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Inland Shift: Race, Space, and Capital in Southern California
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.
- GenresGeography
240 pages, Paperback
Published April 20, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 10, 2022
What appears to be a simple case study on an oft-overlooked (though admittedly massive) metropolitan region effectively brings together the most important topics of contemporary geographic studies in a prose that appeals to academic and lay audiences alike.
Though he’s too humble to admit it, De Lara has done what most case study scholars dream to achieve by constructing a well-organized assemblage piece that teaches the reader as much about the Inland Empire (defined here as San Bernardino and Riverside Counties) as the nature of space, race, and class and how they interact to create the world we live through today. Oftentimes social scientists go too deep in one of those concepts and create linkages between them as a bit of an afterthought. Here though (perhaps in the spirit of logistics), De Lara prioritizes such linkages to not only recreate the material and discursive realities of the Inland Empire but lay out a blue print for how both the bundles of power and the rancor of local organizations struggle to articulate their visions of community, society, and their place in the world as a whole.
Though the book is framed as a sequel to Mike Davis’s “City of Quartz”, it goes well beyond detailing the reconfiguration of Fontana. In describing Southern California’s logistics regime and the (re)birth of the Inland Empire, De Lara weaves together the major questions/developments of region studies, urban democracy, racial justice, white backlash, the nature of space/place, political economy, settler colonialism, neoliberal regimes, and so many more.
It goes without saying that this is the book for anyone wanting to learn about the Inland Empire (and it’s various iterations). However perhaps more significant, this is also a fantastic book for anyone with any interest in human geography, region studies, or political economy. A well-done and concise assemblage is all too rare to see, it’s presence here secures this book’s 5 star rating. I’ll certainly be thinking of this book The next time someone asks me what geographers do.
Though he’s too humble to admit it, De Lara has done what most case study scholars dream to achieve by constructing a well-organized assemblage piece that teaches the reader as much about the Inland Empire (defined here as San Bernardino and Riverside Counties) as the nature of space, race, and class and how they interact to create the world we live through today. Oftentimes social scientists go too deep in one of those concepts and create linkages between them as a bit of an afterthought. Here though (perhaps in the spirit of logistics), De Lara prioritizes such linkages to not only recreate the material and discursive realities of the Inland Empire but lay out a blue print for how both the bundles of power and the rancor of local organizations struggle to articulate their visions of community, society, and their place in the world as a whole.
Though the book is framed as a sequel to Mike Davis’s “City of Quartz”, it goes well beyond detailing the reconfiguration of Fontana. In describing Southern California’s logistics regime and the (re)birth of the Inland Empire, De Lara weaves together the major questions/developments of region studies, urban democracy, racial justice, white backlash, the nature of space/place, political economy, settler colonialism, neoliberal regimes, and so many more.
It goes without saying that this is the book for anyone wanting to learn about the Inland Empire (and it’s various iterations). However perhaps more significant, this is also a fantastic book for anyone with any interest in human geography, region studies, or political economy. A well-done and concise assemblage is all too rare to see, it’s presence here secures this book’s 5 star rating. I’ll certainly be thinking of this book The next time someone asks me what geographers do.
February 4, 2020
A sequel of sorts to Mike Davis’s magisterial final chapter of City of Quartz, where he cycles through the various forms of the American Dream that were repeatedly pursued and abandoned in Fontana, California, from the 1920s to the early 1980s. Davis argues that Fontana first represented the dream of the weekend farm for suburban Angelenos, then became a fantasy bedroom community, then a steel driven industrial powerhouse, each of which override the previous dream. He closes with the premonition of the collapse of that last dream with the shuttering of the giant Kaiser steelmill in Fontana in the early 1980s, leaving a shuttered hulk of industrialism, shattered dreams of middle class life for the former steelworkers, with environmental despoliation as the legacy.
