The Market of Manila
In any city in the world, the one singular area where you can best get a feel of the identity of the city is its market. It is in these clusters of commercial shops that a person gets a proper feel of the realities of the metropolis, and the subjects, fears, and mind sets of the general populace. This is because it is precisely the market that feeds the metropolis’ very needs and desires. Every possible whim of the metropolis is fed by the market. The types of food the populace consumes, the types of clothing they wear, and the technology they use, the very lifestyle of the populace is based on its desires, manifested by virtue of supply and demand in the marketplace. The market isn’t simply a physical picture of consumption, but also a very clear picture of the attitudes and behavior of the populace. It is precisely this very dance of power relations that come into play that makes the market highly interesting. It is the interplay between individual consumers with individual sellers, and the deployment of commercial law upon the entire situation. It is the very mechanisms used by sellers to lure consumers. It is advertising, and fast-talking. It is the methods of the shrewd consumer to ascertain the best bargain possible. It is the capability to haggle, and the intensive scrutiny given in picking products. It is the consumer protection act and the agents of government ministries for industry that maintain price equilibrium and mandatory quality inspections. Even the very architecture of the market plays its role. All these mechanisms are the representation of the populace’s reality, and as will be seen later on, maybe it too moulds the very reality it represents.
The City of Manila has a variety of public markets to explore, but the most prominent of all these markets, dare anyone say the most infamous, would be Divisoria. One of the, if not he densest commercial cluster in the country, Divisoria isn’t a simple market place. A multi complex shopping center consisting of a dry goods area, which is a complicated mix of practically everything anyone needs that isn’t edible. “Not edible” includes fast food. The dry goods area is a surprising mix of clothing stores, basic electronics stores, illegal DVD merchants, general merchandise stores, and the commercial restaurants that come with the Philippine mall culture. All these combined in a cramped space that can barely allow mice to fit between stalls. The wet area is infinitely vaster, and contains the wet market, the sprawling mess of sidewalk vendors selling their wares on the sidewalk, and even in the middle of the street, plus the highly specialized merchants that sold aluminum wares, glassware, Styrofoam products, etc. The roads are basically impassible due to the sidewalk vendors who should be reclassified as road vendors, and although there are regulations against blocking the roadway, certain mechanisms have been employed to ensure their space.
Consumer as Panopticon
Foucault described the architecture of the Panopticon in his work ”Discipline and Punish.” The major architectural framework of the panoptic mechanism was that of a tower, overseeing the populace to be disciplined. It is a space wherein no action of the populace can be hidden, but of course, the populace has no idea it is being monitored. This is to instill a sense of self-policing, where the very individuals, for fear of being caught by the tower and punished, behave in the manner prescribed. As Shumway describes it, “a coercive observation that attains its ends by making the one subjected aware that their actions may be seen.” If we take a closer look at the very structure of most Philippine malls, especially those in Divisoria, (Divisoria Mall and Tutuban Mall) there is an obvious form of the Panopticon at work. A wide central space, wherein one can peer into most of the stalls from a high point in the building can serve as one form of Panopticon. The mall is designed so that from certain points in the architecture, one can see majority of the stalls in the area. Instead of closing off an entire floor, the developers opt to place pillars of space that span the vertical axis of the building, so consumers get a better view of the stores. Another mechanism would be the glass windows. The very fact that most of the stalls use glass windows in a way ensures that the consumer is able to take an unhindered look into the merchandise inside. This ensures that all products, or at least those hat the seller wishes to be seen, are under the direct scrutiny of the consumer. This then in a way ensures the quality and aesthetic pleasantry of the stalls and the products. The sellers now give an effort to lure the consumer. It is also a form of self-policing. It is precisely as Foucault described, the “functional inversion of discipline.” We can say that the sellers become more efficient. They find better ways of luring consumers. They develop methods to best suit the needs of consumers. There is growth, initiated by the very fact that they think hey are being observed. As Thomas Dumm said, “the Panopticon is a function of fictitious relations,” as the relation only truly happens when the consumer takes notice of the product, which in the most case, doesn’t happen. So as was mentioned, the very consumer plays the role of the Panopticon. As in the figure of power in the Panopticon, it can be any random soul. The very fact that there are thousands of consumers there means that sellers try to conform to the needs and pleasures of the thousands that could buy their ware. The very structure of the stall changes or rather modifies the very behavior of the sellers, simply because of the illusion that attention is always on them.
