ABSTRACT
The significance of neighbourhood reputations for the economic and social status of residents makes neighbourhoods a highly contested domain. This chapter explores two arenas of contestation: neighbourhood boundaries and struggles over which residents ‘really belong’. The criterion of belonging discussed here is family conformity with the values by which a locality strives to be identified. Assertions of neighbourhood boundaries and of conformity, or the failure to conform, are made, whether explicitly or implicitly, during every interaction between people residing in a locality as well as during encounters between residents and local institutions. They can be seen in the siting of and access to infrastructure, in demands for contributions to temple festivals or neighbourhood upkeep, in invitations to participate in local domestic and neighbourhood functions and, most significantly, in inclusion in the daily exchanges between residents on which poorer people rely in order to meet their everyday needs. These contestations of belonging do three things. First, they provide the platform for residents to define the character of their neighbourhood. Second, they play a significant role in shaping and reshaping collective identities and gendered subjectivities. Third, they reveal and frequently reinforce social and economic inequalities.
