Cities in the developing world: Linking global and local networks

Notes how rapid urbanization is transforming the developing world ± creating cities, which on the one hand offer opportunities for global economic activity, but on the other hand are beset with serious local civic, economic and social problems. New networks based on information and communication technologies are increasingly being woven into the fabric of these cities supporting the connectedness of powerful groups both within the city and between cities around the world. These flows of global information and communication between powerful groups in the city involved in global economic activity coexist with intense face-to-face interactions at the local level. Bangalore in South India presents a major case study of this global/local interaction, being a focal point for software development in the Asian region and globally, but also beset with local problems of civic deficiencies, growing poverty and income inequality. Explores some of the issues which arise as Bangalore serves as a nexus that links global and local networks of exchange. Examines two Bangalore networks which typify global and local duality: the network of software firms located in high technology enclaves in and around the city, and the ostracised network of the slum dwellers of Bangalore, gradually being brought into mainstream discussions of governance in the city. Finds considerable similarities between global networks and local networks and outlines some of these dynamics. Introduction The survival of the community was a standard theme of old social theory. Research was dominated by investigating bonds of locality, rather than bonds that tie people to other social units (Waters, 1995; Dirlik, 1998; Apffel-Marglin and Parajuli, 1998). For example, of primary concern was the impact of industrialization on traditional patterns of life in cities or shantytowns (Waters, 1995). However, the logic of capitalism has left locality behind as a principle in the social organization of economic life. Indeed, in recent years, explanations and discourses about globalisation tend to be biased against locality and place. In most of these discourses, the global is equated with capital, space, history and the power to transform. The local, on the other hand, is equated with place, labour, tradition, indigenous people and others who are still attached to physical milieu (Dirlik, 1998). The past decade has witnessed the eruption of place consciousness into social analysis (Escobar, 1995; Dirlik, 1998). Place consciousness refers to the recognition that however `̀ off-ground’’ globalisation may appear, most of the transactions of economy activity are conducted in places, which are subject to place-based contingencies and considerations (Dirlik, 1998; Curry, 1999). For T h e c u r r e n t is s u e a n d f u l l te x t a r c h iv e o f th is jo u r n a l i s a v a i la b le a t http://www.emerald-library .com/ft