Rescaling urban governance: an assessment of special-purpose vehicles in India

Abstract

ABSTRACT While changes in governance and ownership patterns of urban infrastructure in the light of capital expansion remain a worldwide phenomenon, the processes underlying the governance changes and their impact are still under-researched. This paper addresses this gap in knowledge by drawing on empirical case studies of two urban development projects in India. The study uses the conceptual framework of state spatial rescaling to examine the impact of the emergence of new institutional configurations within the urban governance sphere, such as special-purpose vehicles (SPVs). Through an in-depth investigation of the role of SPVs in facilitating urban development projects in Indian cities, the paper argues that the entrenchment of the institutional mechanism of SPVs within the urban governance sphere results in new modes of urban planning, the alteration of existing power hierarchies within the urban governance sphere as well as forging of links across geographical locales. The findings of the study imply that SPVs in their current form denote a top-down process of urban planning that risks democratic mechanisms associated with urban governance. The study contributes to the growing academic literature that discusses how urban mega-projects in the course of their development are restructuring the urban political and economic landscape.