Politics of Infrastructural Developmentalism: A Spatial Reading of the Colombo Port City Project

IF 1.3 Q1 AREA STUDIES
Mayank Mishra
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

A state produces political space and uses this space as a privileged instrument to impose its rationality. A high-modernist state commences ‘prescribing’ and ‘imposing’ to establish a ‘new society’, thus adhering to a tabula rasa (blank slate) approach in policies and planning. It denounces the past as a model to ameliorate the present, disregarding local conditions and knowledge, and perpetuating visual images that promise an alchemised future. In a typical spatial understanding of the state, the standard marker of growth is perceivably developing infrastructure. The article intends to do a spatial and temporal reading of the Colombo Port City (CPC) project, deemed to perceivably transform the Sri Lankan urban economic landscape, as a case study. The article conducted an ethnographic study of the project, locating it in Harvey’s ‘spatial fix’, Scott’s High Modernism and Guy Debord’s concept of spectacle to comprehend the larger spatial politics that an infrastructure project exhibits. Considering Colombo as a case study, the article shall also examine infrastructure’s political affect and how spatial reconfigurations rearrange government institutions as the infrastructure impacts and alters the nature of power. It will critically examine the modality of the investments in infrastructure, its internal politics and its much fetishized economic feasibility.
基础设施发展主义的政治学:科伦坡港口城项目的空间解读
国家制造政治空间,并利用这一空间作为强加其合理性的特权工具。一个高度现代主义的国家开始 "规定 "和 "强加 "以建立一个 "新社会",从而在政策和规划中坚持 "白板"(tabula rasa)方法。它摒弃了将过去作为改善现在的模式的做法,无视当地的条件和知识,将承诺未来炼金术的视觉形象永久化。在对国家的典型空间理解中,增长的标准标志是可感知的基础设施发展。科伦坡港口城(Colombo Port City,简称 CPC)项目被视为斯里兰卡城市经济景观的可感知变革,本文旨在将该项目作为一个案例研究,对其进行空间和时间解读。文章对该项目进行了人种学研究,将其置于哈维的 "空间固定"、斯科特的 "高度现代主义 "和居伊-德波的 "奇观 "概念之中,以理解基础设施项目所展示的更广泛的空间政治。文章还将以科伦坡为案例,研究基础设施的政治影响,以及当基础设施影响和改变权力性质时,空间重构如何重新安排政府机构。文章将批判性地研究基础设施投资的模式、其内部政治以及其备受推崇的经济可行性。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Millennial Asia
Millennial Asia AREA STUDIES-
CiteScore
4.50
自引率
12.50%
发文量
33
期刊介绍: Millennial Asia: An International Journal of Asian Studies is a multidisciplinary, refereed biannual journal of the Association of Asia Scholars (AAS)–an association of the alumni of the Asian Scholarship Foundation (ASF). It aims to encourage multifaceted, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research on Asia, in order to understand its fast changing context as a growth pole of global economy. By providing a forum for Asian scholars situated globally, it promotes dialogue between the global academic community, civil society and policy makers on Asian issues. The journal examines Asia on a regional and comparative basis, emphasizing patterns and tendencies that go beyond national borders and are globally relevant. Modern and contemporary Asia has witnessed dynamic transformations in cultures, societies, economies and political institutions, among others. It confronts issues of collective identity formation, ecological crisis, rapid economic change and resurgence of religion and communal identifies while embracing globalization. An analysis of past experiences can help produce a deeper understanding of contemporary change. In particular, the journal is interested in locating contemporary changes within a historical perspective, through the use of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches. This way, it hopes to promote comparative studies involving Asia’s various regions. The journal brings out both thematic and general issues and the thrust areas are: Asian integration, Asian economies, sociology, culture, politics, governance, security, development issues, arts and literature and any other such issue as the editorial board may deem fit. The core fields include development encompassing agriculture, industry, regional trade, social sectors like health and education and development policy across the region and in specific countries in a comparative perspective.
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