The state and the production of informalities in urban transport: Vikrams in Dehradun, India

Journal article

Informal public transport is generally understood as transport services that are provided in absence or violation of state regulations. This paper argues that attempts to define the informality of public transport through such liberal economic lenses are insufficient in explaining the processes which lead to production of informalities. Discussing the operation of Vikrams (individually-owned and privately-operated shared autorickshaws plying on fixed routes) in Dehradun, India, this paper uncovers the multifaceted role of the state in producing and sustaining informalities in public transport provisions. It offers a more nuanced view of informality in transport studies than its commonplace understanding as a spontaneous, self-regulating, entrepreneurial aggregate. The paper argues that informality in transport studies should be understood as a heterogeneous practice that is a product of wider structural contexts situated in the politico-historical understandings of public transport in evolving spatio-temporal moments. In the case presented in this paper these include imperial legal legacies and its intersections with shifting postcolonial political economies and territorial structures.

Authors: Mittal, G

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Journal: Geoforum
• Volume: 136
• Pages: 273-282
• Publication date: 2020-10-31
• Acceptance date: 2020-10-05
• DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.10.003
• EISSN: 1872-9398
• ISSN: 0016-7185
• Language: English
• Keywords: informality; urban mobility; transport governance; informal transport; law and urbanism