Smart mischief: an attempt to demystify the Smart Cities craze in India (original) (raw)

Environment and Urbanization

This paper attempts to demystify and deconstruct the current Smart Cities craze in India. It does so by refusing to be distracted by the discourses of the Smart Cities idea in general and of the Smart Cities Mission of the Government of India in particular. It focuses instead on the privatized physical spaces of urban inequality in India, specifically gated neighbourhoods and integrated townships. It argues that just as these privatized spaces have increased in size and complexity over time, their corresponding legitimizing ideologies have also evolved and become more sophisticated, to finally give birth to their newest avatar-Smart Cities. Seen in this light, Smart Cities appear less as a novel idea floated to guide the sustainable development of our future cities, and more as an ideological cover for the ongoing processes of neoliberal urbanization. The paper buttresses these arguments with an analysis of the design process of integrated township projects that I have been involved in, comparing the essential characteristics of these projects with the operational aspects and components of the Smart Cities Mission. KeywordS housing / Indian cities / inequality / integrated townships / Kolkata / neoliberal urbanization / Smart Cities I. deConStruCtIng A ConCeptuAl AppArAtuS In his insightful analysis of neoliberalism, David Harvey wrote that "for any way of thought to become dominant, a conceptual apparatus has to be advanced that appeals to our intuitions and instincts, to our values and our desires, as well as the possibilities inherent in the social world we inhabit". (1) Perhaps, apart from appealing to our "intuitions and instincts", a "conceptual apparatus" should also strive to reach a level where it can simultaneously shape, obfuscate and take over an entire way of thought, and channel it towards particular socioeconomic and class interests. Incidentally, Harvey has discussed this aspect too, not while discussing the "conceptual apparatus" but while elaborating the characteristics of counter-revolutionary theory, which he described as follows: "A theory which may or may not appear grounded in the reality it seeks to portray, but which obscures, be-clouds and generally obfuscates (either by design or accident) our ability to comprehend that reality. Such a theory is usually attractive and hence gains currency because Antarin Chakrabarty is State Coordination Manager at the Centre for urban and regional excellence (Cure), a nongovernmental organization based in delhi and bhubaneswar, India.