City of shadows : slums and informal work in Bangalore / Supriya RoyChowdhury.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Welfare and Work: State Autonomy Revisited -- Urban Poverty and Informal Work -- A Political Economy Overview: Karnataka and Bangalore -- New Slums: Migration, Livelihoods and Living -- Old Slums -- Impact of Slum Housing Policies: Bangalore's New Ghettoes -- Women Workers in Bangalore's Garment Export Companies -- Conclusion.

"As India's Silicon Valley, at the core of Bangalore's core economic dynamism is the export of Information Technology and related industries, surrounded by multinational banking, finance, venture capital, start-ups, real estate, and the concomitant appearance of luxury concepts in services. A new, tech savvy, cosmopolitan and ultra-consumerist middle class has gained from, as well as contributed to, these channels of economic dynamism. Spill-over effects have resulted in expansion of opportunities of employment and earnings, particularly in the lower rungs of services for hitherto disadvantaged groups but there is also a growing presence of an urban underclass, excluded from the city's growth channels. This book looks at such channels of both exclusion and inclusion. The informal structure of work and earnings - stemming from the character of the city's political economy - hold the key to understanding the issue of urban vulnerabilities. This work raises questions, grounded in field-based findings, about the currently pursued model of industrial development and mainstream understanding of urban poverty"--