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Contesting access to power in urban Pakistan

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  • Ijlal Naqvi

Abstract

Studies of informal housing and urban citizenship in South Asia frequently link the precariousness of squatter life with the struggle to formalise engagement with the state. However, this article argues that the transition to a more formal mode of making claims on the state is a shift in terrain that is no less negotiated and contested. Through an ethnography of access to electrical power in Islamabad, Pakistan, this article explores the pervasiveness of informality in access to service delivery for a squatter settlement and its bourgeois neighbours. The politics of access to urban infrastructure reveal a state of pervasive predation and a collective imaginary which puts little credence in formality.

Suggested Citation

  • Ijlal Naqvi, 2018. "Contesting access to power in urban Pakistan," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(6), pages 1242-1256, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:55:y:2018:i:6:p:1242-1256
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098017705600
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    5. Malini Ranganathan, 2014. "Paying for Pipes, Claiming Citizenship: Political Agency and Water Reforms at the Urban Periphery," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 590-608, March.
    6. Solomon Benjamin, 2008. "Occupancy Urbanism: Radicalizing Politics and Economy beyond Policy and Programs," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 719-729, September.
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