“India’s Shenzhen” – A miracle? Critical reflections on New Economic Geography, with empirical evidence from peri-urban Chennai

Abstract

Building on arguments from New Economic Geography the World Bank’s 2009 World Development Report “Reshaping Economic Geography” reconsidered the predominant policy debates on agglomeration processes. The Report argues that on a global scale, production will have to be concentrated in a few mega-urban core regions. Sriperumbudur – “India’s Shenzhen” – a small town in peri-urban Chennai, is highlighted as a successful example. This example is empirically revisited in this paper to reveal the bias of New Economic Geography, as applied in the Report, to neglect questions of inclusive development and access to economic opportunities and ecosystem services. In a first section, the reasoning of the Report is outlined. Second, the actual formation of a new industrial landscape in peri-urban Chennai is presented. In a third section we analyze what is left out by the perspective of the Report: land issues, labour markets and a perspective of access and inclusive development. A fourth part reflects the implications that our evidence has for urbanization research and policies, in general, and for inclusive development, in particular.