Intersections Spring 2009 Intersections
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intersections Spring 2009 intersections intersections Journal of the Comparative History of Ideas Program ▫ University of Washington, Seattle ________________________________________________________ Spring 2009 (Volume 10, Number 2) Editor-in-Chief / Web and Print Production Sean Michael Kinney Editorial Board Nicole Bradford Elizabeth Adams Parciany Luke Caldwell Brian Hutchinson J. Edith Fikes Adam Johnson Sarah Martin Ashley Pettyjohn Jana Nicole Ramsey Alden Lee Advisors Amy Peloff John Toews Published by the Comparative History of Ideas program, B-102 Padelford Hall, Box 354300, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. Contact intersections at: [email protected] Article & Abstract Submissions: [email protected] (.doc) Website: http://depts.washington.edu/chid/intersections_Spring_2009/index.html i intersections TABLE OF CONTENTS ________________________________________________________ Invisible Lives: Stories of Innovation and Transition in Mumbai By Brooke McKean – University of Washington, Seattle………………………………… 1 Contending with Censorship: The Underground Music Scene in Urban Iran By Heather Rastovac – University of Washington, Seattle………………………………. 59 Remembering Laughter and Tears in a Drawer: Music as a Response to Soviet Repression By Sarah Cunningham – University of Washington, Seattle…………………………….. 83 Student Outcomes from a Study Abroad Program: The Impact of Having a Diverse Group of Students By Eugene Edgar, Anthony Kelley, and Ed Taylor – University of Washington, Seattle………. 95 The Changing Winds of Civilization: The Aboriginal and Sovereignty Between the Desert and the State By Luke Caldwell – University of Washington, Seattle…………………………...……… 119 Redemptive Narratives in Marx and Nietzsche By Ada Albuquerque da Silva – University of Washington, Seattle………………………… 151 ‘The Good and Bad of that Sexe’: Monstrosity and Womanhood in Early Modern England By Alletta Brenner – University of Oregon…………………………………………….. 161 Golden Beaches and Adventuresome Wilderness: The Neocolonial Timeshare in Indonesia By Elizabeth Adams Parciany – University of Washington, Seattle…………………....…… 177 Praise, Blame and Advocacy: An Examination of President George W. Bush's Post-9/11 Discourse and the Rhetorical Genres that Define it By Joshua Hubanks – University of Washington, Seattle……………..…………………... 199 Conceiving Motherhood: The Jewish Female Body in Israeli Reproductive Practice By Elana Bloomfield – Haverford College……..……………………..………………... 227 Deterritorialized Women in the Global City: An Analysis of Sex Trafficking in Dubai, Tokyo and New York By Janice Goh – University of Washington, Seattle……………………………………... 271 ii intersections Volume 10, Number 2 (Spring 2009) Brooke McKean, “Invisible Lives: Stories of Innovation and Transition in Mumbai,” intersections 10, no. 2 (2009): 1-57. ABSTRACT This analysis studies relations between slum-dwellers and the state to understand the growth of slums during an era of economic success in Mumbai. I argue that a dialectical relationship between the state and slum-dwellers perpetuates frictions and allows the state to deny services to its most disenfranchised citizens. Negative perceptions construct slum-dwellers outside the social order as “liminal citizens.” Yet, on the other hand, the government has very little power to subvert or influence slum-dwellers because it chooses to define them as non-citizens. As such, slum-dwellers have the power to manipulate and innovate completely outside the formal system, creating a “shadow hegemony.” http://depts.washington.edu/chid/intersections_Spring_2009/Brooke_McKean_Stories_of_Innovation_and_Transition_in_Mumbai.pdf © 2009 intersections, Brooke Mckean. This article may not be reposted, reprinted, or included in any print or online publication, website, or blog, without the expressed written consent of intersections and the author 1 intersections Spring 2009 Invisible Lives Stories of Innovation and Transition in Mumbai By Brooke McKean University of Washington, Seattle Someone has said that the urban poor are invisible people. … You sell everything imaginable on our street corners – at a price the poor can afford. And yet we never see you. … And that is why you are invisible – because WE DON‟T WANT TO SEE YOU We don‟t want to see you because you challenge and disturb us. You make us feel uncomfortable. Because if you are treated as less than human, it is we who treat you thus. So your pain shows the rest of us our inhumanity. 