Roads Crossing Rails

Page 1

! ! !

Roads Crossing Rails LSE Cities Programme Sofia Asteriadi May 3, 2011 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

!

!

!


!


SO452!'!Lent!Term!2011!'!Sofia!Asteriadi! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

! ! ! London School of Economics and Political Science SO452 Urban Environment Lent Term 2010-11

‘The interrelated web of socio-ecological relations that bring about highly uneven urban environments ‌ have become pivotal terrains around which political action crystallizes and social mobilizations take place (Heynen, Kaika and Swyngedouw). Critically discuss using AT LEAST ONE case study, with specific reference to one or more of the following: a. Food

OR

b. Water

OR

c. Waste

OR

d. Transport

Page!1!of!17! !


SO452!'!Lent!Term!2011!'!Sofia!Asteriadi! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

Nagan Interchange at Corridor II is one among the busiest signal-free intersections in Karachi, the trade Capital of Pakistan. (Source: http://forum.urduworld.com/f93/transport-karachi-334601/)

Page!2!of!17! !


SO452!'!Lent!Term!2011!'!Sofia!Asteriadi! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

Roads crossing rails Introduction It is through a sequence of images, framed by windows of cars, buses or trains that we are usually introduced to the world of a new city. While unfolding, they reveal traces of a nascent metropolitan buzz which is gradually built into full delirium as we reach the cores of urban life. Changing between different modes of transport, from elevated trains to the subways and back to ground level, we carve out the new impressions of our environment. Similarly, we build our lives and activities, by sharing, circulating and participating in the cosmic flow. According to Graham (2010:1), the “mobilities and circulations” of the city and the world are brought into being by complex systems of infrastructure which, spreading across geographic space, are increasingly sustaining the daily life of a rapidly urbanizing planet. Global trade networks provide cities population with food, materials and commodities and maintain peripheral linkages; the diverse flows of commuters, refugees, migrants and visitors are supported by the same mechanisms. Energy supplies, cooling, heating, water and waste are channeled in and out of cities through systems of infrastructure, immobilized in space. Electronic communication systems provide a universal arena of mediated information, transaction and interaction, ‘feeding’ the digital capitalism through electrical infrastructures which allow them to function. Together, these mechanisms make urban life possible; their structures sustaining the “flows, connections, and metabolisms that are intrinsic to contemporary cities” (Graham,2010:1). Technological networks are “mediators”, as Russell (in Kaika & Swyngedouw,2000: 120) puts it, “through which the perceptual process of transformation of nature into cities takes place”. Among this set of networks, transport is yet to be the most visible manifestation of urbanity. It has been an indispensable engine of growth since the beginning of human history (Black & Nijkamp,2002: 3). Without transport there would be neither trade nor cities; bridging distances – whether physically or virtually - constitutes a milestone in urban evolution. Icons of expression and progress, transportation networks become a way of mastering and taming nature, while over time they are “commodified” (Kaika & Swyngedouw,2000: 123). Therefore, none of these movements, either known or unknown is ‘free’ as Steve Pile (2002: 275) argues, either in the sense of being able to go anywhere anytime, or in the sense of power relations hidden within these infrastructures, that enable as much as control movement. It is increasingly proven that our mobile society incurs high social costs and causes a variety of negative externalities not only to the users of transport, but also to other social categories. Urban political ecology is a dynamically emerging field, in which the operations that govern and regulate these complexities can be circumscribed. Based on the notions of ‘circulation’ and ‘metabolism’ it examines cities as multifaceted products of human-nature interaction. In this sense, cities are made by dense networks of “interwoven socio-economical Page!3!of!17! !


SO452!'!Lent!Term!2011!'!Sofia!Asteriadi! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

