Resumen de ‘Not Relevant to the System’: The Crisis in the Backyards

Matthias Bernt, Dieter Rink

• This essay provides insights into the crisis unfolding in the ‘backyards’ of globalization,that is, in regions that are largely abandoned in terms of capital and are characterizedby de-industrialization and depopulation. We take Eastern Germany as an example toexamine how the crisis manifests itself in this context. We look at the turmoil around thefailed sale of the Opel car company, the acquisition of pre-fab housing estates by globalinvestors and risky financial transactions by municipal companies to show how crucialdecisions about the fate of urban regions have become widely disembedded from localdemocratic structures. We argue that regions that are ‘not relevant to the system’ are notonly particularly hard hit by the current crisis, but are also at considerable disadvantagewhen attempting to mobilize power to achieve solutions that are adequate to solve theirproblems.