Politics of Urban Space: Rethinking Urban Inclusion and the Right to the City

Urbanization and an increasing urban population have directly resulted in the shrinkage of urban spaces across cities, which compel us to look at space not from a demographic but social and political perspective and how it has affected the lives of the urban poor and urban livelihoods in the informal settlements of cities. This paper examines how urban space has become very contentious in the cities of Mumbai and Chennai and highlights how inequalities are produced, reproduced and contested through urban space. The primary focus is upon the manner in which space in Kurla, Mumbai, and Kannagi Nagar, Chennai, is created and contested. The paper argues that central to the understanding of space is the need to shift attention from the needs of the poor to the rights of the citizens, through the right to the city discourse and practice as this provides the foundation for the evolving discourse of an inclusive and just urban citizenship.