processes” that “are equally re-active” even if they simultaneously differ radically (Heynen et al, 2006: 21-27). Thus, the whole is bigger than the parts. This paper utilizes the above conceptual origins as a frame of reference for identifying a part of these complexities in the correlation of urban production and ecological networks, focusing on transport. Studying environments where infrastructures cease to work as they normally do is a powerful way of critically examining those very normalities of flow. Drawing examples from two South Asian cities, Calcutta and Karachi – both highly urbanised the last decades - it supports and strengthens the arguments stated so far and further explained below. Circulation, metabolism and Urban Political Ecology The notion of ‘circulation’ of nature in urban environments is not newly discovered. Richard Sennett (1994: 264) refers to the designers of the eighteenth century, who using the words ‘artery’ and ‘veins’ tried to model traffic systems on the blood system of the body. They compared bad anatomy and blocked arteries to the collective urban body, suffering a crisis of circulation in case of a motion blockage within urban networks. Long before that, William Harvey’s claim of the double circulation of blood in the human vascular system in 1928 brought into light a radical insight that would dominate for centuries to come. The ‘discovery’ of circulatory systems, fused with the ‘metabolism’ of matter, came to replace long established views of natural phenomena as things that merely happen - appear or disappear by being extracted or evaporated (Heynen et al, 2006: 30). These two notions are used as metaphors by which processes of socio-natural change, even modernity itself, are being interpreted; the “circulatory conduits of water, foodstuffs, cars, fumes, money, labour, etc.”, are proved to be active, rather than passive systems, since they “transform the city, and produce the urban as a continuously changing socio-ecological landscape” (Heynen et al, 2006: 21). In that latter sense, socio-economic and political influences hidden behind channeling mere natural materials are merged to produce new urban environments, or new urban ‘natures’. Therefore, the context of ‘natural’ itself is reconfigured. As David Harvey (1996: 186) has reminded us, there is nothing unnatural about New York City and its concentrated flows of capital and people. On the contrary, human activity cannot be seen separately to ecosystem function and human beings, similarly to all other organisms, create ecosystems to which they can adapt. Urbanisation is proved to be of the most significant processes of environmental transformation throughout recent history. Thus, the impact of society to nature should not be excluded from ecological thinking as it is, wrongfully done, in many cases (Harvey,1996: 186). Boundaries between social and natural cannot be actually drawn, as Harvey (1996: 187) highlights. Millions of people and acres of land around the globe are bound, due to intricate and continuous money flow and complex socio-ecological exchanges. The disruption to our ecosystem’s balance would be enormous in case these processes were being suspended. For Marx (in Heynen et al, 2006: 26), the notion of metabolism is the central metaphor for his definition of labour and a precise representation of the correlation of human and nature; Page!4!of!17! !


SO452!'!Lent!Term!2011!'!Sofia!Asteriadi! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

the parallel transformations of the natures of humans and non-humans constitute the foundation of history. However, there are social power-relations embedded within these ‘natural’ formations, since the power of their natural components is socially, politically and economically mobilised (Heynen et al, 2006: 6). Here, too, Harvey (1996: 187) argues that given the uneven geographical development of capitalism, the creative impulses inside the socioecological systems will also shift and change in ways that can be stressful and contradictory. Therefore, as Swyngendouw and Kaika suggest (2006: 7), it is essential to focus on the political processes that give rise to injustice and not just on the social ones that produce the natural artefacts. From this standpoint, they are surely correct that “there is no such thing as an unsustainable city in general, but rather there are a series of urban and environmental processes that negatively affect some social groups while benefiting others” (Heynen et al, 2006: 10). A key starting point here would be that the construction of spaces of mobility and flow for some, usually involves the emergence of barriers to others. An Afghan boy scavenges through a dumpsite by an open drainage that flows under a bridge in Karachi. (Source: http://www.photogr aphersdirect.com/buy ers/stockphoto.asp?i mageid=2223218)

Calcutta: Two sides of a road bridge In the ‘Politics of the Governed’, Partha Chatterjee (2004) takes us on a quick tour ‘through political society’ starting from a railway colony in the southern part of the city of Calcutta. It is officially called ‘Gobindapur Rail Colony Gate number 1’, a small section of 1,500 people, part of an area of squatters living there for more than fifty years. Standing on the bridge of a major arterial road flying over the tracks, as she describes it, “you will see a high-rise apartment blocks, a ritzy shopping mall, and the offices of a major oil company. But if you look down, you will see a narrow line of shanties, with irregular tin or tile roofs lined with dirty plastic sheets, running all along and perilously close to the railway tracks” (Chatterjee,2004: 53).

Page!5!of!17! !


