global City'. It describes the contemporary city that is constructed by a hypermobility of capital, an increasing power of transnationals, and most importantly an emphasis on a place centered city that incorporates the workers and everyday citizens of the city. She considers the Global City as the “last frontier zone”, where the people of the city including the powerless, can have a voice and be heard. In Who Owns the City LSE City publication (https://lsecities.net/media/objects/articles/who-owns-the-city/en-gb/) she writes of the everyday citizen’s power and potential within the space of the Global City:

 

“This signals the possibility of a new type of politics, centred on new types of political actors. It is not simply a matter of having or not having power. These are new hybrid bases from which to act, spaces where the powerless can make history even when they are not empowered.”

 

Essentially, she is saying that any citizen (actor) by their very presence in the city space can be heard. The occupy movement might be one example, or even the very recent action against the Sydney Opera House being used as a billboard is another. The ordinary citizen can have a voice and be heard. My incursions also present themselves to this Global City to be seen and heard as a way to reclaim power. 

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