Governing Livelihoods in Liberalizing States:

This book analyzes passenger transport in Sitta October, Egypt and Gurgaon, India - two suburban cities near Cairo and Delhi linked to global flows of capital and labor. It conceives of passenger transport as a window to understand the nature of urban livelihoods that are emerging with privatization of road infrastructures, the shift from predominantly governmental to private provision of passenger transport and the scalar changes within the matrices of power and decision-making brought about by macroeconomic reforms. It focuses on the dynamic interactions between local government and policing agencies on one hand and transport operators on the other, as critical nexus in understanding the nature of urban governance, defined as the mode of functioning of local governments as they execute shifting state strategies and policies. It contextualizes this dynamic within four overlapping forces: a) existing institutions of local government, b) global capital and labor flows, c) emerging regional administrative and institutional changes, and most importantly, d) the ardent will of transport operators to have a stake in - and carve out - their own livelihoods against the odds.