In my last blog I discussed the myriad meanings of Globalization. In this blog I add two more variables. Globalization = Age of Advanced Capitalism+ Digital technologies. Image and representation of cities assumes great prominence under conditions of advanced capitalism with cities competing for investments and revenue generation. In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation…in order for capitalist production to expand and counteract the falling rate of profit from the provision of goods necessary to sustain life, capital must generate artificial requirements for not so necessary things…the aestheticizing of desires so created then generates a system of spectacular production of their own volition… desires that can be continuously renewed and so the deepening of commodity relations becomes complete on the basis of an apparently limitless horizon to commodity production (Cuthbert, 2006:109–110).

Globalization and the Built Environment

The manufacture of culturally generated commodities includes cities and the design of the built environment with a basket of available choices. Cities produce new urban forms for :

1. functionality like airports, roads, flyovers, expressways;
2. reproduce international architectural styles in their residential and commercial built form;
3. produce new spaces as spectacles like theme parks, convention centers, museums, galleries, hotels that could serve a variety of purposes ranging from resurrection of political identity, cultural supremacy and economic power.
4. specific cultural experiences for consumption.

Indian Cities are part of Global Supply Chains

The global character of India’s cities are not restricted to high-end malls, real estate markets, posh residential complexes, and Information Technology parks, but also informal economies in slums of Dharavi in Mumbai and weavers; colonies in dilapidated Chowk of Lucknow and several such settlements that cater to global supply chains. Cities of the global South including the second-tier cities of India like Lucknow, Jaipur and Surat, are aspiring to become global cities through borrowed images from bigger cities in an attempt to replicate them or through direct imagery supplied from the Internet and media. These changes brought about by globalization at varying degrees and in different ways qualify them what Appadurai (2000) calls “as images of globalization that are cracked and refracted” (ibid:628)

City Responses to Globalization — Two trends

1. Sameness and Homogenization

2. Resurrect Place specific Cultures

The first trend is visible through

· Global Aspirations

· Visions

· Utopias

· Bangalore as Singapore

· Mumbai as Shanghai

· Global City

· World Class City

· Smart City

This trend results in homogenization of the cityscape depicted in the picture below:

The second trend is to resurrect cultural identity, celebrate difference and diversity.

Increasingly, cities have turned towards investment in arts institutions and cultural districts, and creative industries, exploiting their cultural capital and city branding as urban policy. International development agencies like UNCTAD (2004), UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network (2005) have articulated and validated the global culture and world creative industries meta-themes. They have provided a global policy framework for cities to use culture and creativity as an economic development with due importance on indigenous and local culture. In advanced capitalism the symbiotic relationship between place, culture and economy is re-emerging in powerful new forms expressed in place specific process and product configurations that enhance their competitive advantages and provide their cultural-products industries with an edge in wider national and international markets.

The second trend is witnessed in the growing interest of cities in the following:

• Tourism

• Heritage management

• Festivals

• Walks and Exhibitions

• Conclaves, meets, and events

Some cities in India have been proactive in reviving some of these cultural practices. The Hunnarshala Foundation is actively involved in the revitalization of traditional building techniques in Bhuj, Gujarat, following the earthquake in 2001. Cities like Varanasi and Jaipur have joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. UNESCO declared Ahmedabad as a heritage city in 2017. On 30 June 2018 in the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting in Bahrain, Mumbai’s Victorian and Art Deco Ensembles in the heritage precincts of Fort and Marine Drive were inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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Dr. Binti Singh

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I recently conducted an Elective course titled Globalization and Culture under the vertical of Culture. The other verticals included theory, design and method. This elective was meant for students pursuing their Bachelors degree in Architecture with the pedagogic intent to understand the following:

1. How do we understand India as an urban locale of extraordinary historical importance and one that is undergoing tremendous urban upheaval?

2. In what ways do global social, cultural and economic forces produce new imaginaries of city life?

3. How do Indian cities respond to global cultural influences?

4. What visions do they produce of urban futures and how do governments and ordinary citizens engage with these visions?

5. How does a city’s past influence visions of the future?

These are just some of the key questions that seek to provide a guide to a form of urbanism which cannot simply be written upon a blank slate, but must deal with the deeply embedded histories of quotidian sociality as well as powerful contemporary processes of change.

