IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/89699.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The urban village, agrarian transformation, and rentier capitalism in Gurgaon, India

Author

Listed:
  • Cowan, Thomas

Abstract

Gurgaon, India's “millennium city”, is today synonymous with India's embrace of global real estate capital and private sector‐led urban development. This paper asserts that Gurgaon's spectacular urbanisation has been fundamentally underpinned by an uneven process of land acquisition, exemption and agrarian transformation. Shifting away from dispossession‐centred analyses of contemporary urbanisation in India, this paper explores Gurgaon's “urban villages” to consider the uneven integration of agrarian classes into emerging urban real estate markets. Through an examination of differential experiences of land acquisition and agrarian social change among Gurgaon's landowning classes, the paper seeks to trace complex and nonlinear processes of agrarian transformation which make possible landscapes of global accumulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Cowan, Thomas, 2018. "The urban village, agrarian transformation, and rentier capitalism in Gurgaon, India," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 89699, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:89699
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/89699/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gavin Shatkin, 2014. "Contesting the Indian City: Global Visions and the Politics of the Local," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(1), pages 1-13, January.
    2. Neil Brenner & Christian Schmid, 2014. "The ‘Urban Age’ in Question," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 731-755, May.
    3. Harvey, David, 2005. "The New Imperialism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199278084.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. D. Asher Ghertner, 2020. "Lively Lands: The Spatial Reproduction Squeeze and the Failure of the Urban Imaginary," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 561-581, July.
    2. Smriti Singh, 2024. "SOCIOSPATIAL FORMATION OF MIDDLE‐CLASS DISTINCTION: The Educated Middle Classes in Neo‐urban India," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 386-402, May.
    3. Michael Goldman, 2023. "Speculative urbanism and the urban-financial conjuncture: Interrogating the afterlives of the financial crisis," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(2), pages 367-387, March.
    4. Meher Bhagia & Mallika Bose, 2024. "Who owns the city? Neoliberal urbanism and land purchases in Gurgaon, India," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(3), pages 445-461, February.
    5. Rajorshi Ray & Jillet Sarah Sam, 2023. "Off-platform Social Networks and Gig Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic in India," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 18(3), pages 359-382, December.
    6. Aditya Ray, 2020. "IT-Oriented Infrastructural Development, Urban Co-Dependencies, and the Reconfiguration of Everyday Politics in Pune, India," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 371-383.
    7. Choithani, Chetan & van Duijne, Robbin Jan & Nijman, Jan, 2021. "Changing livelihoods at India’s rural–urban transition," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    8. Devra Waldman, 2022. "AIMING FOR THE ‘GREEN’: (Post)Colonial and Aesthetic Politics in the Design of a Purified Gated Environment," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(2), pages 235-252, March.
    9. Alessandra Mezzadri & Kaustav Banerjee, 2021. "The afterlife of industrial work: Urban-to-rural labour transitions from the factory to the informal economy," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-158, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Thomas Cowan, 2021. "UNCERTAIN GROUNDS: Cartographic Negotiation and Digitized Property on the Urban Frontier," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(3), pages 442-457, May.
    11. Michael Schwind & Uwe Altrock, 2023. "Negotiating Land in Rurban Bengaluru, South India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-17, February.
    12. Ajay Kumar Gautam, 2024. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Petty Landlords in Delhi, India: Caste, Gender and Urban Villages," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 67(4), pages 1159-1175, December.
    13. Randy K Lippert & Debra Mackinnon & Stefan Treffers, 2024. "The new private urban governance: Vestiges, ventures and visibility," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(14), pages 2673-2685, November.
    14. Paula Meth & Tom Goodfellow & Alison Todes & Sarah Charlton, 2021. "Conceptualizing African Urban Peripheries," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(6), pages 985-1007, November.
    15. Minati Dash, 2020. "Our Place In The Future: An Exploration Of Chalaki Among Young Men Dispossessed By A Mining Project," IEG Working Papers 392, Institute of Economic Growth.
