Manufacturing Neoliberalism: Lifestyling Indian Urbanity

Modes of Governance and Local Economic Development: An Integrated Framework for Comparative Analysis of the Globalizing Cities of India

“…In response, the state government under different political parties adopted identical strategies: by forging a partnership between state agencies, the IT bio-tech corporate sector, and civil society elites (Benjamin 2010). First, Congress government formed the "Bangalore Agenda Task Force" (BATF) in 1999, under the leadership of the then CEO of software giant Infosys with wide ranging power-thus, institutionalizing involvement of nonstate actors in urban governance.…”

Planning Education in an International Perspective: Making the Most from Global and Local Knowledges

“…Entrepreneurs appear to have overtaken governments and proclivities have also institutionalised in such activities. For example: Bombay First, Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) and Agenda for Bengaluru Infrastructure Development (ABIDe) are some of the examples (Benjamin 2010;Nair 2005).…”

“…However, elite driven attempts at 'first-worlding' of Indian cities have been criticised for widening social polarisation and being detrimental to the interests of the urban poor and the migrants tied to the informal sector (Benjamin 2010;Ghosh 2005;Nair 2000). They claim that hosting of mega-sports events, building of mega infrastructure projects and associated city clean up drives have increased urban fragmentation and severely hurt the interests of the poor through slum evictions and squatter resettlements.…”

Addressing silence through an emancipatory reading

“…Still, it would be fair to say that I have not put a totalising faith in the ability of David Harvey's theories to explain India. I have utilised the work of Asher Ghertner (2011), Solomon Benjamin (2010) and Diya Mehra (2012) in Indian contexts to put forward some formulations on how processes of urban planning and governance may be utilising the specific and unique positioning of Muslims to shape the urban landscape in more exclusionary ways. While I did not seek to fit my questions to Harvey's thesis of accumulation by dispossession, so many of my observations fell on this line that I could hardly ignore the connection.…”