Acceso usuarios
Liza Weinstein
This article considers the fractured nature of state power in contemporary Mumbai.Based on a case study of the ongoing Dharavi Redevelopment Project, a 2-billion USdollar initiative to redevelop Mumbai’s most infamous ‘slum’ settlement as a mixed-use,mixed-income township, it details the new state strategies emerging to support urbandevelopment efforts in India today. Identifying the structural weaknesses that havetraditionally hindered development planning in Mumbai, it describes how a privatedeveloper, acting as a political entrepreneur, has worked to consolidate the authority andresources necessary to overcome these institutional gaps and structural weaknesses.Situating the analysis in theories of state restructuring, this case sheds light on how thelocal Indian state is responding to the pressures associated with neoliberal globalizationand competitive urbanism. While a growing literature in this area has offered importantinsights into emerging configurations of power, it remains overly focused on the role ofNGOs in these efforts, failing to provide an adequate analysis of alliances between thestate and other private actors. This article attempts to address this gap with an in-depthexamination of the political entrepreneur as a site of institutionalized, but ultimatelyincomplete, power in globalizing Mumbai.
