Description
In the existent literature, it is has long been established that urban development is embossed with colonial legacies – especially with regard to the often, taken-for-granted understandings of “progress” and “modernity” (or “modernization”) that inform urban development policy and practice. However, in this article, I am concerned with the coloniality of the futures that these teleological projects of progress and modernization lead to. Undoubtable, futuristic visions of the modern, smart, and global city, filtered through international organizations, aid agencies and consultancies, are frequently based on metropolitan ideologies. But equally, I argue, their coloniality is evident in the manner in which these futuristic urban visions are mobilized in the present-day in postcolonial cities. For one thing, they are premised on a certain ideological antagonism towards the postcolonial urban present as it is viewed as an antithesis to “global” conceptions of what a modern city is or meant to look like. Moreover, these visions are immensely violent as they inspire a material remaking of the postcolonial city that is often marked by destructive urban renewal initiatives that aim to swiftly remake the (perceived to be) decaying city and transport it to the future. Empirically, this article will focus on smart cities projects that have been implemented in Mumbai, India.
