Datta, A (2012) 'Mongrel City': Cosmopolitan neighbourliness in a Delhi squatter settlement. Antipode: a radical journal of geography, 44 (3). 745 - 763 . ISSN 0066-4812
Abstract
This paper examines the construction of a ‘cosmopolitan neighbourliness’ which emerges in a Delhi squatter settlement in the context of communal violence. Through interviews with over 80 inhabitants, I suggest that an openness to ‘others’ in the settlement is produced in order to construct a home for oneself in an exclusionary city through a series of relational constructs – between the ‘cosmopolitan’ city and the ‘parochial’ village; between the ‘murderous’ city and the ‘compassionate’ slum; between the exclusionary urban public sphere and the ‘inclusive’ neighbourhood sphere. The squatter settlement is internalised as a microcosm of a ‘mongrel city’, a place which through its set of oppositional constructs becomes inherently ‘urban’. ‘Cosmopolitan neighbourliness’ on the other hand remains fragile and gendered. It is a continuous strategic practice that attempts to bridge across differences of caste and religion through gendered performances that avert and discourage communal violence even when the city becomes murderous.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2012, Wiley Blackwell. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Antipode. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. The definitive version is available at www3.interscience.wiley.com |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 06 Dec 2012 16:04 |
Last Modified: | 30 Oct 2016 08:48 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2011.00928.x |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley-Blackwell |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2011.00928.x |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:74768 |