Keeping Cities in Motion: an Introduction to the Labours of Repair and Maintenance in South Asia

Abstract

As the cities in South Asia transform into global or “world-class” cities, the lives of those who construct, repair, and maintain these cities are changing. In this collection of articles on repair and maintenance in South Asia, we foreground how the repairers and maintainers of Kolkata, Karachi, and Mumbai—including bicycle and construction machinery repairers, and waste removal and health workers—experience and contribute to the changing urban landscape. As this collection of essays shows, the lives and struggles of these repair workers make cities functional and set their economies into motion.