Punam Khosla | York University (original) (raw)

Papers by Punam Khosla

This essay examines precarization as a process produced by recent housing and urban growth agenda... more This essay examines precarization as a process produced by recent housing and urban growth agendas in Metropolitan Mexico. Our contributio...

Special thanks to datejie green and Karen Wirsig who served as close advisors, assisting in shapi... more Special thanks to datejie green and Karen Wirsig who served as close advisors, assisting in shaping the project through its various stages. As the editorial subcommittee for this Final Report they both provided critical feedback, editing and guidance. The report could not have been written without their encouragement. Karen Wirsig also conducted supplementary research and wrote the policy and background information found in the grey highlight boxes in the Findings section. of the report. Warm appreciation to the women who helped set up, run and translate sessions.

Over the past four decades the demographic maps of large and small cities across North America, E... more Over the past four decades the demographic maps of large and small cities across North America, Europe and Australia have been reconfigured with rich and deepening hues of third-world migrations.The noisy spectacles of carnival capitalism, which increasingly co-opt these diversities into orgies of commodification cannot mask the divides and degradations of everyday life. As urban perimeters become utterly porous with residential sprawl and corporate agriculture, material and metaphoric walls are cut-ting through the centres of Eurocentric cities. Old and new colonial exploits are indeed coming home to roost. In the Anglo-American Imperialism of the early 21st century, the war on the home front is as critical as overseas conquest. And it is an urban war, pulsing like an approaching drumbeat under an increasingly transparent ideological skin. From the defiant ghettos of the Paris suburbs to the tough inner cities of New York and Los Angeles, from the gentrifying waterfronts of Barcelo...

International Rapporteur's report, Walking Debate: Nairobi, African Soil Seminar November 2016, G... more International Rapporteur's report, Walking Debate: Nairobi, African Soil Seminar November 2016, Global Soil Forum, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS)

Khosla, P., Ion, A., & Greene, S. (2016). Supporting Mothers in Ways that Work: A Resource Toolki... more Khosla, P., Ion, A., & Greene, S. (2016). Supporting Mothers in Ways that Work: A Resource Toolkit for Service Providers Working with Mothers Living with HIV. Hamilton, ON: The HIV Mothering Study Team and the Ontario Women’s HIV/AIDS Initiative.

This toolkit is the culmination of multiple conversations over many years with women living with HIV, researchers, clinicians, nurses, social workers, HIV support workers and other community-based service providers who are committed to addressing issues of social justice and care for mothers living with HIV.
This toolkit was developed by a large team including mothers living with HIV and community-based researchers with the goal to support health and social care providers in effectively meeting the needs of mothers living with HIV. We aim to increase awareness and understanding of the psychosocial needs and experiences of women living with HIV during pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood.
This toolkit is for all health and social care providers who may interact with women living with HIV during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum including general practitioners, nurses, social workers, frontline workers at shelters and community health centers, child welfare/child protection workers, Public Health officials, and other service providers at hospitals and community-based organizations, including AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs).
Because of complex medical procedures and psychosocial challenges, it is imperative that all health and social care providers who interact with women living with HIV during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum are equipped with the knowledge and skills to effectively and appropriately support women during this time.

This essay examines precarization as a process produced by recent housing and urban growth agenda... more This essay examines precarization as a process produced by recent housing and urban growth agendas in Metropolitan Mexico. Our contribution highlights the relations between housing policies and urban conditions to demonstrate that inequality and precarity are not unfortunate casualties of urbanization, but rather have been produced and sustained by governmental policies and programs. Based on a review of the predominantly English language literature about housing policies and urban growth in both central and peripheral areas of Mexico City, we demonstrate how precarization is inherently built and normalized into past and present housing policy and urban growth agendas. The concept of urban precarization emerges as a double process combining socio-spatial precarization that results from systemic social structures and the institutionalization of insecurity through the planning system related to housing.

