Urban Dwellings, Haitian Citizenships: Housing, Memory, and Daily Life in Haiti by Vincent Joos

Abstract

Reviewed by: Urban Dwellings, Haitian Citizenships: Housing, Memory, and Daily Life in Haiti by Vincent Joos Chelsey L. Kivland Urban Dwellings, Haitian Citizenships: Housing, Memory, and Daily Life in Haiti. By Vincent Joos. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9781501746994. 240 pp. $34.95 paperback. Of the City: Being and Becoming in the Fragility of Port-au-Prince Today In Urban Dwellings, Haitian Citizenships: Housing, Memory, and Daily Life in Haiti, Vincent Joos, assistant professor of French at Florida State University, accompanies several Port-au-Prince residents as they attempt to remake (and renew) their lives in the wake of the 2010 earthquake. Whether longstanding residents or post-disaster arrivals helping in the recovery, the contributors to this book want the country to develop its economy from the creativity, intelligence, and strong work ethic of the Haitian people. At times this vision can feel a bit aspirational, but then we are shown how entrepreneurs have repurposed their pasts to create a new business or organization post-earthquake. Through interviews, informal conversation, and everyday participant-observations, where he joins the activities of his interlocutors, Joos follows their pursuits of incomes and identities as the proprietors of “funeral parlors, beauty salons, restaurants, garages, and warehouses” (142). He takes us on walks, bus routes, and taxi rides, and to the front porches of urban houses and apartments. We learn that these are spaces where the talk of gwo politik and ti politik (“big politics” and “small politics,” meaning world-historical events and everyday affairs), and their interlinkages, dominate the conversation. The space of the city, as Joos illustrates, is a space of mobility and sociality, despite all the risks these activities entail. What is remarkable about this book is how it allows us to enter the lifeworlds of average urban Haitians and to grapple with the challenges they face in pursuing a life alèz (at ease). The book unfolds over five substantive chapters, each of which takes the reader into a scene of post-earthquake reconstruction and development. Chapter 1, “Developing Disasters: Dispossession and Industrialization in Northern Haiti,” covers the construction of Caracol Industrial Park on the northeastern coast of Haiti, where hundreds were promised employment and a modern way of life. Joos shows, however, that the US textile and clothing companies have not only failed to provide a living wage to factory employees but also destroyed the farmland that the now factory workers once cultivated. Once a most fertile region of Haiti, the Caracol region has become an industrial wasteland. [End Page 128] Chapter 2, “Industrial Framers: Abstract and Disciplinarian Landscapes in Post-earthquake Haiti,” focuses on the fallout of the construction of post-earthquake housing developments and asks how access to this new housing has been shaped by familial ties or kin relationships. The case under study is the state-led housing program of Village Lumane Casimir, a rural area outside Port-au-Prince that is named after the famous singer. Following the earthquake, a project took root to build an industrial park in the area. Through meeting with development agents and townsfolk, Joos reveals what is often hidden in policy reports—the social conflicts and jealousies that arise between developers and the to-be-developed. He also reveals how a regime of discipline, as Michel Foucault would name it, undergirds the workings of the development apparatus, showing that this regime takes place through policing workplace behavior and cultural practices. Regulating how to dress, talk, and carry oneself, as well as compelling employees to be on time, minimize breaks, limit trips to the bathroom, and not disturb their coworkers with tripotay (gossip), these corrections are part of what is at stake in “disciplining” the new workforce. I would welcome more discussion of how these tactics underscore a method of creating laborers specifically for industrial, factory work, which is quite different from the agricultural labor of the peasantry, where song and dance infuse the workday. Chapter 3, “State Interventions: Infrastructure and Citizenship,” scrutinizes post-earthquake development in Martissant, a district of Port-au-Prince that once housed political leaders and the professional classes. Following the collapse of the Duvalier family dictatorship...