HEATHER A. HORST Planning to Forget: Mobility and Violence in Urban Jamaica 1 This article examines the processes underpinning the restructuring of violence in urban Jamaica. Focusing upon the formation of Portmore, a planned community built to provide an alternative to the overcrowded and violent living conditions in west and central Kingston, I analyze planners and residents attempts to disrupt and erase the everyday experience of violence and poverty among working class Jamaicans. Tracing the shift away from politically motivated violence to what residents have termed ‘freelance violence’, I illustrate the socio-spatial dimensions of violence and poverty in urban Jamaica and the changing relationship between state support, political engagement and citizenship. Key words Jamaica, social change, space, urban planning, violence Introduction I first met Tracy walking down one of the lanes in a low-income scheme in urban Portmore. With her bold, slightly gruff voice, Tracy called out to our research assistant Susan who instantly recognized Tracy despite the fifteen years that passed since their last encounter. While her face and voice were familiar, much had changed in Tracy’s life since Susan and Tracy’s school days in Kingston where Tracy was a popular, if not commanding force in one of the toughest schools in Kingston. 2 After joking about her good fortune in recognizing Susan despite the fact they had both become ‘big ooman’ (grown women), Tracy was eager to talk about her recent life crisis which had forced her to return to the 400 square foot ‘family house’ that she shared with her ailing father and three children. Like other residents of this scheme, Tracy moved from Kingston to Portmore with her parents after they purchased a house together in the late 1970s. Although Tracy spent most of her childhood in Portmore, she had not lived in the area 1 This article is based, in part, upon fieldwork carried out in 2004 with low-income Jamaicans in rural and urban Jamaica as part of my work with Daniel Miller concerning new information and communication technologies, funded by the British Department of International Development. This particular piece is part of my long-term project on the changes in the relationship between personhood and property. 2 While Tracy grew up in Portmore, she received her secondary school placement at a high school in Kingston approximately twenty to thirty minutes bus ride from her parent’s house in Portmore. Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale (2008) 16, 1 51–62. C  2008 European Association of Social Anthropologists. 51 doi:10.1111/j.1469-8676.2008.00041.x