Urban Disaster and Dissident Ethics

Amidst Karachi’s crumbling urban landscape, public grievances against state negligence have transformed ordinary charitable giving into a form of collective protest. Continuing her extensive ethnographic research, Salwa traces how charity serves as a platform for righteous dissent in one of the world’s most beleaguered city. Rather than romanticize charity as a compassionate respite from urban violence or criticize it as a capitulation to neoliberalism, Salwa seeks to explore how Karachiites utilize Muslim ethics, political protest, and popular grievance in their demand to be cared for.