New Politics, Old Paradigms: Urban Environmentalism and the Reshaping of New Delhi

Batabyal, Somnath

Abstract

Taking two media-led environmental campaigns in India’s capital, New Delhi, as case studies, this paper argues that Climate Change discourse has followed the patterns of development politics. While globalisation and economic shifts have altered the North/ South power dynamics since the twentieth century, the post development age has given rise to a transnational middle class that seeks to reemploy similar hegemonic paradigms and shape the world in its terms. This class has replaced the notional North; the world’s poor replaces the notional South. This transnational middle class, the case studies highlights, moulds the environmental discourse in the public sphere to suit their own imaginations of urban space and the mainstream media is an active partner in this articulation.

Citation

Batabyal, S. (2014). New Politics, Old Paradigms: Urban Environmentalism and the Reshaping of New Delhi. In B. Schuler (Ed.), Environment and Climate Change in South and Southeast Asia (185-209). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004273221_009

• Acceptance Date: Aug 1, 2014
• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Aug 18, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 18, 2016
• Pages: 185-209
• Series Title: Climate and Culture
• Series Number: 2
• Series ISSN: 2213-0519
• Book Title: Environment and Climate Change in South and Southeast Asia
• ISBN: 9789004245884
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004273221_009
• Keywords: climate change, environmentalism, New Delhi, media