First and Second Authors’ Affiliation: Department of Political Science, Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi.

Abstract: Instead of looking at slums as strictly ‘urban problems’ requiring ‘urban solutions’, this paper attempts to build a structural link between growth of slums in urban areas and, what can be called, the ‘decay’ of the rural in India. It contends that uneven development of Indian cities with great spatial disparities – made evident by increasing number of slums – is related to uneven development between rural and urban areas. Thus, in order to grapple with the ‘enigma’ of slums, the political economy of rural areas – from where the migrants living in slums ‘originally’ belong – becomes the essential site to engage with. The paper foregrounds the need to study transformations in the rural domain in order to make sense of the growth of slums in cities. In a nutshell, the argument is that the ‘decay’ of the rural and the ‘swelling’ of the city are to be visualised in hyphenated terms since the rural-urban divide is at the heart of the ‘great urban divide’.

Keywords: city-centrism, development discourse, slums, structural transformation, urbanisation.

First received on: 23/01/18.

How to Cite:

MPA:
Dhanda, Praveen and Shruti Dubey. "Analysing the Great Urban Divide: Turning the Lens to Rural to Understand Slums". Journal of Innovation for Inclusive Development 3.1 (2018): 15-25.

APA:
Dhanda, P. & Dubey, S. (2018). Analysing the Great Urban Divide: Turning the Lens to Rural to Understand Slums. Journal of Innovation for Inclusive Development, 3(1), 15-25.

Chicago:
Dhanda, Praveen and Shruti Dubey. "Analysing the Great Urban Divide: Turning the Lens to Rural to Understand Slums". Journal of Innovation for Inclusive Development 3, no. 1, (2018): 15-25.

Harvard:
Dhanda, P, Dubey, S. 2018. Analysing the Great Urban Divide: Turning the Lens to Rural to Understand Slums. Journal of Innovation for Inclusive Development, 3(1), pp. 15-25.

Vancouver:
Dhanda P., Dubey S. Analysing the Great Urban Divide: Turning the Lens to Rural to Understand Slums. Journal of Innovation for Inclusive Development. 2018; 3(1):15-25.

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