That is the beauty of the disciplinary system, and the type of Panopticon within Philippine malls.
Functional Spaces
It being a market, Divisoria is almost always a place of a thousand people milling around the gigantic area. As was mentioned earlier, what’s so remarkable about Divisoria is that basically anything the metropolitan inhabitant would need or want can be found there. In the vast intertwining roads and turns of Divisoria though, how can one find what they are looking for? Imagine the chaos of looking for a singular object in a vast area. It truly a needle in a haystack situation. Or is it? Foucault describes distribution of bodies into spaces as one of the fundamentals of disciplinarity. This is precisely seen in the context of Divisoria as well. Foucault initially mentioned enclosures as the first point of distribution. As was mentioned earlier, there are enclosures wherein stores are meant to be put up. In the dry area, the very enclosure is the mall itself, whereas in the wet area, there are designated spaces for stalls, although in reality, many stalls go beyond the allowed limited area. Then there is partitioning. The fact that individualized stalls exist for each selling group or individual exists means that a form of partitioning is existent. Even in the wet area, individualized stalls exist for individualized sellers, although the sheer mass of them side by side makes a space as if continuous. The third point Foucault brought up was that of functional spaces. This is where the complications of Divisoria kick in.
Functional spaces, according to Foucault, not only serve an administrative purpose, to ensure the organization of the market, but also to ensure the productivity of the area. This simply means that theoretically in a market system, those with similar goods are grouped together in a similar area. In Divisoria, it’s a bit more complex than a simple grouping. Let us first take a closer look at the dry area, especially the Divisoria and Tutuban Malls. Although at first glance it all seems entirely chaotic, with masses of random stalls littered all over the place, and the only group of stalls that seem to have been clustered together is he restaurants. Of course even in the stalls themselves some have a set theme to their merchandise such as clothes, or curtains, but most try to sell everything from clothes, to bags, to shoes, and electronics. We have to take into consideration though the fact that most of what they sell in the dry area of the mall is what most of the metropolis would deem disposable needs and wants, such as clothes, toys, videos, footwear, etc. Take also into consideration that the point of Divisoria sellers is to make money. Also, remember that since people tend to look for what they need, then later on for what they want, the earlier you see the object, the more inclined you are to buy it from the first store you see that offers it. Taking all these into account, we see a complex picture that this disorganization may actually be a mechanism against the very system of competition that exists in a market. At closer scrutiny, owners don’t simply have a single stall that sells a singular product. Some of them have two or three stalls at different locations in the mall. The basic picture is that a consumer enters the mall looking precisely for the thing they need. They immediately go to the first stall that offers it. Usually many buyers are compulsive so they buy the object at the first store. Then the consumer looks for other things he might need or want. Since most stores carry basically everything, they buy from there as well. This may be due to some sort of “suki” system, or maybe by impulse as well, the fact remains that this system of multiproduct stalls is a mechanism for maximizing profit. Owners have multiple stalls so that they cover more than a single area. This is why usually; the stores at the front of the main aisle, especially near the entrances are those with general merchandise. While those in the inner areas are more specialized, usually clothes, bags, shoes, and DVDs. This is because the prior mentioned products are highly aesthetic in value. You don’t just buy them for function, but also as an aesthetic device. People like variety to be able to make a proper choice, and that’s why the inner stalls sell only these products. As DVDs are concerned, the more specialized stalls have a wider range of titles, so for the movie fanatic or TV show fanatic that’s looking for a rare title, only these inner specialized shops have them. The system therefore is not crude, but rather, it as Foucault said, has a hidden meaning, a “practice that remains silent, that opens up to a new field of rationality.” We see that although seemingly a mess, functional spaces do exist, but in a way that undermines the very competitive system that defines a market, of course this deviance to the stereotypical market system creates its own organized unspoken social rules, and the discourse and interplay of power still continues.
