Globalisation: A view from Chandigarh

Anil S. Thakur

The paper presented in the Urban Planning and Environment Conference (UPE-7) held in Bangkok from January 3 to 5, 2007.

Gobalisation: A view from Chandigarh

Anil S. Thakur1

1 Abstract
A study of nine micro spaces in the city Chandigarh suggests a triad of relationships (later called as the local triad) exists among the space syntax of the locales, activities carried out, and the practices that are established in them with the passage of time. The phenomenon of place-making is examined at the levels of planned macro spaces and those appropriated by the migrants (micro spaces). At both the levels, particularly at the first, spaces reveal a growing influence of global forces emanating from up- there. Their impact and working can not be explained satisfactorily by the local triad hence the necessity to advent a global triad of relationships between the global activities, global practices, and the e-space in which the two operate. Further, a comparative study of the properties and functioning of the local and global triads and the links between them, made in this paper, leads to three important realizations. Firstly, the cleavages among the constituents of the triads hold special significance for place-making. Secondly, the triads can act as interpreters for the trends observed in the local and the global spaces and thus they fill the epistemological gaps signified and represented by the terms in-here and up-there. They can perform the role of facilitators for the policymakers and planners in their space-making and altering exercises. Thirdly the man made and cosmological processes working on the triads, hold special significance in effecting their equilibriums. Finally the hypotheses so developed are applied to selected situations, and are additionally theorized to check for their utility, efficacy, and workability at various scales.

2 Introduction
This paper does not intend to commend Chandigarh a modern planned state capital city in India, as a world class city or to determine its ranking in the network of world class cities, or to argue for its position as an emerging world class Asian city or sub world class city.
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The author is writing a dissertation on the modernist planned city Chandigarh for a PhD in The faculty of architecture, building, and planning of The University of Melbourne, Australia. In this project the processes that transform the planned citys spaces were studied at the nine selected locations, at the neighborhood and the city scales. In this exercise it was realized that processes triggered by the global forces, and migrancy impact (entropy) the planned character of the city spaces at different levels. These two salient processes work in divergent directions for example towards the production of the global spaces and their appropriation by the urban underclass.

But by drawing frequent references to Chandigarh the paper seeks to examine the experiences, of the globalizing Asian world, gathered from the study of interplays between the micro city spaces and macro regional spaces. The paper is also about impressing upon the importance of linking receptivity to globosity (in a growing city or region), to the overall processes of globalization and urbanization and drawing some useful insights in the Asian settings. Finally, towards the end, a hypothesis is presented to organize the diverse and myriad occurrences triggered by globalization and to place them in an explanatory and cognizable mode of thinking. Here the aim is to facilitate an easier grasp of complexities caused by the global(izing) forces and to help the decision makers design better interventions.

3 Chandigarh: Power, controls and Centrality

Le Corbusier in 1952 planned Chandigarh as a finite administrative capital city. It was designed to enshrine power and control amidst democratic and modernistic values and aspirations. Le- Corbusiers influential and revolutionary ideas (however mired in controversies at their birth place-Paris), architecture, and concrete forms found fertile ground to flourish unabated in Chandigarh nicknamed the city beautiful and the modular city where Corbusiers diktats permeate down to every single brick laid in the city. The powerful six feet alien modular man at the heart of his planning did not see eye to eye the defenseless five feet few inches native man. Yet supposedly the first insisted that he stood there for the seconds good. Perhaps it is too premature to elaborate on the idea as Chandigarh is still in its infancy. Chandigarh was planned to be a city with modular dimensions and controls writ large on its spaces2 and it continues to be a stringently controlled city (Bakshi 2005). Indian architects and planners associated with Corbusier, had not experienced and enjoyed this kind of power brought handy to them by the controls of Chandigarh before, and strongly held that it was benign, benevolent and emancipative. However this was the raw power, perpetuated by the state and its then prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru that was legalized through series of acts, and therefore by the public representation. Corbusiers team member architects and planners worshipped him for the precious legacy that he bestowed to them. Chandigarh was to be the city of the powerful, power controllers and power brokers and not for the powerless.3 Control is powers prerogative and without power
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Corbusier invented modular scale and dimensions that according to him if followed would result in good architecture (through pleasing proportions) and would avoid bad aesthetics. 3 Credence to this belief lies in the emergence of slums and proliferation of the informal unplanned spaces in and around the city. So the city plans had no intentions or means to integrate migrant poor work force that built it and sustained its maintenance.

there is no social control4. But who receives and sustains the power? Does it have a structure? How is its centrality retained, and how does it grow? Power grows at behest of the subjects, ideologically it draws power from the people and uses it for their welfare, and they alone draft its structure. But literally power structure and its balance is extra constitutional and dynamic. Sometimes power rests with bureaucratic, political institutions and at other with the N.G.Os, trade unions and pressure groups. In the case of Chandigarh, the erstwhile strong technocratic grip on its affairs is loosening as bureaucracy attains hegemony in the decision making processes of the city. Bureaucracy in turn is boggled by the political power torn between the local and the global. As the projects based planning (driven by economic interests) is ushered in, the politics of decision making processes as described above becomes palpable. Constitutionally the power is vested with the centre. Originally Chandigarh was planned as a capital of erstwhile joint Punjab which was later bifurcated into three states namely todays Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Paradesh. The former two states till this date claim the city as their respective capital. Both the governments are run from the capitol complex. But Chandigarh enjoys the status of a Union Territory of India and a senior I.A.S5 officer from the Union Territories cadre heads the Chandigarh Administration as a chief commissioner and adviser to the chief administrator. The Governor of Punjab holds the additional charge of the chief administrator. Recently Municipal Corporation as an elected body led by the Mayor runs the maintenance and development works of the city. Thus through this organization the power vests directly in the hands of the citizens of the city, as councillors are elected from the wards of the city. Councillors do have affiliations with major national level parties. One elected Member of Parliament (MP) represents Chandigarh and its residents in the national parliament. Thus executive and elected representation hold the power that arises directly and indirectly from the people. Power can be derived by the citizenry at ideological and philosophical levels, and through knowledge, culture, and money. But how does power come about and how is it delivered? Centrality exudes power and represents one. To Lefebvre centrality means concentration of energy delivered and constituted by a core periphery structure.
There is no reality without a concentration of energy, without a focus or core-nor, therefore, without the dialectic: centre-periphery, accretion-dissipation, condensation-radiation, glomerationsaturation, concentration-eruption, and implosion-explosion. What is the subject? A momentary

