[Reader-list] New Thinking in Urbanization!

[zainab at xtdnet.nl]

“What are the major challenges to urbanization? They are:
1.	Use of Urban Space – commodification of urban space;
2.	Informalization – more development is happening outside planning rather
than inside planning. This is a worrisome tendency;
3.	Poor provisioning of infrastructure;
4.	Delivering quality of life;
5.	Mobilizing resources and
6.	Ensuring governance
Urbanization is not proceeding at a pace at which it should!” concluded a
speaker at a seminar entitled “New Thinking in Urbanization”. The speaker
went on to highlight the various kinds of deficits that we are facing in
the challenges in urbanization. They are:
1.	Equity Deficit: including housing tenure, livelihood issues (hawkers)
and provision of basic services;
2.	Governance Deficit;
3.	Democratic Deficit: bringing in citizens’ participation, bringing gram
sabhas to the wards at the urban level;
4.	Capacity Deficit: elected representatives should have the capacity for
governance;
5.	Institutional Deficit: civil society should be able to participate in
governance.

“New Thinking in Urbanization” – hmmm ... ... ... I wonder how much of the
thinking is new. What does new thinking entail?

There are various ways to imagine what the city is. I am beginning to
re-examine my ways of thinking the city. To me, the city is currently a
spatial terrain where various spatio-political and spatio-economic battles
are being fought between different groups of people – battles for
livelihood, for living space, for breathing space, for ideological space,
for political space (in terms of representation) and fundamentally for
freedom – battles which are being fought surreptitiously, openly, subtly,
vociferously and ferociously. And two of the biggest contests that I see
emerging are contests about notions and practices of citizenship and
contests for control and power.

My question: What is Governance? What does it involve?

Jaju, the Municipal Commissioner of Hyderabad comes and makes a
presentation on Hyderabad as the cyber-city – www.ourmch.com. Jaju
presents the new mascot of a man with folded hands saying “Happy
Hyderabad”.
“Do you want me to give you a boring presentation or an interesting
multimedia presentation? You have a choice. Tell me. Okay, let me give you
an interesting multimedia presentation.”
Jaju starts his presentation. The lady seated next to me nudges and says,
“Did you hear the music? Seems like a Hollywood movie!” I giggled.
Jaju went on to speak all the accomplishments of Hyderabad Municipal
Corporation – online polls, online feedback from citizens, online
registration of births and deaths, e-Seva, et al.
In the question-answer session, Jaju revealed that water supply and
sanitation was not managed by the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. Public
Education was out of its purview. Public Transport was also managed by a
para-statal body as was water, sewerage and public education. A member of
the audience laughed and said, “So, what is it you do?” Jaju responded,
“Very little. That is why our Municipal Corporation won the Crisil award
for excellence last year!”

My question: What is Governance? What does it involve?

Power bases are shifting, constantly. These days (in the days of NURM),
let’s create para-statal bodies. Power is being taken away from the hands
of Municipal Corporations in the name of efficiency and service delivery.
Alternatively, you can read the previous sentence as ‘control is being
taken away from the hands of Municipal Corporations in the name of
efficiency and service delivery.’ Municipal Corporations are assigned
insignificant tasks, perhaps reduced to clearing houses. (The State
Government wants to increase the reign of control.) (And the Government at
the Centre is wielding its control over state governments through schemes
like NURM.)

And then we talk of democracy and bringing democracy to the grassroots.
And then we talk of local governance.

My questions: What is local governance?
		What is democracy?

I sat in a group which was discussing accountability and transparency in
governance. As the speaker spoke, it occurred to me that accountability
and transparency are not static concepts and entities. These are clearly
politically embedded concepts. Power bases are constantly shifting and
being restructured, if not negotiated. In such a terrain then, what does
accountability and transparency entail? Aren’t these two processes clearly
political and very loaded?

The speaker went on talking about reforms in accounting systems in
Municipal Corporations in an attempt to institute transparency and
accountability in governance. He spoke of doing surveys and collecting
data and statistics. There is an increasing tendency to organize the city
(the unfathomable entity that it is, the wild animal that it is) in terms
of data and statistics – in numbers – overlooking the complexities of
power and the everyday transactions and relationships.

The speaker spoke about how we need to develop pre-determined notions,
predict the city, so that we can make contingencies and plans. And I
wonder whether the idea is to make the city a tame animal!

Ultimately, the golden words were said, “Civil Society should be
representative?”
My questions: Representative – what is that?
	            Representative – of who?
	            Representative – why?
	            Civil Society – what is that?
	            Civil Society – who?
	            Civil Society – why?
	            Is Civil Society holier than thou?
	            Is Civil Society holy cow?

In the present urban terrain, isn’t Civil Society highly embedded in the
political? Are there are other forms of representation? (I don’t know what
is representation.) Can there be other spaces for voicing opinions? How
democratic are civil society institutions within themselves that they
speak of a democracy outside?

The city (I speak of the experiences from Mumbai) is presently being
reduced to a single entity instead of looking at the multiple entities
that it is. I believe that there are key issues of sustainability that are
challenging the city. One such issue is the privatization of water, an
issue which I contest purely on the idea that ‘a mega city SHOULD receive
water 24 by 7’. Why? Who decides? Is it needed?

And coupled with the issue of sustainability is the issue of access. As
citizenship is being moulded along factors such as property, capacity to
pay and legality, who are the people who are being pushed out of the ambit
of citizenry and therefore access?

The complex city is being made fathomable because it is too complex to
understand and therefore to control. Electric wires entangled and dangling
in an old chawl to an extent where no sense can be made of them, yet the
electricity continues to flow. A time comes when this web and network of
electrical wires are tainted as dangerous. Wiring has to be repaired.
Likewise, the city has to be repaired. But what about the damages? How
severe will these be? ... ... ... ... ...

New Thinking in Urbanization
(!?!?!?)



Zainab Bawa
Bombay
www.xanga.com/CityBytes
http://crimsonfeet.recut.org/rubrique53.html