1 Stephen Kim Soo Whan ccording to the government of India, a slum is “a compact area of at least A 300 population or about 60-70 households of poorly built congested tenements, in unhygienic environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in proper sanitary and drinking water facilities.” This describes how slums are perceived: dirty, unsanitary, cramped and overflowing. When slum- dwellers comprise 6.5 million people in a city of 12 million, as they do in Mumbai, this dirty and unsanitary space becomes a “nuisance to public health” and the security of the city.2 Slum-dwellers are the “parasites” of Mumbai. 1 Stephen Kim Soo Whan, “A Place to Live, ”in India’s growing slums, ed. Josh Desrochers, (Bangalore: Centre for Social Action, 2000), 13. 2 The Government of India. “Slum Population: Census 2001.” (2001). http://nuhru.in/files/Slums% 20in% 20India%20-%20An%20Overview.pdf?download, (accessed April 1, 2007). 2 Brooke McKean Invisible Lives: Stories of Innovation and Transition in Mumbai Figure 1. Map of Mumbai’s Slums. 3 intersections Spring 2009 Mumbai is a city of contradictions. As the economic powerhouse of India, Mumbai has driven the country‟s growth since liberalization began in the early 1990s, yet it is home to the nation‟s largest slum population. High-rise buildings housing millionaires are situated next to sprawling slums. As the city‟s economy grows, so do its slums. Although simple economic theory posits that growth increases overall incomes, this is far from the case in Mumbai. The government denies slum-dwellers basic social services and slum development policies repeatedly fail. Why then, does the government deny these services to its most disenfranchised residents? Without these services, how do slum-dwellers survive outside the government‟s system? I argue that a dialectical relationship between the state and slum-dwellers allows this contradictory system to persist. To define and understand this relationship, I utilize two concepts. First, I propose the government and the affluent elite construct slum-dwellers as “liminal citizens,” or a transitional group. Second, I argue in reaction, slum-dwellers redefine their identities and incorporate strategies of survival, constructing a “shadow hegemony” that defies the state. Construction of this citizenship suggests one reason the government does not provide services in slums. Liminal citizenship is essentially non-citizenship. Slum-dwellers are believed to be dangerous criminals who steal land and precious resources within the city, yet their cheap labor sustains the economy. These and other negative perceptions, construct slum-dwellers outside the social order, placing them in an isolated liminal space. In section two, I address how the government and affluent construct this liminal citizenship, which influences the failed slum development policies. Yet, the lives of slum-dwellers are not hopeless or at the whims of the powerful; within slums, they have their own space to innovate. The government has very little power to subvert or influence slum-dwellers because it chooses to define them as non-citizens and generally ignores their existence. As such, slum-dwellers have the power to manipulate and innovate completely outside the formal system, creating a “shadow hegemony.” I define this shadow hegemony as a process of innovation – of reconfiguring their identity, maximizing their resources and designing strategies of survival – in which the cultural productions and informal economic systems designed by slum- dwellers dominate. Often unintentionally or indirectly, these acts defy the state‟s construction of the liminal citizenship. However, the shadow hegemony is not all-encompassing. Some state services cannot be reproduced by slum- dwellers, preventing them from fulfilling all of their needs. Slum-dwellers have varying degrees of success in this informal system, as religion, caste, ethnicity 4 Brooke McKean Invisible Lives: Stories of Innovation and Transition in Mumbai and class differ dramatically in Mumbai slums. 3 I analyze how different groups identify themselves to prevent from reifying and homogenizing this diverse population. In section three, I analyze how slum-dwellers create their identities and incorporate strategies of survival. Looking specifically at these strategies also allows one to understand how the construction of this liminal citizenship is perpetuated. Slum-dwellers sometimes seize land, water and resources from the government because they are denied services. In doing so, they reinforce the government‟s negative perceptions of them, weakening their ability to receive services. This relationship generates a continuum of destruction and reconstruction, cultural production and counter- production, denial of resources and theft of resources. Thus, we find a dialectical relationship between the state and slum-dwellers in which these actions and reactions sustain each other. Government, academic and public perceptions of slum-dwellers influence the way development policy is implemented.