However at an existential level there is a thing called self-control but this is beyond the scope of this discussion. 5 Indian administrative services, during British rule was termed as I.C.S, meaning Indian civil services

centre. The object? Likewise. The body? A focusing of active (productive) energies.The city? The urban sphere? Ditto (Lefebvre 1991).P:399

Thus centrality is an engendered reality that occurs in a form and represents, signifies almost everything, even energy in a condensed and concentrated form. Each society, mode of production constitutes its centrality-which shifts and has dialectic relationship with its periphery. To understand any society or locale we must try to read the structure and nature of its centrality.Power arises from a centrality and manifests itself through it. And power can be delivered through design6. Chandigarh attained its conceptual centrality in the first place as soon as (just as) the very idea of the capital was conceived. The seeds of its physical centrality lay in its brief and programme. The idea of concentrating and stepping up of educational, administrative, health care, financial institutional functions (less of industrial) and its gradual implementation (per-se involving a clear intent and intense expenditure) unleashed a process of forming a rudimentary planned centrality. Architecture syntaxed after Corbusiers modernistic style resulted in a ubiquitous spatial strangeness that imparted a specialty to this physical centrality. This centrality paved way for approaching the kind proposed by the schemes of Hall and Christaller7.
These are cities (global)8 that transact a substantial pan: of their business at a global scale, both with other global cities and with lower-order cities. This global business consists mainly in performance of specialized services such as financial services, media services, educational and health services, and tourism (including business tourism). They are invariably seats of central banks, major clusters of clearing banks (including substantial representation of overseas banks), stock exchanges, insurance companies, headquarters of major corporations (including transnational), television stations, television stations, newspapers and magazines, publishers, major universities and hospitals, and leading international airports. Their relative importance is measured in data about flows of information and people: overseas banking transactions, airline passengers, audiences. However, following the Christaller scheme, they also perform lower-order functions for more restricted areas (national and regional levels).(Hall 2002)

In the light of description above it is important to consider whether Chandigarh region displays these characteristics. The brief answer is yes. But it is more attuned to perform these functions at the regional and national scales quite after Christallers scheme. Further Chandigarhs conceptual position is similar to that of Frankfurt in the readings of Sassen, - a city that draws its strength from the regions towns, yet the region would not

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Chandigarh proves it well and the point is taken up in the next section. These attributes developed by Hall for the world class cities are adopted and carried forward in this paper 8 Words in italics added by the author

have developed the way it has without its9 existence.(Sassen 2002) It is for this reason that planners and politicians have to officially adopt a policy on Chandigarh to view it in its regional setting.

Views of IT Park of Chandigarh in its making.

Photographs taken by the author

Chandigarh is acquiring multi-specialty centralities in its periphery. On the North-East axis nations one of the biggest Rajiv Gandhi IT Park is well on its way with its first phase nearing completion. Panchkula another established settlement on this side of the city is going to merge with another new township of 20 sectors to house two hundred and fifty thousand population (Saini 2006). On its north- west axis it is going to have multientertainment city and film city, education (knowledge) city. A health city is also on the anvil. Towards its south east axis Punjab government has approved an IT Park on 500 acres. Haryana Government on its part has plans to build an IT park on 200 acres of land, close to Chandigarh (Ray 2006). As it is, the city on the south east axis is expanding till Ambala an important colonial cantonment 50 kms away from Chandigarh. A four lane highway project to connect Chandigarh to Ambala is heading towards its completion. In fact from all of its peripheral sides, the citys connectivity with the surrounding region is being improved to make room for the booming real estate market. Chandigarh is transforming in a postmodernist and global mould whereby market oriented planning is coming in intersection with the modernistic planning of the city. In other words erstwhile planning for a stable economic order (associated with the concepts of finite administrative capital city) is being taken over by planning that creates conditions that motivate economic growth and private investments. The growing dynamism in the city affairs and its management is realised through the observations as under:
It is of great interest how the planned city is shaking off the centralities of its city centre sector 17, and the sub centre sector 34 from its back in favour of the postmodernist new centres in the making through permissive conversions in the land use in the industrial areas.
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Frankfurts existence in Sassens readings.

However a plenty will remain sticking to its back inexorably, whereby the city will attain hybridised forms and contents constituted by the interaction between (the) planners original space syntaxes and the post modernistic global forces. Easy communications and internet facilities have revolutionised banking, financial institutions and the public insurance services. Organisation(s) dealing in the services sector and consumer goods compete by projecting brighter signs and bigger images juxtaposed irresponsibly in direct conflict with Corbusiers diktats, and the Chandigarh advertisement control order 1954 that on their part restrict the display of signs and advertisements to a ludicrously bare minimum. The Chandigarh Administration will naturally find itself in a quandary over such conflicting situations particularly when on its own part; it promotes dazzlingly lit panels against the walls of public toilets and bus stops and leases the space to raise money. Planners are sceptical of the ways the master plan of the city and the planners intent are being mutilated. The city of yore that was strictly governed by the FSIs is now being regulated by the FDIs.(Thakur 2006)

A picture of public toilet with advertisement panels.

We find that the citys planned centrality (content wise, form wise and, configuration and character wise) remained and continues to be in a state of flux. The forces that ordain change and transformations overtime in the city spaces are also seen to be changing in their nature and amplitudes. Any study attempting to relate globalization to the space changes in the Asian settings, must account for the recent phenomena of the mushroom growth of the SEZs. Driven by the pressure to attain and retain high rates of economic growth, India is going to emulate Chinas approach of building SEZs to absorb FDIs and raise employment opportunities. India has sanctioned more than 181 SEZs and few hundreds are waiting in line for approval. These are going to be the future gated cities of India, where land is being handed over to the big real estate national and international players at throughway rates with the physical privileges like permission to develop independent townships with in the SEZs including commercial, residential areas, hotels, hospitals, market, clubs, and golf courses, casinos and recreation centers, along-with rights to provide/sell services, and to allot developed plots to approved SEZ units. (Devasahayam 2006).Chandigarh has its own share of approved SEZs and so has Punjab around the vicinity of Chandigarh and one of these is being developed by multinational 7

Quark group. SEZs act as the crucibles for changes that are being ushered in by the global forces, and Chandigarh space is being molded by them in addition to the other factors discussed above.

