Politics in the Urban Periphery: Citizen-Led Expansion and Informality at the Edges of India’s Cities

Adam Michael Auerbach and Tanu Kumar

Journal of Development Studies, 2026, vol. 62, issue 3, 427-444

Abstract: ABSTRACT Some privately developed neighborhoods on the outskirts of India’s cities are formalized by urban authorities while others are not. What explains this uneven formalization and what are its consequences for public service provision? We explore these questions in the context of peripheral private developments in India. Peripheral private developments are built and planned by private developers at the urban-rural edge and frequently lack zoning approval and access to essential services. Drawing on interviews and neighborhood-level data from Jaipur, a growing city of four million people, we explore how variation in formalization by the city shapes neighborhood access to public services and how citizens demand formalization through collective action and navigating bureaucratic processes. Our study provides novel insights into how cities expand outward and the crucial role that citizens, private developers, and urban bureaucracies play in this process.

Date: 2026
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DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2025.2521492

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