Densifying Dwelling: Accumulation, Accommodation and Affliction through formal housing in Megacity Mumbai
(2022) RC21 Conference 2022- Abstract
- The ordinary cities are the dominant sites of urban living, theorization and debates. This presentation centrally situates the dimension of urban density to unfold a unique, however, ordinary aspect of urban contention. It situates the state’s formal housing paradigm for the urban poor as the case of theoretical intervention from an ongoing research project. It aims to broaden the understanding of three inter-connected aspects of institutionalized spatial and housing density: 1) accumulation, 2) accommodation, and 3) affliction. First, in what ways does the density discourse acts as an exceptional policy and interventional site of novel accumulation across state and market forces, or the economic and extra-economic actors, of urban... (More)
- The ordinary cities are the dominant sites of urban living, theorization and debates. This presentation centrally situates the dimension of urban density to unfold a unique, however, ordinary aspect of urban contention. It situates the state’s formal housing paradigm for the urban poor as the case of theoretical intervention from an ongoing research project. It aims to broaden the understanding of three inter-connected aspects of institutionalized spatial and housing density: 1) accumulation, 2) accommodation, and 3) affliction. First, in what ways does the density discourse acts as an exceptional policy and interventional site of novel accumulation across state and market forces, or the economic and extra-economic actors, of urban accumulation? What typologies of densities constitute the surplus? While we usually encounter accumulation associated with dispossession, this form of density within its dispossession allows residential accommodation for the urban poor. Subsequently, what lived experiences emerge in these extraordinarily dense housing arrangements and what pathologies, social and biological, associate with these interventions?
This study critiques density as a site of excessive accumulation and crisis that related to unlivable housing and living forms. Multi-scaler and multi-site examination of institutional intervention come from policy and planning document’s analysis and critique. I juxtapose the official contours with instances from multi-site ethnographic exploration of dwelling units, neighborhood and township level experiences of living in these architecturally constricting and even life-constraining circumstances. Overall, exceptional density enables extraction and circulation of construction surplus and urban redevelopment. However, intolerable densities subject the poor to diseases, co-morbidities, and even deaths, as well as social dysfunction at the community levels. The paper speaks to the unattained utopia of formal housing based on graduated living and citizenship norms that, in their ordinariness, sprawl a distorted reality of the present urban condition. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/51655f7d-bfb7-4450-821a-62e9fb10131f
- author
- Jha, Rishi LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2022-08-26
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Density, Dwelling Units, accumulation, accommodation, Affliction, Mumbai
- conference name
- RC21 Conference 2022
- conference location
- Athens, Greece
- conference dates
- 2022-08-24 - 2022-08-26
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 51655f7d-bfb7-4450-821a-62e9fb10131f
- date added to LUP
- 2022-08-27 18:12:22
- date last changed
- 2022-08-29 08:34:50
@misc{51655f7d-bfb7-4450-821a-62e9fb10131f,
abstract = {{The ordinary cities are the dominant sites of urban living, theorization and debates. This presentation centrally situates the dimension of urban density to unfold a unique, however, ordinary aspect of urban contention. It situates the state’s formal housing paradigm for the urban poor as the case of theoretical intervention from an ongoing research project. It aims to broaden the understanding of three inter-connected aspects of institutionalized spatial and housing density: 1) accumulation, 2) accommodation, and 3) affliction. First, in what ways does the density discourse acts as an exceptional policy and interventional site of novel accumulation across state and market forces, or the economic and extra-economic actors, of urban accumulation? What typologies of densities constitute the surplus? While we usually encounter accumulation associated with dispossession, this form of density within its dispossession allows residential accommodation for the urban poor. Subsequently, what lived experiences emerge in these extraordinarily dense housing arrangements and what pathologies, social and biological, associate with these interventions?<br/><br/>This study critiques density as a site of excessive accumulation and crisis that related to unlivable housing and living forms. Multi-scaler and multi-site examination of institutional intervention come from policy and planning document’s analysis and critique. I juxtapose the official contours with instances from multi-site ethnographic exploration of dwelling units, neighborhood and township level experiences of living in these architecturally constricting and even life-constraining circumstances. Overall, exceptional density enables extraction and circulation of construction surplus and urban redevelopment. However, intolerable densities subject the poor to diseases, co-morbidities, and even deaths, as well as social dysfunction at the community levels. The paper speaks to the unattained utopia of formal housing based on graduated living and citizenship norms that, in their ordinariness, sprawl a distorted reality of the present urban condition.}},
author = {{Jha, Rishi}},
keywords = {{Density; Dwelling Units; accumulation; accommodation; Affliction; Mumbai}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{08}},
title = {{Densifying Dwelling: Accumulation, Accommodation and Affliction through formal housing in Megacity Mumbai}},
year = {{2022}},
}