The Myriad meanings of Globalization

Globalization is often understood as an economic phenomenon marked by economic restructuring, primacy of the market, dispersal of production, and internationalization of labour. Thus, while shopping for international brands like Zara, Mango or H&M, it’s not surprising to find labels that read as Made in Bangladesh or Made in Vietnam. The globalized economic order and post-Fordist mode of production makes this possible.

Sociologically, globalization is understood as compassing all those processes by which people are incorporated into one singular, global society characterized by compression of time and space, greater interconnections and interdependencies, increased cultural and social interactions, a growing network of multiple players consisting of multinational corporations and transnational organizations.

Is Globalization, neo Imperialism?

Globalization is often critiqued as Americanization given the American domination of world markets, political patronage and media control and now the all-pervasive social media epitomized by Facebook and WhatsApp, again gifts from America. The Macdonaldization of society, a phrase used by Ritzer in 2000, still holds good for aspiring global societies hankering for the Nike shoes, Mac Notebook, and Mac cosmetics like never. This colonization of popular culture is often described as new imperialism that dominates through production of specific images, symbols, representations and language that permeate the cultural realm of all societies that are in the throes of globalization. That practically includes every society in the world today.

Outcomes of the Elective

Given this backdrop, this elective situates India as undergoing a period of extraordinary urban transformation accelerated by the forces of globalization (economic, technological, political and socio-cultural). For the first time in modern Indian history, the rate of urban growth is higher than that of the rural. Material transformations — freeways and tollways, malls and gated communities, changing work patterns and new forms of consumerism are also accompanied by social and cultural changes. What is also of enormous significance is that accelerated urbanism is not just a facet of life in large metropolises. It is also transforming lives in the towns and cities across India beyond those cities that have been the usual focus of scholars of urbanism.

In my next blog, I will discuss how cities respond to the forces of globalization with illustrations and examples from India and the world.

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In a significant announcement Capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has planned to ease its norms for ‘Muni Bonds’ or municipal to help smart cities and other registered entities working in areas of city planning and urban development work to raise funds through issuance and listing of their debt securities

(for details see https://www.livemint.com/market/stock-market-news/sebi-to-relax-norms-to-allow-smart-cities-issue-funds-through-muni-bonds-1565504526844.html).

This move builds on an earlier one five years ago wherein Sebi had issued its Issue and Listing of Debt Securities by Municipalities (ILDM) Regulations wherein seven municipalities had raised nearly ₹1,400 crore by issuing their debt securities. The idea is to allow this route for a larger number of entities including special purpose vehicles/SPVs manning the Smart Cities Mission in India. The new announcement proposes that any entity incorporated under the Companies Act, or any statutory authority or agency established nor notified by an Act of Parliament or an Act of the State Legislature or any SPC notified by the state or central government or any structure set by a state government under the Pooled Finance Development Fund would be eligible to issue Muni Bonds, provided they undertake one or more functions of a municipality.

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India is fast emerging as the global hub of IT and IT enabled services. According to International Data Corporation, a market research firm, India accounts for 10 % of global smartphone sales. App Annie 2016 Retrospective Report states how in recent years India has surpassed US as the second largest smartphone market while also sharply outpacing US in the mobile app market (source: Sinha, Praveer. The New Age Testament-Roti Kapra Makaan and Internet, Guest Column, BW Smart Cities World Feb- March 2018, pp 46). India is increasingly seen as a growing security and surveillance market with varied government departments like the police and traffic management agencies increasingly adopting innovative technologies mainly supplied by global companies. In a recent article in the Economic Times, India ranks number 9 on the IDC-Cisco SMB Digital Maturity Index 2019 (for details Click here). This ranking is based on a survey of Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) across 14 major economies of the region. The article further adds that the Asia Pacific region is digitalising rapidly, driven by improved internet access and growing smartphone ownership. And these open new opportunities for small and medium businesses that can level the playing field and compete with large enterprises.

