Berkeley Planning Journal

This paper reveals the conceptualizations and politics behind the form ulation and implem entation of the New Bombay plan, which emerged in the early 1970s to address problems of 'overurbanization ' by diverting growth away from Greater Bombay and its suburbs. It argues that conceptions of spatial inequality and

'largeness' of the city that are used to understand spatial policies obscure the political bases of state action. A (largely Marxian) framework is proposed for the analysis of the political bases of spatial policies and their implem entation. Such a fram ework n e cessarily requires anuanced conception o f the state with regards to its relation with civil society. is sho wn that the redefinition of territoriality is a conflictual and contested process.

It is pointless trying to decide whether Zenobia is to be classified among the happy cities or among the unhappy. It makes no sense to divide cities into these two species, but rather into another two: those that through the years and the changes continue to give their form to desires, and those in which desires either erase the city or are erased by it. -- ltalo Calvino (1974:35)