[Reader-list] Re: [Urbanstudy] Is the City of Dreams Lost in the Emerging Urban?

Fri Jan 14 10:30:56 IST 2005

 Hi
I find Zainabs posting very useful and suspect, cities
are of dreams -- even of those who once settled in a
city dream of elsewhere. I think that  in potraying
the "poor" as victims, we remove their space of
dreaming. Is then a city, even in its 'non-normative'
sense, a place where people dream, and if so, when we
present a normative prescriptive approach:
This is how cities should be ---- , via a Master
Planned approach, via a Conservation program, via a
"Movement empowerment" mode, do we then remove the
ability of people deserving of this approach, an
ablity to dream at their own terms? 

Three wonderful books, some mentioned earlier:
Shantaram, Rachiere's The Philosophy and the Poor, and
____'s The only women detective agency (or something
like that..). Each of these suggest the dreams of the
ordinary into the extraordianry, and where dreams are
set within the daily grind. When 'sqautters' get
together to transform a street to a ritual of a loca
shrine, in claiming space they too dream..Rachiere's
book seems particulary useful in this regard.. as it
poses in the artisan as the poet, artist and more... 

In a sense, there seems today, as reminded by Rachiere
in the actions of our globally connected MNCs and
Fergussions, Mc Kenzies, PWC, and also our own
feternity of architect, urban designers, social
activits, conservationistist, attemts to subvert these
dreams, a passion for transformaing urban space for
local ritual, for relationshops out of the ordinary
and a new imagination. 

--- zainab at xtdnet.nl wrote: 
> Is the City of Dreams Lost in the Emerging Urban?
> 
> I am @ Sarai.net. Last evening we were engaged in an
> exercise on looking
> at how to create categories. And of course, we
> talked and exercised city!
> As we were arranging categories, we had:
> ·	Immigration
> ·	Livelihood
> ·	Migration
> ·	Media
> ·	Self
> ·	Other
> ·	Individual and Space
> ·	Death
> 
> And amidst all of this, we suddenly realized that
> there were no dreams,
> just economic categories for our cities.
> 
> Let me get back to Bombay because that is my domain.
> Bombay, also known as
> Urbs Prima Indis. Bombay, the City of Dreams. Old
> Bollywood films featured
> the sea, the rocks, Nariman Point, VT Station and
> each of these spaces had
> symbolic meanings. The individual comes from a small
> town or village to
> realize his dream in the city. I remember Raj
> Kapoors films  Awara, Boot
> Polish, etc. Bombay, the land of glamour and evil
> designs and political
> games where the hero wins in the end!
> 
> Bombay, as I have understood it in the past, has
> been a city where class
> has been about fluidity and mobility. Each one came
> to the city with
> dreams and the enterprising and street-smart made it
> from rags to the
> riches. And I believe a lot of us in the city
> dreamt. But I wonder whether
> we really dream today?
> 
> The presence of the poor, the slums, the hawkers and
> the pavement dwellers
> represents the spirit of the city. Their presence is
> indicative of
> networks in the city, of relationships, of struggle,
> survival, etc. in the
> city. And I wonder where the city of dreams has
> gone. It is not just the
> poor who dream. It is us in the middle class who
> dream as well. Khatta
> Meetha is a film of that genre. I also wonder
> whether dreams enable us to
> truly love our cities as homes, as habitats? I dont
> know.
> 
> My reference point to Bombay at this moment is the
> Chief Ministers Task
> Force Report to transform Mumbai into a world class
> city. And I believe
> that it is not necessary that a beautiful city
> (including flyovers,
> multiplexes, malls, etc.) is the ultimate
> culmination of dreams. If I
> trace my own research, I realize that dreams are
> made up with the
> presences of all  the rich, the poor, the ugly, the
> ragged, the
> glamorous, the beautiful, et al. I did not study
> Rawls Theory of Justice
> for my political science examination because it was
> too much to handle in
> times of stress and pressure (and I could not
> understand it either). I
> dont know Habermas, Gramsci or Marx for that
> matter. I am a poor
> theoretician on issues of rights, equality, liberty
> and freedom. All I
> know is that I am just an individual, a dweller of
> the city. I am the
> experiencer, the practitioner, the researcher, the
> subject and the
> dweller. As I live, I engage with my habitat and my
> environment. Questions
> circle my mind and hover around constantly:
> 
> ·	Whats a city in the context of emerging urbanism?
> ·	How do we move from where we are  neither romance
> nor frustration are
> of great help in moving forward concertedly?
> ·	Whose dreams are being executed in the city?
> ·	What is the space of the unorganized and the poor
> in the city? Do we
> simply relegate them to the margins or do we glorify
> them (neither of
> which helps I believe)?
> ·	Who represents whom? Is publics homogenous? And if
> not, what kinds of
> spaces can exist and with what kinds of dynamics?
> ·	What are the terms on which we can start
> negotiating with groups around
> us? And through what tactics, means and resources?
> 
> I dont have these answers. I am just looking and
> watching. I have come to
> realize that my community is with Arjun bhai, with
> my neighbours Sonal and
> Pankaj, with Shah Rukh, Santhya, Manoj Kumar. My
> community is with the
> people of The Everyday. Perhaps I shall get
> somewhere, someday 

> 
> 
> 
> Zainab Bawa
> Bombay
> www.xanga.com/CityBytes
> _______________________________________________
> Urbanstudygroup mailing list
> Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City
>  

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