[Urbanstudy] One Sunday in a City

Wed Mar 23 13:03:46 IST 2005

On Zainab's comments on others...
I just returned from a conference Doors of Perception
-Infra 8, which had in attendence the NOKIa's, the
INtel's and several MNC sponsorships and how to map
'culture', and link these to "civil soceity' and
further more, as a way to get cities all modern and
clean. I suspect that we have one set of category that
links The Public, Citizens, and a particularly narrow
defination and self refferential approach to Private
Proverty. Thus, one of the ways, is to show the poor,
the slum like, the hawkers as less human and their
economies of few real consequences. and this is not
very diffderetn from war. 
In the WW-II, we had the Nazis categorising groups
they went after (Gypsies and Jews) as less than human
and thus to be subgected to the kind of atrocities.
But so did the americans, and I am not talking of Iraq
but of the Japneese just after Pearl Habour, who were
rounded up. And so did the Australians with the
abroginals seperating childrend from their mothers as
a way of re-culturing. 
I suspect this re-culturing idea is important just as
we have the high end civil soceity attempting to
educate the lowly types on how to be clean in the
city, to be well behaved (note the several training
programs for councilors), and most recently in the
DOORs 8 conf. the ethnographer /anthropologist from
Intel, who intended to chart out the new cultures and
markets in the Third World and who were steeped in
ignorance needing some assistance from MNCs like
INtel. Well, as it goes, antropologist were and still
are in great demand by the war mongers, as a way to
penetrate the other side. I was so taken back by the
combination of designers/ anthropologists /
ethnograp[hers / sociologists that decided to preface
my presentation with the following that questions our
attempt to sometime constantly map our cities in a
un-questioning way.  

Innovating Neighborhoods..but also heralding a new
War?
.. in which Architects play Golf, Planners play God, 
and the Big Boys talk at night..

Mapping for the New War: WW-II, Vietnam, Korea,
Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq...and mapping
culture..Are we the ethnographers and
anthropologists of a New War? Mapping cultures for
Corporate power that seeks to establish new forms of
controls via Patents, IPR, Copy Rights, Master
Planning, are we mapping Open Source and P to P to
open while closing? 
My main arguments: 
Indias largest innovative cluster are what Master
Planners term as Slums, and help big business
benefit with public subsidies and cheap land forcibly
acquired!
Innovative neighborhoods come from Juggard or COPY
CULTURE -- No IPR !! ..
This is underpinned by incrementally upgrading land
markets, upgraded with productivity enhancing
infrastructure and services by municipal councils.
Messy
Threat comes from Master Planning viewing this as
NON-CONFORMING AND UN-PLANNED but to favor corporate
big business to access land and subsidized
infrastructure and services;
A new role (in war) for Anthropologist,
Ethnographers, and designers, architects, planners,
and media artists..
If so, while Innovation is Nice., whose side are you
on?

WW-II, Vietnam, Korea, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq

are  we at the New War ... Mapping new cultures, city
scapes, innovations, the exclusive designers of new
forms of controls via Blue Tooth, embedded stuff
invisible, contractual copyrights underpinning
artistic abilities and the new aesthetic, to open
while closing... 