    16. Vinay Gidwani & Carol Upadhya, 2023. "Articulation work: Value chains of land assembly and real estate development on a peri-urban frontier," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(2), pages 407-427, March.
    17. Aditya Ray, 2020. "IT-Oriented Infrastructural Development, Urban Co-Dependencies, and the Reconfiguration of Everyday Politics in Pune, India," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 371-383.
    18. Lalitha Kamath & Malay Kotal, 2023. "SPOTLIGHTING MIGRANT AGENCY: How Migratory Movements and Temporariness Drive Peripheral Urbanization in Mumbai's Agrarian‐urban Edge," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 71-89, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carol Upadhya, 2017. "Amaravati and the New Andhra," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 12(2), pages 177-202, August.
    2. Nikita Sud, 2020. "The Unfixed State of Unfixed Land," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 51(5), pages 1175-1198, September.
    3. Geert De Neve, 2015. "Predatory Property," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 10(3), pages 345-368, December.
    4. Austin Dziwornu Ablo & Bjørn Enge Bertelsen, 2022. "A SHADOWY ‘CITY OF LIGHT’: Private Urbanism, Large‐Scale Land Acquisition and Dispossession in Ghana," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 370-386, May.
    5. Jim Glassman, 2018. "Geopolitical economies of development and democratization in East Asia: Themes, concepts, and geographies," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(2), pages 407-415, March.
    6. Gore, Radhika, 2021. "Ensuring the ordinary: Politics and public service in municipal primary care in India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    7. Patricia M Martin, 2005. "Comparative Topographies of Neoliberalism in Mexico," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(2), pages 203-220, February.
    8. Helga Leitner & Eric Sheppard, 2018. "From Kampungs to Condos? Contested accumulations through displacement in Jakarta," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(2), pages 437-456, March.
    9. Rajani Naidoo, 2011. "Rethinking Development: Higher Education and the New Imperialism," Chapters, in: Roger King & Simon Marginson & Rajani Naidoo (ed.), Handbook on Globalization and Higher Education, chapter 3, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Ahmed, Abubakari & Kuusaana, Elias Danyi & Gasparatos, Alexandros, 2018. "The role of chiefs in large-scale land acquisitions for jatropha production in Ghana: insights from agrarian political economy," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 570-582.
    11. Hillary Angelo & David Wachsmuth, 2015. "Urbanizing Urban Political Ecology: A Critique of Methodological Cityism," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 16-27, January.
    12. Chavers, Monyai & Tekola, Sarra & Carroo, Winston & Sherrod, Mikhiela & Shange, Raymon, 2021. "The Intersectionality of Racism, Globalization, Climate Change, and Forced Migration," Professional Agricultural Workers Journal (PAWJ), Professional Agricultural Workers Conference, vol. 8(01), October.
    13. Knudsen, Daniel C. & Rickly, Jillian M. & Vidon, Elizabeth S., 2016. "The fantasy of authenticity: Touring with Lacan," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 33-45.
    14. George Stathakis, 2008. "Imperialism: Old and New Theories," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH), Kavala Campus, Greece, vol. 1(1), pages 100-124, April.
    15. Sarah Ryser, 2019. "The Anti-Politics Machine of Green Energy Development: The Moroccan Solar Project in Ouarzazate and Its Impact on Gendered Local Communities," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-21, June.
    16. Ross Beveridge & Philippe Koch, 2017. "The post-political trap? Reflections on politics, agency and the city," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(1), pages 31-43, January.
    17. Ramón E. López, 2020. "Economics and Politics: A Unifying Framework," Working Papers wp496, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    18. Beatriz Bustos, 2015. "Moving on? Neoliberal continuities through crisis: the case of the Chilean salmon industry and the ISA virus," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 33(6), pages 1361-1375, December.
    19. Bradley R Wilson, 2013. "Breaking the Chains: Coffee, Crisis, and Farmworker Struggle in Nicaragua," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(11), pages 2592-2609, November.
    20. David Cassass, 2013. "Adam Smith's Republican Moment: Lessons for Today's Emancipatory Thought," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 2(2), pages 1-1, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    India; accumulation by dispossession; urban studies; agrarian transitions; urban villages; articulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:89699. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.