Abstract
The paper aims to reveal the politics of urban governance and the associated impact on the lives of disenfranchised migrants. It critically explores the urban governance structure and the nature of practices involved in the cycle of settlement, eviction, resistance and resettlement. The case of Nonadanga, located at the urban margin of Kolkata, India, was explored for this purpose. An ethnographic methodology comprising observation, semi-structured interviews and oral history was adopted for the research. Twelve squatter dwellers and four experts working in Nonadanga and Kolkata were interviewed for this purpose. A three-step data analysis comprising a narrative approach, thematic network analysis and validation was adopted. A critical review of inclusive practices, together with ethnographic survey findings, demonstrates that migrants live in a condition the paper calls “partial rights”, which is a manifestation of the dialectics of inclusiveness practiced by the urban governance structure and derived from the interaction between urban governance structure and migrants’ agency. By analyzing past development trends, the paper outlines possible future scenarios for migrants’ living conditions and discusses their impact on achieving the targeted Sustainable Development Goal 11 for inclusive cities by 2030.
Highlights
Global challenges such as climate change, migration, security and a more fragile and fluctuating global economy have created greater demands on the services required from sub-national and local government, the key executors of ground-level policies and strategies
This paper aims to answer, first, how the urban governance practices of Kolkata affect inclusiveness and the quality of life of poor urban migrants in Nondanga and, second, 4.0/)
Analysis of the data shows that there exist wide-scale contradictions in the practices of urban governance in Nonadanga compared with the universal goal of inclusiveness in Kolkata
Summary
Global challenges such as climate change, migration, security and a more fragile and fluctuating global economy have created greater demands on the services required from sub-national and local government, the key executors of ground-level policies and strategies. Urban governance constraints around fiscal and autonomy in decision making [1,2,3,4] have resulted in massive exploitation and corruption at the local level. The future shape of cities is impacted by local urban governance that extends beyond the policies, rules and regulations to everyday interactions and negotiations, resistance and compliance between the governed and the actors in the urban governance structure [5,6,7,8,9,10]. This paper aims to answer, first, how the urban governance practices of Kolkata affect inclusiveness and the quality of life of poor urban migrants in Nondanga and, second, 4.0/)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