SO452!'!Lent!Term!2011!'!Sofia!Asteriadi! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

Networks of people formed upon networks of infrastructure; that is how someone could call the gradual establishment of the small community along the railway lines. In search of a livelihood, a group of peasants coming from southern Bengal in 1943 opened the way for a continuous flow of migrants to settle in this area of the city, occupying illegally public or, sometimes, private property. Later, together with migrants from East Pakistan - refugees produced by the partition of India – fought for the right to be recognized by the official name of ‘colony’. Throughout this process, key men of the community took the lead to organise resistance against the railway authorities, the police and other government agencies. Both in 1965 and 1938, the railway engineers tried to build either walls or fences to encircle the settlement, in an attempt to remove the squatters and reclaim the land (Chatterjee,2004: 53-55).

Slum beside a railroad embankment in Calcutta, India (Source: http://www.photographersdirect.com/buyers/stockphoto.asp?imageid=2054299)

By setting up associations and cooperating with NGOs, they sought to be accepted as a population group; and claim the moral characteristics of a community instead of having an empirical form. Steadily, the recognition of this – built from scratch – community appeared with the form of legal electrical connections, public toilet facilities and water provision by the municipal authority. However, this process was often followed by negotiations such as collective rental arrangements by electric companies, which were hesitant when facing illegitimate issues. The latter reveals “an entire set of paralegal arrangements that can grow in order to deliver civic services and welfare benefits to population groups whose very habitation or livelihood lies on the other side of legality” (Chatterjee,2004: 56). At the end, the community obtained a fair share of approval. In line with Chatterjee (2004: 57-58) their victories were due to the strong bonds of the group. This family-like connection was achieved through a sequence of successes upon a threatened territory, clearly defined Page!6!of!17! !


SO452!'!Lent!Term!2011!'!Sofia!Asteriadi! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

in time and space. This collective occupation of a piece of land was even practically defined in space by limits often crucial in determining who was allowed to participate in the associations, contribute to festivities and demand jobs. The elevated road bridge was the one defining their neighbourhood. …………………………………………………. It is the construction of a place, as a social construct in space and time what the Calcutta colony represents. Writing about the dialectics of space and place, Harvey (1996: 261) argues that no entity can exist in isolation, so place, as a “site of relations of one entity to another”, surely contains “the other”. Whitehead (in Harvey,1996: 261) describes the process of place formation as a process of “carving out ‘permanences’ from the flow of processes creating spaces.” He defines ‘permanence’ as a “system of extensive connection”, through which entities achieve relative stability within the process of creating space, for a time; these permanences occupy space in an exclusive way and thereby define a place – their place. Networks of infrastructure could be seen as a set of ‘permanences’ in the overriding attempt of creating a place from scratch; or when recreating an existing one in many cases. For even these systems are often taken for granted, they actually exceed the mere ‘technical’ role they have been given, and that becomes apparent either through their absence or failure. So, apart from being a necessity for a space to be viable and ‘recognised’, infrastructure networks also participate in defining places. Such mechanisms reveal class conflicts, uneven distribution of labour and concentration of power. As Harvey puts it (1996: 326), “we cannot make places without inscribing our struggles in space, place and environment in multiple ways”. Transportation systems, water, electricity and waste networks, become unconsciously a means of inscribing those struggles. A homeless day labourer sleeping in front of Howrah station, Calcutta’s central rail station on Howrah Street (Source: http://www.photo graphersdirect.co m/buyers/stockph oto.asp?imageid=2 054302)

Karachi: The circular railway Passing to the other side of India and the borders with Pakistan, one comes across Karachi. A diverse population of approximately ten million people inhabits the city today. One of the most populous of the world, its figure rose sharply after the partition of British India in Page!7!of!17! !


SO452!'!Lent!Term!2011!'!Sofia!Asteriadi! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

