Review of Faiza Moatasim, Master Plans and Encroachments: The Architecture of Informality in Islamabad , University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023, ISBN 978-1-5128-2520-6
Year: 2024
Type: book-review
Abstract: Faiza Moatasim's powerfully argued and astutely observed Master Plans and Encroachments makes the compelling case that thinking about a city such as Islamabad in terms of "master plan" and "encroachment" is, in fact, profoundly misleading.False dichotomies lend themselves far too easily to making sense of new capital cities in the "Global South."Such dichotomies respond to the ideological purpose of these new urban spaces as radically 'different' and as emblems of national "development".They tap into foundational binaries between "modernity" and its many "others" underpinning modernization theory and postcolonial criticism alike.The resulting stories have become almost too familiar: architect superheroes such as Le Corbusier, Niemeyer, or Doxiadis seek to impose their controlling gaze on the exuberant messiness of life in a poor and "backward" world. 1 (Neo-)colonial forms of knowledge are imposed from above and meet indigenous "resistance."Regulationobsessed state bureaucrats and baton wielding police platoons confront the poorest and most marginalized inhabitants of urban space, who then often emerge sanctified as heroic representations of a liberational subject position.Moatasim remains mindful of injustice and inequality, but her work gently demolishes binary divisions of this kind.As far as its actual role in everyday urban administration goes, C.A. Doxiadis's visionary Islamabad master plan appears less as a "high modernist" machine of disciplinary power and more like first among equals, with many overlapping regulatory frameworks creatively stretched, adapted, or even ignored in never-ending negotiations over rights to urban space.Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui's 2014 order to maintain Islamabad's purity as a "state-of-the-art city," through the ruthless enforcement of zoning legislation and clearing of encroachments, was very much exceptional and came from a politically motivated member of the judiciary rather than the city authorities themselves.While the availability of wealth and political connections certainly plays a major role in the tactics chosen by different groups of residents, Moatasim highlights the similarities in how rich and poor seek to secure their advantage in an expansive grey area between legality and illegality.They all speculate, encroach, use deception and architectural camouflage, seek out regulatory loopholes, manipulate the power of courts, and (on rare occasion) resort to collective action.The "state" in Moatasim's account is neither a simple
Source: Critical Pakistan studies.
DOI: 10.1017/cps.2024.10
Author: Markus Daechsel
Institutions: University of London, Royal Holloway University of London
Language: English
Subfield: Urban Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,450
OpenAlex ID: W4404042812