Moving beyond the usual engagement of geographers with the work of Carl Schmitt, this paper utilises his conceptualisation of the political depoliticisation under liberalism and political order as spatial division to investigate the situated practices of depoliticisation of asylum seekers. The paper takes as its case-study the recent systemic shift in the Italian system of reception, from containment in reception centers CARA to urban dispersal reception SPRAR. Drawing on interviews and focus groups involving seventy asylum seekers, we identify one practice of depoliticisation connected with urban dispersal: atomisation. This spatial division of asylum seekers from each other results from three mechanisms: tensions with the local community, the allocation and management of asylum seekers in flats by SPRAR organisations, and the individualisation of reception programs. In so doing, we find the foreclosing of the political in the asylum seekers being precluded from a collective way of life and, consequently, a collective capable of political action. As they cannot constitute the public enemy, asylum seekers only remain as private adversaries, which effectively evades the friend-enemy distinction and the risk of political disorder and conflict.

Information on willingness-to-pay is key for public pricing and allocation of services but not easily collected. Studying land titles in Dar-es-Salaam, we ask whether local leaders know and will reveal plot owners' willingness-to-pay. We randomly assign leaders to predict under different settings then elicit owners' actual willingness-to-pay. Demand is substantial, but below exorbitant fees. Leaders can predict the aggregate demand curve and distinguish variation across owners. Predictions worsen when used to target subsidies, but adding cash incentives mitigates this. Finally, we demonstrate that leader-elicited information can improve the public pricing of title deeds, raising uptake while maintaining public funds.

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