Ordinary Cities Flashcards
What is Jennifer Robinson’s argument for studying ordinary cities?
She is critical of the spatial division of academic theories.
-Urban theory development has been hampered for too long by the divison of ‘global cities’ and ‘third world’ cities
-We should assume we can learn from a broad range of different settings.
-Differences across and within cities must be thought of as diversity rather than exemplars of heirarchical division
- We can learn from ordinary cities!!
- Global cities scholarship’s emphasizes a small sector of the global economy, this excludes cities like Lusaka (Zambia) or Kuala Lumpur (malaysia) depite being globally tied.
- The literature reproduces hierarchical relations between cities, some urban places defined as modern while others are in need of development
- Leads to patterns in scholarship (overexamined and underexamined places)
What are the main themes of ordinary cities schoalrship?
How ordinary people survive in changing cities, struggle and resist change they don’t want, and how they are creative, innovative, and resilient despite vast inequity.
Discuss the poor farmers in Cyberabad
In the 1980s, India emerged as a major software development zone, they created many knowledge parks like Cyberabad.
They planned a high-tech, modern city where everyday life of locals was not accounted for. Major land-grabbing and displacement and it was built on the site of 17 villages.
Digital elites (‘Digerati’) sent out eviction notices to illiterate farmers, and the state refused to honour the older land titles. Many farmers lost their lands and livelihoods. Some argued, some refused, but many had to transition to local food and veg stalls, and corner shops, tea shacks.
Often would be shown by police, but many stalls remain as an act of defiance
What is a knowledge park?
high-tech enclaves that are a part of urban development. They accommodate technology and knowledge-based industries.
How is Hyderbad an urban laboratory?
Test ground for government’s economic growth experiences
Intended to showcase Hyderabad as an attractive place for knowledge-based industries
How did the farmers handle the building of Cyberabad?
Many villagers resisted, went through law procedures, or ignored threats, but as they lost their income they needed jobs.
They shifted to tea shacks, local food stalls, etc.
What is the Dabbawala industry?
“ones who carry the box”, a delivery and return systen in Mumbai that delivers hot lunches from homes and restauraunts to people at work
- a 5000-person collective that delivers home-cooked meals and then returns the empty dabbas the same day
- uses self-organized democracy and relies on a system of very basic symbols
How can we learn from Dabbawalas?
Recognized as one of the world’s most efficent logistics system
Many dabbawalas are illerate and manage themselves in a decentralized way. They have an extremely high level of performance at a low, sustainable cost
Ordinary workers can achieve extraordinary results!
Who are the Mourides?
Muslim sect originating in Senegal that followed Amadou Bamba
“Follow God, work, and provoke no one”
1/3 of the 11 Million Senegalese are Mourides
What is the informal banking system of the Mourides?
Mourides do not use banks or other economic institutions. They have a simple trust-based money transfer system that is all done over the phone.
If a Mouride trader needs goods, ge calls a fellow trader in Dubai and orders them. the money is paid in Touba to trader’s family
What is Islamic banking?
Sharia-compliant finance: complies with Sharia and its practical application through the development of Islamic economcis
Prohibits unethical or immoral monetary loans that enrich the lenders and investment in haram goods (alcohol, pork, etc)
What is Sharia?
Prohibits the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that enrich the lender
defined as interest paid on all loans of money
Investment in businesses that provide goods or services considered contrary to Islamic principles
How did Malaysia pioneer islamic fianance in the 1980s?
The first Islamic bank in Malaysia was established in 1983, and now 16 Malaysian banks offer Islamic products
How has used clothing become a commodity in Zambia?
Donated second-hand clothes from the West are sent to Africa. This has destroyed the textile industry in Zambia, DRC, and more countries.
Now Kantamanto Market in Ghana’s capital, Accra, is West Africa’s hub fro used clothing from the west. Zambia has started to use the clothing in art and fashion .
How have other African countries dealt with this issue?
Rwanda banned the impoirt of secondhand clothing from Western countries to foster the domestic clothes industry, preserve dignity, and prevent unusable clothing entering landfills
What are some of the consequences of the excess amount of clothing being sent to Africa?
- Destroyed textile industry
- polluting bodies of water, ecosystems, etc.
- 40% of products are discarded due to poor quality
