Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Spanish term or phrase:
desbordamiento urbano
English translation:
urban eruption
Added to glossary by
Robert Forstag
Sep 29, 2014 14:52
9 yrs ago
6 viewers *
Spanish term
United States
Translating words, preserving meaning
Native in: English
Works in: Spanish to English, English
desbordamiento urbano
Spanish to English
Social Sciences
Anthropology
Spain - urban development - Henri Lefebvre
The term apparently is a translation of one aspect of a dialectic introduced by Henri Lefebvre (1901-1991)between and attempted "cercamiento" (containment) of the city's vital communal forces on the part of capitalist elites and the "desbordamiento" of these forces that strive to break free of the oppressor's yoke.
***
The extract below is from an academic paper regarding conflicting interests and forces in the Spanish city of Bilbao:
El segundo, como forma de apuntalar el desbordamiento urbano (re)generador de lo común, se asienta en una lógica de vertebración vecinal que se apoya en el discurso movimentista que reivindica el derecho a la ciudadanía (derecho a la belleza, marginalidad, centralidad, cultura) en los términos definidos por Jordi Borja (2002), situando el conflicto en el centro del dinamismo urbano.
I really don't think "spillover" or "spillage" work here. Other ideas? Thanks.
***
The extract below is from an academic paper regarding conflicting interests and forces in the Spanish city of Bilbao:
El segundo, como forma de apuntalar el desbordamiento urbano (re)generador de lo común, se asienta en una lógica de vertebración vecinal que se apoya en el discurso movimentista que reivindica el derecho a la ciudadanía (derecho a la belleza, marginalidad, centralidad, cultura) en los términos definidos por Jordi Borja (2002), situando el conflicto en el centro del dinamismo urbano.
I really don't think "spillover" or "spillage" work here. Other ideas? Thanks.
Proposed translations
(English)
| 3 +3 | urban eruption |
Charles Davis
|
| 4 | urban sprawl |
liz askew
|
| 4 | (civic) breakout |
David Hollywood
|
| 3 | cities bursting their banks |
DLyons
|
Proposed translations
+3
1 hr
Selected
urban eruption
I think it's something more abstract than spreading beyond spatial boundaries, and I also think you and Phil are right to link it to revolution. I've been trying to get a handle on it by dipping into Lefebvre, and specifically his The Urban Revolution (La Révolution urbaine), a significant title. He writes at one point (I quote from the English translation; I can't get hold of the French original):
"On the one hand a path is opened to exploration; on the other there is an enclosure to break out of, a consecration to transgress." (p. 31)
http://books.google.es/books?hl=es&id=5_dbeJX3EPsC&q=déborde...
A suggestive passage, though unfortunately Google Books won't let me see the wider context. But breaking out and transgression may well be the semantic area we should be working in here.
"Desbordamiento" is a bursting of the confines, and I feel intuitively that it's intended here to denote a violent, sudden, forceful transgression. I don't think I'd go as far as revolution; but eruption (etymologically a breaking-out, after all) might be an option. Here's a quotation from another of Lefebvre's works, The Production of Space:
'There is no "reality" without a concentration of energy, without a focus or core—nor, therefore, without the dialectic: centre–periphery, accretion–dissipation, condensation–radiation, glomeration–saturation, concentration–eruption, implosion–explosion.'
http://books.google.es/books?id=IJAsBHN02nwC&pg=PA197&lpg=PA...
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Note added at 1 hr (2014-09-29 16:22:18 GMT)
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I note, by the way, that "eruption" is a word applied in several places to May 1968, including by Lefebvre himself (rendering, I think, the French "irruption").
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Note added at 1 hr (2014-09-29 16:25:37 GMT)
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There are also words like "outburst" or "outpouring", though they don't seem quite right. Anyway, even if this doesn't give you the answer, I hope it may help you on the way, as a kind of staging post.
