Paper short abstract:

A feminist reading of a mature ‘city-from-scratch’ reveals gendered and classed possibilities for personhood. Middle-class women—addressed as an appendage to male professionals—carve out new freedoms within and through the city’s boundaries. In contrast, village women self-imaginaries are unrealised

Paper long abstract:

Established in 2002, Mahindra World City, Chennai (MWCC) is a mature ‘city from scratch’ in Tamil Nadu, India. Middle-class enclaves co-exist with villages, the occupants of which were promised utopian futures from proximity to a world class city in exchange for land and agrarian livelihoods. MWCC is promoted as ‘India’s first integrated City’ combining the economic benefits of city living (livelihood), alongside infrastructural (living), cultural and social (life) benefits. The addressee in MWCC’s vision is the male middle-class professional worker, promised career opportunities, world class facilities and peace of mind for his family. This gendered lens reflects the masculine/heteronormative bias in urban planning and architecture: a lens also informing the design and study of ‘cities from scratch’.

In this feminist reading of MWCC, we examine the possibilities for women who live in and around the city. ‘Freedom’ afforded by mobility, safety and infrastructure has led to new self-imaginings for ‘middle-class’ women. Their experiences provide a stark view of how Indian cities and urban centres inhibit and constrain women, including those who are relatively affluent. Yet the possibilities for realising new self-imaginaries are deeply classed. Village women have modelled themselves as ‘subjects’ for the new city, ready and qualified to take on the opportunities the city provides. Companies and apartment dwellers hold different perceptions of villagers’ aspirations, positioning them as subjects of cheap, unskilled and disposable labour. Structural and spatial conditions make future imaginaries of self (almost) impossible for village women, betraying the promises of MWCC for its displaced inhabitants.