Lion in a jungle or lion in a cage? Yojana beyond planning power and powerlessness in Bangalore,India

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between planning, violations and powerlessness in Bangalore. It argues that although planning power is supposed to be produced in the public administration by urban planners and bureaucrats working with and through different protocols, it is never actually produced in reality. Engaging with this paradox and drawing on Latour and Nāgārjuna, this article suggests that planning power has no ontological substance and that planning is performatively constituted in real time by diverse collectives. I argue that the millions of observable everyday practices that mutually constitute the social, political and administrative cannot be explained, criticised or controlled by a single concept of ‘planning state power’ as a structural force. Instead, the article proposes Yojana as a context-sensitive vernacular concept to better understand the practice of planning in India and beyond.