{"title":"Challenges of urban informality in Indian smart cities","authors":"Tathagata Chatterji","doi":"10.1177/20438206231217564","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"India's smart cities initiative signals a clear turn towards the corporatisation of urban governance by entrusting planning responsibilities to special purpose vehicles (SPV) constituted as public sector companies in place of elected municipal governments. This commentary argues that the depoliticised approach of the SPV-driven smart city plans could be detrimental to the informal economy in the long run. Municipal politics has been a useful platform for the urban poor to negotiate their claims over the city, as there is a clientelistic relationship between urban informality and political actors. The scope for such negotiations has considerably shrunk in smart cities, with elite coalition bureaucrats and technocrats steering planning decisions.","PeriodicalId":47300,"journal":{"name":"Dialogues in Human Geography","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Dialogues in Human Geography","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20438206231217564","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"GEOGRAPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
India's smart cities initiative signals a clear turn towards the corporatisation of urban governance by entrusting planning responsibilities to special purpose vehicles (SPV) constituted as public sector companies in place of elected municipal governments. This commentary argues that the depoliticised approach of the SPV-driven smart city plans could be detrimental to the informal economy in the long run. Municipal politics has been a useful platform for the urban poor to negotiate their claims over the city, as there is a clientelistic relationship between urban informality and political actors. The scope for such negotiations has considerably shrunk in smart cities, with elite coalition bureaucrats and technocrats steering planning decisions.
期刊介绍:
Dialogues in Human Geography aims to foster open and critical debate on the philosophical, methodological, and pedagogical underpinnings of geographic thought and practice. The journal publishes articles, accompanied by responses, that critique current thinking and practice while charting future directions for geographic thought, empirical research, and pedagogy. Dialogues is theoretically oriented, forward-looking, and seeks to publish original and innovative work that expands the boundaries of geographical theory, practice, and pedagogy through a unique format of open peer commentary. This format encourages engaged dialogue. The journal's scope encompasses the broader agenda of human geography within the context of social sciences, humanities, and environmental sciences, as well as specific ideas, debates, and practices within disciplinary subfields. It is relevant and useful to those interested in all aspects of the discipline.