Thread by @asher_ghertner

Thrilled to share our paper on how Indian urbanism advances ideas of the Production of Space missing in tired West–Rest binaries. We ask how anticolonial & #anticaste politics push Lefebvre's Eurocentrism to reveal different, non-linear figures of the urban: ⭕️s, fractals, etc 1/

https://twitter.com/SocietyandSpace/status/1541391458699251712

Heeding Lef's call that a theory of space “would require a wide knowledge of different countries & languages if it is not to become superficial race-psychology” & his idea of layers of space, we push his critique of colonization using towering global thinkers Phule & Ambedkar 2/

We insist that their anticaste thought be read as part of a global anticolonial theory of space, putting it in dialogue w rich work on circular migration, segregation, agrarian urbanism, the critical biography of Dalit communist R.B. More & Practicing Caste🔥 by Aniket Jaaware 3/

Jaaware's critique of touch, in particular, provides a way of seeing not only Indian cities' segmentation, but cascading urban–rural segmented spaces. Everyday life & political econ of space here come together to go beyond what Lef saw as limited "Western conceptual tools" 4/

Indian debates thus show how the urban & rural have always been deeply entangled (so much great work on this! which we try to honor) – i.e. "methodological cityism" is overhyped – & how adequate critique of capitalist urbanization REQUIRES attention to embodied difference. 5/

I personally learned so much from lead author Thomas Crowley's deep investment in critical caste studies, the Rutgers Global AntiCaste Thought Group, & all the inspiring work on caste and the Indian urban, which as always we try to acknowledge in our citations.🙏to editor @rikjaz

Please DM if anyone wants a PDF, too ;) @SocietyandSpace

For those still wanting copies, here's a temporary link to the PDF (I've missed some DMs since I dont check regularly, so this is easier I hope): dropbox.com/s/w6tzs54mydft…