ABSTRACT Within the shifting geography of capitalist imperialist power, the war on the home fr... more ABSTRACT

Within the shifting geography of capitalist imperialist power, the war on the home front has become a critical line of battle. Western urban centres are more than empty landscapes for the enactment of global agendas. They actively contribute to the international ascendancy of neoliberalism and the bodies of women and people of colour within them are the front line of economic, political, social and ideological marginalization. This paper takes up the intersectionality of race, gender and class relations as they are located within, and shaped by, urban processes in the West. Looking through the lens of David Harvey’s theory of the production of capitalist urban space and its conceptual links with Marx’s ‘primitive’ accumulation in his recent work on imperialism, I present an initial proposal on the material basis of gender and ‘race’ exploitation. I further explore how this interacts with more fully elaborated theories of class in the Marxist tradition, and how together they shape and are shaped by Western urban spaces and places. Harvey’s work is important, not because it speaks directly or comprehensively to racialized or gendered divisions but because it is a highly detailed Marxist theorization of urban space. I do not take Harvey’s ideas simply at face value, but ‘rub them’ together with theoretical and historical work on racialization, imperialism, urbanism and gender. Thus I make some necessary modifications to Harvey’s propositions.

It is my thesis that ongoing accumulation by dispossession as a second mode of accumulation that operates in a dialectical relationship to the system of commodity production, is the material basis of persistent racialized and gendered divisions in society as a whole and at the urban scale in particular. Accumulation by dispossession has been ideologically subordinated by capitalism as part of its triumphalist discourse of progress and freedom. But in actuality, it is the expression of patriarchal and racist imperialism within and alongside capitalism. Its ongoing coercive and violent appropriations, spatial segregation, and privatizations displace the costs of capitalist accumulation for accumulation’s sake onto gendered and racialized bodies, separating them from the economic, political and social fruits of the capitalist system.

My secondary argument suggests three distinct, sometimes conflicted, yet intertwined logics of power within modern society: capitalist logic, which rests primarily on the interests of capitalist producers; territorial logic, which expresses the imperative to command space at all scales; and corporeal logic, a patriarchal and racist, bio-political and carceral drive to control and socially construct gendered and racialized bodies.

Finally, I propose that we take seriously the warnings of academics and activists who caution that the term ‘neoliberalism’ has become so broad and all encompassing that it is losing its incisiveness. As critical thinkers we need to analytically separate the processes of neoliberalism from neoracism, neopatriarchy, and neo imperialism. By applying an understanding of accumulation by dispossession as the ongoing basis of these latter configurations, and a renewed influence on capitalist commodity production, we can move past the polarized disciplinary landscapes of academic inquiry and segregated progressive politics that have resulted from a lack of precision in our analysis.

The unprecedented pace at which people, goods, finance and information are moving around the glob... more The unprecedented pace at which people, goods, finance and information are moving around the globe is changing both the structure and the values of our societies. Over the past three decades of economic and political restructuring, finance and trade have become the central organizing principles of civic life. Public governance is being fundamentally transformed as political power and social responsibility are simultaneously shifted upwards to trading blocs and global institutions, outwards to the private sector, and downwards onto local governments and private individuals .

The unprecedented pace at which people, goods, finance and information are moving around the glob... more The unprecedented pace at which people, goods, finance and information are moving around the globe is changing both the structure and the values of our societies. Over the past three decades of economic and political restructuring, finance and trade have become the central organizing principles of civic life. Public governance is being fundamentally transformed as political power and social responsibility are simultaneously shifted upwards to trading blocs and global institutions, outwards to the private sector, and downwards onto local governments and private individuals .

Resources for Feminist Research 20 (3-4)

Latest by Punam Khosla

Antipode, 2024

How does one write in the midst of an ongoing genocide? When the contours of Palestine are being ... more How does one write in the midst of an ongoing genocide? When the contours of Palestine are being redrawn in blood, and when unconscionable images of starving, injured, and dead children, women, and men have become our daily breakfast? How do we register the indignities, dehumanisation, and sadism being unleashed on the Palestinian people? Where does one begin to chronicle the cumulative calculus of 164 days of genocide compounded by the invisibilised cruelties of a long century of Zionist settler colonialism and imperial capture? What is our task as scholar-activists, as human beings, when we become witnesses and thus unwilling accomplices to the ravaging of an ancient people and geography that has stood tall for generations as a cradle of civilisation? And what in turn does the long struggle for Palestine offer to critical geographies of erasure, transnational solidarity, and liberation?