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Note added at 2 hrs (2014-09-29 16:53:31 GMT)
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Yes, I think it would, and I was actually going to suggest it at first. I held back simply because I felt that it should be something conveying a sort of explosion of energy, yet that may not necessarily be so.
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Note added at 6 hrs (2014-09-29 21:40:12 GMT)
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I am very interested, as always, to read Donal's comments. On the last point he raises, I would just say that eruption seems to me to be eminently active. It is not transitive, however: it is something cities do rather than something that is done to them, and that, I think, is inherently true of desbordamiento (and indeed débordement).
I don't get the sense that the phenomenon denoted by desbordamiento is spatial, and I wouldn't use a translation that implies that.
"On the one hand a path is opened to exploration; on the other there is an enclosure to break out of, a consecration to transgress." (p. 31)
http://books.google.es/books?hl=es&id=5_dbeJX3EPsC&q=déborde...
A suggestive passage, though unfortunately Google Books won't let me see the wider context. But breaking out and transgression may well be the semantic area we should be working in here.
"Desbordamiento" is a bursting of the confines, and I feel intuitively that it's intended here to denote a violent, sudden, forceful transgression. I don't think I'd go as far as revolution; but eruption (etymologically a breaking-out, after all) might be an option. Here's a quotation from another of Lefebvre's works, The Production of Space:
'There is no "reality" without a concentration of energy, without a focus or core—nor, therefore, without the dialectic: centre–periphery, accretion–dissipation, condensation–radiation, glomeration–saturation, concentration–eruption, implosion–explosion.'
http://books.google.es/books?id=IJAsBHN02nwC&pg=PA197&lpg=PA...
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Note added at 1 hr (2014-09-29 16:22:18 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
I note, by the way, that "eruption" is a word applied in several places to May 1968, including by Lefebvre himself (rendering, I think, the French "irruption").
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2014-09-29 16:25:37 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
There are also words like "outburst" or "outpouring", though they don't seem quite right. Anyway, even if this doesn't give you the answer, I hope it may help you on the way, as a kind of staging post.
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Note added at 2 hrs (2014-09-29 16:53:31 GMT)
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Yes, I think it would, and I was actually going to suggest it at first. I held back simply because I felt that it should be something conveying a sort of explosion of energy, yet that may not necessarily be so.
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Note added at 6 hrs (2014-09-29 21:40:12 GMT)
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I am very interested, as always, to read Donal's comments. On the last point he raises, I would just say that eruption seems to me to be eminently active. It is not transitive, however: it is something cities do rather than something that is done to them, and that, I think, is inherently true of desbordamiento (and indeed débordement).
I don't get the sense that the phenomenon denoted by desbordamiento is spatial, and I wouldn't use a translation that implies that.
Note from asker:
| Thanks so much, Charles. Perhaps even "transgression" would merit consideration here. |
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
philgoddard
: Good idea.
36 mins
|
|
Thanks a lot, Phil
|
|
| agree |
Elizabeth Joy Pitt de Morales
: Yes, I think you're correct for this context. Your comment makes a lot of sense.
1 hr
|
|
Thanks very much, Elizabeth!
|
|
| agree |
Audra deFalco (X)
: LOVE this. This is it; not urban sprawl which is a physical concept.
1 hr
|
|
Thank you very much, Audra :)
|
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Excellent solution. Thank you, Charles. Thanks also to everyone else who responded and commented."
7 mins
urban sprawl
urban sprawl - The Free Dictionary
www.thefreedictionary.com/urban sprawl
The unplanned, uncontrolled spreading of urban development into areas adjoining the edge of a city. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English ...
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Note added at 8 mins (2014-09-29 15:01:07 GMT)
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reseña de la sesión del 27 de enero de 2011
territoriosostenible2011.blogspot.com/.../resena-de-la-...
Translate this page
31 Jan 2011 - ... Norte América se dirigen hacia la creación de centralidad y a no continuar los procesos de desbordamiento de las ciudades (urban sprawl).
www.thefreedictionary.com/urban sprawl
The unplanned, uncontrolled spreading of urban development into areas adjoining the edge of a city. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English ...