4 Chandigarh and the place-making experiences

Chandigarh is a city of migrants and its place-making occurs at two levels, firstly through design and formal planning, and secondly through non designing that is by the way people (migrants) appropriate and alter the built space with their creative and survival instincts. Place-making in Chandigarh needs to be examined at both these levels .At the level of design we shall discuss the citys macro spaces, and at the level of acts of appropriation in the locales, the micro spaces. 4.1 Place-making at the level I (in-formal macro city spaces) At the formal level space is syntaxed through a premeditated design to act as envelop or series of envelopes to contain a defined version of life. In this strongly syntaxed space as the life flourishes, the activities and practices related to it also thrive. Flourishing of the activities, practices in the space syntaxed through design generate circumstantial conditions that mature and turn the space into a place. The mentioned circumstantial conditioning occurs in space within the realm of power balance and controls. Design exercises its power and impacts the activities and practices of the people so do the administrative or state controls. On occasions and in certain situations activities and practices of the people too bend the design syntaxes with power mustered through the politics of the place. To understand how the linear, horizontal, and Cartesian plan of Chandigarh delivers and exudes power, philosophical and literary insights of Carter bear special significance (Carter 2004). Delving on the subject of place-making by the migrants in host colonial countries10he delves on the power of a line to erase the memories and the past, thus the history, and on its power to eradicate differences.
The act of forgetting is analogous to the transparency said to occur when, through the act of design a mental intention and a spatial plan fuse and appear as one. (Lefebvre 1991) Cited in (Carter 2004)

Referring to zoologist Alfred Russel Wallaces writing and developing the practice of linear place making he maintains:

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He weaves the concepts on place making acts of the migrants in erstwhile colonial conditions. He develops an interesting understanding on the subject as he moves from Cartesian concepts of place making techniques/exercises to more subtle myth-o- poetic processes of place making. However vast his approach, is useful in applying to the context of Chandigarh.

Wallace does not object to the conceptual grid: it is physical inscription that fills him with alarm.
As a mapping device the linear net the survey throws over the land creates a set of ideal locations. Anxiety only occurs when it is found that these ideal representations do not correspond to the environment we inhabit. Then the fantasy of access to endlessly multiplying squares of land turns into opposite: an experience of being hemmed-in and isolated. Nor is there any rational way out: to follow an infinitely-extendable section line to go nowhere, to be engulfed in a distance without proximities.Wallaces landscape assessments reveal placismss basis in a dialectical relationship between the linear grid and the curvilinear picturesque. Migrant approaches to place making, need to be located within this ideological horizon. Indeed to imply that anchoring occurs within a featureless urban scene would be to internalize the host cultures placism and to recapitulate the terra nullius trauma..The migrant is one who says We are what we are not or We are and are not.. You walk around in circles trying not to walk around in circles.These existential poses locate the migrants movements in a tabula rasa environment.(Carter 2004)

Through these words we can relate and understand Chandigarhs past and present. The contiguously sectored parcels (880msx1200ms) of lands must have appeared to the thin initial population as the multiplying rectangles of land ending in vast peripheral wilderness. The Cartesian net cast over the foothill ground of Shivalik hills (over 28 villages), sunk all the differences and cast an undifferentiated space. Certainly the city beginners11 must have felt anchorless. They must have felt as strangers in their own land: hemmed-in and isolated. It would have occurred to them that they were what they were not or they are and they are not. This dilemma of space making over time, that is the match between the availability of the built up space and the flux of migrants who are slowly becoming the inhabitants, is imminently perplexing in any tabula rasa development. At that time when the Indian economy was highly centralized and structured, mobilizing resources for developments as in the case of Chandigarh from the centre and the state was always a Herculean task. It took fifty five years for Chandigarh periphery to acquire a population of one million and this was considered a phenomenal growth in the beginning of the 1990s.In the hind sight this growth rate could be considered as a rational (modernistic) pace of development maintaining some sort of an equilibrium between the growing demand for the serviced land and built-up area, and its supply. But today the situation has reversed. Advent of public private sectors partnerships over mega projects and free flowing FDIs have resulted into speedy change in the environment whereby building stocks precedes their occupants. In the present scenario
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Displaced persons from West Pakistan constituted the majority of the migrants who settled in Chandigarh initially, followed by people from Pepsu, and other districts of Punjab along with other from the adjoining states Himachal and Haryana. Migrant workers from far off states as Rajasthan, U.P, Bihar, Karnatka and Tamil Nadu came later to the city. Migrants from U.P today constitute a major work force in the citys informal sector.

speed often overtakes market and necessitates several changes in the use of the built-up stock before it is sold. And this is a universal trend sustained by the global forces. Mega real estate developments in Pearl River Delta Guangdong (China) and Putrajaya (the new administrative city in Malaysia) are the cases under the point.

Putrajaya under construction Photographs taken by the author

Building boom in Shenzen

The Special Economic Zone of Shenzhen went in about ten years from almost nothing to 800,000 official inhabitants and half a million unofficial inhabitants, i.e., from zero to nearly one and a half million; five years later it reached three million. When we are dealing with such leaps, it becomes certain that the urban condition is being modified beyond recognition.. It's historically rare: the leap between nothing and an urban situation has occurred without any intermediary (Koolhaas 2002-3).P:312 in (Thakur 2005)

Chandigarh region is witnessing an unprecedented surge in the building and infrastructure development activity.12 Time absorbed in the stages; of formation of an idea, its implementation, and consumption and the time taken in transition in-between these stages is being compressed as technology pervades globally and aims to become more efficient and accessible. In this process time enhances its capacity to inscribe and re-inscribe space. As Chandigarh spaces get dense and filled up, the new generations of migrants realize that they are not what they were and they like being what they are (quite a mirror image of the identities formation dilemmas of the early settler migrants as conveyed in Carters words earlier). Chandigarh of today has acquired a distinct identity and evolved a culture that the inhabitants proudly and unsparingly consume with a sense of pride. This is the culture they have developed collectively by metamorphosing their socio-cultural distinctions. Erstwhile fear and predicament of likely erasure of mental memories, stories, and losing deep- rooted- ness by a planned un-differentiation does not haunt the new generation any more. But occasionally nostalgia springs up in the conversations and the distant gazes of the old citizens who occupy the green benches in the city parks.
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This is demonstrated by the development plans of Chandigarh region and the applicable concepts of SEZs, as discussed in the earlier section.

