From production to consumption/mills to malls: the changing cityscape of Mumbai

The new economy of the globalized world has had profound impact on urban spaces. Consumption has been the driving force in the economy of the cities. Liberalization, along with new technologies, has affected urban lifestyles and social inequality has sharpened. Dramatic changes have been taking place in the urban landscape triggering debates and conflicts around the use of urban space.

While many classical sociologists had envisaged the city as an arena of freedom, and diversity, in India we have witnessed the rise of nativist movement in the cosmopolitan mega city of Mumbai. The city, which was the outcome of ‘implosion’ of heterogeneous people and their skills, now claims homogeneity as its essential attribute. Political groups have claimed the city to be belonging to certain ethnic group. Apart from this rhetoric of political homogeneity there has been steps through urban planning that creates a divided city in a different sense. We will be discussing a paper by R. N. Sharma where the author focuses on urban renewal in Mumbai. It shows how the urban renewal programme is wary of diversity and employs different means to create homogeneous enclaves and gated-communities.