[Urbanstudy] Re: Nangla Machi

[anant m]

Dear Sanjay, Shveta and Sebastian,
  I spent a whole year in a less celebrated slum in a less celebrated city and I am now licking my wounds. So I want to press further on two issues that resonate with me. 
  a) messiness can surely be thought about as a strategy of the poor and nobody can stop us from evaluating its effectiveness. but i find it more productive to think about messiness as our conceptual tool. that would be be more modest, but perhaps more useful because the 'poor' I suspect dont give a damn what  WE think. 
  b)  the missing old man is a good instance to think about the politics of  visibility. who is to decide how and when the old man is to become visible ? how would that decision be taken ? for sebastian, naming the old man is the most obvious thing to do. is that how his friends at nangla machi want to do it ? what kind of space are we trying to make him visible in ? what are the ethico-political issues at stake here ? i know these are not questions that can be easily answered over email exchanges, but may be there is something to be gained from these less deliberate acts of reflection and interrogation and of course the concrete details are always quite helpful.  
  anant
   
   
  shveta at sarai.net wrote:
  Dear Sanjay,

As long as a quote can compel you to adress your communication to one
intended, rather than be dismissive, I am satisfied ;) Your claim to
better reading, incidentally, is humbly accepted :)


		
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