De Lara examines what happened next, between 1980 and 2010. The short answer is: the factory was dismantled and shipped to China to help drive Chinese industrialization and integration into global supply chains, while the Inland Empire was turned into a logistics hub for imports coming from Asia through the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, which together form by far the biggest port complex in the Eastern Pacific, the vaginal canal through which US-Asia trade flows. De Lara is interested both in how regional boosters imagined and represented this transition as a renewal, how this created new forms of exploitation and racialized subjugation in the heavily Latinx communities of the Inland Empire, and how those communities contested that transition in attempting to maintain autonomy and dignity.
De Lara examines what happened next, between 1980 and 2010. The short answer is: the factory was dismantled and shipped to China to help drive Chinese industrialization and integration into global supply chains, while the Inland Empire was turned into a logistics hub for imports coming from Asia through the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, which together form by far the biggest port complex in the Eastern Pacific, the vaginal canal through which US-Asia trade flows. De Lara is interested both in how regional boosters imagined and represented this transition as a renewal, how this created new forms of exploitation and racialized subjugation in the heavily Latinx communities of the Inland Empire, and how those communities contested that transition in attempting to maintain autonomy and dignity.
April 4, 2019
LONG REVIEW
De Lara’s book is a detailed expose in to the manners in which race, space and capital have been used as instruments of exploitation in Southern California; specifically highlighting how it is intertwined with the growth of global capitalism growth over the last thirty years. The core of the book brings a number of issues to the forefront as key. The struggles that labour go through from the vicissitude of capitalism is the foundation. Built on that, De Lara points out the importance of creating a more nuanced understanding of spatial specifics in regards to how capitalism and labour understand, use (or exploit) their environment to reach their intended goals.
The focus on spatial confrontations is the most enlightening aspect of the book. De Lara’s use of the specific case study of Inland Southern California that has been central to the growth of US capitalism, and by extension world capitalism allows the reader to gain an empirical appreciation of how capitalism has shifted and morphed society, politics and the environment around it to achieve its means. As stated by De Lara, “Regions provide a way to examine how space is produced, maintained, and contested through both discursive and material processes.” Moreover, in the case of successful protests, the fear will always be capital might move from the area is real. It then re-iterates the importance of spatial awareness. The logistics-construction complex in Southern California made it difficult for the businesses in the areas to simple up and move because of the tremendous investment that had been made in the area.
Moreover, De Lara pinpoints the logistics sector as paramount to how this all comes together, “Logistics infrastructure which includes the roads and railways that deliver goods from factories to the consumer, is the glue that holds global and regional distribution networks together.” It is these fiercely fought for distribution channels that define the relations of capital to labour, race and society. One can think of how shipping logistics in the 17th century brought upon slave trade in the west,and the opium trade in the East. Southern California is a descendant of that.
It is however not just limited to the facts and figures of logistics moving from A to B, but acknowledging what and who has suffered as a result of that. De Lara states, “…our consumption of goods is never an isolated, individual choice, because it depends on expansive commodity chains and the space that make them possible.” The lived experiences of those chains are brought to life by De Lara. Such experiences are the precariat nature of the work, the racial and citizenry stratification that is produced and enforced. Essentially, a precariat worker is not just a worker, but they are also Hispanic/black and/or male/female and/or also an illegal immigrant. As defined by Standing (2009) an illegal immigrant becomes a denizen-a half citizen that can be abused. The worker therefore has an inter-sectional attributes to them that re-inforce their position and oppression not just in the workplace, but in the global commodity chain.
It is on the shoulders of this bottom of the pyramid workers that the whole chain of companies relies on to stay competitive. These inter-sectional attributes are becoming more popular and apparent worldwide. In South Africa, illegal immigrants in their millions allow the food services industry to cut down on labour costs. In Europe, the recent influx of immigrants has allowed for McDonald jobs to be filled. China relied on the rural migrants as a source of cheap labour. Instead of the issue merely being a labour issue, it then broadens the necessary factors that influence labour. This includes race demographics and relation, the gender dynamics, migration history etc.
