Entitled urbanism: Elite informality and the reimagining of a planned modern city

Abstract

This article traces a history of an elite yet informal neighbourhood of Bani Gala in the planned modern city of Islamabad in Pakistan. By focusing on the role of elite homebuilders in the informal development of Bani Gala, this study expands on recent scholarship on urban informality that recognises the participation of the urban elite in informal spatial practices, traditionally associated with the urban poor. This article highlights the contentious nature of elite informal urbanism in Bani Gala as its privileged residents mobilised their networks of personal resources and political connections, developed incongruous alliances, and mimicked bureaucratic devices to ultimately legitimise their illegal building activities through court decisions. An analysis of the changes in the zoning regulations of Islamabad following the court orders on Bani Gala shows how its elite residents were not only able to re-imagine a planned modern space differently from its official conception but were also able to initiate a process that instituted major structural changes to the overall planning framework of the city. The history of Bani Gala as an elite informal neighbourhood, thus, emerges as an important episode in the history of Islamabad as a comprehensively planned city and points to a new form of entitled urbanism rooted in decidedly informal origins.

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