Representations Of, The "Poor" and "Pro-Poor" Concerns That Happen Within The

As the first experiments in Local Area Planning and participatory planning as well as
politicizing and activism in wider access to transport and improved mobility

happens in Delhi, it is our thesis that engaging and leveraging the concerns of the
working class/poor in a neo liberal market society critically depends on engaging
the middle class and making sure pro-poor concerns are not only represented
but driven strongly in any participatory planning schema. Theory related to
participatory planning from communicative action to cross acceptance to the
experiences of new urbanism seem to suggest that the essence of participatory
planning is that it is in the very engagement between communities/classes( poor &
middle class), the state ( corporation, ward) and the planning professional that a
community( and thereby shared values) is created and urbanism generated.
However as Appadurai argues, the values that are generated in Indias new neo
liberal societal condition are no longer merely state driven but by a complex set of
forces that include film, news and print media, urban politics, NGO activism and so
on. And in this complex equation the middle class stakeholder holds significant
influence if not control on these forces, even if it is by merely being the major
consumer who drives market demand.
However, the approach of critical urban theory towards this condition seems to be
to highlight and politicize the middle classs uninformed and misdirected aspirations
for world class cities and neighborhoods and their role in the rule by aesthetics.
And although this politicization is important, it is our contention that for the planner
engaged in a participatory process, cannot merely be a critical urban theorist
politicizing these hegemonic relationships and inequalities if she is to have any
agency in creating tangible even if incremental progress towards equality and
access in the built environment.
What is the role of the planner then in the LAP the core of which is the participatory
process?
The fact that the planner can never fully be an impartial rational technocrat, either
between the state and various classes/communities or between various
communities themselves as they attempt to negotiate and come to decisions on
values in participatory planning is clear from the critiques of the modernist
paradigm in planning. It then seems that the planning professional in India is to be
something of an advocative planner cognizant if not overtly pushing the concerns
of the working class even as he negotiates between the poor and the upper classes
as well as between the state, the middle class and the poor.
But can the planner represent or speak for the subaltern at all- whether it is to
the state or the middle class? Or does she provide him/her/them merely with a
platform to speak and be heard? Our proposal is based on the argument that it is
critical to be cognizant of the various types of engagements with and
representations of, the poor and pro- poor concerns that happen within the
planners ambit in urban projects that attempt( or intend) to engage, be inclusive

and work for the widest social strata.
Therefore this CASE proposal intends to study the emerging experiments of Local
Area Planning in Delhi, specifically focusing on the role of the planner in the
participatory mechanisms which is arguably at the core of its attempt to be a
context and people specific, bottom up alternative to the master plan. Within this
framework, the research focuses on the issue of how the concerns of the working
class/poor are represented, resisted or managed in what are typically middle class
forums whether it be a participatory workshop ,a news ( print or television) media
discussion. an awareness campaign/event for non- motorized transit or even an
LAP exercise in an urban design program. The CASE intends to narrow these
concerns again on the representations of the poor and pro poor concerns on issues
of mobility and access to the poor through the following projects.
Aap Ki Sadak: Description. Critical Points: First participatory exercise of its kind in
Delhi which brought together Shakti an internationally funded NGO, Architects,
planners and a perceived middle class dominated community.
Delhi BRT Project: Description
Critical Points: A project conceived and designed by IIT Delhi (trusted as the
guardians of the scientific/rationa/technicall manner/method) which resulted in
the creation of infrastructure for wider access to mobility, including not just the BRT
system itself but cycle tracks and sidewalks, but became controversial on account
of reducing lane width of private vehicles. A case which became the center of
significant media discourse, involving the legal system as well as politics and is now
all but disowned by the state on account of middle class hostility towards the
project.
Raahgiri: Description
Critical Points: organized largely by NGO activism, arguably successful in bringing
the middle class in large numbers and foregrounding the quite un sensational
issue of NMT to middle class consciousness.
The research will consist of interviewing the major participants ( planners, NGO
activists, corporators, RWA leaders)and examining the recorded archives of the
workshops conducted for Aap Ki Sadak. The focus is on how the working class
community (xxxxx) concerns are characterized by these actors and how according
to them they were managaed or accommodated.
In the case of the Delhi BRT, the research will consist of examining the discourse in
the print media from its initial reports to the controversy to its present status, as
well as the concerns and studies that resulted in the initiation and design of the
project. The focus in this component will also be on the representations of the nonvehicle owner, the every day cyclist and the working class.
In the case of Raahgiri in addition to studying also the research will study the
participation of the poor/ working class in its events and also the representations
among the organizers, key civil society activists/participants and the traffic police of
what the intentions/implications/results of this program is.
The study will culminate in a report that through the specific experience of the
above projects tries to catalog the representations of the poor and pro poor
concerns by 1)planners, 2) activists and NGOs, 3) Governmental agencies/players,
4) major community players and study how these representations influence the
way, 1) communities engage with each other, 2) the state engages with various
communities as an arbitrator of the public good. The study will not assume to
know the correct representation but is interested only in how particular
types/modes of representations result in particular forms of negotiations or
engagements.

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As the first experiments in Local Area Planning and participatory planning as well as

politicizing and activism in wider access to transport and improved mobility

planners ambit in urban projects that attempt( or intend) to engage, be inclusive

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