1947 when more than 600,000 refugees moved to the city; by 1960 the increase was more than 1.5 million (Hasan,2009: 334). Initially, in the mid and late 1950s, a good proportion of the above crowd started living on the tracks of the Karachi Circular Railway (KRC), illegally occupying the land. Arif Hasan (2009: 331-345) describes the implication s of the circular railway to their lives. According to the writer, the groups of refugees decided collectively to shift onto railway property due to increased security and better environmental conditions. The earlier settlements were either near a water line, from where a connection was possible, or close to elite and middle-income residential areas where employment opportunities as domestic servants existed. There was a fee negotiation between the settlers, low-level railway employees and the railway police in order for every permanent construction to take place. Later, though, by the early 1970s, things changed as settling people along the tracks was proved to be a profitable business. Middle level railway employees also became part of the process and by 2000 the cost of acquiring a space was already 150 times the daily wage for unskilled labour at the time. However, pressure on land kept increasing and settlements expanded right up to the edge of the track. The former are not considered as permanent constructions and often people are just living near the tracks without any shelter. Payments were even made from newcomers to older residents so that homes could be constructed in front of their houses. The old villages along the tracks also expanded, taking over chunks of railway land (Hasan,2009: 334-336). Over the years, vulnerable groups have organised and run formal organisations. Activists have struggled to secure water, electricity, gas and telephone connections and most of all to acquire ownership rights to the land on which they are living. Yet, in order to obtain connections from the utilities agencies, a certificate from the landowner – the Railway Department – is required. After negotiations with local authorities ‘fake’ documents have been extracted and utility connections acquired; politicians have also helped in that ‘illegal’ process. These documents are kept by each household as a proof to secure location. Problems are set aside and, despite the eviction threat posed by the railway plan, the settlement process continues; mainly because of lack of more viable options for living near places of work (Hasan,2009: 338-340). In 1998, the government introduced a plan for upgrading and expanding the circular railway and the main line services in Karachi, after a long period of low effectiveness and malfunction. Accordingly, in 2001, measures were taken by Pakistan Railways in order to generate revenue. Based on that, it was decided that railway land would be sold out for commercial use and existing shops and businesses along the railway would be regularised. Moreover, the programme proposed the provision of an additional track for cargo traffic on the main line and a doubling of the line tracks of the circular line. For this to be done, all settlements up to 150 feet on either side of the main line (and 50 feet for the KRC loop) should be removed. That accounts for about 20,000 households living in informal

Page!8!of!17! !


SO452!'!Lent!Term!2011!'!Sofia!Asteriadi! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

settlements in Karachi having to be evicted or relocated. Finally, a wall or barrier would be built beside the tracks to prevent further illegal encroachments (Hasan,2009: 331-345). Indeed, in 2001, several houses along the tracks were bulldozed, as part of the plan. As a result, all informal settlements came together, formed the All Pakistan Alliance for Katchi Abadis (APAKA) and made proposals to minimize evictions. Two Karachi based NGOs support their initiative until today: the Orangi Pilot Project – Research and Training Institute (OPP-RTI) and the Urban Resource Centre (URC). On their behalf, a survey about the informal settlements along the tracks was carried out recently, in collaboration with the residents. However, the railway land conflict field has been a complex one. Apart from the low-income settlements, the stakeholders included are: the Sindh and the City Government, Pakistan Railways, The Railways Employees Union (who also require accommodation on the land), the commercial formal sector and the mayors of the towns that the railway passes through. But since the above participants have never gathered to try and reach a consensus, decisions have yet to be finalized (Hasan,2009: 336-338). Bottom: The Karachi Circular Railway Note: The map does not show all the railway stations along the rail network. (Source: Adapted from a map obtained from www.kutckcr.com.)

Top: Urban transportation

infrastructure in Karachi benefiting high and middle class (Source: Qureshi I., A., Huapu, L. & Shi,Y. (2008), “Urban transportation and equity: A case study of Beijing and Karachi”, in Transportation Research, Part A, No 42, p.125–139)

When the first proposals against evictions where made by APAKA, actions were postponed. Early in 2008, though, the Karachi Urban Transport Corporation (KUTC) was created. The latter, has been seeking permission from the Planning Commission for the revival of the project. But the survey conducted by OPP-RTI in 2004, to determine formal and informal Page!9!of!17! !


SO452!'!Lent!Term!2011!'!Sofia!Asteriadi! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