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4.2 Place-making at Level II (in informal micro city spaces) Studies of the nine selected micro spaces13 in diverse locales of Chandigarh and the happenings in them display similarities at a general level, for example they all can be clubbed generally under formal and informal categories. And such representative spaces within the similarly planned configurations of the city appear to be look alikes of each other to a hurried and a casual viewer. But in reality and as realized through a closer examination each space is peculiar. Every site has sets of activities carried by different actors. And each site develops practices unique for itself around its peculiarly syntaxed space due to the activities that it sustains over a period of time. These spaces do point towards additional powerful remote forces that influence the place making at this level in a serendipitous manner. The space betrays their impact at three levels that are, space syntax, activities, and the practices. Impact of Globalisation is seen in the city spaces through the signifiers and pointers, as the proliferation of multinationals designed and marketed four wheelers and two wheelers of latest models, brand names showrooms, in the consumption of the global culture, goods, personal styles and architectural stylistic preferences. The global space syntax refers to the postmodernist and deconstructive traditions. The all pervasive and easily accessible global technology takes its toll by exercising its tremendous influence on the three constituents of the spacemaking. It alters the techniques and the usages pattern in favour of newer materials thus super-scribing the space with fresh forms and contents.

A visual comparison of market spaces of 1975 and 2005 respectively. Photograph taken on the left by Dayal and on the right by the author.

The traditional organic contents of the informal areas of the 1970s are replaced with somewhat formal and synthetic environments of today. Gandhian frugality and values
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These are Sukhana Lake entry point in sector-1, planned and informal Rehri markets in sector 15-b, sector 25 colony, selected spots in sector 17, the city centre, sector 22 market (Kiran cinema block), sector 34 furniture market on the V-4, Badhedi in sector 41, selected sites in Ram Darbar Industrial area, and the two locations near roundabouts appropriated by fruit sellers in sector 36 and sector33.

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in force in the locales till the beginning of 1980s resulted into a kind of homogeneous space because migrants used the organic materials as the recycled gunny bags cloth, dried tree trunks as structural elements and organic ropes as the tying materials in their shelters building activities. These materials later made way for todays omnipresent steel sections used as structural supports, galvanized sheets for coverings, ironmongery for fastening and p.v.c ropes for tying purposes. The displayed haberdashery, utensils, garments, foot wears, confectionery and their packaging and advertisement stylization depict the otherness in the erstwhile Gandhian space. This gradual change in the city spaces is reliably brought about by the up gradation in the technology, its free availability, and growing affordability. Thus technology plays an important role in introducing change even in the micro spaces of a locale. The up gradation of manufacturing base, altered marketing practices (including the advertising practices),the rise in disposable incomes of the people, and the resulting change in their consumption levels and practices, account for the perpetual transformations in the triad of relationships. But at this grass roots level the burgeoning economy of India is also palpable in the upward mobility of the migrants forming an indispensable section of the stake holders of the place making exercise in the locales of Chandigarh. Nevertheless the growing disparity between the haves and havenots is also read in the space through the signifiers and the indicators as the personal possessions and the life styles of the people. Poverty reduction however does not promise lack in disparity14. As read earlier, the informal spaces now forming an essential part of the city Chandigarh, are continuously transforming due to the advancements in technology, and the general time fostered changes in the activities patterns and the practices embodied in them. This alteration over period of time introduces progressive permanence and immovability into the read spaces. Political economy expresses itself through the administrative stances in Chandigarh. Chandigarh also portrays particularities in this regard.15 The city enjoys the status of a union territory of India, has maximum per capita income, high literacy level, and is a proud and favoured possession of the country. High literacy in the city per se implies a high readership in the residents that in turn results into their above average awareness, communicability and representative power (through a strong media) and higher expectations from the government. This peculiarity in Chandigarh case is helping
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This holds true in China as well. Globalization has certainly reduced poverty by increasing the per capita income of the people but also added the disparity in the incomes. However in comparison with China another burgeoning and buoyant economy, India has lower level of disparity. Interestingly this inequality in the Chinese urban space is less glaring in comparison with that of India. This could be because of the traditionally and administratively controlled migration through the hukau system. 15 In the adopted administrative stances in comparison with other cities.

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the city in its becoming a global destination and is also causing abnormal transformations in its locales as compared to other cities of the surrounding region. People in the city are more right conscious and better organised to exert pressure on the decision makers to attend to their interests. Recently Chandigarh Administration declared its ambitious undertaking to rehabilitate 23, 841 families from 18 slums on its land under the small flats scheme- 2006. in one room tenements in different peripheral locations.(Roy 2006) Chandigarh Housing Board on its part has plans to accommodate economically backward people in 17,000 one room apartments in Dhanas and Maloya the peripheral villages. It also has plans to accommodate more such people in sectors 38 and 39 in 2,144(Bariana 2006). In these policy decisions lie the seed of disturbance for the gradually evolved and established space syntax. In the process of rehabilitating, the reinvigorated (newly introduced) activities by the ousted migrants in the latest locations will re-address to the new space syntaxes. Further as the activities will flourish and find foot holds in the new settings, corresponding practices will mature. These will in turn re-express themselves in the developing spaces as they contribute towards a never ending sequence/exercise of space making overspread of time. But is this populist decision to house poor in rented tenements solely driven by the states interest in their welfare or are there other extraneous considerations? Through the strategy of relocating the poor migrants the state frees/extricates its expensive and primly located land from the clutches of the squatters on one hand and on the other enhances the citys receptivity to the global activities16. Globalization proliferates in swanky environments and the global forces are attracted to the high class infrastructure and favour world class architecture that in turn spawns spaces that have homogenizing effect and are large in nature and scale. Nevertheless with this on going process while the state formalizes the city spaces all right to suit its intended end (order and cleanliness) firstly, it fragments the original class of have-nots into the two, the relieved, and the left-out (unregistered) thereby promoting disparity in the space, secondly, it paves way for the official- permanent- type- of slums as the standardised built areas mismatch with the diverse needs of the occupants and thirdly, unintentionally it encourages squatting by way of giving sops to the slum makers. Above all a colossal loss is inflicted on the space by stifling the original (indigenous) creative spirit of the poor and the memories of their lived past. Contrary to constructing the
16

Slum-less or slums free space in this case acts as a preparatory space to solicit global forces and the resultant global space.

