Seth Schindler

Producing and contesting the formal/informal divide: Regulating street hawking in Delhi, India

There is a consensus that urban development schemes in India bear little resemblance to the well-thought-out plans of their genesis, and that the boundary between formal/informal is often blurry. I seek to contribute to this literature by showing how, in spite of efforts to implement a regulatory scheme, street hawking in Delhi remains highly informal and in a state of negotiated (im)permanence. I compare two recent conflicts over street hawkers’ use of public space, which demonstrate that power is dispersed across a range of sites and rests with a number of state and non-state actors. I argue that preconceived notions of ‘formality’ and ‘informality’ are of little value in understanding urban processes, and instead it is necessary to understand how the boundary between formal/informal is produced and contested both juridically and through everyday practices of enforcement and evasion/subversion.

Understanding Urban Processes in Flint, Michigan: Approaching 'Subaltern Urbanism' Inductively.

Ananya Roy introduces the concept ‘subaltern urbanism’ in her 2011 article ‘Slumdog Cities: Rethinking Subaltern Urbanism’. She challenges researchers to move beyond existing epistemological and methodological limits, and offers four concepts which, taken together, serve as a useful starting point for understanding and representing subaltern urban space. In this article I argue that instead of a deductive approach that begins with an a priori identification of slums as subaltern urban space, an inductive approach of identifying subaltern urban space would expand the concept and show that subaltern urbanism exists in the global North. I present original research to show that Flint, Michigan, can be considered subaltern urban space. In the final section of the article I argue that this inductive approach to subaltern urbanism can foster comparative research across the North-South divide, and generate the transfer of knowledge from South to North.

Detroit after bankruptcy: A case of degrowth machine politics

It is widely accepted that neoliberalism is intensified in times of crisis, and Jamie Peck has argued that ‘austerity urbanism’ has been implemented at the urban scale since the 2008 financial crisis. This article questions whether this narrative of neoliberal expansion is applicable in cities where crisis is so severe that economic growth seems highly unlikely. I focus on Detroit, whose recent declaration of bankruptcy signals the recognition among local officials and elites that the city’s decline cannot be reversed with out-of-the-box neoliberal policies. Instead, the city’s bankruptcy precipitated a breakdown of an interscalar growth coalition, and local actors have embraced a plan for Detroit’s future which diverges from ‘austerity urbanism’ favoured by extra-local investors in significant ways. Importantly, local actors have embraced a plan that seeks to improve the quality of life for the city’s residents in the context of irreversible degrowth. I refer to this as degrowth machine politics and I examine the extent to which its emergence may foster contingency and progressive urban politics.

Why Delhi cannot plan its ‘new towns’: The case of solid waste management in Noida

Abstract Indian metropolises have witnessed the growth of ‘new towns’ on their peripheries over the past two decades, which have attracted investment as well as affluent residents. Most research on new towns examines the contentious politics of land acquisition and development, but less is known about urban governance and everyday life. This article focuses on solid waste management in Noida, a new town on the periphery of Delhi that has been unable to develop a large-scale waste management system, and we have two main foci. First, we show that the municipal government has sought to regulate waste collection , while waste processing and disposal have remained unregulated and this has discouraged the entry of medium and large-scale private enterprises. Second, we explore the contentious politics surrounding actually existing waste management practices that have emerged in the absence of significant public or private investment. Most waste is managed by small- and medium-sized enterprises in the informal sector, so associations that represent the so-called ‘new’ middle class must interact with informal-sector waste workers. These interactions result in moderately high levels of waste collection but waste disposal remains haphazard and this exposes the limits of the new middle class’ control over urban space. Ultimately, we show how municipal governance and the actually existing politics and practices of waste management contribute to the production of Noida’s socio-spatial landscape.