Digital technologies have also altered the political narrative in India. An article titled Why this is India’s Big Data Election, in the Times of India, 16th April 2019 (for details click here) explains how 2019 Lok Sabha elections is about big data, and its consorts- algorithms , analytics and Artificial Intelligence(AI). They are invisible but everywhere, creating endless patterns of political messaging around by relentlessly tracking and decoding our online activity.

It is true that technology especially digital technologies have significantly altered India’s urban story in many ways. As observed by scholars, the urban turn has already happened in India. It may not be too far- fetched to say that the digital turn has altered geographies and societies with far and wide impacts. Smart City Mission (SCM) in India offers a paradigm shift essentially of technology driven city utopias and imaginations that override the (in)discipline, messiness of existing cities. The deployment of technologies like Artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Robotics, Big Data envision to build smart cities that are governed on the foundation of data constantly collected and run on data driven systems. In the Union budget of 2018, the SCM aims to build 100 smart cities with state of the art amenities like Smart Command and Control centers, solar rooftops, intelligent transport, with focus on automation, quantum communication, IT, Machine learning, AI and Robotics. Technology is aimed to create economic opportunities, enable transparency in governance, institute better delivery systems, better and smarter urban spaces- the ultimate goals of the SCM. Yet tech driven city utopias like the current smart city narrative poses serious challenges, leaves unaddressed gaps and opens new arenas of vulnerabilities and risks. In an article titled The Curse of Artificial Intelligence in the Hindustan Times , 19th April 2019 (for details click here) Vivek Wadhwa refers to the artificial intelligence company, OpenAI, that recently demonstrated a neural network that created news articles so convincing and so capable of emulating human journalists that the organisation fears of its misuse. At the same time, stories about robots stealing our jobs and driverless cars killing humans stoke our fears that an artificial intelligence (AI) apocalypse is high.

Though the forces of globalization, advanced capitalism and new modes of governance have subjected cities quite uniformly, the responses to these forces play out quite differently in varied empirical contexts. Within India itself, the responses of smaller towns and cities are quite different from that of megacities. In a bid to capitalise on their difference and celebrate diversity, globally cities have deployed culture for revitalization, regeneration, branding and tourism. In India these responses became more pronounced in the changed context of 1990s with economic liberalization, satellite television and the Internet. Cities in India are gradually waking up to the importance of branding to attract much needed investments, the importance of culture therein and to capitalise on their place-based cultural identity.

In my latest book Culture, Place, Branding and Activism, I have discussed how these have played out in contemporary Lucknow whether as part of emergence of new spaces as symbolising city-specific culture like the Gomti riverfront, the resurgence of festivals, a thrust on tourism with the institutionalization of the Heritage Arc, or spatial practices like marathons, heritage walks, revival of theatre, street plays, numerous secular festivals around Lucknow’s cultural symbols like the Mango festival, Kabir festival, Lucknow Mahotsav, annual literature festival, revival of lost arts and crafts sometimes driven by citizens, at other times in partnership with city governments and corporate sponsorship. New opportunities in television and films, the spread of theatre, local literature and art through school curriculum, the proliferation of festivals celebrating local culture, the commodification and marketization of culture on a global scale are some of the ways in which place making has taken shape in contemporary Lucknow. Together the presence of multiple, diverse players and parallel trends discussed in this volume have helped resurrect the idea of place in contemporary Lucknow in the face of the homogenizing tendencies of cultural globalization.

Both my books the Divided City and Culture Place Branding and Activism are available at discounted price with acedge.in. that features books on architecture and cities. Follow the link — http://bit.ly/2IEgg9x

