ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the relationship between corruption and urban planning, using case studies about land use planning violations from the non-poor neighbourhoods of Bangalore. It also examines the connections between land use planning violations and corruption to demonstrate how the practice of bribes, favours and collusions dominate and transform the ideal-typical urban planning apparatus to suit the demands of individual landowners and social groups, rather than abling regulation in response to any abstract notion of public interest. The chapter theorizes the extent of everyday corruption as a consequence of the assumptions behind the design of formal planning institutions, instruments and protocols, and suggests that any analysis and re-imaginations of the 'state and public order' should be conceived as programs embedded within the social and political practices. It argues that a functional analysis that isolates the institutional domain of rule from the social domain of everyday transactions becomes less helpful in thinking with corruption.