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multistory tenements, the state could have capitalized on the instinctive, inventive and the creative power of the drifters, through facilitations, thereby securing/preserving their ingenuity and propriety of ideas. It is in place to cite here Serres who proclaims that invention involves a movement from the local to global.
Unlike the scientists global break throughs, inventive thought establishes a ground that will found local inventions to come.(Serres 1997) in (Carter 2004)

His insight for the global and local links with regards to inventive thoughts, for example emanating from the migrants, stands by the understanding developed above, and emphasizes its significance. The predominantly lamented loss on account of globalization is the homogenizing effect that it casts on the space by sterilizing its native and the culturally evolved forms. Lefebvre informs this phenomenon well by his philosophical and spatial analysis sans value judgements. According to him abstract space has an homogenizing power whereas in itself (in its construct) it is not homogeneous and he visualises social space together as whole and broken at once (like a mirror or glass)- global and fractured at one and the same time; just as it is at once conceived, perceived and lived. Therefore an analysis of the locales micro spaces needs to recount the global space. Global space is world class and world level space oozing sameness in quality and content. It has the potentiality to let a global citizen feel at home anywhere in the world. This comfort and feeling of known and experienced however controversial is considerable in todays times. The controversy lies in the singularity it fosters by killing the diversity at the cost of the ephemeral comfort. This is the legacy passed on to todays global citizen by the ever shrinking world and the overgrowing frequency of their contacts and dependence. The occurring likeness is natural in the world which is run by ISO rankings. Can this overwhelming trend be challenged or countered? Yes in small measures, by preserving and strengthening critical regionalism still at work in the locales of many Asian cities. This end can be achieved by supporting, preserving, introducing, and inducting activities, practices, and space syntaxes that in the first place impart(ed) the peculiarities to that part of the social space under reference ; and thus by keeping the established naturally evolved order in tact and shrouded from the gaze of the global forces emanating from up there.

5 The Two Triads: Local In here and Global up there

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Through the readings of the selected sites, we are led to conceptualize a triad of relationships that is constituted by the space syntax of the spaces, the activities carried out in them, and the resultant salient practices established in them over periods of time. The stability on one hand and the variable equilibriums of the triad on the other, explain why the spaces are, the way they are - in their observed state unique for each place at a given time.

Figure: Local Triad Produced by the author

These relationships work under the domain of time at the cosmological level and under political, economic, and cultural forces evolving over time at the social level. In addition to the said components of the relationship, its mainstay equilibrium is of paramount importance. This equilibrium is typical resultant reality arising out of the interactive application of the political economic and cultural forces with in the domains of powers controlling them in a locale or in a space. And this is the reason why locales differ from one another and vary from a nation to another. This is a basic understanding of a locales social-space make. Additionally, cultural power and micro regionalism of the place also influence the triad of relationships and its equilibrium. The equilibrium however stable; can be space or activities or practices emphatic, depending on the applicable condition(s).

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Roadside: Dentists, ear- cleaners and quacks.

Source: The Tribune Chd.

Smart space syntax renovation by imposing a Homogenising dragon roof (a global space syntax element) over disparate Chinese shops in Kuala Lumpur.17

Well organized roadside eateries in Kuala Lumpur - a culture laden recognized local practice. photographs18 taken by the author

As we have read in the growing and transforming spaces of Chandigarh there exists an extraneous influence (power) quite rootless (foreign) to a locale that modifies its space syntax first by way of making a preparatory slums- free space and later by imposing an abstract space which is homogenizing in action and alien in comparison to that it
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The author carried out an exploratory survey of informal spots in various parts of Kuala Lumpur from August 17 to August 21, 2006. As per the account given by a Chinese shop owner, the government took contributions from all the shop keepers to put the dragon roof over the market and for introducing landscape features and signage in the street (perhaps in its own vision to globalise the space). She said as the discontinuous dragon brought ill-luck the Chinese were not very happy with this idea of the overlaid dragon roof construction. As the practice has it, the main shops on the left and right of the street, have covering layers of the informal display booths that give rise to two small ill lit corridors. Intrigued by this space syntax development, when the author asked some main shop keepers, if they bore a grudge for losing their once legitimate frontage to the temporary booths in front regularised by government by taking licence fees, most of them did not object and were not very sensitive to the issue. Some said this development helped their business by attracting more customers and extending a special retail character to the market. Interestingly enough similar logic of a preferred co- existence between the informal selling activity and the formal was held in the sector 22 market studied in Chandigarh, but its space syntax has not matured in favour of the informal activity to the extent, found in the case of Chinese market in Kuala Lumpur.
18

The dates appearing on the photographs are erroneous. They were taken between August 17 and August 21, 2006.

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homogenizes, see the case of Kuala Lumpur Chinese market that is globalised through government sponsored large-scale embellishments in the historical/ethnic Chinese dominated space. This phenomenon of superimposing homogenization and alienation in space by the forces somewhere up there (global forces) renders the local triad irrelevant, insensitive, and deficient to address the typical particularity of the co- existing and overlapping realities in the studied spaces. This calls for an advent of a global triad of relationships between global activities, practices, and space. Its similarity with the local triad lies in the congruent heads of its constituents but its separate entity lies with the contents under the three heads. Their striking dissimilarity is realized through the forces, powers governing their equilibrium. This point will be further discussed under the properties of each of the triads and their comparative account in the next section. However it is pertinent at this juncture to address the complexities associated with globalization. The strong temptation that we circumstantially seldom resist is to refer to the global forces to be operating from up- there. This explanation is indicative of the operational complexities and uncertainties that persist in the globalizing world and our relative inability to fathom the emerging patterns- the unknowables. The situation is quite similar in nature to the complexity and uncertainty that exists in the ways the computers process the information and analyse the data. The conditions are set in the first place (caused) by the human acts but over a period of time things acquire the complexity lending them their autonomous circumstantially changing characteristics. Then is this state of affairs- the resultant capricious flux. beyond human control? Yes and no. The forces develop their own paths dependent on the spectrum of the opportunities available at a point of time in space for the given sets of conditions constituted by corporate profit motifs. History is a testimony of the world that has been set finally (un-dauntingly) under the capitalist modes of production. Further these modes in themselves keep evolving, for example Jameson locates the changing forms of capitalism from classical/market type to the monopoly capitalism, and the present day multinational capitalism.(Dear).P.50. The complexity also occurs on account of a variety of processes (natural and cosmological; socio economic and man initiated) operating together in simultaneity. These processes have spans ranging from short to near eternal times. The three natural and cosmological, all pervasive processes are associated with the acts pertaining to creation, preservation, and destruction. Braided or entwined together they control space and time, and everything material and immaterial that exists in the domain of the

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two. These elemental processes represent the existential truth therefore they are eternal in nature. All man initiated, social processes are operating with in the purview of these three elemental and eternal processes. The text and the derivatives above compel us to consider the unknowable signified by the exclamatory term up there as a global phenomenon in action with its spasmodic architecture explained through the theoretical constructs of the local and global triads.

Figure: Local, Global and intermediate Triadsproduced by the author.