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Using the theoretical framework of place through the lens of culture produced in the everyday lives of common people, this blog examines how culture is reproduced in the everyday spatial and social practices that enable place making. The homogenizing tendencies of cultural globalization, rapid urbanization, official apathy pose major challenges to the overcrowded inner cities of India. Through a series of photos from inner-city locations of Lucknow this blog draws attention to the vanishing spaces from the heart of the city that once supplied much-needed ecological support. These include kunds, wells, gardens, indigenous water systems, talabs, small open spaces and neighbourhood parks, and public spaces like yesteryear single screen cinema halls and clubs. Many of these spaces are either reclaimed, put to new use or simply demolished making way for new developments. These also happen to embody the special characteristics that rendered a place-specific character to Lucknow city. Their loss is deeply mourned by the residents who still believe in Lucknow not just as geographical territory but also as an experience. The loss of these places also implies the loss of vital connections with people; their everyday lives constituting social practices, rituals, customs, traditions and the whole gamut of intangible cultural matrix. This is explored through the narratives of the locals that highlight the culture produced in everyday urbanism, render place-based identity to the city and are increasingly at threat of dilution under the homogenizing tendencies of cultural globalisation.

Current official policy and practice emphasizing culture and heritage have done little to valorise the role of everyday dimensions of urbanism and culture or directed little efforts to uphold and conserve them. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the much-needed attention to these aspects of place-based culture, rethink current urban policy and practice capitalizing on culture and address the vital gaps between people and places.

Both my books the Divided City and Culture Place Branding and Activism are available at discounted price with acedge.in. that features books on architecture and cities. Follow the link — http://bit.ly/2IEgg9x

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In my last blog, I discussed the idea of urbanity as an indicator of the quality of urban life. Urbanity entails organic, spontaneous, unexpected, sometimes messy and chaotic quality brought about with the interactions of places and people what makes up the urban experience and help in providing place-based character to the city. In the next four blogs, I will continue this discussion on urbanity with examples and situations from Indian cities.

New scholarly attention to such chaotic and crowded inner city spaces qualifying as living heritage carries a lot of significance for historic cities This blog examines these spaces from the lens of culture-place wherein the idea of a city as an experience assumes significance. The homogenizing tendencies of cultural globalization, rapid urbanization, official apathy pose major challenges to the overcrowded bazaars, ganjs and informal street markets; vanishing spaces like innumerable parks, gardens, open spaces, ecologies like talabs, kunds, wells and the intangible culture that are under threat of rapid dilution. Affective city, as I would label it is the city that we experience through the sounds, smells, social practices, rituals and traditions that constitute everyday urbanism which also qualify as the intangible dimensions of heritage. This cultural matrix gives the city its character and identity, and above all creates a sense of place. Based on ethnographic walks, narratives from a wide range of respondents and visual anthropological methods conducted in the inner city areas of old Lucknow — Aminabad, Chowk, Hussainabad — this blog analyses the present situation in these old parts of the city.

The series of photos below show how culture is produced through the everyday lives of people as witnessed in overcrowded and messy street markets like ganjs and bazaars. Some of these bustling bazaars are characterized by informality — makeshift stalls, temporary arrangements as in the weekly bazaars, Nakhas Bazaar, Aminabad and Gadbadzala, while some markets like those selling brass and copper utensils in Yahiyaganj and selling dairy products in Daliganj have retained their sheen and character even in the face of huge competition from upcoming shopping malls. Presented through a series of photographs and interviews with local people residing in these areas, this blog attempts to capture the constituents that conjure up the unique urban experience of old Lucknow, which many call the real Lucknow.

The series of photographs below collected through fieldwork in old markets of Lucknow sell commodities that symbolize the place-specific culture of Lucknow. These include locally developed perfume (itr), embroidered materials (chikankari and zardozi), toiletries and cosmetics (henna, surma), local snacks, spices, grains and herbs, textiles and fabrics, utensils that are unique to the city and can be found in specific markets of the city. Markets such as Raqabganj and Yayahganj are wholesale markets of food grains like rice and wheat from times immemorial. This section presents those market areas and shops in the inner city of Lucknow that have stood the test of time and remained unaltered till date.

Shop selling cosmetics

Both my books the Divided City and Culture Place Branding and Activism are available at discounted price with acedge.in. that features books on architecture and cities. Follow the link — http://bit.ly/2IEgg9x

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Urbanity results from culture as practised through the everyday urbanism of interactions between people and place. This term is usually understood as characterized by diversity, physically through mixed-use development strategy and sociologically through the cultural matrix that enhances the quality of urban existence.

