Municipal Councilors are important agents of change and obstruction in processes of urban D/ development. This is presented by first discussing both the capitalist creative destruction side and targeted social program side of development in Urban India before moving on to Municipal Councilors’ working environment and daily governance activities. Using an analytical framework which combines Lipsky's concept of street-level-bureaucrats, Chatterjee's political society and Burt's structural holes, I argue that Municipal Councilors are friend and foe both to the urban poor and to the middle-classes and capitalists trying to world-class the region. Those interested in empowering the poor should endeavor to make common cause with these actors.
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