The understanding developed through the sketch above and the earlier discussion is that there is connectivity between events and forces (up there) and at the grass roots (in here). This connectivity sustains the events over there and influences those below. A study of this duality or the antonymic opposition between the two positions and the linkages between them are of vital interest to grasp the nature and complexity of globalization and its working. We have insurmountably complex and overwhelming reports on the on going trends in the global world relating to the flows of information and knowledge, (e-economy and keconomy) linked and de-linked economies; dislocation and relocation of the labour world wide; preferred destinations of the multinationals; the dynamics of the logic(s) governing 18

their world wide operations; the mega mergers and takeovers; outsourcing; deterritoralization and so on. The complexity and the multiplicity of the events from up there and the tremors of the spasmodic trends felt below are diabolic and mind boggling. It becomes increasingly difficult to near the realm of predictability and fair assessments. The situation is linked to the distance related comprehension less-ness arising out of the epistemological and ontological gaps that on their part originate from the dual positions and the break that distance causes between them. Distance in a static state (fixed distance) gives a fixed reality, while in the dynamic state (movement consistent with time and space) as it approaches series of jointed new realities; it repudiates simultaneously the old. This is elaborated through the unified theory of universe that answers the creation of the matter and the universe (quantum mechanics, astrophysics and astronomy)and it is distances based (infinitely minute in the first case and infinitely large in the second and the third). Through the advancement of this understanding mankind was able to establish a satisfactory (scientific) explanation of the differences in the obvious likeness that govern the universe at two levels one conceptualised through light billion years and the other through atomic or nano distances; the one controlled by the gravitational force and the other through the electro magnetic force. Similarly there is a need to advance an antonymic-ally coupled view of the global world with the freely flowing and sweeping capital and jobs across the planet earth conceptualized through the satellite imagery and the other through the microscopic views of the social spaces of the locales on the ground caught in the acts of absorbing and resisting the global forces. The resultant ever evolving/changing conditions that govern the transformation of space in time are both social and economical. This central idea was dear to the works of Marx and Engel. Lefebvre inclining heavily on Marxist and Engelean genealogy of thought gave birth to the comprehensive idea of production of social space which begins its journey from the absolute or natural space to historical, and from abstract space (present and globalizing) to the differential postmodernistic space. Lefebvre accomplished the precious task of projecting social space studies as the scientific means for analyzing the transformations in the social world through a dialectical philosophical approach running through history, social processes, national political economies, and cultures.

6 Discussion on the properties of the two triads

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Both the triads of relationships in here and up there are look alike in their elemental constituency but in effect and in the characteristics of the constituents they differ. Whereas the triad at the bottom (local) is more lived in the corporeal sense one at top (global) is more virtual and phenomenal in its nature, and is much more influential, powerful, and reposeful inducer of change in space. Both the triads have some similarities in their diverse values. For example both the triads struggle through to sustain equilibriums. The struggle at the bottom is different from the one that exists at the top in terms of its scale, urgency and nature, even the stakeholders, and the participants are different in both the triads. The struggle is critical at both the levels; whereas a threat to the mercantile interests up there (a slow down syndrome) necessitates the struggle for the survival of the triad, threat to life and its sustainability (basic/prime living), calls for a struggle for the survival of existence of the actors at the bottom triad.

Figure: Varying patterns of fractal growth in the two triads: produced by the author.

Different forces govern the two triads. The one up there is fused with the global politics whereas the other is run by the national and local politics but both are interlinked as said before. In natural state the lower triad is fairly insulated from the global politics but not 20

absolutely detached from it. The triad operating up there results in deterritoralization and is anti critical regionalism. It promotes homogenization in space and its operations. It survives through gigantic strides that are in the first place its essential traits. It prefers and hankers after mono-block architecture whereas the one below is fragmental. Both grow as fractals; the one below, through fragmental increases and augmentation and over there, with mega mergers resulting in its increasing power and enormity. Both are influenced by the passage of life (actors over time and space). Both follow the theory of change conceptualized simply through C=DMA that is (C) Change = (D) Dissatisfaction at the level of participants and actors for a given set of conditions x (M) the plan of action they conceive to address their dissatisfaction) x (A) Action that they take to effect it19. All the factors values here have to be positive to create a momentum and conditions for a change. As the nature and value of all the constituents differ at both the levels the nature of change is different but it is tenable at both the levels just as the two triads are at different positions. Development of science and technology impacts both the triads in different ways and through one another. At the bottom there is a room for the myth refer (Carter 2004), but up there is no room for myth. Myth travels from below upwards and renders the concept of unknowable expressed through the hackneyed term up there. Control moves from up-there downwards. The top triad establishes its equilibrium through the Known. At that distant height from the local, there is no room for the unknowable but plentiful ambition for the stretch-ability of the triads influence on the space below. The insatiability that subsists there is sustained by the logic of introducing and retaining the spiraling, incremental profitability, and preserving the progression of existing trends. Both the triads as mentioned earlier are governed by the three cosmic all pervasive processes associated with creativity, preservation, and destruction. The triad one up there determines the mould/crucible in which the spaces below shall transform or metamorphose, and it draws the power for this function from the one below. As a result some pockets of resistance develop at the local levels. The distance between the two rationalized triads with its power to uncouple the two realities renders the invisibility; the urge to understand it necessitates the employment of imagination and myths, that as mentioned earlier are driven from below. The historical mutations on the surface of earth can be traced through the interconnectivity of the two triads. Historical local triads were influenced by the isolated local forces as found in the case of monarchies or the feudalist power structures. And
19

From the simple theory of change.

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man set influences at the level of the triad at top were nearly absent therefore only natural or cosmic powers/processes worked and constituted the activities and the practices prevalent then, and influenced directly numerous and relatively independent triads below. Mans organized mobility resulting into discoveries of other continents in the precolonial era, sowed the seeds for globalization that was to follow. Colonization necessitated advent of telegraphy, telephony, press, and communication so that information preceded physical deliveries. The achievements of speedy communications and frequently thick contacts (physical and mental) led to the advent of nascent globalization which was later exacerbated by the high- tech communication and transportation, and turned into the blooming globalization of today.
There is no such thing as a single global city- and in this sense there is a sharp contrast with the erstwhile capitals of empires.