It brings together strands of thought from urban design and planning like those of Jane Jacobs (1961), Kevin Lynch (1960; 1984), John Montgomery (1995) and John Friedman(1993) and later Bertolini and Salet (2003) who associate diversity with the existence of multiple lifestyles, cultural innovations, contestations and conflict rather than uniformity, stability or order.

Thus density, mixed-use, cultural heterogeneity and permeability are the crucial components of urbanity that make urban spaces liveable and attractive. The concept of urbanity also draws from the classical works of urban sociologists like Georg Simmel and Louis Wirth, who interpret urbanity as a way of life, interwoven with human relations and characterized by three essential features of scale, density and heterogeneity. Urban designers and planners emphasize the legitimate role of physical design strategies to foster urbanity, while urban sociologists underscore the importance of cultural, social and economic drivers.

It is this organic, spontaneous, unexpected, sometimes messy and chaotic quality brought about with the interactions of places and people what makes up the urban experience and help in providing place-based character to the city. Performed repeatedly, these reiterative social practices render the city as a theatre of social life as claimed by Simmel many years ago and maintain safety and social order through what Jacobs describes as eyes on the street. The crucial element is an activity that can glue physical, social, psychological dimensions together, and that produce and mirror quality in the built environment.

As Montgomery points out, “successful places are a combination of three elements: spaces, activities and people” (Montgomery 1995a, 145). In this sense, the intensity and diversity of activities can be seen as a determinant indicator to measure urban quality.

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The Smart city Mission in India was launched in June 2015. Three and half years hence is a good time to consider a midterm status report. A recent article on the current status of smart city projects in India (https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/economy/33-of-5151-smart-city-projects-completed-report-3297981.html) mentioned that only 33 percent of the total 5,151 Smart City Mission projects have been completed or are currently under implementation, utilising around 25 percent of the envisaged investment. According to data presented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to the Lok Sabha referred to in the article around 2,342 projects worth Rs 90,929 crore have been tendered, of which, 1,675 projects worth Rs 51,866 crore are currently being implemented or have been completed. Hence, 3,476 projects have either only been tendered or have not gone through the tendering process. According to the timelines laid out for Smart city projects, it takes around 12–18 months to set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV), procure project management consultants (PMC), hire people for implementation of projects, call tenders and issue work orders. For instance, even in advanced states Karnataka which has an allocated fund of Rs 886 crore from the Centre for implementing the Smart Cities Mission the state has so far spent a mere Rs 86.02 crore which is just 9.70% of total release. Seven cities- Belagavi, Davangere, Hubballi-Dharwad, Shivamogga Tumakuru, Mangaluru, and Bengaluru are selected for development under the Smart Cities Mission.

An article (https://www.deccanherald.com/state/state-far-behind-using-funds-709889.htm) mentions that out of these 7 cities, Davangere and Belagavi were the first two cities selected for the development of smart cities in January 2016. Since then these two cities have been able to utilise only Rs 14.41 crore and Rs 23.63 crore respectively.

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The story is almost the same in other cities as well. For instance, in Kolkata, the East Kolkata Wetlands have given way to rapid urban development as witnessed in new towns and other greenfield development on the eastern side of Kolkata.

Emerging new towns, smart cities and extensions eat away on the ecological commons like wetlands, mangroves, saltpans, forests and water reserves that are crucial for economic production, for providing livelihoods to varied groups and also for the ecological sustainability of the larger adjoining region. Vital ecologies like talabs, kunds, jheels, wells, parks and gardens vanish from the middle of cities making way for new developments with serious implications on questions of sustainability.

According to an old resident in old Lucknow,

“Earlier every house in Lucknow had an individual well. In the absence of tapped water supply from the city municipal authority, these served as the major source of water for the families and neighbourhoods. Besides, old Lucknow had many jheels, tabals, kunds that served as the supporting ecologies. Over time many of these jheels and talabs are either closed, or reclaimed by the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) or simply concretized. For instance, the Kathati and Moti jheel have all been coded and concretised. The wells have transformed into dumping grounds”.

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