Outside the malls though, we see a clearer picture of theoretical functional spaces. The wet market outside is divided into three general areas, that of highly specialized merchants, that of the non-produce merchants and that of the produce. The produce area is the most theoretically organized area, although the general waste problem creates a rotting, stinking mass of an area where decay and freshness fuse in an ironic, cramped area. The fresh market starts in the basement of the Divisoria Mall and outward into the main road. It is separated into the fish, meat, and produce sections, as is usually the case with most markets. The functional spaces are more distinct here, because each area has specialized architectural mechanisms to fit each area. The fish and seafood section has a water drainage system that allows water used to wet the seafood, and water dripping from the ice used in keeping the seafood fresh to simply flow off into drainage areas. Also, the stalls are made of tile, as to facilitate the water flow. The meat section has high bars in its stalls and hooks where butchers can hang their meats. Unlike the seafood area, the meat section’s stalls are concrete, and no such drainage system exists. For the most part, vegetable vendors are found outside the basement market, as to air their goods. The stalls are usually wooden, and they place the vegetables on nipa baskets as to facilitate airflow through the vegetables, again to ensure the freshness of the produce.
The highly specialized stores are a different matter. The demand for these goods is less since it is usually co merchants who use heir products like Styrofoam plates, aluminum materials, etc. These types of stores usually have only a singular stall, or rather an office type stall at the ground floor of buildings adjacent to Divisoria mall, facing the main roads. Since people don’t frequent these stores, they have no actual need to advertise as much as normal goods stores. The people who need their products usually come to them automatically. There is not much competition between these types of stores since most have monopolies of the product, or at least very few competitors, so they survive on little effort.
The non-produce merchants are those that sell eating utensils, shirts, slippers, and other things you find inside the mall, except they are in the wet market area. The quality of the products here are usually of lower quality than the products within the mall, but for those again who would rather not enter the mall because it is a distance from the periphery of the wet market, these types of stalls do exist. It is seen then that the device employed by these non-produce vendors are the same as with the general goods vendors within the mall. It is to cater to the needs of the people, without having them look around for where to buy it, as to make use of the compulsiveness of certain buyers. All in all, we see that although a theoretical framework of organization is not visible in the mall as in the case of the non produce vendors in the outside of the malls. This doesn’t mean though that these are not functional sites. The organization may be different as to fit a scheme that minimizes competition, but the fact that the products were laid that way, in that variety is a sort of function in itself. It is precisely as Foucault expressed, and reiterated by Racevskis, that “the connections that link a discourse to bodies results from the discourse’s capacity to produce and to convey power.” It is power that is derived from the social architecture of the Divisoria market. It is about the hidden exercise of power that merchants play out to gain customers and its interplay with customers who sometimes fail to rise against the lure of the buy, so they can continue looking for a better bargain.
Interplay of Power
There are smaller examples of the interplay of power in the market. Although Foucault seems to see things from a macro perspective, talking merely of the importance of the micro, it is precisely in his discussion of the importance of the micro that the discussion on the micro interplay of power in the market system has to be discussed. An example of such micro interplay of power is in the act of haggling. Power is an omnipresence that derives from the interplay of architecture and individuals pressing their wills against other individuals. The haggle is a more visible form of this power interplay between a consumer and a seller. It’s interplay between the consumer, who is trying to get a lower price, or a greater number of products, and the seller trying to widen his margin of profit. It is this simple action of haggling that displays the very subtlety of the mechanisms of power in the market system. Another would be the “suki” system. Sellers call you their “suki” as to establish a form of familiarity and loyalty for their stall. This is a form of personalitic arrangement, a sort of fictitious kinship As Foucault said, “Power wouldn’t be as effective unless part of it’s mechanism was hidden.” It seems like a simple friendly conversation, but the hidden aspect of this power is that it binds you in a way to the store. You become familiar, and the mid set is that you stick to the familiar. It seems as if routine, but really it is a hidden mechanism. This just goes to show that the simplest actions are the very mechanisms wherein disciplinarity operates. It is the interplay of these small actions that display the micro level of power relations.
