Made in Mumbai - an actor network perspective on the urban form of manufacturing industries in Mumbai and the narrative of loss

Abstract

The international literature on the development of the postmodern city has focused on spaces that create a divide between the haves and the have-nots of society. Such spaces would actively be created by the urban elite, and the underprivileged in the city are pushed out of such spaces and in to marginalized spaces. This study has focused on the question whether it is really this mechanism behind the recent developments in cities. An empirical study of the city Mumbai in India could show that this theory is not accurate enough. Using a relational perspective on space and society by applying the Actor Network theory has shown the real actors, institutions and things that have influenced the reassembling of spaces in the urban form of Mumbai. Marginalized groups do not always loose, but have means to contest developments, and the role of very local things, institutions and actors in space is much bigger than that of neo-liberal globalizing developments.