Housing and politics in urban India : opportunities and contention

"Providing adequate housing in an increasingly urbanized world is a major challenge in current times. Housing and Politics in Urban India puts together a compelling story based on fine-grained analysis of housing processes, as lived by slum-dwellers and their voice-bearers. It situates the lived experience of claiming adequate housing within informal transactions and negotiations of patronage networks vis-à-vis the formal institutional opportunities and closures of Indian democracy. In doing so, it extends an innovative array of conceptual and methodological tools to grasp the context in which housing claims succeed and fail. This book contributes by responding to critical areas of social movement scholarship and by displaying community engagements and tactical strategies to bring about transformative change to claim adequate housing and resist co-opting forces for socially sustainable housing futures. The book attempts to map India's political opportunities and closures for claim making in general and housing grievances in particular. It offers a comprehensive insight into community processes and the imbricated worlds of formal policy prescription, implementation, and informal practices of negotiation and political loyalties that affect housing provisions for the urban poor."