Deviance and the Physical Market
There is no doubt whatsoever that the Divisoria market is overcrowded. As was mentioned earlier, in the main road itself, stores litter the entire length of it, basically closing it to incoming traffic. The same is true with the many side roads and even alleys of the area. This gigantic mass of merchants, and buyers ten times the number of merchants, is the general population density of the market area. These whole masses of people though are for the most part, not natives of the metropolis. Most are people from the provinces, who have come to Manila in search for job opportunities. Neferti Tadiar, in her essay “Metropolitan Dreams” explains to a certain extent the reason for the great influx of people from the provinces into the metropolis. The article discusses that since the metropolis is the symbol of economic growth of the country, it flourishes, while the provinces, wherein the very produce that sustains the country’s economic growth, steeps deeper into poverty. Seeing the growth of the metropolises, those of the province descend upon the metropolis so that they may share in its growth. The problem is though that the social inequality of the metropolis discriminates against the growing, mostly uneducated labor force that came from the provinces. From this point of view, the social density of the area becomes clear. What is not as clear though is how this very system can feed the very problem it manifests. First observe the cramped structure of the market. Selling wares in the middle of national roads is highly illegal, but it is a reality in Divisoria. Why is this so? As Foucault said in discipline and punish, deviance and crime derive precisely from the very disciplinary society that holds the populace. Deviance is the “escape clause” of the disciplinary society that only shows itself when an aspect of the disciplinary society goes awry. When the system is unmanageable, or when a mechanism becomes too unbearable for the populace, crime and deviance form. Deviance is the very example by which we see that the disciplinary society is not as fatalistic as most people interpret it to be. The very fact that deviance is allowed to a certain degree in a society means that the society in itself acknowledges that it has faults and is willing to see other alternatives to the status quo. The law, which is the representation of the sovereign power in its modern form as government dictates that major roads are to be kept open and passable at all times. Vendors though, disregard this rule, as to be able to occupy a certain space to sell their wares. This tells us that the need for space is greater than the actual space allotted. The deviance serves the purpose of portraying facts of life. The fact that there is a lack of proper functional space, manifested in street vendors, and the fact that the rotting produce is simply thrown to the ground because of lack of a waste mechanism. Another aspect we have to take into consideration is the every fact that there is an overcrowded selling area. As was mentioned earlier, the marketplace is basically the “window to the soul” of the very metropolis itself. Its very wants and needs are manifested in the market, and the social trends that define society. What is metropolitan society then but a mass of people that seem to exponentially grow in population. These people need the very structures like Divisoria to survive. They need the cheap products so that they can make do with their minimal salaries. This is also the case with the poorer merchants who have no choice but to sell on the streets because they have no funds to rent a proper market space. Again, how much can a person from the uneducated lower classes make in metropolitan society? While all this goes on in the hustle and bustle of the market, the large conglomerate that owns the mall space and the stall owners enjoy a growing profit. As their consumers grow in number, so will their profit, until finally when people cannot afford even the cheap quality products of the market. The inequality is blatant, and in times of poverty like this, what other way of expressing dissatisfaction with the society than by crime.
Divisoria is known not just for its cheap products, but also for its infamous reputation for being a thief’s haven. The hustle and bustle and high population density make for perfect scenarios of pick pocketing and snatching. Crime is rampant in Divisoria’s spaces, and the mechanisms of sovereign power can only do so much. The best way to disciplinarity is to employ power so people will self police. The problem is that at the lowest level of human capacity, and due to the fact that it is virtually impossible to monitor such as vast overcrowded area, the panoptic form cannot take hold. It becomes a jungle where it’s every man for himself.
The wet market and it’s stall covered streets have other mechanisms of escaping sovereign power. They take into account the inefficiency of the police system, and formulate ways to hide their enterprise from plain sight when the police decide to apprehend them. There is a watcher, usually a vendor that observes if there are incoming policemen. They are strategically placed at a street corner, He sees policemen arriving, and he shouts a key word, which will automatically send the street vendors packing up their goods and fleeing, or at least seeking sanctuary inside the actual market building. This is just a drastic method for those instances where in case they don’t have enough money to pay off the policemen to leave them alone. These mechanisms of running and hiding when the authorities come have been there for thousands of years, and the street vendors have been using that strategy for as long as most can remember. It would seem that only the policemen then know nothing about it? We can also say though that it is precisely this power play that has supported the vendors all these years, the fact that the police, who represent sovereign power, which is supposedly the panoptic eye of the people, is willing to keep an eye shut if the price is right. The power play is more than just individuals and architecture, but also the very system that runs as the main artery of he market system: currency. Currency wields a type of disciplinary power as well.
