Aspiration Contained: A Photovoice Account of Urban Marginality in Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

This article reports a photovoice study in an informal settlement (katchi abadi) in Punjab, Pakistan. It asks how residents experience aspiration, spatial inequality, and everyday survival under structural exclusion. Ten residents photographed their surroundings and discussed the images individually. Three patterns emerged. First, dwellings built as temporary have become permanent, though residents did not choose this. Second, residents make small, concrete improvements, such as a solar panel or an organized household space, which show that aspiration continues but is scaled to what can be achieved locally. We call this situated aspiration: desire that is grounded in place and actively pursued, not absent or given up. Third, residents live within sight of formal housing and infrastructure they cannot reach. We call this proximity without inclusion and argue that being close to visible development makes exclusion sharper, not softer. Participants repeatedly photographed the boundary between the settlement and the formal area beside it. This shows how they understand their position in the city and that photovoice can produce theory, not only illustration. The findings add to debates on urban informality, marginality, and aspiration in Pakistani and South Asian cities, and to critical urban theory.