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SUMMARY:‘We are tax-paying citizens\, we deserve attention’: Karachi
 ’s upper-middle class and the politics of governance - Dr Sobia Ahmad Ka
 ker\, Goldsmiths: University of London
DTSTART:20180613T120000Z
DTEND:20180613T130000Z
UID:TALK105781@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Charlotte Lemanski
DESCRIPTION:This paper presents a particular moment of infrastructural col
 lapse in Karachi to trace the emergent relations of governance between the
  city government and the residents of Clifton Block 7\, an upper middle-cl
 ass neighborhood in Karachi. By elaborating how the monsoon rains in 2009 
 became a catalyst for civic and political engagement for a particular grou
 p of people who had historically remained aloof from the public sphere\, I
  will highlight how a moment of crisis became a transformative moment for 
 participatory governance. Reading the event in relation to a wider politic
 s of infrastructural development in Karachi\, I argue that Block 7 residen
 ts sought inspiration from the poorer urban counterparts in negotiating a 
 realm of governance that was clearly contested\, contingent\, and politica
 l. They successfully operationalized a rights-based discourse to seek poli
 tical patronage from the city government\, and in doing so were able to tr
 ansform their neighborhood into an exclusive\, secure enclave that was gov
 erned through an informal participatory arrangement. Through the case stud
 y of Clifton Block 7\, I will build on scholarship which argues to disrupt
  neatly delineated concepts of insurgency\, informality\, and civil societ
 y/political society\, (Coelho and Venkat\, 2009\; Lemanski and Lama-Rewal\
 , 2013\; Roy\, 2009\; McFarlane\, 2012). I will argue that in Karachi’s 
 context\, an environment of perpetual uncertainty\, insecurity\, and excep
 tion is productive of a form of governance that is predicated on ambiguity
 . Such forms of governance exacerbate existing socio-material inequalities
  in an already divided and contested megacity.
LOCATION:Hardy Building (Downing Site) Room 101
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