Corruption and Sovereign Power
The policemen dragged them into the processing area in handcuffs. There were about 20 of them; all of them illegal vendors caught selling whatever goods they had on the streets of Divisoria. Their names were taken down, and their belongings were confiscated from them. Then they were put in detention cells for further processing. Their belongings as per law are supposed to be handed over to the precinct, to be processed, and may be returned to the owners, or may be auctioned off. As this batch of illegal merchants were concerned though, the policemen who caught then decided to give the confiscated items away to his neighbors and family members. That is of course blatant corruption, but if we look at the situation, who will accuse the policeman of corruption? The jailed illegal merchants who are treated like nobodies, simply excess humans in an overpopulated neighborhood? The very strength of the disciplinary power of the state is that there is a checks and balance system. The problem is that no such mechanism exists in the market. The mindset of the people is that currency out powers sovereign power. The very system that has merchants paying off policemen to allow them to sell in illegal areas, or to sell without the proper taxes and licenses, leads us to the belief that currency really does overpower the sovereign. It modifies our beliefs, and ultimately our behavior towards bribery and corruption. It’s normalization in a corrupt sense. We are made to believe corruption is a way of life, so we do it as well as if it were a natural thing. In a place of course where the very mechanisms supposed to hinder you from corruption are either themselves corrupt or are inadequate, one is doomed to be lost in the interplay of a majority normalized to corruption versus a singular voice of virtue. It’s ironic that the structures of sovereign power: the palace, police stations etc. use see through fences and glass windows as to give a sense of transparency to the operation. The very point of glass doors and windows is so the people within act like there is nothing to hide, but even the power derived from normalization due to architecture seems to be overshadowed by another type of power. The very institution that supposedly serves as social Panopticon not only blinds itself by refusing to see his jurisdiction, but it also deprives to some sense the systems of checks and balances in place. In summary, sovereign power seems to be helpless, and law becomes merely words, as the very operatives of disciplinarity have deviated from it.
Manila’s Market as Disciplinary Mechanism
In Manila’s market place, there is no doubt that power truly interplays between individuals. There is the push and pull of consumer and seller, where one tried to exercise their power over the other ultimately to serve economy. There is the panoptic viewpoint of the consumer, where they give a sense of close scrutiny to the sellers, which forces the sellers to form mechanisms of luring the consumers to their stall. There are the small interplays of power in the way of haggling, and the suki system. The point helps us to understand that power is best used when a part of it is unseen. Then the realization that the intricate workings of systems of functional spaces. We see how the functional spaces affect the very behavior of the individuals. We also see the harsh reality that the high population density of Divisoria is an effect of inequality. Also how inequality figures in the whole system of power relations. There is the will to survive, and deviance as a call to a change of the status quo. We see how sovereign power related with the market system, and why the seeming chaos of the market system is the effect of the sovereign’s lack of control over the very panoptic agents it had employed, namely the police force. In this sense we can say that we have truly beheaded the king, unfortunately, the disequilibria of potential power is unsafe.
All in all, can we say that Manila’s market system is a disciplinary society? In some ways it is, as it employs many strategies employed by disciplinary societies. There is the use of functional sites, partitioning, and the need for a space. The point of distribution of bodies exists, although the population density makes it difficult. It is obvious though that the checks and balance between sovereign and individual are jeopardized by the very sovereign power and its view of the populace as excess humans. Also obvious is the irony of the architecture of transparency, versus its use as blatant corruption. The point of currency and how people are normalized to start believing that it can rise above the power of the very sovereign is also established. It may be flawed in these senses, but the operatives of disciplinarity are there, and it is obvious that the interplay of power is there. The whole thing may not be a completely disciplinary mechanism by definition, but it is still a marvelous sight to behold, with all the mechanisms it had developed to cope with the population density, the inability of sovereign power to control them, and their high regard for the power of currency.
Proof that I do, in fact, perspire by choice.
Tofu
Gatorade
Coke Light and Coke Zero
Iris
