Concrete geographies

Abstract

Through a focus on the concrete geographies of transport infrastructure in contemporary Mumbai, this paper develops a critical engagement with assemblage theory and the global city. It details how international consultants, contractors, investors and investment, as well as materials, techniques and technologies, have helped sustain and strengthen Mumbai's relations, associations and flows of global reach. In so doing, it demonstrates how ‘global city-ness’ is generated and articulated through diverse human and non-human components. However, the paper argues this exploration of socio-material assemblages needs to be combined with an analytical probing of the comparative imaginations, discursive categories, elite coalitions and uneven geographies involved. By drawing on post-structuralist theories of globalisation while emphasising the practices, visions and agendas of specific social groups in Mumbai, the paper aims not only to provoke new empirically grounded dialogue between assemblage thinking and critical urbanism, but also to encourage alternative ways of imagining and planning the global city.