encroachment in the area refuted facts once more. The results showed that only 28% of the land was occupied by informal houses, while the remaining percentage was taken up by formal sector buildings such as banks, high-income residential projects, shopping malls and factories (Hasan,2009: 337,343). The Karachi Circular Railway started functioning in 1964. Originally, it was planned to serve as a bypass for freight traffic from the main rail line, which links Karachi to the rest of Pakistan. Later, it was transformed for use by commuters, since it connects the five main employment centres of the city, wherein 45% of the jobs of the city are concentrated. What makes the circular railway more popular though is that it passes through middle and high class areas that require domestic help. The latter, together with the fact that it is the more affordable than any other mass transit alternative, makes it even more attractive to the working class (Hasan,2009: 334,339). To the present day, residents’ organisations still affect decision-making. In addition, they participate in a number of diverse activities and programs by OPP and URC. These are lectures delivered by academics, professionals and activists from government organisations. Thus, they develop an understanding of the large city issues and the complexity of the interaction between different actors. The forums promote collective thinking and have an impact on the policies of the governments, the NGOs and academia. So, they keep negotiating and proposing alternative solutions. Their bigger concern has to do with relocation. They are afraid of moving far from their places of work that transport costs will add to their expenditure and that – especially for women – will adversely affect their family life (Hasan,2009: 331-345). …………………………………. Transit systems are important means of land use organisation on every urban scale. By any means, they hold a crucial share on how urban environments function and develop in time and space. Even if in most modern cities such systems are well settled attaining cultural ‘invisibility’ over time, for others are far from being black boxes that miraculously bring electricity or support essential needs. Contrary, both their artifacts and the practices surrounding these infrastructure networks and their maintenance are highly politicized assemblages; and it takes continuous efforts and multiple actors to work for their improvisation often beyond the bounds of strict legality and market commitments (Graham,2010:10). The interplay of spatial form and community patterns affects significantly all levels and scales of social life. Among the most troubling concerns of a transport-dependent world are the injustices that come from physically - and hence socially - isolating significant segments of society (Cervero,1998: 49). That is because, transport, apart from its economic contribution, has a clear social function, as a means of civic participation and engagement; and it satisfies particular social-psychological desires, such as the intrinsic need to be mobile (Black & Nijkamp,2002: 3). There is a vital correlation between the infrastructure of Page!10!of!17! !


SO452!'!Lent!Term!2011!'!Sofia!Asteriadi! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

the city and sustaining individual and collective health, security, economic opportunity and social well-being. In that sense, actors incorporated in all the above fields, both connected and separated by infrastructure, influence daily life and long-term outcomes, interacting simultaneously with each other. These diverse social-constructed networks, entangled in the net of our material realities, participate in the creation of our new urban ‘natures’. Within these new environments, relationships between individuals get mediated through market functions and state powers, as Harvey (1996: 349) claims. The circular railway of Karachi is the material tool - the embodiment of this mediating process. Across and through these multiple mediations, we are now asked to define conceptions of justice capable of operating (Harvey,1996: 349). Regardless, the latter does not merely involve the obvious discourse of worker’s rights or focusing on class alone, rather than an openminded approach by acknowledging “explicitly the existence of heterogeneities and differences based on for example, race, gender, sexuality, age, ability, culture, locality, ethnicity, religion, community, consumer preferences, group affiliation, and the like” (Harvey,1996: 345).

Train tracks in Karachi, Pakistan, on April 7th, 2007 (Reference: http://www.photographersdirect.com/buyers/stockphoto.asp?imageid=2177730)

Page!11!of!17! !


SO452!'!Lent!Term!2011!'!Sofia!Asteriadi! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

Global Networks In addressing modern cities as ‘cyborg cities’ – Stephen Graham (2010: 12) argues that a city’s infrastructural circuits inseparably blend together bodies, technologies, culture, social relations and the natural biospheric processes upon which they rely. ‘Cyborgian’ ideas, as he claims, help as to assert that notions of urban politics must now move far beyond the conventional physical borders of cities. Water systems, for example, draw water from distant biospheres to bring it to the metabolism of urban life. Energy systems bring energies into the city to support our complex electrical cultures. Meanwhile, vicious conflicts over distant fossil-fuel reserves and transnational pipeline systems, sustain urban car cultures. An aggregate of systems and processes, which in turn, have a major role in generating green house emissions, affecting most negatively far-off people and places through sea-level rises and climate change (Graham,2010:11-12). Urban areas occupy just a 2% of the world’s land surface but use over 75% of global resources (Pacione,2009: 609). As White and Whitney (in Pacione,2009: 609) indicate, most modern cities have spread far beyond their carrying capacity and draw resources from further afield. Sea transport carries about 90% of world trade volumes, while the total number of worldwide air passengers has more than tripled in the past decade (Ducruet et al, 2011). In recent decades car numbers have been increasing faster than the world population and the Third World countries have experienced the most rapid growth in the number of road vehicles. The world commission on environment and development forecast an increase in global energy consumption by 40% from 1980 to 2025, allowing for a population increase from 4.5 to 8.2 billion and assuming the same per capita use and differences in use between developed and developing countries (Pacione,2009: 575,613). Most city authorities in the third world seem set on replicating the transport strategies of advanced countries to cope with transport management and give little consideration to addressing the needs of their communities (Pacione,2009: 277). Both in developed and developing economies state and corporate investments go to sustaining networks of flow and circulation by providing infrastructure to underpin the nodes and enclaves of the Page!12!of!17! !


