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Chennai’s Peri-urban

Chennai’s Peri-urban Peri-urban areas such as those of Chennai, once characterized as rural, have transformed into places of luxurious living and globally invested special economic zones (SEZs). This industrial region includes Tamil Nadu’s State Industrial Promotion Corporation (SIPCOT) SEZs, which house global firms. Such investments have spurred publicly funded mega infrastructure projects such as expressways connecting to existing and new ports, all facilitated by land acquisition for ‘public purpose’. An important dynamic relates to the variety of players in the residential real estate market—ranging from low-income workers to mid-level executives. This peri-urban region’s connection to Chennai’s city centre happens not just via these globally oriented investments but also when natural resources, mainly water, are exploited for urban needs—supplied to Chennai city and also particular locations in its peri-urban region. Other locations in these peri-urban areas have transformed into dumping yards for Chennai’s wastes. Such environmental degradation shows how peri-urban areas are subjected to multiple processes and their dynamics cannot be captured through a single phenomenon. To theorize this situation, this work explores circuits of capital through ethnographic fieldwork. It argues that peri-urban areas of Asian metro cities like Chennai are sites of accumulation of capital whose exploitation for urban need extends to environmental degradation in complex ways. Such a joint conceptualization of environment and urbanization in urban peripheries is witnessed in other centres of the global North and South such as in Mexico City and Ho Chi Minh City, and within Indian cities as well. This points to a wider applicability of the concepts explored here. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Environment and Urbanization ASIA SAGE

Chennai’s Peri-urban

Gajendran, V.
Environment and Urbanization ASIA , Volume 7 (1): 19 – Mar 1, 2016
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Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© 2016 National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA)
ISSN
0975-4253
eISSN
0976-3546
DOI
10.1177/0975425315619049
Publisher site
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Abstract

Peri-urban areas such as those of Chennai, once characterized as rural, have transformed into places of luxurious living and globally invested special economic zones (SEZs). This industrial region includes Tamil Nadu’s State Industrial Promotion Corporation (SIPCOT) SEZs, which house global firms. Such investments have spurred publicly funded mega infrastructure projects such as expressways connecting to existing and new ports, all facilitated by land acquisition for ‘public purpose’. An important dynamic relates to the variety of players in the residential real estate market—ranging from low-income workers to mid-level executives. This peri-urban region’s connection to Chennai’s city centre happens not just via these globally oriented investments but also when natural resources, mainly water, are exploited for urban needs—supplied to Chennai city and also particular locations in its peri-urban region. Other locations in these peri-urban areas have transformed into dumping yards for Chennai’s wastes. Such environmental degradation shows how peri-urban areas are subjected to multiple processes and their dynamics cannot be captured through a single phenomenon. To theorize this situation, this work explores circuits of capital through ethnographic fieldwork. It argues that peri-urban areas of Asian metro cities like Chennai are sites of accumulation of capital whose exploitation for urban need extends to environmental degradation in complex ways. Such a joint conceptualization of environment and urbanization in urban peripheries is witnessed in other centres of the global North and South such as in Mexico City and Ho Chi Minh City, and within Indian cities as well. This points to a wider applicability of the concepts explored here.

Journal

Environment and Urbanization ASIA – SAGE

Published: Mar 1, 2016

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