Cohesive threshold spaces as communal anchoring nodes in shaping super diverse communities combating covid19 pandemic: the case of Kumbharwada, Dharavi, Mumbai, India

Abstract

It is Important to Understand how people perceive the world in which we live and imagine. In Indian Cities, organic slum settlement of Dharavi, Mumbai is a great example of spatialities created by people’s need and demand. It has coherence of low rise-high built densities, socio-economic & cultural diversities in shaping the physical setting. Successful urban patterns facilitate cohesiveness in the communities. The impact of pandemic (COVID19) has altered the cohesion at some level. Therefore, practicing social distancing has remained a notional norm. It will be very important to understand how people have adhered to social distancing norms in the organic settlements uplifting the community. The paper is divided into four stages. A theoretical premise is nurtured to understand prerequisite of space today which is the integration of threshold and cohesion. Threshold is defined as "separation" while, cohesion is defined as "Connection", resulting into the formation of Cohesive threshold spaces. Such spaces involve the interpersonal dynamics and sense of connection among people. The idea is to decode cohesive threshold spaces, their character, types and significance. It also intends to focus on types of spatial delimiters pulsating from micro, mesa to macro level. The spatial delimiter is then supported to understand the spatial context of spaces in detail. It also examines neighborhood of Dharavi as communal anchoring node. Cognitive perception is a method adopted possibly to record, map and analyze such spaces. The paper evaluates a case of Kumbharwada model in Dharavi to understand impacts of pandemic. It also highlights how community participation in Dharavi has emerged as a concrete prototype for social distancing and contact tracing to curtail the impacts at a large scale. Lastly, the magnitude of cohesive threshold spaces is understood by virtue of community participation to combat such pandemic today and in future accelerating successful model.