This book brings anthropologists and critical theorists together in order to investigate utopian visions of the future in the neoliberal cities of India and Sri Lanka. Arguing for the priority of materiality in any analysis of contemporary ideology, the authors explore urban construction projects, special economic zones, fashion ramps, films, archaeological excavations, and various queer spaces. In the process, they reveal how diverse co-existing utopian visions are entangled with local politics and global capital, and show how these utopian visions are at once driven by visions of excess and by increasing expulsions. It’s a dystopia already in the making – one marred by land grabs and forced evictions, rising inequality, and the loss of urbanity and civility. 

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Kuldova, Tereza, and Mathew A. Varghese. "Introduction: Urban Utopias–-Excess and Expulsion in Neoliberal India and Sri Lanka." In Urban Utopias: Excess and Expulsion in Neoliberal South Asia, edited by Tereza Kuldova and Mathew A. Varghese, 1-15. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017.
Pfaller, Robert. "Epilogue: The Promise of Urbanity–-How the City Makes Life Worth Living." In Urban Utopias: Excess and Expulsion in Neoliberal South Asia, edited by Tereza Kuldova and Mathew A. Varghese, 269-279. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017.

Futuristic Visions of Urbanity and Socio-Economic Expulsions

van Dijk, Tara. "The Impossibility of World-Class Slum-Free Indian Cities and the Fantasy of ‘Two Indias’." In Urban Utopias: Excess and Expulsion in Neoliberal South Asia, edited by Tereza Kuldova and Mathew A. Varghese, 19-36. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017.
Kuldova, Tereza. "Guarded Luxotopias and Expulsions in New Delhi: Aesthetics and Ideology of Outer and Inner Spaces of an Urban Utopia." In Urban Utopias: Excess and Expulsion in Neoliberal South Asia, edited by Tereza Kuldova and Mathew A. Varghese, 37-52. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017.
Nielsen, Kenneth Bo, and Solano Jose Savio Da Silva. "Golden or Green? Growth Infrastructures and Resistance in Goa." In Urban Utopias: Excess and Expulsion in Neoliberal South Asia, edited by Tereza Kuldova and Mathew A. Varghese, 53-73. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017.
Varghese, Mathew A.. "Vikasanam: The Expansionist Choreography of Space-Making in Kerala." In Urban Utopias: Excess and Expulsion in Neoliberal South Asia, edited by Tereza Kuldova and Mathew A. Varghese, 75-95. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017.
Varughese, Shiju Sam. "Cities of Neoliberal Future: Urban Utopia in Indian Science Fiction Cinema." In Urban Utopias: Excess and Expulsion in Neoliberal South Asia, edited by Tereza Kuldova and Mathew A. Varghese, 97-115. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017.

Urban Megalomaniac Visions and Heritage Utopias

Fuglerud, Øivind. "Manifesting Sri Lankan Megalomania: The Rajapakses' Vision of Empire and of a Clean Colombo." In Urban Utopias: Excess and Expulsion in Neoliberal South Asia, edited by Tereza Kuldova and Mathew A. Varghese, 119-138. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017.
Bose, Melia Belli. "A Modern Chakravartin: Mayawati's New Buddhist Visual Culture." In Urban Utopias: Excess and Expulsion in Neoliberal South Asia, edited by Tereza Kuldova and Mathew A. Varghese, 139-167. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017.
Varghese, Rachel A.. "Past as a Metaphor in the New Utopian Imaginations of Heritage in Kerala." In Urban Utopias: Excess and Expulsion in Neoliberal South Asia, edited by Tereza Kuldova and Mathew A. Varghese, 169-187. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017.
Dhabhai, Garima. "Excavating the City: Metro Rail Construction and Imagination of Past in Contemporary Jaipur." In Urban Utopias: Excess and Expulsion in Neoliberal South Asia, edited by Tereza Kuldova and Mathew A. Varghese, 189-205. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017.

Urban Queer Utopias and Bodily Expulsions

Boyce, Paul, and Rohit K. Dasgupta. "Utopia or Elsewhere: Queer Modernities in Small Town West Bengal." In Urban Utopias: Excess and Expulsion in Neoliberal South Asia, edited by Tereza Kuldova and Mathew A. Varghese, 209-225. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017.
Osella, Caroline. "Utopia Interrupted: Indian Sex/Gender Dissident Activism and the Everyday Search for a Life Worth Living." In Urban Utopias: Excess and Expulsion in Neoliberal South Asia, edited by Tereza Kuldova and Mathew A. Varghese, 227-246. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017.
Strey, Jacquelyn P.. "Queerness's Domain?: Queer Negotiations, Utopian Visions and the Failures of Heterotopias in Bangalore." In Urban Utopias: Excess and Expulsion in Neoliberal South Asia, edited by Tereza Kuldova and Mathew A. Varghese, 247-267. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017.