Keeping in mind the discussions we have had around the notions of Space and Place, we can look at the city as belonging to dual categories. On the one hand, it is a geographical entity, bound in political and civic boundaries—it can be identified as a specific place on a map and can be represented through geographical boundaries. However, the city can also be recognised as a space upon which many different categories like modernity, progress, urbanity, citizenship and technology are inscribed.

There is a possibility that exploring a single notion of space might lead to isolationist arguments or understandings of that space and the issues that revolve around it. It is necessary to understand that the space we talk about is related to several other spaces that might not be obviously implicated.


If we are to focus on the city as a space, then we need to look into how the city also creates a binary opposition. In the case of the city, especially with industrialisation, the village is the most obvious binary. The rhetoric of development and modernity also posits the village as a binary to the city. In exploring the city as a space, we need to be aware that the representations of the city are in constant tension with notions of the village, and also of the slippages between the two.