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Crackdown economics: Policing of hawkers in Nairobi as violent inclusion
No full textCrackdowns on illegal hawking by policing authorities are often analyzed as a question of conflict between resistance of the marginalized and repression by an exclusionary urban governance. In this article I argue that we gain new insights about the position of hawkers in urban space by moving into a different analytical register when exploring the policing of street trade. If we understand crackdowns not as attempts to exclude hawkers from the city but rather as central elements in an economy that produces policing, as well as political alliances, we can see how violent policing practices offer hawkers a particular form of inclusion into urban space. Employing the notion of ‘crackdown economics’ I approach crackdowns on hawking from a perspective informed by anthropological literature on exchange relationships. I thus understand hawkers, officers and local politicians as being mutually engaged in an economy where they seek valuable returns through investments in social relations. The argument is based on an ethnographic study conducted in central Nairobi. I explore regular payments of bribes by hawkers to officers, the making and breaking of agreements between them, as well as seasonally occurring interference by local politicians in the run-up to elections.</p
Battambang City, Cambodia: From a small colonial settlement to an emerging regional centre
No full textBattambang City stands out in representing the millions of small urban settlements which are important carriers of urbanisation in the 21st century. Its trajectory of development was shaped by regional and international powers and domestics politics, while the current conditions are characterised by a strong urge to develop its economy but a severe lacking of both soft and hard capabilities. The city profile demonstrates the development pathway of Battambang City from a small colonial settlement to a regional administrative, business and transportation centre, and the current administrative and planning systems that influence its economy and land-use. Key issues that have to be addressed include adequate provision of regional and urban infrastructure, heritage conservation, informal settlements, and protection of the endangered natural setting especially along the Sangker River.</p
The political morphology of drainage – how gully formation links to state formation in the Choke Mountains of Ethiopia 39
No full textThis chapter analyses what is arguably the Nile’s ever biggest hydraulic project. It examines the work by scholars who explored how the Ethiopian government mobilizes its ‘developmental state’ model to reinforce state power under the guises of democracy and technical packages of development. The chapter explores the morphodynamics of drainage and soil conservation so as to provide a material reading of popular mobilization programmes that make Ethiopia’s ‘developmental state’. Such a political morphology approach brings into view two elements often absent in political accounts of environmental transformation. First, it recognises how the people of Michael engage in the transformation of the landscape and in the shaping of categories through which this landscape is known by government officials. Second, the power of the ‘developmental state’ model derives from the exploitation of the increasing social and physical tensions on the hill by a new coalition between landholders and government officials.</p
The logic of design: its role in understanding the antecedents of urban informality
No full textThe everyday life of a city can generate informality in urban space, particularly in emerging economies. Using the grounded theory approach, this paper looks at how urban space in a market precinct is negotiated through tactics of street vendors and strategies of the government. It draws upon Herbert Simon’s work on decision making to show how a vendor moves from an existing situation to a preferred situation and terms this as situation satisfaction. It suggests a theoretical framework to understand the relation between the logic, decision and action of stakeholders to resolve the conflict between planning criteria and ground reality.</p
Re: Letter from an architect to the gurus and chelas of architecture
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A reply to Shirish Beri's Open Letter dated 25th July 2019, "Can Architecture of Goodness be Taught?" by Architect Sudipto Ghosh.
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Mughal Tilework: Derivative or Original?
No full textAlthough concentrating on Mughal tilework, this paper also discusses its predecessors elsewhere in the Islamic world, particularly in Iran, Central Asia, and Sultanate India. A brief survey of the development of the main techniques, namely monochrome-glazed tiles, sgraffito, tile mosaic, underglaze-painted and cuerda seca, both in Sultanate India and in other parts of the Islamic world, precedes the discussion of Mughal examples in the body of the paper. The paper highlights the initial links with Sultanate tilework, whether underglaze-painted, as in the Punjab, or with tile mosaic, in northern India. The development of Mughal tile mosaic is emphasized, as this was the medium most frequently used for tile decoration. Changes in the colour palette and in the introduction of new patterns are examined, highlighting the extensive use of figural imagery at the Lahore Fort and the simultaneous introduction of naturalistic vegetal panels. The less-frequent Mughal use of underglaze-painted and cuerda seca tiles is also examined. The conclusions summarize the characteristic features of Mughal tilework and suggest areas for future study.</p
The Impact of Akhlaq-i Nasiri on the Forms and Spaces of Akbar’s Fatehpur Sikri
No full textIn this article, I examine the structures and spatial dynamics of Fatehpur Sikri to show how the overall design of the Mughal capital city was informed by Islamic philosophy and ethical texts known as akhlaq. Both discourses used the concept of the city to theorize how the ideals of justice could be materialized. After creating an interpretative framework based on these texts, I focus on four spaces of interaction at Fatehpur Sikri, the Jami Masjid, Diwan-i Aam, Ibadat Khana, and markets, to show how the phenomenology of Peripatetic Islamic philosophy, later translated for Mongol kings by Nasir al-Din Tusi (1201–74), influenced the meaning of the city. Through this investigation, I argue that Fatehpur Sikri was a means of bringing the ethical concepts of Persianate philosophy to life in sixteenth-century Mughal India and introducing a new set of social and religious norms to the people.</p