Middle-Class and Slum-Based Collective Action in Bangalore

Lalitha Kamath and M. Vijayabaskar

Journal of South Asian Development, 2014, vol. 9, issue 2, 147-171

Abstract: This article contributes to further our understanding of factors shaping collective action in urban India. Based primarily on fieldwork conducted in slums and middle-class neighbourhoods in Bangalore, the article strengthens the case against a dualistic reading of collective action by identifying some important convergences between actions of middle-class and slum-based associations. It argues that new urban governance initiatives have been worked by slum-based associations to make claims in ways that are reminiscent of the ‘insurgent citizenship’ observed among middle-class associations. The article also highlights how slum-based mobilizations are driven not merely by patron–client political networks or the politics of stealth, but also inspired from larger identity-based movements. Middle-class associations, on the other hand, reveal increasingly deeper engagement with formal politics, a realm that the ‘new politics’ had not earlier engaged with.

Keywords: Collective action; Middle-class associations; Slum-based mobilizations; Citizenship; Urban governance in India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0973174114536098 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:soudev:v:9:y:2014:i:2:p:147-171

DOI: 10.1177/0973174114536098

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of South Asian Development
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().