De Lara then poses situations in which there have been responses by Social movement organizations to this new reality of global labour and capitalism. A quaint and powerful example is the coming together of labour and environment movements to push back against development that did not involve their concerns. Although, ultimately, a wedge was placed between them by the American Trucking Association (ATA), the case study highlights the importance of united action. Especially in a logistics industry, truckers turning off the engines can have serious impact and lead to winning concessions.
What was not entirely convincing in the text was the success of the social movements. Although De Lara highlights labour unions managing to gain state support by voting for left leaning candidates and getting concessions from the companies, it seems like the solutions were piecemeal and not structural enough, even within Southern California. How then do social movements create long lasting change becomes the re-occurring difficulty.
The book also raises significant questions for further discussion. For example, temporary workers have become the feature of the economy. People have adapted to this, some willingly working two to three jobs a day, arguing that the flexibility is important for them instead of the industrial 9-5pm. So the fight has become between a labour arguing for flexibility and another part against precariousness. It is a fact that the global logistics industry depends on workers like Jose (from the book): the order pickers and loaders. Automation seems to be solution now with companies like Amazon automating as quickly as possible.
Another interesting point has to do with spatial arrangements in protest movements. The growth of social media has created a new space for engagement between labour forces not only with cities or states but across the world. Can labour movements take advantage of this and shift society by strengthening their digital footprint? The success of the #MeToo campaign for example spurred a global phenomenon which could be even stronger in regards to labour issues.
Another pertinent question is If commodity structures are not simply a result of consumer preferences, to what extent can increased onus be placed on state and governments to ‘manage’ and ‘protect’ especially in a global world? As we have seen one country might strengthen labour laws, capital will just move. Such a threat was made by one company is De Lara’s book. It then brings institutions like World Trade Organization (WTO), to do more to protect worker’s rights on an international scale, something that is currently not happening.
De Lara’s book is a detailed expose in to the manners in which race, space and capital have been used as instruments of exploitation in Southern California; specifically highlighting how it is intertwined with the growth of global capitalism growth over the last thirty years. The core of the book brings a number of issues to the forefront as key. The struggles that labour go through from the vicissitude of capitalism is the foundation. Built on that, De Lara points out the importance of creating a more nuanced understanding of spatial specifics in regards to how capitalism and labour understand, use (or exploit) their environment to reach their intended goals.
The focus on spatial confrontations is the most enlightening aspect of the book. De Lara’s use of the specific case study of Inland Southern California that has been central to the growth of US capitalism, and by extension world capitalism allows the reader to gain an empirical appreciation of how capitalism has shifted and morphed society, politics and the environment around it to achieve its means. As stated by De Lara, “Regions provide a way to examine how space is produced, maintained, and contested through both discursive and material processes.” Moreover, in the case of successful protests, the fear will always be capital might move from the area is real. It then re-iterates the importance of spatial awareness. The logistics-construction complex in Southern California made it difficult for the businesses in the areas to simple up and move because of the tremendous investment that had been made in the area.
Moreover, De Lara pinpoints the logistics sector as paramount to how this all comes together, “Logistics infrastructure which includes the roads and railways that deliver goods from factories to the consumer, is the glue that holds global and regional distribution networks together.” It is these fiercely fought for distribution channels that define the relations of capital to labour, race and society. One can think of how shipping logistics in the 17th century brought upon slave trade in the west,and the opium trade in the East. Southern California is a descendant of that.
It is however not just limited to the facts and figures of logistics moving from A to B, but acknowledging what and who has suffered as a result of that. De Lara states, “…our consumption of goods is never an isolated, individual choice, because it depends on expansive commodity chains and the space that make them possible.” The lived experiences of those chains are brought to life by De Lara. Such experiences are the precariat nature of the work, the racial and citizenry stratification that is produced and enforced. Essentially, a precariat worker is not just a worker, but they are also Hispanic/black and/or male/female and/or also an illegal immigrant. As defined by Standing (2009) an illegal immigrant becomes a denizen-a half citizen that can be abused. The worker therefore has an inter-sectional attributes to them that re-inforce their position and oppression not just in the workplace, but in the global commodity chain.