This essay examines precarization as a process produced by recent housing and urban growth agenda... more This essay examines precarization as a process produced by recent housing and urban growth agendas in Metropolitan Mexico. Our contributio...

Special thanks to datejie green and Karen Wirsig who served as close advisors, assisting in shapi... more Special thanks to datejie green and Karen Wirsig who served as close advisors, assisting in shaping the project through its various stages. As the editorial subcommittee for this Final Report they both provided critical feedback, editing and guidance. The report could not have been written without their encouragement. Karen Wirsig also conducted supplementary research and wrote the policy and background information found in the grey highlight boxes in the Findings section. of the report. Warm appreciation to the women who helped set up, run and translate sessions.

Over the past four decades the demographic maps of large and small cities across North America, E... more Over the past four decades the demographic maps of large and small cities across North America, Europe and Australia have been reconfigured with rich and deepening hues of third-world migrations.The noisy spectacles of carnival capitalism, which increasingly co-opt these diversities into orgies of commodification cannot mask the divides and degradations of everyday life. As urban perimeters become utterly porous with residential sprawl and corporate agriculture, material and metaphoric walls are cut-ting through the centres of Eurocentric cities. Old and new colonial exploits are indeed coming home to roost. In the Anglo-American Imperialism of the early 21st century, the war on the home front is as critical as overseas conquest. And it is an urban war, pulsing like an approaching drumbeat under an increasingly transparent ideological skin. From the defiant ghettos of the Paris suburbs to the tough inner cities of New York and Los Angeles, from the gentrifying waterfronts of Barcelo...

International Rapporteur's report, Walking Debate: Nairobi, African Soil Seminar November 2016, G... more International Rapporteur's report, Walking Debate: Nairobi, African Soil Seminar November 2016, Global Soil Forum, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS)

Khosla, P., Ion, A., & Greene, S. (2016). Supporting Mothers in Ways that Work: A Resource Toolki... more Khosla, P., Ion, A., & Greene, S. (2016). Supporting Mothers in Ways that Work: A Resource Toolkit for Service Providers Working with Mothers Living with HIV. Hamilton, ON: The HIV Mothering Study Team and the Ontario Women’s HIV/AIDS Initiative.

This toolkit is the culmination of multiple conversations over many years with women living with HIV, researchers, clinicians, nurses, social workers, HIV support workers and other community-based service providers who are committed to addressing issues of social justice and care for mothers living with HIV.
This toolkit was developed by a large team including mothers living with HIV and community-based researchers with the goal to support health and social care providers in effectively meeting the needs of mothers living with HIV. We aim to increase awareness and understanding of the psychosocial needs and experiences of women living with HIV during pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood.
This toolkit is for all health and social care providers who may interact with women living with HIV during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum including general practitioners, nurses, social workers, frontline workers at shelters and community health centers, child welfare/child protection workers, Public Health officials, and other service providers at hospitals and community-based organizations, including AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs).
Because of complex medical procedures and psychosocial challenges, it is imperative that all health and social care providers who interact with women living with HIV during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum are equipped with the knowledge and skills to effectively and appropriately support women during this time.

This essay examines precarization as a process produced by recent housing and urban growth agenda... more This essay examines precarization as a process produced by recent housing and urban growth agendas in Metropolitan Mexico. Our contribution highlights the relations between housing policies and urban conditions to demonstrate that inequality and precarity are not unfortunate casualties of urbanization, but rather have been produced and sustained by governmental policies and programs. Based on a review of the predominantly English language literature about housing policies and urban growth in both central and peripheral areas of Mexico City, we demonstrate how precarization is inherently built and normalized into past and present housing policy and urban growth agendas. The concept of urban precarization emerges as a double process combining socio-spatial precarization that results from systemic social structures and the institutionalization of insecurity through the planning system related to housing.

