Urban planning makes cities incubators of ideas and innovation

As a non-resident Indian who has been following the growth of the Indian economy over the last several years, one cannot but help acknowledging how often Bangalore comes up in discussions and international debates on outsourcing and the services industry.

 

As a youngster, I can remember Bangalore being an important hub with the likes of public sector companies such as Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT), Bharat Earth Movers (BEL) and Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) having their manufacturing base in the city.Bangalore attracted talent from different parts of the country; engineers from Kerala, bureaucrats from Mangalore or school principals from Tamil Nadu. Bangalore was a melting pot where differences of language, religion and ethnicity were set aside for virtues of tolerance and cosmopolitanism. 

A great shift has since occurred in Bangalore, notably in spheres of production and employment. Saskia Sassen of Columbia University characterises the process of change as the incorporation of the city in the global production chain. The global production chain channels capital investment geared towards meeting the expectations of international corporate shareholders. India has courted international capital aggressively in the hope that it will generate employment, raise incomes and reduce poverty. 

Over the past several years, many if not all, of those goals have been achieved to varying degrees with associated changes in behaviour at several levels. For one, government has begun to see itself as a facilitator of greater private investment withdrawing itself as a result from pursuit of social housing and rent control. 

Second, the role of communal policing has been reduced from one of reinforcing communal identity to one of dictating gender codes within the expanded job market. Third, individuals (boys and girls) feel more confident about drawing upon their experience with securing contracts relating to employment and associated benefits of credit to challenge their customary roles within families in the space offered by public institutions such as the police and courts. 

Behind the veneer of low-cost production, expanded profit margins and rising GDP growth are documented increases in litigation over family property and incidents of divorce and violence against women in public spaces. Global cities, by reflecting a great social ferment that pits customary against secular rules, emphasises the need for a wider debate on what kind of future we envisage for a people who live in cities such as Bangalore and contribute significantly towards globalisation.

Contrary to views of market libertarians, civilised societies arrange not simply for employment generation but for protection of worker’s rights. Thomas Picketty in his profoundly thought-provoking book, Capital in the Twenty First Century, points to the huge increases in inequality in the wake of the Reagan and Thatcher era that was characterised by rapid de-regulation. Inequality of wages and wealth, he points out, are more damaging in societies of low-economic and demographic growth. 

A compelling case

India, by global standards, presently does not suffer from either of the above mentioned ills. However, one can imagine that sustained periods of income and employment growth will soon reveal the shortcomings of an approach that overlooks worker rights; safety standards, minimum wage, health care and work-life balance. 

There are already a number of signals: the rise of gated communities that stand in stark contrast to quality of public services that are on offer in urban slums that house an army of labourers who are crucial to providing security, meals and transport for their white collared counterparts in Bangalore’s service industry. The case for de-regulation has become so compelling over the last decade that the need for better targeting of subsidies – covering food, fuel, transport or education – has become politically difficult to defend. 

The expansion of the role of international capital in global cities however, actually legitimises the need for more effective government in defence of public order (by strengthening capacity of civic institutions such as courts, schools and universities), basic public services (to oversee contracts for safe water supply and waste management) and social equity. 

A failure on the part of the government to balance between what citizens need (in terms of public services and public safety) and what choices the market can offer in terms of employment and lifestyle will stir the next great ferment in global cities. This growing divide among citizens will be the defining challenge that characterises political and socio-economic processes of everyday life in emerging economies.

In keeping with global trends, citizens will express disenchantment with the political process by withdrawing from party membership and participation in elections. Residential land and speculation in the real estate market, that access to private property constitutes the surest route to counter the effects of high inflation in global cities. 

As a consequence,family members who customarily would not have been entitled to family property, may resort to frivolous litigation or acts of intimidation to gain such access in an attempt to overcome one’s inability to “provide” on account of rising living costs or changing family virtues and relationships. 

On the other hand, individuals who associate their parent’s previous engagement with public sector jobs with a pension and ensuing benefits might be tempted to immigrate to countries that promise more substantial security in terms of employment and public safety. Global cities such as Bangalore by relying on use of English and by adopting international norms of behaviour in the work place serve as perfect conduits for brain drain. 

However, if the experience of those who returned from unsuccessful attempts at integrating in cultures and economies very different from the one they left behind should teach us anything, it is that there are enormous benefits that India can gain by investing in urban planning to ensure that cities like Bangalore can become incubators of ideas and innovation based on principles of inclusivity, diversity and importantly, security for all.

(Mathew Kurian is with United Nations University in Germany. Yu Kojima co-authored the article)