This commentary on Nijman’s presentation at the 100th anniversary celebration of TESG underlines how his study of the Mumbai slum reconciles the multiple dualisms that lie at the core of the study of economic and social geography. The dualisms that are identified are located in the personal impressions of the urban landscape, the supposed homogeneity of the informal settlements, and the assumed barriers between the informal and the formal economy. The paper argues the importance of adding a personal reflection on doing research in a slum environment.

It was therefore with considerable personal interest that I read this most thoughtful and nuanced paper which paints a detailed picture of Dharavi’s many communities (Nijman 2010). What was most remarkable to me was the extraordinary access Nijman was able to obtain into this ‘city within a city’. Residents of slums and squatter settlements tend to be deeply suspicious of ‘outsiders’ and it is a testament to the relationships he built with the residents that he was given such a wide-ranging access into the heart of the slum. The description of Dharavi’s neighbourhoods and the daily life of the residents is by itself an enormous contribution to our understanding of the nature and functioning of slums in Third World cities. Nijman’s paper succeeds in bridging many of the dualisms that tend to be associated with urbanisation in developing countries. One such dualism is that between the ‘planned’ and ‘unplanned’ city, namely, the idealised landscape mapped out by city planners and the shanty towns, slums and spontaneous settlements growing up in and around the planned city.