Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Who's Participation? Who's Sustainability? A Critical Analysis of Initiatives for Urban Sustainability in India

2011; Taylor & Francis; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14702541.2011.616863

1751-665X

Rowan Ellis,

Geographies of human-animal interactions

Abstract Abstract This paper considers urban environmental sustainability in cities of the global South. Drawing on the insights of urban political ecology and a critique of participatory development, the author argues that environmental sustainability initiatives mask the political economy of environmental injustice and uneven urban development. This argument is fleshed out through a case study of the Adyar Poonga river restoration project in Chennai, India. The case study highlights two key dimensions of what is termed the 'depoliticisation' of the production of urban nature. First, the political conflicts that surround urban environmental projects are neutralized through a definition of sustainability that is primarily concerned with making environmentalism and economic development compatible. Second, conflicts surrounding urban environments are ostensibly 'depoliticized' through highly selective practices of 'participation'. Generalized in this way, the discourse and practice of participation gloss over the power asymmetries that characterize the civic sphere in urban India. As environmental best practice is being actively formulated and replicated through projects like the Adyar Poonga, it becomes ever more urgent, to interrogate the mechanisms of political inclusions/exclusion and to question who benefits from urban environmental change. Key Words: participationpolitical-ecologysustainabilityurbanIndia Notes For examples of urban sustainability in diverse Southern cities see: Cohen 2006 Cohen, B. 2006. Urbanization in developing countries: current trends, future projections, and key challenges for sustainability. Technology in Society, 28(1–2): 63–80. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Jenks and Burgess, 2000 Jenks, M. and Burgess, R. 2000. Compact Cities: Sustainableurban Forms for Developing Countries, London: E. & F.N. Spon. [Google Scholar]; Wheeler & Beatley 2004. For example both Ahmedabad and Mumbai have initiated large scale Sustainable Urban Transport Projects; Chennai's Mayor launched the Sustainable Chennai initiative in 1996; Hyderabad's Mega-City Project seeks to meet the objective of sustainability through institutional and governance reforms; and UN-HABITAT has launched the Sustainable Cities Project in two cities in Maharashtra, Panvel and Virar; Delhi launched its Conserve Delhi program in 2010. Poonga is the Tamil word for 'park'. For example, Cleaver argues that "institutional inclusion has become an integral strand of participatory approaches", but this tends to exclude families, special interest groups, or collectives, institutions perceived as more 'traditional', informal, and thereby weak (1999, 601). But this preference for institutions has come at the cost of recognizing the input and potential of other institutional and informal social structures to foster meaningful participation (Nair, 2006; Cleaver, 1999 Cleaver, F. 1999. Paradoxes of participation: questioning participatory approaches to development'. Journal of International Development, 11: 597–612. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Through her work in Tanzania, for instance, Cleaver (2001 Cleaver, F. 2001. "Institutions, agency and the limitations of participatory approaches to development". In Participation: The New Tyranny?, Edited by: Cooke, B. and Kothari, U. 36–55. London: Zed Books. [Google Scholar]) shows how the maintenance of village wells was organized around various relationships of trust and shared responsibility for a community asset. Participation based on these more everyday forms of sociality is likely to bring wholly different strategies, objectives, and priorities to bear on sustainable development.