Description
Book SynopsisIn the planned city of Islamabad, order and disorder are produced through the ceaseless inscription and circulation of millions of paper artifacts among bureaucrats, politicians, and property owners. What are the implications of such paper mediation of relationships among people, things, places, and purposes? This book explores this question.
Trade Review"A must read." -- Mohammad A. QadeerMohammad A. Qadeer Dawn.com
Table of ContentsLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PREFACE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION Writing of the Bureaucracy Signs of Paper Associations of Paper Background of the Study 1. THE MASTER PLAN AND OTHER DOCUMENTS Splendid Isolation The Dynapolis and the Colonial City Communities of All Classes and Categories From Separation to Participation 2. PARCHIS, PETITIONS AND OFFICES At Home in the Office Parchis, Connections, and Recognition Petitions: Citizens, Bureaucrats, and Supplicants Parchis, Petitions, and Influence 3. FILES AND THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF PAPER The Materiality Cases Individual Writers and Corporate Authority Tactics of Irresponsibility and the Byproduct of the Collective Particular Projects and Collective Agency A Contest of Graphic Genres 4. THE EXPROPRIATION OF LAND AND THE MISAPPROPRIATION OF LISTS Problematics of Reference and Materiality Early Planning and Failed Opposition Shifting Houses and Dummy Houses Demolition Certificates Package Deals and Individual Signatures Loose Lists Mediating like a State 5. MAPS, MOSQUES, AND MASLAKS A Mosque for Every Community A Mosque for Every Maslak Claims on the Map Temporality of Maps and Islamic Adverse Possession Squatting according to Plan CONCLUSION: PARTICIPATORY BUREAUCRACY NOTES REFERENCES INDEX