Governing the Twenty-First Century Metropolis and Transforming Territory

Abstract This article puts forward the argument that urban governance in metropolises in the global South has entered a territorial moment. There is a subtle shift of emphasis underway in many Southern metropolises as municipal governments increasingly focus on transforming urban space rather than ‘improving’ populations. This shift away from Foucauldian disciplinary tactics—i.e. fixing people in place, classifying them into populations and acting upon them—is driven by political economic circumstances. Many of these cities have abundant reserves of capital and labor but they remain intractably disconnected; the former is invested in real estate and infrastructure, while a large number of urban residents struggle to sell their labor power for a wage. In this context municipal governments seek to manage the transformation of urban space, the urban governance strategies for which are presented here in a typology ranging from modest efforts to control places that were hitherto beyond the reach of the state through to the wholesale creation of new cities. Ultimately this article demonstrates that any attempt to ‘reload’ urban studies must focus on the governance of territory—i.e. the reconfiguration of power and place—in metropolises at the frontier of the urban revolution.

Towards a paradigm of Southern urbanism

In this paper I argue that cities in the global South constitute a distinctive ‘type’ of human settlement. I begin by critiquing Brenner and Schmid’s concept of planetary urbanization which erases difference among cities and locates the essence of urbanity in the global North. I echo their criticism of postcolonial urbanism, however, which has struggled to articulate precisely how Southern cities differ from their Northern counterparts. I then propose three tendencies that, when taken together, serve as the basis of an emergent paradigm of Southern urbanism. First, I assert that cities in the South tend to exhibit a persistent disconnect between capital and labor. Second, I demonstrate that their metabolic configurations are discontinuous, dynamic and contested. Finally, I argue that political economy is not the overriding context within which urban processes unfold, but rather it is always already co-constituted with the materiality of Southern cities. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of characteristics exhibited uniformly by all cities in the global South. Instead, I hope that it serves as a starting point for city-centric scholarship that can account for very real differences between/among cities without constructing cities in the South as pathological and in need of development interventions.

A New Delhi every day: multiplicities of governance regimes in a transforming metropolis

In this article I demonstrate the coexistence of multiple urban governance regimes in Delhi, India. While formal urban governance is geared toward transforming Delhi into a “world-class” city, I present original research that shows how the everyday governance of urban space in three very different areas of Delhi is determined by relations among non-state actors. These regimes foster access to space for street hawkers on an everyday basis while they allow powerful local interest groups to collect rent and influence flows of people and commodities. I argue that, in contrast to formal electoral politics, these governance regimes emerge from a parallel politics of everyday interactions, negotiations, and transgressions. Although the emancipatory potential of these regimes should not be overstated, they do offer street hawkers limited contingency to improve their access to urban space. This article contributes to a growing body of work on urban governance by showing how multiplicities of governance regimes coexist and determine how and by whom urban space is used in a metropolis in the global South.

Beyond a state-centric approach to urban informality: Interactions between Delhi’s middle class and the informal service sector

This article presents original research on relations between middle-class residents and informal-sector workers in Delhi, India. It shows how middle-class associations used their consumption preferences as well as relationships with local authorities to legitimize the work of street hawkers and waste workers. These findings suggest that the toleration of informality can be traced to governance regimes comprised of both state and non-state powerbrokers.

Constructing a universal logic of urban control?: International standards for city data, management, and interoperability

Existing in thought or as an idea bit not having a physical existence. AGENT An ITEM, but most often a PERSON, or ORGANIZATION, providing a SERVICE or taking a role in an EVENT. COLLECTION A grouping of ITEMS, as defined by an AGENT, that needs to be managed or operated upon together. ITEM An individual article or unit, especially one that is part of a list, collection, or set [1]. RESOURCE ITEM that can be drawn on by an AGENT to produce a benefit. 304 CITY VOL. 22, NO. 2

Seeing and Governing Street Hawkers Like a Fragmented Metropolitan State

This chapter examines the governance of street hawking, and demonstrates that the state is fragmented and power is disbursed among a range of officials and interest groups. This explains how it can simultaneously be the primary threat to street hawkers and a potential benefactor. I show that the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill represents a new way of “seeing” and acting upon hawkers, and could encourage hawkers to make lawful claims to urban space.