It is on the shoulders of this bottom of the pyramid workers that the whole chain of companies relies on to stay competitive. These inter-sectional attributes are becoming more popular and apparent worldwide. In South Africa, illegal immigrants in their millions allow the food services industry to cut down on labour costs. In Europe, the recent influx of immigrants has allowed for McDonald jobs to be filled. China relied on the rural migrants as a source of cheap labour. Instead of the issue merely being a labour issue, it then broadens the necessary factors that influence labour. This includes race demographics and relation, the gender dynamics, migration history etc.
De Lara then poses situations in which there have been responses by Social movement organizations to this new reality of global labour and capitalism. A quaint and powerful example is the coming together of labour and environment movements to push back against development that did not involve their concerns. Although, ultimately, a wedge was placed between them by the American Trucking Association (ATA), the case study highlights the importance of united action. Especially in a logistics industry, truckers turning off the engines can have serious impact and lead to winning concessions.
What was not entirely convincing in the text was the success of the social movements. Although De Lara highlights labour unions managing to gain state support by voting for left leaning candidates and getting concessions from the companies, it seems like the solutions were piecemeal and not structural enough, even within Southern California. How then do social movements create long lasting change becomes the re-occurring difficulty.
The book also raises significant questions for further discussion. For example, temporary workers have become the feature of the economy. People have adapted to this, some willingly working two to three jobs a day, arguing that the flexibility is important for them instead of the industrial 9-5pm. So the fight has become between a labour arguing for flexibility and another part against precariousness. It is a fact that the global logistics industry depends on workers like Jose (from the book): the order pickers and loaders. Automation seems to be solution now with companies like Amazon automating as quickly as possible.
Another interesting point has to do with spatial arrangements in protest movements. The growth of social media has created a new space for engagement between labour forces not only with cities or states but across the world. Can labour movements take advantage of this and shift society by strengthening their digital footprint? The success of the #MeToo campaign for example spurred a global phenomenon which could be even stronger in regards to labour issues.
Another pertinent question is If commodity structures are not simply a result of consumer preferences, to what extent can increased onus be placed on state and governments to ‘manage’ and ‘protect’ especially in a global world? As we have seen one country might strengthen labour laws, capital will just move. Such a threat was made by one company is De Lara’s book. It then brings institutions like World Trade Organization (WTO), to do more to protect worker’s rights on an international scale, something that is currently not happening.
February 4, 2019
Coming soon to Who Makes Cents--a really important contribution to research on racial formation, region, and political economy.
November 4, 2022
lots of good information but presented in a way thats kind of clunky
but i learned a lot
but i learned a lot
January 2, 2024
Dr. Lara manages to pull together the seemingly opaque and disparate discussions of global commodity chains, Black and Latine migration patterns, the aftermath of the Great Recession, the health impacts of air pollution, and the rise of Amazon and online shopping into an urgent locus: warehouse domination in the Inland Empire in Southern California.
An incredibly well-researched and interdisciplinary work that clearly lays out the historical processes of local / global shifts in labor and finance that have resulted in the systemic exploitation of inland Southern California's Latine and Black communities.
I would love to see a sequel.
An incredibly well-researched and interdisciplinary work that clearly lays out the historical processes of local / global shifts in labor and finance that have resulted in the systemic exploitation of inland Southern California's Latine and Black communities.
I would love to see a sequel.
April 30, 2024
-empirical study addressing racial capitalism and economic restructuring
-tying together logistics, economic restructuring, racial capitalism, and demographic shifts in exurbs
-Southern Califronia, Walmart warehouses, temp/precarious labor and undocumented workers, American Dream, 21st century labor organizing in the US, and commodity chains
-tying together logistics, economic restructuring, racial capitalism, and demographic shifts in exurbs
-Southern Califronia, Walmart warehouses, temp/precarious labor and undocumented workers, American Dream, 21st century labor organizing in the US, and commodity chains
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews