Williams, GO and Thampi, BV (2013) Decentralisation and the changing geographies of political marginalisation in Kerala. Environment and Planning A: international journal of urban and regional research, 45 (6). 1337 - 1357.
Abstract
One of the benefits often claimed for ‘moving’ the state closer to people through the institutional reforms of democratic decentralisation is an improvement in the inclusion of politically marginalised groups. Decentralisation promises to deliver both the closer physical presence of centres of government and the formalisation of practices of representation at the grassroots. These changes in turn are expected to provide opportunities for historically margainalised groups to improve their associational capacities, and to gain recognition as rights-bearing citizens. This idea is examined through the experience of Kerala, which has one of the most thorough programmes of democratic decentralisation within India. Decentralisation has indeed provided new pathways to engage with local government. However attempts to ‘rescale’ the state to the local level have also reshaped existing institutional channels for representation, political discourses and everyday state practices, in ways which produce new micro-geographies of exclusion. This paper highlights the importance of these everyday experiences of marginalisation for programmes of state reform. It argues that if they are ignored, decentralisation risks reproducing narrow forms of majoritarian localism, and its potential to contribute to building substantive democracy will be lost.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2013 Pion. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Environment and Planning A. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Decentralisation; Governance Reform; Political Space; Exclusion; Kerala (South Asia) |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Urban Studies & Planning (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ESRC RES-167-25-0268 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 24 Feb 2014 17:50 |
Last Modified: | 24 Feb 2014 17:50 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1068/a45218 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Pion |
Refereed: | Yes |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:77864 |