Search

This paper utilizes a critical governmentality approach to theorize the processes through which urban elites become stakeholders in the 'world-class city'. Through a case study of public consultations for urban development plans in Chennai, India, the paper explores the technologies that produce urban actors who 'participate' in urban governance. Key to these technologies is a discourse of participation that privileges and normalizes citizens as urban stakeholders. The paper contributes to current explorations into the technologies of inclusion that are central to an emerging civic governmentality in South Asia. In Chennai this civic governmentality engages various segments of civil society in processes of urban governance through the mechanism of public consultation. It is through these public consultations that elites come to exert influence over urban plans and consolidate a vision and desire for the world-class city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since their inception at the beginning of the 20th century, the evolutionary paths of housing co-operatives have diverged in Mumbai and Chennai. Housing co-operatives in Mumbai have been principally Tenure co-operatives (i.e. for collective ownership and management). In Chennai they have been mainly Finance co-operatives (i.e. for providing loans to members). This paper makes a comparative institutional analysis of the two cities to examine the divergent evolution. The examination is important for informing the institutional conditions that enable co-operatives to flourish. Four institutional aspects are examined in this context: the local housing market, local housing policies, role of state government and co-operative institutional support structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]