Paper short abstract:

This paper provides an ethnographic exploration of urban life in Colombo to theorize confinement, rather than unrestricted mobility, as one of the primary effects of infrastructure construction.

Paper long abstract:

What happens when projects of urban infrastructure constrain rather than free urban residents? When the ideals of smooth, frictionless movement and unrestricted mobility are such prevalent aspirational tropes, especially in marketing the construction of various forms of urban infrastructure, how can we account for the fact that these projects often produce the opposite experience for city-dwellers, especially the urban poor? This paper examines the experience of confinement ethnographically through the perspectives of marketplace vendors and fishermen in Colombo. How can ethnography help us theorize confinement as one of the central experiences of contemporary urban life?

Indian Ocean studies have frequently emphasized historical forms of mobility, exchange and circulation. Contemporary policy-makers often repeat the same tropes in official proclamations about the need to reinvigorate transnational connections, usually in the service of global capital. This paper offers a different perspective for understanding the lived realities of urban development and change in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region, based on the voices and experiences of Colombo's non-elite residents.