Urban space and (the limits of) middle class hegemony in Pakistan

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to explore the emergence of reconstituted political subjectivities in urban Pakistan. Specifically, the paper will focus on an emerging hegemonic project which centers the socio-political articulations and aspirations of middle class fractions that have emerged in the country in the wake of post-1980s economic liberalisation. Detailed light will be shed upon the (proto-)hegemonic aspirations of a distinct fraction of the middle class and its spatial articulations most eminently expressed through measures towards and longings for the “world class city”. As such, claims over space, urbanity and nation/citizenship which serve to mediate this proto-hegemonic project will be investigated. The paper will conclude with a brief consideration of the limits of such an hegemonic project, especially with regards to subordinate classes in Pakistan.

KEYWORDS:

• Neoliberal urbanism
• hegemony
• middle class
• Pakistan

Acknowledgments

Key arguments of this paper were presented at the Annual Meeting of American Association of Geographers (AAG) in San Francisco in March-April 2016. In addition to the Urban Geography reviewers, I am grateful to Tayyaba Jiwani, Anna Zalik and Pablo Bose for their feedback and encouragement in the preparation of this version.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.