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Karachi : ordered disorder and the struggle for the city / Laurent Gayer.
Van Pelt Library DS392.2.K3 G39 2014
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Gayer, Laurent.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Muttahida Quami Movement.
- Ethnic conflict--Pakistan--Karachi.
- Ethnic conflict.
- Political violence--Pakistan--Karachi.
- Political violence.
- Ethnicity--Pakistan.
- Ethnicity.
- Muhajir (Pakistani people)--Politics and government.
- Muhajir (Pakistani people).
- Karachi (Pakistan)--Politics and government.
- Karachi (Pakistan).
- Pakistan.
- Pakistan--Karachi.
- Physical Description:
- xxv, 336 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm
- Place of Publication:
- London : Hurst, 2014.
- Summary:
- With an official population approaching fifteen million, Karachi is one of the largest cities in the world. It is also the most violent. Since the mid- 1980s, it has endured endemic political conflict and criminal violence, which revolve around control of the city and its resources (votes, land and bhatta - 'protection' money). These struggles for the city have become ethnicised. Karachi, often referred to as a 'Pakistan in miniature,' has become increasingly fragmented, socially as well as territorially. Despite this chronic state of urban political warfare, Karachi is the cornerstone of the economy of Pakistan. Gayer's book is an attempt to elucidate this conundrum. Against journalistic accounts describing Karachi as chaotic and ungovernable, he argues that there is indeed order of a kind in the city's permanent civil war. Far from being entropic, Karachi's polity is predicated upon organisational, interpretative and pragmatic routines that have made violence 'manageable' for its populations.
- Contents:
- 1 A Contested City 17
- A City Up for Grabs 21
- An Arena for National Conflicts 30
- The Normalisation of the Unofficial 33
- The Burden of Geography 41
- A Palimpsest of Sovereignties 49
- Conclusion 51
- 2 From Student Brawls to Campus Wars 53
- Discontent Central: The Student Movement and Political Change in West Pakistan (1947-1979) 54
- The Facilitating Factors of Political Violence 60
- Predictable but Contingent: The First 'Political' Killing at Karachi University 66
- Conclusion 76
- 3 "The Mohajirs Have Arrived!' 79
- The Unremarkable Beginnings of Mohajir Nationalism 81
- The MQM, Between Party and Movement 90
- The MQM's Challenged Predominance 100
- Conclusion 119
- 4 The Bandits Who Would Be Kings 123
- Lyari and Its Dacoits 127
- The Volatility of Politico-Criminal Configurations 134
- Rehman Dakait's Failed Transition from Crime to Politics 138
- Bis Repetita? The PAC 2.0 and Rehman's Legacy 150
- Conclusion 158
- 5 Jihad Comes to Town 163
- A Secular City? 165
- Sectarian Turf Wars 171
- Towards the 'Talibanisation' of Karachi? 183
- Conclusion 201
- 6 A City on the Edge 205
- The Institutional Fabric of Karachi's Armed Conflicts 206
- The Limits of Control 221
- Conclusion 236
- 7 Geographies of Fear 239
- City of Fear 241
- Everyday Geographies of Fear 250
- The Architecture of Safety 255
- Conclusion 272.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Dr. Craig Baxter Memorial Fund.
- ISBN:
- 1849043116
- 9781849043113
- 0199354448
- 9780199354443
- OCLC:
- 881839357
- Publisher Number:
- 99958984524
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