[Urbanstudy] anarchic terrains and the burden of the nation state

[solomon benjamin]

Hi Anuj,
I'll do my part! 
--- Anuj Bhuwania <anujbhuwania at gmail.com> wrote:

>  but had some questions:

>  For solly:
> -"state learning to be quiet listeners"? sounds
> quite cool. any examples you 
> can think of.
SB: typo in 'State' should be Start learning to be
quiet listeners. I think the main thing here is to use
methods and conceptions that do not assume 'poor'
groups to be passive, totally exploited, and hense
incapable of their own autonomous agenda and strategy.
I suspect thats a useful advantage of ethnographic
work. Some of the concdpts we have been thinking of
are:
Politics by Stealth and Porous Breaucrcy. and several
examples in our report #26 at 
http://www.idd.bham.ac.uk/research/urban-governance/case_studies/wp%2026%20bangalore.pdf
I hope this link still exists but its via the univ. of
Birmingham, Sch. of Public Policy's Int. Dev. dept.
project on governance and urban poverty. 

> -tehbazaari might go back to shahjahan, but whats
> interesting is what kind of negotiation enabled this
to exist till now in its modern form, and what 
> are the changing histories of its legal and material
> form in the new modern imperial capital of the
british and the indian state. all i am trying to say 
> is instead of looking at it as a "traditional"
> practice, it might be more 
> productive to see it as a "modern" one with a long
> and complicated history.

SB: (Just to clarify, I am not too sure about the
exact Shah Jahan bit). I agree on the 'traditional'
bit, but am also at unease with 'modern'. These are
too linear. Perhaps 'customary' seems more appro.
anyway, putting semnatics aside, the point is that
these are forms of regulation /administration that
were rooted in a local political terrain and it's
extnesion into municipal government was relatively
easier -- given the direct political bridge of
councilors. I am sure that tezbazari would have been
subject to complex negociations. What is of interest
that in moving it to the level of the 'nation state'
by various 'livlihood rights' NGOs / Forums, the
essential political link of the day to day gets
forgotten or then termed in a sort of derogatory /
patronalistic way as "patron -- client' relationship.
Moving beyond categories of the 'North' and the
South', I have just begun to see a wonderful series
'Civilization and Capitalism' by Fernand Braudel
pointed out in Bangalore's terrific second hand
bookstores by Lawrence Liang). and esp. volume II:
Wheels of Commerce and seeking to find the connection
to local government. 
The point in both these paras is that if one moved to
a sort of 'lifestyle advertisment' mode of looking at
cities from a World Bank Perpsectives that one misses
all this to focus on "making cities competitive',
gettting them planned, getting the regulatory
structure inc. getting the IPR right (and for the
pleasent hearted there, some Open source thrown in,
though controlled by Billy Boy). Or then we would have
the 'Marxist manifesto' reneiwed where one calls on
the Nation State to wipe out the hawkers and squatters
to promise them (at some point in the future) good
housing, and good jobs. In both the tezbazzari and the
pirates go out of the window as part of this 'reform'.
Cheers
Solly


		
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