ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses to the communicative fabric of cities can be further diversified and pluralized, especially with respect to cities in the so-called Global South. The communication process can thus also be seen as an assemblage of relational, dynamic and multi-scalar patterns of practices that are highly discursive and performative. The rapid urban and economic changes that we witness in contemporary Asia must be studied in their historical, transgressive, and relational nature. The concepts of the “turbulence” and “assemblage” help both broadening and deepening the idea of communicative cities, allowing for a fresh grasp of mobilities and urban placemaking. As a heuristic concept, turbulence invites us to think of improvisation, disruption and uneven circulation as productive responses to the normative privileging of linear, smooth and symmetrical flows. Studied in an urban context of a city like Delhi, turbulence allows a more generous attitude towards informality and relationality. Assemblage also plays into the counter-hegemonic urbanism that unfolds with “turbulent cities”.
