Corollary to the growth of million-plus mega-cities marks the evolution of urbanisation on a global scale, and unprecedented socio-spatial dynamics come into play. In particular, spatial expansion of such mega-cities is reflected in the specific processes of peri-urbanisation: the formation of ‘mixed spaces’, midway between urban centres and rural spaces, transitional spaces subject to multiple transformations—physical, morphological, socio-demographic, cultural, economic and functional. These changes are even more spectacular when seen against the backdrop of rapid urban growth, common to many metropolises in developing countries (Steinberg 1993), including India. Management problems resulting from this growth are correspondingly more complex. Thus, studies that endeavour to throw light on peri-urban dynamics are deemed more necessary: a good grasp of the processes of transformation at Work is an essential prerequisite for any undertaking on urban and regional planning.

Our initial hypothesis is that Within the metropolitan areas ‘location’ is never neutral. For us peri-urban space does not constitute a simple framework of analysis. The peripheries of the large metropolises are not merely one zone amongst others constituting the metropolitan space, but a space whose use corresponds to diverse and often conflicting stakes, indicative of processes signifying a political and societal vision of the city and access to it. The relevance of a special relationship between periphery and marginality has, in particular, to be explored; in other Words, the degree of correspondence between the spatial and social-economic- political dimensions of marginality.