This document proposes a research study to examine how resettlement of urban poor populations to the periphery impacts their ability to engage in collective action. It hypothesizes that resettlement may weaken existing networks and political engagement that previously enabled collective action. The study will use qualitative interviews and focus groups at 3 resettlement sites to understand how factors like population size, resident heterogeneity, distance from city center, and political engagement influence collective action ability and satisfaction with water services. The goal is to assess if peripheral housing enables the realization of urban residents' right to the city.

1. Splintered at the Margins
Examining the Impact of
Resettlement on Collective Action at
the
Urban Periphery
Research Proposal
Naresh Singaravelu
MPP/394/2021

2. Background
▪ ‘World-city’ process tilts balance in favour of private capital;
citizenship status of the urban poor is brought into question
▪ Despite this, poor engage in Occupancy Urbanism, Everyday Social
Contracts, Insurgent Citizenship to claim the ‘right to the city’
▪ Collective action a vital factor enabling urban poor’s access to
services
▪ In recent years, the dominant form of housing production is mass
construction at urban periphery → enabled by eviction & resettlement
▪ Does formalisation through resettlement help realise the right to the
city?

3. ▪ Breakdown of service delivery at resettlement sites widely covered
in literature: but there is a gap in terms of residents’ ability to
organise and use political channels to rectify this
▪ Piped Water Supply: Excludable, Rivalrous, Natural Monopoly, Highly
Territorial, Defined Boundaries, High Scope for Collective Action
▪ Do these characteristics change in peripheral resettlement sites?
▪ Politics of Patronage: Urban poor formed Dravidian parties’ core
voter base; well-formed organisational structure extending to
grassroots
▪ Do these channels remain open at the urban periphery? How does it
impact collective action?

4. Research Objective: To understand if public housing at urban periphery enables
the realisation of the right to the city: as measured via the ability to organise and
demand uninterrupted access to water supply
Research Questions
▪ RQ1. Is the tendency to engage in collective action the same between residents of
urban peripheral housing colonies and those living in settlements within the
boundary of the city?
▪ RQ2. Does the overall population of a resettlement colony (group size), differential
area of origin of residents (heterogeneity), distance of the site from the core area of
the city, the position of the site vis-à-vis the administrative limits of the city, and
the extent of political engagement have any impact on collective action?
▪ RQ3. Does the extent of collective action correspond to residents’ satisfaction level
of piped water supply service in their houses?

5. Research Design and Data Sources
▪ Objectivist in terms of ontology; interpretivist in terms of epistemology
▪ Qualitative in nature. Involves Primary Data: semi-structured interviews
and focus group discussions with residents at the chosen sites.
▪ Documents from land administration department, court judgments
regarding evictions and resettlement to supplement the analysis
▪ Three sites — Perumbakkam, Kannagi Nagar and KP Park — were chosen
to examine the research questions. They were selected in such a way
that they provide:
□ Difference in spatial location
□ Difference in administrative boundaries
□ Difference in temporal context