Shedding light on social and economic changes in small towns through the prism of local governance: A case study of Haryana

Abstract

This chapter deals with local governance in small towns. A first objective is expand the existing work on the role and functions of the elected representatives and their relationship with higher levels of government and the bureaucracy. I argue that one main lessons to be drawn is the position (in their practices and in their perceptions) of councillors who are at times part of the state and at other times outside the state. Secondly, though a number of studies have looked at the profile of councillors, they have focused on their individual characteristics, or at best on the family unit, in the case of women. In this research, elected representatives are examined as members of various family, caste and professional networks that shape their “positional space”. By mapping their social surface, I try to understand further where their power is located in formal and informal structures of governance. Thirdly, I argue that despite being a weak locus of power, the comparative study of urban local bodies constitutes, in itself, a research site that opens up the complex stakes that are played out in small towns on particular issues, specifically the reconfiguration of power relations and economic shifts that are partly the result of their urbanisation process.