--- zainab at xtdnet.nl wrote: 
> Dear Seby,
> 
> Thanks for writing in. I am against the
> argument/justification of "hawkers
> as people" and "all of us as people" because I find
> it to be too
> simplistic and alluding to the notion "humanity is
> our religion" - very
> goody, goody and sob sob! But that's just personal.
> 
> What I am curious about is the mindsets which people
> have against hawkers,
> slum dwellers and the poor. It is a process of
> "otherization" as I see it
> and marking the poor as "criminal" / "deviant" in
> the masses of crowds.
> There are many times when I am tempted to conclude
> that all of this is a
> problem of crowding. But I have to be cautious
> myself.
> 
> The other thing is what is this whole notion of
> "citizenship"? Is
> citizenship linked with property? I don't know, I am
> inquiring at this
> moment. Is poor linked with "encroachment"? What is
> the relationship
> between the "poor and the state" as well as "the
> citizen and the state"? I
> am posing questions here, taking off from your
> comment/response!
> 
> Interestingly, I was at a conference a few days ago
> on this idea of
> "Craetive Cities" which is hot in Europe and the UK.
> It completely ignores
> problems of the poor and gentrification and talks
> about how we should make
> our cities more creative aka linking creativity with
> advertising industry,
> fashion, film, art, "culture workers" (hahahahaha).
> It was amazing to
> watch how almost everybody at the conference -
> participants, organizers,
> academia - just totally sidelined the complex issues
> concerning cities and
> spoke of beautifying cities. As I watch newspapers
> (and I am coming to
> trace the trajectory of Times of India, Bombay Times
> and the city), I find
> that news and media are also linked with complex
> politics of a complex
> city - complex issues surface for a while till
> popular issues take over
> and then complex issues for a little while more and
> then popular issues.
> It seems to me that practically most of us don't
> want to look at these
> issues because they are too complex and we don't
> want to bother ourselves
> too much. We don't want to be sad. We want to be
> happy. Let's have some
> fun.
> 
> Then again, contests over shrinking spaces ... and
> the problems of rights!
> 
> It appears that to be poor is your problem - you
> have to fend for yourself
> - and to be an "active citizen" we have to fight
> encroachers and
> criminals!!!
> 
> Cheers,
> Zainab
> 
> 
> > Dear Zainab,
> > The issues relating to Hawkers that you identified
> are interesting. The
> > quetions that you raised about citizens are
> pertinent. I may further ask:
> > Are citizens not People? Are Hawkers not People?
> Are middle classes and
> > the
> > above who sense Nuisnce are not People? Is not the
> Preamble of the
> > constitution of India begin with "WE THE PEOPLE
> ..." Is notions and
> > practices arising out of Private Property deletes
> people from the scene
> > altogether? Or does it creates contests over these
> contradictions?
> >
> > Sebastian Rodrigues
> >
> >
> >>From: zainab at xtdnet.nl
> >>To: reader-list at sarai.net,
> urbanstudygroup at sarai.net
> >>Subject: [Urbanstudy] One Sunday in a City
> >>Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 23:03:15 +0400 (RET)
> >>
> >>6th March 2005
> >>
> >>This morning ...
> >>
> >>Today is a Sunday. And there is a public meeting
> today. The public
> >> meeting
> >>is about the Supreme Court Judgment on the
> hawkers, the hearing of which
> >>is likely to take place in April. CitiSpace has
> organized the meeting and
> >>the 'public' has been invited to attend.
> >>
> >>At the meeting, we are being thanked for
> sacrificing our Sunday and for
> >>coming to the meeting. The 'public' consists of
> people holding residences
> >>in the Western Suburbs and who are completely fed
> up with the hawkers. We
> >>are each being educated about our rights as
> 'citizens'. And while there
> >> is
> >>a lot of talk about rights and awareness, I think
> about the rights of
> >>hawkers and whether they are citizens at all. How
> did citizenship first
> >>emerge? Who are considered citizens and who are
> not citizens? Why are
> >>citizens call citizens and not nationzens of
> statezens?
> >>
> >>Ms. Punj, one of the convenors of CitiSpace
> addresses the issue of
> >>hawkers. "They threaten us. They encroach on our
> compound walls and a
> >> wall
> >>is private property. They are a nuisance." The
> term nuisance is a
> >>prominent term in urban talk. Everybody complains
> of the nuisance that
> >>hakwers are, squatters are, beggars are, street
> children are - N for
> >>Nuisance! We are told of how public space is being
> encroached by hawkers
> >>and how we must protect our public spaces.
> >>
> >>While the meeting is proceeding and Frequently
> Asked Questions about
> >>rights, hawkers and property are being addressed
> for the benefit of all,
> >> I
> >>start to look around and analyze the virtuous
> public that has sacrificed
> >>its Sunday and come to this meeting. Around me are
> some familiar faces
> >> and
> >>some unknown. While the organizers are spreading
> awareness and talking
> >>about rights, men and women in the crowds are
> socializing with each
> >> other.
> >>This appears to be an upper middle class crowd. As
> I watch people mingle
> >>and exchange "Oh hello's" and "Hey, hi's", I think
> that Page 3 is not a
> >>phenomenon of just the rich, famous and glamorous.
> It pervades
> >> practically
> >>all of the middle class. Page 3, to me, is
> 'socializing', 'networking',
> >>and 'making contacts', with economic and political
> connotations. Being an
> >>'active citizen' is a part of the package of Page
> 3 - the aware citizen
> >>and the citizen who participates in the politics
> of the locality and
> >>cleans it up.
> >>
> >>The meeting ends after a while. We have been asked
> to photograph hawkers
> >>near our homes. Photographs are strong proofs
> which shall be presented in
> >>the courts in favour of eviction of hawkers.
> >>
> >>As I walk out of the meeting, I think about
> 'democracy', the problematic
> >>notions of 'public space' and 'representation'.
> CitiSpace is soon
> >> becoming
> >>a 'representative' of the publics, a protector of
> 'public spaces'. What
> >>are the criteria to be representative of publics?
> Can a representative
> >>represent all of the diverse publics?
> >>
> >>
> >>This evening ...
> >>
> 
=== message truncated === 

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