Spatial adhocism of the urban territory: sketches from a squatter settlement in Kolkata

Abstract

Urban margins in the postcolonial context represent a specific form of urban territory in which the state maintains heterogeneous relationships with the political society. I define these relationships as spatial adhocism, quasi-permanent arrangements where the legality of space and rights are ambivalent. This paper elucidates this framework by drawing on the ethnographic study of eviction in squatter settlements of Salt Lake, Kolkata. The ethnography shows that the political society and the state enter a condition of ongoing temporary occupation to practice various forms of conflict politics with each other. These practices are ad hoc because they manifest spatially in semi-permanent ways. Furthermore, the paper highlights two purposes that spatial adhocism serves. On the one hand, it enables the state to accumulate capital subtly and promotes a selective allowance of rights for the political society. On the other hand, it allows political society to counter certain state practices by resisting eviction. The paper also argues how urban territories can be theorised as heterogeneous relationships between the postcolonial state and political society. In doing so, this paper offers an alternative framework to understand territory through the concept of spatial adhocism, thus establishing how urban territory is an incomplete category.

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