Urban villages by the airport

Summary

The ethnographic research project analyses intersections of urban renewal, airport expansion, land tenure conflicts and contested affordable housing near international airports.

International airports are nodal points and important economic spaces for their cities in many ways. They play a crucial role in national economic development strategies and are thus among the top priorities of urban planners, city developers and national governments. Airports also act as symbols of modernity that many governments in countries of the Global South would like to exhibit to the outside world. Most international airports are spaces representing infrastructural standards of the Global North, as well as middle/ upper class habitus – no matter in which country they are actually situated. International airports in the Global South are very promising field sites for research on urban social-economic inequalities due to their dense spatial entanglements and high economic interdependencies of different income groups. The airport acts as a contact zone for people from socio-economic extremes where they meet, work and interact under strict regulations. The international airport in Mumbai (India) and Abidjan (Côte d ́Ivoire) are surrounded by densely populated urban villages (partly referred to as slums), which were illegally established by poor populations on the airport reserve and are highly contested for many decades. Mumbai and Abidjan display a dynamic pattern of slum formation, as well as a long historical record of displacement policies. Airport expansion trigger these urban policies and are about to change long-standing realities on the ground. We will also conduct research on airport formation in Navi Mumbai.

Research questions: (1) How have shared spaces, social entanglements and economic interdependencies between urban villages and international airports evolved over time? (2) In the context of airport expansion, which everyday practices of entanglement and deal-making strategies are employed by different interest groups to negotiate and enforce the persistence or change of land use around airports?

Methodology

Total six months of ethnographic field research in Mumbai and Abidjan. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, we had to adjust  our research plans (total 4,5 months of field research with one year delay).

Initiation of a book edition “Contested airports. Case studies on social and environmental justice from Asia and Africa“ including conceptual chapters and case studies from Côte d´Ivoire, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Kenya & South Africa.

Funding partner

Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für Wissenschaftsförderung, 10.20.2.003EL