A must-read for anyone who wants to understand the contested local forms of participation in the creation of global urbanisms. Theoretically sophisticated and historically informed, Anjaria's sensitive ethnography shows that the lives of urban street hawkers are characterized not by transience and distance, but by deep relationships with the state.
Lisa Mitchell
University of Pennsylvania
... Read moreIs street vending Mumbai's lifeblood or affliction? This question animates the battles over space and rights in Anjaria's book. A compelling treatise against dystopic urban theory and determinist readings of the law, this rich ethnography illuminates Mumbai as a terrain of spirited maneuver, rather than outright exclusion.
Ajantha Subramanian
Harvard University
In this highly readable book, Anjaria demonstrates the power of ethnography to go beyond universalist arguments about neoliberal displacement of the poor from the city. What he offers us instead is finely-observed data that compels surprising arguments about the nature of citizenship and informality in the megalopolis of Mumbai.
Akhil Gupta
University of California, Los Angeles
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