SO452!'!Lent!Term!2011!'!Sofia!Asteriadi! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

globalised corporate economy (Graham,2010: 15). The ’commodification’ of nature that fundamentally supports our network and market-based society obscure the social and political processes inscribed within these processes, and most importantly, permits the disconnection from its inevitable foundation which is the transformation of nature itself (Kaika & Swyngedouw,2000: 136). Yet, we are still trying to exceed our natural limits. The fast-growing industry of media, internet and electricity networks claims to be separable from the polluting world of fossilfuel, refinement and transport. In practice, though, this virtual dematerialization of urban culture via global circuits of new media, works to deny the materiality of cyberspace infrastructures themselves; which also generate heavy amounts of pollution (Graham,2010: 5). Moreover, we keep setting aside the fact that the new communication and information era the world is entering, is based on intimate interaction. For the knowledge economy in order to be generative needs social relations done with co presence; these are proved to be more productive, and this will continue to be the case. The interactive skills and social yearnings have not changed along with the available technologies (Boden & Molotch,1994).

Conclusion According to United Nations estimates, the global population will reach 7 billion sometime this year. Twenty-one cities now hold more than 10 million people, and many more will join their ranks by mid-century!(Savchuk,2011). Global connections triumph, permeating increasingly every aspect of modern life; overcoming distances more than ever. For Paul Virilio (in Heynen et al, 2006: 33) the freedom of people to come and go has now been replaced by an obligation to move. Mobility threatens to devaluate the notion of place, attachments are broken down and identities reconfigured. Although modern cities have turned to be metabolic vehicles, the gap between the social and the natural is deeper than ever on the terrain of the urban. The notion of ‘Jugaad’ in Hindi is used to describe a both indigenous and resourceful approach. The streets of big cities in India are full of ‘jugaad’ activities. In South Asian cities, ‘jugaad’ activities are taking place ”! in various capacities, from shanty houses held together with large Bollywood billboard posters to creatively rigged vehicles that carry goods and people down the main road” (Carothers,2011). Across India ‘jugaad’ is a widespread practice and a useful skill referring not to just inventing everyday practical solutions but also to creatively find ways and overcome multileveled obstacles through the cracks of business, policing, planning and current politics. It is about ‘bending’ the rules by reinventing them. The notion and beauty of organic developments is vividly represented in every corner, yet replacing constantly the need for a legitimate intervention to a greater problem. In that sense “power connections may be fused and held together in a tangle of knots, while a truck may be assembled out of an old horse cart and a salvaged motor” (Carothers,2011).

Page!13!of!17! !


SO452!'!Lent!Term!2011!'!Sofia!Asteriadi! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

The Indian Jugaad: Pump powered vehicle (Reference: http://www.flickr.com/photos/khusape/315551742 /)

The ‘jugaad’ way of thinking, underlines the fact that more effort has to be made beyond traditional disciplinary approaches, in dealing with urban environments. Urban political economy, studies on environmental justice and sustainable development, suggest a number of discernible central themes and perspectives, as a platform for further research. Yet it is commonly acceptable that future solutions require an interdisciplinary approach, rigorously including concepts from the social sciences and the humanities, and that is indispensable. It also needs to address issues of policy implementation and process management. A broad portfolio of different instruments, initiatives and regulations is needed; and because of the cause and effect relationships, such policies also require an integrative response. However, the establishment of a common interdisciplinary playing field of urban, social and technology studies relies significantly on further conceptual and empirical work. Comparative analysis of the socio-ecological impacts of urban infrastructures across different sectors and urban territories could contribute to the elaboration of conceptual approaches and to an accurate constitution of their urban governance towards more sustainable forms of service provision. What one needs to realise is that transport systems and networked urban infrastructures are narrowly interwoven with many activities in our society, an important piece of our natural life cycle, and therefore largely a derived demand. Extrapolation of current trends into the future would lead not only to high levels of environmental decay, but also to serious disparities in accessibility of regions and cities.

