“Autonomy” in Circulation: Reconsidering Categories of Political Subjectification through Translocal Tenant Politics in Los Angeles

Keywords: Autonomy; political subjectification; social movements; tenant politics; Los Angeles
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

This paper revisits theories of political subjectification in light of a rising international tenant movement. It takes the conjuncture in Los Angeles as a case study to rearticulate approaches to the study of political autonomy. Post-2008, an influx of speculative investment flooded the L.A. rental market. In 2015, independent tenant organizations united to form an oppositional force against rising landlord abuse and evictions. The consolidation of a citywide tenant union in L.A. has brought into question the dominance of NGO and state institutions in housing politics. The union’s advocacy for “autonomous” tenant power has introduced a new set of discourses and practices into the L.A. tenant movement, foregrounding contradictions in existing modes of politicization. However, this deployment of the “autonomy” category did not emerge in a social vacuum, but from a local history of organizing migrants and a translocal collaboration with tenant organizations in Latin America and Europe.

The paper reviews classic and recent conceptualizations of autonomy in studies of radical housing. I also construct a history of tenant politics in L.A., situate the union in this history and in their translocal dialogue with other tenant movements, and examine the integration of practices and discourses of autonomy into the political topography of the city. Here, autonomy no longer appears as taken-for-granted but as living category produced in uneven spatial landscapes and across multiple theoretical perspectives. I conclude by suggesting that current forms of translocal tenant politics offer a generative site for exploring the situated value of the “autonomy” category.