Injected urbanism: urban theory from India?

This article reports on an urbanization process that can be described as injected urbanism. While conventional Northern theoretical perspectives capture an important role for one-way rural-to-urban migration of households in urban growth processes, injected urbanism centers on circular labor migration of individuals and remittances flows as crucial drivers of urban growth. Injected urbanism is incipient by nature and geographically specific to predominantly rural regions. Through a ten-point conceptual-analytical framework, I illustrate how this process unfolds in India. Injected urbanism, or locally distinctive versions thereof, can likely be found across broader geographies in the Global South, especially in areas where there is a structural employment shift out of agriculture, few local employment alternatives, and little household out-migration. The article engages with current core theoretical debates in urban geography and furthers the development of postmodern/postcolonial urban viewpoints.