Kalpana Gopalan

Torn in Two:conflicting Discourses of Globalization and Localization: Bangalore's Growth Story Kalpana Gopalan

Bangalore city saw unprecedented growth in the 1980s & 90s, deriving from its positioning as a hub for IT & associated industries. Even as the world watched its amazing growth in wonder, Bangalore's own response was typically dichotomous. There was a throwback to a mythicized past, a longing for the pensioner?s paradise & garden city of old; there was also an aspiration for a neoteric modern future. This book studies Bangalore?s growth through a kaleidoscopic lens. It asks the question: How has growth affected & manifested in Bangalore?s Economy, Society, Politics, Planning & Spatial characteristics? It points that a corporate led development imperative has resulted in,& is sustained by,a concomitant growth of a working class & assorted migrant poor groups. The consequence is a fragmented polarized society. Corporate neoliberalism stands in contrast to small local economies; socially there is a nouveau elite who prefer to invisibilize the poor; politics & policy become handmaidens to groups that influence them through very different processes. The book brings together theory & practice, drawing upon both scholarship & the author's professional experience in the region.