Experiments in Power
Experiments in Power
Urban Politics in Postliberalization Kolkata
India’s postliberalization urban politics is captured well by Solomon Benjamin’s concept of ‘occupancy urbanism’, a dynamic in which varied groups deploy their power of the vote and other forms of social power to solidify claims to urban space in contravention of state planning and corporate interest. This dynamic helps to explain why few large scale planned urban developments have come to fruition, despite ambitious plans. This chapter examines the very mixed record of urban real estate megaproject development in Kolkata, paying particular attention to the strategies that the Government of West Bengal has deployed to gain control of land and push through large developments in the face of grassroots political opposition. It documents a case study of Calcutta Riverside, a project that has made some progress due in large part to the developer’s effort to allay concerns of local communities by integrating social and ecological concerns into the design of the project.
Keywords: Kolkata, Occupancy urbanism, Land reform, Liberalizaton
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