IDENTITIES, PROXIMITY, AND MOBILIZATION IN INDIAN SLUM NEIGHBORHOODS

Urbanization in the global south has made the relationship between ethnic proximity and politics increasingly important. The literature mainly studies either the social or the political effects of proximity, without distinguishing between them or exploring their relationship to one another. I reconcile the two sides of this literature by developing a theory about the relationship between the social and the political consequences of ethnic proximity. To measure heterogeneity and proximity in dynamic and data-poor urban environments, I develop novel measurements of individual outgroup exposure and neighborhood-level segregation. To test my theory, I apply the exposure metric to original data from slums in three Indian cities, and find support for my claim that proximity has distinct effects on social and political relations between groups. I then explore the relationship between neighborhood-level collective action and social mobility. I find that collective political mobilization has a substantial impact on lived outcomes, through the mechanism of services.