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Note added at 8 mins (2014-09-29 15:01:07 GMT)
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reseña de la sesión del 27 de enero de 2011
territoriosostenible2011.blogspot.com/.../resena-de-la-...
Translate this page
31 Jan 2011 - ... Norte América se dirigen hacia la creación de centralidad y a no continuar los procesos de desbordamiento de las ciudades (urban sprawl).
Peer comment(s):
| neutral |
philgoddard
: That is the usual meaning, but it's not the case here.
3 mins
|
| agree |
Henry Hinds
12 mins
|
| disagree |
Audra deFalco (X)
: Not the case here. Sprawl refers to areas or places.
3 hrs
|
5 hrs
cities bursting their banks
Lefebvre's key "L'irruption de Nanterre au sommet" has been translated as "Explosion: Marxism and the French Revolution". And "l'irruption" as "explosion" is possible, although highly interpretative!
The first issue here seems to me to be the key distinction between irruption and eruption - is the sense inward or outward? French allows either the outward or inward usage (although the latter is much more usual). However "desbordamiento" is clearly the latter, but how does Lefebvre use the term?
The outward usage of "irruption" in French is "Envahissement, débordement, pénétration brutale de forces naturelles" - and "débordement" indeed seems close to "desbordamiento". So we are looking at the semantic field of overflow which may include explosion/eruption. And this not in the passive sense of "sprawl", even though that does get the direction right.
Charles' eruption certainly works, but I wonder if eruption/explosion quite capture the active nature of what is intended? The almost rape of the enclosing space!
The first issue here seems to me to be the key distinction between irruption and eruption - is the sense inward or outward? French allows either the outward or inward usage (although the latter is much more usual). However "desbordamiento" is clearly the latter, but how does Lefebvre use the term?
The outward usage of "irruption" in French is "Envahissement, débordement, pénétration brutale de forces naturelles" - and "débordement" indeed seems close to "desbordamiento". So we are looking at the semantic field of overflow which may include explosion/eruption. And this not in the passive sense of "sprawl", even though that does get the direction right.
Charles' eruption certainly works, but I wonder if eruption/explosion quite capture the active nature of what is intended? The almost rape of the enclosing space!
10 hrs
David Hollywood
Native in English
worked for int. orgs (IMF, OAS, IDB)
Native in: English
Works in: Spanish to English, German to English
Related KudoZ points
:
12
(civic) breakout
I would say
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Note added at 10 hrs (2014-09-30 01:46:01 GMT)
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or: "revolt" as you yourself suggest
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Note added at 10 hrs (2014-09-30 01:46:01 GMT)
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or: "revolt" as you yourself suggest
Discussion
http://dictionary.reverso.net/spanish-english/desbordamiento
La primera de las tendencias—colonización de lo social por la economía y el poder—se refleja nítidamente en procesos de “cercamiento” (enclosure) (Federici 2004) real y simbólico del espacio urbano y de “depredación” de lo común (Madrilonia 2011). Esta lógica del cercamiento-depredación a/de lo urbano comunitario se expresa en la privatización del espacio público; en la difusión de un discurso ideológico sobre la ciudad, que tiende a diluir las diferencias y los conflictos en una aséptica demanda de urbanidad; en la creciente voluntad de las instituciones públicas por regular la irreductible creatividad de las calles (Delgado 2011); en definitiva, en la asunción por parte de los poderes institucionales urbanos del papel garante del orden compatible con el proyecto neoliberal. Precisamente por ello, frente y en paralelo a los procesos de “cercamiento,” eclosionan, en ocasiones con gran fuerza, desbordamientos de lo urbano que muestran la potencia emergente (Lefebvre 2003; Delgado 1999) de la urbs y su reacción ante las colonizaciones de la potestas de la polis.