(Sassen 2002)

In these transitional stages the man made processes intertwined and intervened with the natural and cosmic processes and ushered in an era where the complexity and myriad ness prevails in the hitherto ethereal space (referred to as up there) which has emerged as the work-space wherein globalization (as we understand it today) functions. This work space of global forces in technical sense may be called electronic space, cyberspace, cellular space or the satellite reported (scanned) space a hyper space of flows of commands and capital. Absolute or historical space from where natural and cosmic processes emanated, today can be perceived simultaneously as the one laden with man initiated processes. These social processes impart complexities and express themselves in our space through the existential myriad ness (to which we are so attuned to) as they twine and run into the set of the cosmological and natural processes. The following paragraph is reassuring on the readings above. New forms of centrality are being constituted in electronically generated spaces. For instance,
strategic components of the financial industry operate in such spaces. The relation between digital and actual space is complex and varies among different types of economic sectors. But is increasingly becoming evident that highly complex configurations for economic activity located in digital space contain points of coordination and centralization. (Sassen 2002)

Formation of different forms of centrality in the referred electronic space is a practice studied by Sassen and global controlling and globalization of economy are the prominent activities constituting the global triad. Further Sassen in the process of arranging her data through her following six hypotheses20indirectly point/ bring to book some more activities and practices that mark globalization of today. One: Geographic dispersal of the
20

These are summarised by the author of the paper from the original detailed account given by Sassen in her work.

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economic activities and their simultaneous integration gives rise to central corporate functions, two: dispersal of firms operations and rising complexities in their internal central functions result into their outsourcing hence specialized service firms serving as second key sites next to headquarters, proliferate, three: agglomerating economies sustain the specialized service firms and the complex nature of their services necessitate continuous up-gradation of an already dense and intense information loop, thus global cities serve as production sites of leading information industries (of our time) where speed becomes the key issue, four: practice of outsourcing provides multiple location options to the firms, in other words they get an incentive to relocate their headquarters, five: specialized services firms operating globally, develop global networks of affiliates thus giving rise to transnational servicing net works, sixth: transnational services networking as a high- tech and flourishing activity, promotes hunt for proven talent thus creating anomalies in job markets.(Sassen 2002) The findings above are indicative of the exacerbated evolution of the global triad of relationships where present activities carry seeds for the future practices and draw upon the sequences of practices of the yore. In this process the physical space below is impacted as the insatiable control extends and becomes more pronounced and complex over a period of time. Thus fostered change from above, in the space here is perplexing to the understanding of the working of the local triad; which on its part if studied as a self contained mechanism always points to the missing and the unexplained bits, giving rise to the question; what is creating anomalies in the local spaces that are rather in consistency with the explanations interpreted by the local triad?. This situation described earlier called for the advent of the global triad21in the first place. The global triad on its part, however operational and in its steady equilibrium (at a given time) does not explain its inherent dynamics unless related to the local triad. But we can make out the activities and the practices inhabiting the global triad are markedly different from those cohabiting in the local. They have different actors, with differing motivations and stake holding capacities, and embrace diverse politics of power and control, but are interlinked remotely (distantly). This difference comes to the fore as we attempt to understand the bondages between their independent constructs. We have two hurdles arising out of the analysis of the comparative properties of the two triads. One: the activities of the global triad are far more complex and abstract, and least corporeal in nature, as compared to their counterparts in the local triad. Two: Because of
21

The need advent of global triad was also discussed on page 15, under the description of the two triads under head 5.Here the relative importance of each triad is highlighted.

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the immensely strong cleavages in the global triad among its constituents, and for the reason that its activities are fully fused with the practices, and the two are practically rolled into one, the task of disintegrating/isolating them from each other becomes near impossible. Therefore the situation calls for a rethinking on the construct of the global triad, in order to understand its constitution more accurately and precisely. This peculiarity in the case of the global triad points towards an inherent duality that is deep seated in it. Both the triads work at two levels; at the first they act as interpreters for the processing the data and for organising the findings or results, and at the other level they work as facilitating tools in the hands of analysts and policy makers to assess the prevalent state of affairs and to design cost effective interventions in order to achieve the desired results. To fit into the first role the global triad can be visualized through a spherical configuration where the activities and the practices bound together have spherical placements and movements with in the omnipresent electronic work space. At the second level the triad still needs to be conceptualized with the help of the three distinct constituents (with the help of an imaginative fission wedging the two22 inseparables into the three as taken up earlier in the original derivation).

7 Reading phenomena of place- making and space-making through the two triads
In the following question lies the real test for the theory so developed. Can we effect change to the locales by rupturing the local triad and ordain global change by intervening with the global triad?23 In a sense (not so close to these questions) this hypothetical query was raised earlier in the course of the description of the triads and their relationships and was answered briefly in yes and no. However a forerunner to this question is: can we rupture the cleavages of and in the two triads? If yes then how? By very constitution the local triad has weaker bondages which can be altered, ruptured by controls from the local and state level machinery, or by a cultural revivalism, collectivism, and yes through terrorism! In deed the politics of introducing alteration will depend from locale to locale and from one political economy to the other, because in this analysis the source from which the power is driven for the fission holds great importance. As reported earlier Chandigarh administration (executive power) in an attempt to relocate the unauthorized colonys from prime lands ruptures(strikes) the
22

This is similar to the duality of light conceptualized as a ray and a particle. Without the realization of the second part of this duality, it was always perplexing to explain conceptually the existence of the black holes in the universe. 23 The approach

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existing triads at the level of space syntax and gets the space run down and naturally it sounds as a death knell to the activities and the practices rooted in the space. The inner resilience in the bondages some times show signs of resistance to the force disturbing the equilibrium which manifests itself in the street-demonstrations and in the continuation of a practice even when the activities are snapped off with the disturbance in the space syntax of a place. But this phenomenon is short lived, if it does not resort to its resuscitation through a re-encrypting and recoiling activity in the space. At the level of reconstruction of a triad the creative power can be mustered from ideology via idealism. For example, theoretically speaking Gandhian philosophy can be interpreted through a triad into the space where space syntax follows the social concepts of selflabour, self reliance achieved through the employment of natural, local and organic materials; and activities and practices are guided/driven by Gandhis principals of Swadeshi (self-sufficiency), Swaraj (self-rule) Ahimsa (non-violence, Sarvodya (selfless service) and Satyagraha (militant non violence) and austerity. Theoretically Gandhian space can materialize in a theatrical sense (time bound). A note of caution from a policy analyst in Canada Sethi is valuable and interesting.
However concepts like self suffering should be interpreted and followed without losing perspective of the present societal set up and a structural analysis of the larger global forces. For instance Gandhi advocated for simple needs and embracing poverty and lived in poverty as an example. However to be poor and live like poor are two different things. As Saroijni Naidu once remarked, [It costs a great deal of money to keep Gandhiji living in poverty].(Sethi 2006)

But how can we put life into such a theatrical corpselike space that we may construct any way? Activities reenacted in unison with associated practices in their original space syntax and frozen in time, result into re-lived historical spaces like the Southern Cross in the gold mine town Ballarat and other abandoned gold town sites in Australia.