ABSTRACT Within the shifting geography of capitalist imperialist power, the war on the home fr... more ABSTRACT

Within the shifting geography of capitalist imperialist power, the war on the home front has become a critical line of battle. Western urban centres are more than empty landscapes for the enactment of global agendas. They actively contribute to the international ascendancy of neoliberalism and the bodies of women and people of colour within them are the front line of economic, political, social and ideological marginalization. This paper takes up the intersectionality of race, gender and class relations as they are located within, and shaped by, urban processes in the West. Looking through the lens of David Harvey’s theory of the production of capitalist urban space and its conceptual links with Marx’s ‘primitive’ accumulation in his recent work on imperialism, I present an initial proposal on the material basis of gender and ‘race’ exploitation. I further explore how this interacts with more fully elaborated theories of class in the Marxist tradition, and how together they shape and are shaped by Western urban spaces and places. Harvey’s work is important, not because it speaks directly or comprehensively to racialized or gendered divisions but because it is a highly detailed Marxist theorization of urban space. I do not take Harvey’s ideas simply at face value, but ‘rub them’ together with theoretical and historical work on racialization, imperialism, urbanism and gender. Thus I make some necessary modifications to Harvey’s propositions.

It is my thesis that ongoing accumulation by dispossession as a second mode of accumulation that operates in a dialectical relationship to the system of commodity production, is the material basis of persistent racialized and gendered divisions in society as a whole and at the urban scale in particular. Accumulation by dispossession has been ideologically subordinated by capitalism as part of its triumphalist discourse of progress and freedom. But in actuality, it is the expression of patriarchal and racist imperialism within and alongside capitalism. Its ongoing coercive and violent appropriations, spatial segregation, and privatizations displace the costs of capitalist accumulation for accumulation’s sake onto gendered and racialized bodies, separating them from the economic, political and social fruits of the capitalist system.

My secondary argument suggests three distinct, sometimes conflicted, yet intertwined logics of power within modern society: capitalist logic, which rests primarily on the interests of capitalist producers; territorial logic, which expresses the imperative to command space at all scales; and corporeal logic, a patriarchal and racist, bio-political and carceral drive to control and socially construct gendered and racialized bodies.

Finally, I propose that we take seriously the warnings of academics and activists who caution that the term ‘neoliberalism’ has become so broad and all encompassing that it is losing its incisiveness. As critical thinkers we need to analytically separate the processes of neoliberalism from neoracism, neopatriarchy, and neo imperialism. By applying an understanding of accumulation by dispossession as the ongoing basis of these latter configurations, and a renewed influence on capitalist commodity production, we can move past the polarized disciplinary landscapes of academic inquiry and segregated progressive politics that have resulted from a lack of precision in our analysis.

The unprecedented pace at which people, goods, finance and information are moving around the glob... more The unprecedented pace at which people, goods, finance and information are moving around the globe is changing both the structure and the values of our societies. Over the past three decades of economic and political restructuring, finance and trade have become the central organizing principles of civic life. Public governance is being fundamentally transformed as political power and social responsibility are simultaneously shifted upwards to trading blocs and global institutions, outwards to the private sector, and downwards onto local governments and private individuals .

The unprecedented pace at which people, goods, finance and information are moving around the glob... more The unprecedented pace at which people, goods, finance and information are moving around the globe is changing both the structure and the values of our societies. Over the past three decades of economic and political restructuring, finance and trade have become the central organizing principles of civic life. Public governance is being fundamentally transformed as political power and social responsibility are simultaneously shifted upwards to trading blocs and global institutions, outwards to the private sector, and downwards onto local governments and private individuals .

Resources for Feminist Research 20 (3-4)

Antipode, 2024

How does one write in the midst of an ongoing genocide? When the contours of Palestine are being ... more How does one write in the midst of an ongoing genocide? When the contours of Palestine are being redrawn in blood, and when unconscionable images of starving, injured, and dead children, women, and men have become our daily breakfast? How do we register the indignities, dehumanisation, and sadism being unleashed on the Palestinian people? Where does one begin to chronicle the cumulative calculus of 164 days of genocide compounded by the invisibilised cruelties of a long century of Zionist settler colonialism and imperial capture? What is our task as scholar-activists, as human beings, when we become witnesses and thus unwilling accomplices to the ravaging of an ancient people and geography that has stood tall for generations as a cradle of civilisation? And what in turn does the long struggle for Palestine offer to critical geographies of erasure, transnational solidarity, and liberation?