Degree
BS (Social Sciences & Liberal Arts)
Faculty / School
Faculty of Business Administration (FBA)
Department
Department of Social Sciences & Liberal Arts
Date of Award
2018
Date of Submission
2021-08-03
Advisor
Shahana Rajani, Visiting Faculty, Department of Social Sciences
Project Type
SSLA Culminating Experience
Access Type
Restricted Access
Keywords
Walls, Paintings, Graffiti, Peace, Violence, Karachi, Imperialism, Narrative, Reclamation, Public Space, Right to the City
Abstract
This paper aims to examine the Walls of Peace campaign initiated by I am Karachi in 2015. It has reclaimed approximately 2700 walls so far by removing negatively charged graffiti and replacing it with positive images. This paper explores the concept of ‘peace’ in one of the most “dangerous cities in the world”, and argues that this campaign oversimplifies the notions of ‘peace’ and ‘violence’ in the context of Karachi. Furthermore, it argues that this project is seemingly an imperial venture, which is backed by foreign funding from the USAID, and the images that it portrays highlight selective narratives, which are framed as positive and peaceful, but are in fact violent and exclusionary, because of their elite and imperial nature. Lastly, this paper explores the afterlives of the walls painted under this campaign, and problematizes the reclamation of public space narrative, raising critical questions regarding who has the rights to the city and its walls.
Pages
79
Recommended Citation
Bramchari, H. (2018). The walls as a canvas: contesting the walls of peace amidst Karachi's urban chaos (Unpublished undergraduate project). Institute of Business Administration, Pakistan. Retrieved from https://ir.iba.edu.pk/sslace/59
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