A preserved street view of the old gold town Ballarat with a tourist in the middle of the two authentically dressed ladies portraying the erstwhile lived time Photograph taken by the author.

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But to make this mock up triad sustainable, an overlapping activity and practice of sightseeing or tourism is to be introduced that lends sustenance (power) to the bondages of the recaptured local triad of relationships. And in this process the superimposed activity and the practice on the same space syntax, introduce the enchanting illusions through the made believe world feeling brought about by the synthesized triad.
The city has value because its a story, in contrast to those told in the theatre, in soap dramas, in the virtual domain or at a grand staged events that now so much a part [. . .] of big city life, remains eternally unresolved, surprising, in the end unknowable(Bull 1997) in (Carter 2004)

The thought above bring us closer to the vexing realization that triad constructs give us lifeless takes without a story of their own. The stories results when the activities and practices that are in the take position are connected/stitched with a live (immediately lived) past and positioned to mature into a live future. This is exemplified by the longitudinal take seated in the six stage hypothesis of Sassen, that however more applicable in the case of the global triad, gives a general conceptual clarity. In other words a live triad is the one on which several processes are incident simultaneously (as conceptualised earlier). The exercised complex influence of the processes reins the actors and is responsible for the performance of the multifarious activities and the origination of the practices. Therefore it would be a sensible to effect desired change(s) through the manipulation of the processes. Can we rupture the global triad? Theoretically it is possible but in reality very difficult nay impossible. As already established, the bondages here have colossal power self primed by the activities and the practices that inhibit it; some of these are palpable through Sassens hypothesis related earlier with the triad. Bondages draw power from high tech, high touch and cut edge technologies which are serviced by high stakes and formidable capitalist interests. As the base of the stakes and the interests widens so does the pressure on global survival and this perpetuating condition sinks the differences in ideologies of the different political economies and glues them together. Common global interests, goals, aspirations, and inter-connectivity nourish the ever-growing strength of the bondages. This holds true for all continents agglomerating globally24despite their cultural disparities. A rupture caused through a global clash (unimaginable today) towering into say another world war, or a fiction fuelled imaginative ideological revolution favored by Marxists, has the capacity to intercept this powerful global triad. Recent incidences relating to global terrorism (for example proverbial September 11, that
24

With reference to the terms like Chindia, Euro, and Australsia.

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shook the stock and real estate markets) theoretically confirm that terrorism is an effective mean to rupture the triad and to impact its bondages and decapitate it. But again the triad at this level just as at the local level exhibits its inner resilience that reduces the rupturing capacity of terrorism to the demonstrated dent causing effect. Let us remember even terrorism draws its destructive power from fanaticism- an upheld anti-establishment ideology of a few motivated by a so believed a just cause, driven from in here and effecting events up there. This phenomenal vulnerability to terrorism signifies its growing importance at the global level. No wonder countering terrorism is an important international agenda joined by most of the super and national powers irrespective of their political ideologies in their own and then their common interest. As this paper nears its completion a daily newspaper from Chandigarh and New Delhi gives an interesting story under flashy headlines Re-invent Globalization, says PM. This news reports briefly on the statements and quotes of the two Nobel laureates Prof. Amartya Sen and Prof.Joseph E. Stglitz, and the prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh at a seminar on Making Globalisation Work: An Indian Perspective held on December 18, 2006(Gaurav Choudhary 2006).The overwhelming concerns echoed in all the academic voices were inequality in international trade practices, inequity in the capital flows and the vested interests that rest with globalization of the day. A lurking fear of Americanization of Globalization seems to have haunted all the speakers quoted in the report. The seminar appears to play the role of hustings to voice the considered legitimate concerns and interests of the developing nations that feel their interest are down-played by the value judgements of the developed nations. The intents of the seminar and attempts to voice the concerns of the developing world are of theoretical interest. First of all, can we re-invent globalization? Is the headline rhetoric or medias habitual gimmickry to catch attention? Perhaps it belies the both. The content analysis suggests that through this national level seminar a pressure is being cast on the world class policy makers to consider the aforesaid concerns of the developing nations bloc. Certainly globalization as such is an irreversible process as realized during the global triads analysis and it cannot be re-invented (recast) without catastrophically destructive measures but it is bendable by the small-time alterations that can be effected in global practices and activities say through the processes of negotiations and reconciliation. And such seminars can be instrumental in mobilizing solidarity among the developing nations and finally in pressurizing the developed economies to adopt empathetic postures towards their visibly aggrieved selves .In deriving power from the

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processes of consensus raising and conflict resolution, lays the hope for the renovation of the global triad in the favour/interest of the developing world. If this is the sought after adjustment in the global triad and if it implies a re-invention of globalization, it should be possible to re-invent one.

8 Conclusion
Space reading is a key exercise in developing an understanding of the transforming and globalising world. Triads of relationships among activities, practices and syntaxed spaces, are omni present in social space at local and regional levels that are governed by natural, cosmological and man initiated processes, and also by the power and controls posed by the local and national political economies. A similar triad of relationship among the global activities, practices, and e-space operates at the global level, but it is distinct in its nature, contents and its equilibrium that is sustained by the capitalist interests and by the global powers and controls. Planned city Chandigarh viewed as a place-making experiment (theoretically and philosophically) at the planners level and at the level of the migrants extends useful insights on the variables of powers and controls that keep the equilibrium of the triads of the relationships at the local and the global levels intact. A more balanced comprehension can be developed by conceptualizing the global with respect to the regional and the local. The triads of relationships at the three levels however similar in construction have different forms of contents and are continuously driven by different forces however related to each other. They require different energies and powers to effect/cause a change in their respective relationships continuum equilibriums. In order to achieve a desired transformation in space at any level, by tinkering with the relationship structures of and between the two triads, a thorough understanding of their underpinnings is essential. It is sensible to deal with the complexities involved in this undertaking by reigning in the potential processes that can introduce desired changes in the relationships that are enshrined in the triads and in-between them . As the conceptual triads are gross in their nature, they have wide application, replication and have capacity to address perplexing myriad-ness confronting us in- here and upthere that is, at local and global levels.

Refrences
Reading Migrancy and Buoyancy in Chinese and Indian representational urban spaces. Pearl River Delta (China) and National Capital Region (India). China-India Roundtable-2005.

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