Page!14!of!17! !


SO452!'!Lent!Term!2011!'!Sofia!Asteriadi! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

REFERENCES'' Boden,!D.!and!Molotch,!H.!(1994),!“The!compulsion!to!proximity”,!in!R.!Friedland!and!D.!Boden! (Ed.)!Nowhere:(Space,(time(and(modernity,!Berkeley:!University!of!California!Press! Black,!William!R.!&!Nijkamp,!Peter!(2002),!Social(change(and(sustainable(transport,! Bloomington:!Indiana!University!Press!! Carothers,!George,!(2011)!“Hugaad:!Good!or!Bad?”,!in!Polis,![Online]!Available:! http://www.thepolisblog.org/2011/02/jugaad]good]or]bad.html,![20/04/2011]!! ! Cervero,!Robert!(1998),!The(Transit(Metropolis:(a(global(inquiry,!Washington!D.C.:!Island!Press! ! Chatterjee,!Partha,!(2004)!"Chapter!3:!Politics!of!the!governed"!from!Chatterjee,!Partha,!Politics( of(the(Governed:(reflections(on(popular(politics(in(most(of(the(world,(pp.53]78,!New!York,!USA:! Columbia(University!Press!! ! Ducruet,!C.,!Ietri,!D.!&!Rozenblat,!C.!(2011)!“Cities!in!Worldwide!Air!and!Sea!Flows:!A!multiple! networks!Analysis”,!in!Cybergeo:(European(Journal(of(Geography!]!Systems,(Modelling,( Geostatistics,(Article!528,![Online]!Available:!http://cybergeo.revues.org/23603!,! [10/04/2011]! ! Graham,!Stephen!(2010),!“When!infrastructure!fails”,!in!Graham,!Stephen,!Disrupted(Cities:( When(Infrastructure(Fails,!p.1]26,!London:!Routledge! ! Harvey,!David,!(1996),!Justice,(nature,(and(the(geography(of(difference,!Malden:!Blackwell! Publishers! ! Hasan,!Arif!(2009)!“Land,!CBOs!and!the!Karachi!Circular!Railway,!in!ENVIRONMENT(&( URBANIZAT(ION,!Volume!21,!No!2,!p.!331]345,![Online]!Available:! http://eau.sagepub.com/content/21/2/331!,![18/04/2011]! ! Heynen,!N.,!Kaika,!M.!and!Swyngedouw,!E.!(2006)!In(the(Nature(of(Cities:(Urban(Political( Ecology(and(the(Politics(of(Urban(Metabolism,!London:!Routledge! ! Kaika,!M.!and!Swyngedouw,!E.!(2000)!“Fetishizing!the!Modern!City:!The!Phantasmagoria!of! Urban!Technological!Networks”,!in(International(Journal(of(Urban(and(Regional(Research,( Volume!24,!No!1,!p.!120]138! ! Pacione,!Michael!(2009),!Urban(geography:(a(global(perspective,!London;!New!York:!Routledge! (3rd!Ed.)! ! Pile,!Steve!(2002),!“The!Un(known)!City!…or,!an!Urban!Geography!of!What!Lies!Buried!below! the!Surface”,!in!I.!Borden,!J.!Kerr,!J.!Rendell!and!A.!Pivaro!(ed.):!The(Unknown(City(–!Contesting( Architecture(and(Social(Space,(Mass:!The!MIT!Press(

Page!15!of!17! !


SO452!'!Lent!Term!2011!'!Sofia!Asteriadi! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

Savchuk,!Katia,!(2011)!“Interview:!Should!We!Worry!about!a!Global!Population!Explosion?”,!in! Polis,![Online]!Available:!!http://www.thepolisblog.org/2011/01/interview]should]we]worry] about]global.html,![11/04/2011]! Sennett,!Richard,!(1994)!“Moving!Bodies!–!Harvey’s!Revolution”,!in!Flesh(and(stone:(the(body( and(the(city(in(Western(civilization,!London:!Faber!&!Faber!!

Page!16!of!17! !


! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! s.asteriadi@gmail.com!


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.