Inland shift : race, space, and capital in inland Southern California

This book uses Southern California to explore a series of questions about the relationship between globalization, race, space, and class. It begins with an analysis of how growing consumer demand, innovative retail business practices, and the infrastructure required to support global commodity chains made Southern California into the largest trade gateway in the United States. Warehouse work and the contentious spatial politics of inland Southern California’s logistic landscape provide the data to examine how the shifting ground of money and people intersected with local histories to reterritorialize race and capitalism at the turn of the twenty-first century. While global logistics innovations provided the impetus for capital and the state to transform Southern California’s economy, it also created pockets of resistance among labor, community, and environmental groups, who argued that commodity distribution exposed them to economic and environmental precarity. How people gave meaning to space and mobilized them to contest logistics space is at the crux of this project. The book is divided into three parts. The first part provides an introduction into the spatial politics of Southern California’s logistics regime by showing how the forces of global economic restructuring after the 1980s intersected with regional entrepreneurial actors to produce Los Angeles and inland Southern California as a space for logistics. I argue that logistics represents a major rearticulation of modern capitalist space. Part 2 examines how the flexible production and distribution systems that were critical to the expansion of global capitalism during the neoliberal age were responsible for creating social and economic precarity for logistics workers, many of whom were undocumented. The final part of the book shows how regional development policies and global restructuring combined with demographic change to reterritorialize Southern California’s geographies of race and class. The book concludes by showing how inland Southern California became a key site for the production of new Latinx geographies. The Subprime Crash Of 2008 Revealed A Fragile, Unjust, And Unsustainable Economy Built On Retail Consumption, Low-wage Jobs, And Fictitious Capital. Finance And Global Commodity Chains Transformed Southern California's Inland Empire Just As Latinos And Immigrants Were Turning California Into A Minority-majority State. In Inland Shift, Juan De Lara Uses Southern California's Logistics Growth Regime To Examine How Modern Capitalism Was Shaped By And Helped To Transform The Region's Geographies Of Race And Class. While Logistics Provided A Roadmap For Capital And The State To Transform Southern California, It Also Created Pockets Of Resistance Among Labor, Community, And Environmental Groups Who Argued That Commodity Distribution Exposed Them To Economic And Environmental Precarity.--provided By Publisher. Global Goods And The Infrastructure Of Desire -- The Spatial Politics Of Southern California's Logistics Regime -- Labor And The Circuits Of Capital -- Cyborg Labor And The Global Logistics Matrix -- Contesting Contingency -- Mapping The American Dream -- Land, Capital, And Race -- Latinx Frontiers. Juan D. De Lara. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. The subprime crash of 2008 revealed a fragile, unjust, and unsustainable economy built on retail consumption, low-wage jobs, and fictitious capital. Economic crisis, finance capital, and global commodity chains transformed Southern California just as Latinxs and immigrants were turning California into a majority-nonwhite state. In Inland Shift, Juan D. De Lara uses the growth of Southern California’s logistics economy, which controls the movement of goods, to examine how modern capitalism was shaped by and helped to transform the region’s geographies of race and class. While logistics provided a roadmap for capital and the state to transform Southern California, it also created pockets of resistance among labor, community, and environmental groups who argued that commodity distribution exposed them to economic and environmental precarity. The subprime crash of 2008 revealed a fragile, unjust, and unsustainable economy built on retail consumption, low-wage jobs, and fictitious capital. Economic crisis, finance capital, and global commodity chains transformed Southern California just as Latinxs and immigrants were turning California into a majority-nonwhite state. In Inland Shift , Juan D. De Lara uses the growth of Southern California's logistics economy, which controls the movement of goods, to examine how modern capitalism was shaped by and helped to transform the region's geographies of race and class. While logistics provided a roadmap for capital and the state to transform Southern California, it also created pockets of resistance among labor, community, and environmental groups who argued that commodity distribution exposed them to economic and environmental precarity. Contents 7 List of Illustrations 9 Acknowledgments 11 Introduction 15 Scene 1. A Space for Logistics 23 1. Space, Power, and Method 23 2. Global Goods and the Infrastructure of Desire 39 3. The Spatial Politics of Southern California’s Logistics Regime 51 Scene 2. Precarious Labor 75 4. The Circuits of Capital 75 5. Cyborg Labor in the Global Logistics Matrix 88 6. Contesting Contingency 104 Scene 3. The Reterritorialization of Race and Class 125 7. Mapping the American Dream 125 8. Land, Capital, and Race 141 9. Latinx Frontiers 161 Conclusion 176 Notes 183 References 207 Index 227