A study that maps India's political opportunities and closures for claim making in general and housing grievances in particular.

Providing adequate housing in an increasingly urbanised world is a major challenge of current times. This book puts together a compelling story based on fine-grained analysis of housing processes, as lived by slum-dwellers and their voice-bearers. It situates the lived experience of claiming adequate housing within informal transactions and negotiations of patronage networks vis-à-vis the formal institutional opportunities and closures of Indian democracy. In doing so, this research extends an innovative array of conceptual and methodological tools to grasp the context in which housing claims succeed and fail. This book contributes by responding to critical areas of social movement scholarship and by displaying community engagements and tactical strategies to bring about transformative change to claim adequate housing and resist co-opting forces for socially sustainable housing futures.

This book explores the informal (political) patronage relations between the urban poor and service delivery organisations in Mumbai, India. It examines the conditions of people in the slums and traces the extent to which they are subject to social and political exclusion. Delving into the roles of the slum-based mediators and municipal councillors, it brings out the problems in the functioning of democracy at the ground level, as election candidates target vote banks with freebies and private-sector funding to manage their campaigns. Starting from social justice concerns, this book combines theory and insights from disciplines as diverse as political science, anthropology and policy studies. It provides a comprehensive, multi-level overview of the various actors within local municipal governance and democracy as also consequences for citizenship, urban poverty, gender relations, public services, and neoliberal politics. Lucid and rich in ethnographic data, this book will be useful to scholars, researchers and students of social anthropology, urban studies, urban sociology, political science, public policy and governance, as well as practitioners and policymakers.

Seeing urban politics from the perspective of those who reside in slums offers an important dimension to the study of urbanism in the global South. Many people living in sub-standard conditions do not have their rights as urban citizens recognised and realise that they cannot rely on formal democratic channels or governance structures. Through in-depth case studies and comparative research, The Politics of Slums in the Global South: Urban Informality in Brazil, India, South Africa and Peru integrates conceptual discussions on urban political dynamics with empirical material from research undertaken in Rio de Janeiro, Delhi, Chennai, Cape Town, Durban and Lima. The chapters engage with the relevant literature and present empirical material on urban governance and cities in the South, housing policy for the urban poor, the politics of knowledge and social mobilisation. Recent theories on urban informality and subaltern urbanism are explored, and the issue of popular participation in public interventions is critically assessed. The book is aimed at a scholarly readership of postgraduate students and researchers in development studies, urban geography, political science, urban sociology and political geography. It is also of great value to urban decision-makers and practitioners.

This title was first published in 2003. Since independence in 1947, India has undergone a phase of rapid urbanization. New planning laws have been passed, new organizations established, public policy documents and discussion papers prepared and a host of land and housing schemes have been implemented. Still, however, the vast majority of urban expansion is an unplanned process that takes the form of squatting and illegal or semi-legal land subdivision. By looking in detail at two rapidly growing cities in Andhra Pradesh (Vijayawada and Viaskhapatnam) this book explores cultural, physical-spatial, political and economic determinants of the allocation of urban land and of urban growth in India in historical context. It focuses on the interplay between the government and the organizations in charge of their implementation, and the private sector on the other. Special attention is given to the conditions of the urban poor, with the changes in their socio-economic conditions.

Nandini Gooptu's magisterial 2001 history of the labouring poor in India represents a tour-de-force.

By zooming in on urban localities in India and by unpacking the 'meaning of the local' for those who live in them, the ten papers in this volume redress a recurrent asymmetry in contemporary debates about globalisation. In much literature, the global is associated with transnationalism, dynamism and activity, and the local with static identities and history. Focusing on a range of locales in India's metropolitan areas and provincial small towns, the contributions move beyond the assertion that space is socially constructed to explore the ways in which social and political relations are themselves spatially and historically contingent. Using detailed ethnography, the authors highlight the vitality of place-making in the lives of urban dwellers and the centrality of a 'politics of place' in the production of power, difference and inequality. The volume illustrates how urban spaces are increasingly interconnected through wider social and spatial processes, while local boundaries and group-based identities are at the same time reconstructed, and often even consolidated, through the use of 'traditional' idioms and localised practices. All contributions relate detailed case studies of everyday activities to a range of contemporary debates that highlight various spatial aspects of cultural identities, economic restructuring and political processes in India. The volume provides an interdisciplinary perspective on urban life in rapidly changing political and economic environments. It offers a contribution to policy-orientated debates on urban livelihoods and urban planning as well as a wealth of ethnographic material for those interested in the spatial dimensions of urban life in India.

This book re-examines the role of urban policy and planning in relation to the housing market in an era of global uncertainty and change. The relationship between planning and the housing market is a contested problem across research, policy, and practice. Problems with housing supply and affordability in many nations have been linked to planning system constraints, while the global financial crisis has raised new questions about the role of urban planning regulation and processes in responding to housing market trends. With reference to international cases from the United Kingdom, the United States, Ireland, Hong Kong and Australia, the book examines how different systems of urban planning and governance address complex and dynamic housing market trends. It also offers practical guidance on how urban planning can support an efficient supply of appropriate and affordable homes in preferred locations. A detailed study, which explains and decodes the workings of the planning system and housing market, this book will be of particular interest to scholars of human geography and urban planning, as well as housing policy makers and practitioners. To view Nicole Gurran’s related TEDx talk please visit: Housing Crisis? How about housing solutions. TEDx Sydney 2018 (http://bit.ly/2psfpMw)

The Second Half Of The Twentieth Century Has Witnessed A Marked Shift Of Population From Rural To Urban Areas. This Accelerated Rate In The Growth Of Urban Population Is A Necessary Consequence Of Modernization And Industrialization To Which We Are Committed. The Rice Of Urban Centres Of Population, If Not Properly Controlled, Is Bound To Be Haphazard And To Lead To Growth Of Slums. The Administration Of These Urban Areas, Which Generally Is, Or Should Be, The Responsibility Of Local Bodies, Is An Important Part Of The Administration Of The State. As A Matter Of Fact, The Quality Of Urban Administration Affects Urban Dwellers More Immediately And Closely Than The Administration At Higher Levels. This Is Because Subjects Like Health, Sanitation, Slum Clearance, Housing, Education, Etc., Have A Direct Bearing On The Welfare Of The People.Urban India Has Attracted The Attention Of Town Planners, Architects, Traffic Experts, Scientists, Sociologists As Well As Social Scientists. But The Area That Has Received The Least Attention And The One That Has Remained Largely Unexplored Are The Ones Relating To The Problem Of The Agency For Urban Planning And Development. It Is Time The Political Scientists And Students Of Public Administration Closely Study The Structure And Suitability Of The Agency For Urban Planning And Development, And Suggest Ways And Means For Streamlining It Specially In The Context Of The Problems And Challenges That Urban Government Is Called Upon To Tackle. The Need To Comprehend And Synthesize The Analysis And Interpretation Of Basic Facts And Forces Relating To Urban Improvement Gains Fresh Urgency. The Present Study Accomplishes This Task By Providing A Bold, Balanced And Imaginative Approach To Meeting The Greatest Challenge Of Urban India. Based On Empirical Data, It Examines The Suitability Of Improvement Trusts In The Field Of Urban Development, Their Administrative Set-Up, Working And Planning, The Execution Process And The Problem Of Finance. The Study Is Intended For Policy Makers, Administrators, Teachers And Students Who Are Concerned With Problems Of Urban Planning And Development. The Author Intends To Focus Attention On Urban Issues And Provides Material For Independent Research And Guidelines For Policy Formulation On Complex Problems Of Urban India.