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‘Clean’ Infrastructures and Urban Aesthetics: A case study of Railway Stations in India
Topics: Urban Geography
, Political Geography
, Socialist and Critical Geographies
Keywords: Cleanliness, Indian Railways, Urban Infrastructure, Caste, Waste. Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract Day: Sunday Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) Room: Virtual 8
Authors:
Pallavi Gupta, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Abstract
Clean India campaign was launched in 2014 and is now in its second phase. Using a case study of the Indian Railways and taking into account the ‘infrastructural turn’ within geography, this paper addresses the work that is involved in the production of clean infrastructure. Engaging with various ways in which infrastructure gains prominence and gets tied it to questions of aesthetics, visibility, and value, this paper examines urban policy’s focus on cleanliness that is equated with ‘progress’, ‘modernity’ and citizenship. Using data from ethnographic fieldwork and analysis of pertinent policy documents, this paper aims to delineate how different actors articulate and imagine ‘clean’ infrastructures of railway stations across space and time.
‘Clean’ Infrastructures and Urban Aesthetics: A case study of Railway Stations in India