This fourth edition of Urban ARC, the Annual Research Conference of the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) will focus on the conceptual, theoretical and practical understanding of notions of equality and equity in the context of a rapidly urbanising world. More than 55 per cent of the world’s population now lives in urban regions (United Nations, 2018). In particular, urbanisation has rapidly increased in low- and middle-income countries in Asia and Africa, sometimes more than three or four times in the last 50 years (ibid). However, urban areas are now more unequal than they were 20 years ago: although cities have emerged as global economic platforms for production, innovation and trade, 75 per cent of the world’s cities have higher levels of income inequalities than two decades ago (UN Habitat, 2016). This is compounded by persistent challenges around urban growth and employment, affordable housing, and service provision as well as the emergence of newer concerns around climate change, growing insecurity and international migration.

While urban regions across the world present some of the most complex challenges with regard to environmental, economic, and social sustainability, they also offer some of the greatest opportunities. In recent years, global policy processes have also recognised the role that cities must play – the New Urban Agenda from Habitat III, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the IPCC 1.5C Special Report, the U-20 development agenda have all acknowledged the necessity for cities and urban regions to play a stronger role in tackling environmental, social, and economic challenges.  This has led to an urgent call to understand and address its inherent challenges.

Research on the urban has grappled with the conceptual nature of equality and equity as well as their everyday manifestations in lived experiences within urban agglomerations. Debates around equity in cities have engaged with a wide range of themes – around questions of identity (through the politics of race, or caste, for example), around issues of income inequality and poverty, on the implication of and the relationship between emergence of new forms of work and employment on the urban (through the ‘gig’ economy, for instance), spatial inequality, access to affordable housing and segregated cities, to mention a few. These have also often been determined by disciplinary boundaries and methodological approaches.

Urban ARC 2020 aims to build on these debates, and provide a space to contest, deliberate and engage in conversations on how to make our cities more equitable. We encourage submissions that engage with notions of equity and equality through a range of lenses, across theory and praxis, across geographical and spatial contexts, and discipline and methodologies. In doing so, ‘Equal Cities’ aims to address questions of equality and equity from various disciplinary spaces, emphasising cross-disciplinary and inter-sectoral approaches across the three days of the conference.

The format of the conference will be as follows:

The length of each panel/session will be 90 minutes with 4-5 papers and will have a designated scholar who will frame the panel and serve as chair.

Dates and Procedures:

Please note that abstracts have to be submitted with the following guidelines:

1. Full title and name and institutional affiliation of the author.
2. Complete end-text and in-text referencing in APA format.

Abstracts not in the prescribed format will not be considered for inclusion in the conference proceeding.

Location:

Urban ARC 2020 will be held at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements’ Bengaluru City Campus (BCC), 2nd Main Road, Sadashivanagar,
Bengaluru – 560 080.

Financial Support:

Limited Financial Support is available for early career scholars. Participants wishing to avail of support must contact research@iihs.ac.in

Copyright:

All copyright for original work will lie with the author. IIHS will use material only with prior permission.

About the Indian Institute for Human Settlements:

The Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) is a national education institution committed to the equitable, sustainable and efficient transformation of Indian settlements. More details about IIHS, its research, practice, and work can be found at iihs.co.in.

Urban ARC 2020 will be held from 16 to 18 January 2020 at the IIHS Bengaluru City Campus. The theme of the conference this year is ‘Equal Cities’. It will focus on the conceptual, theoretical, and practical understanding of notions of equality and equity in the context of a rapidly urbanising world with more urban inequality now than two decades ago. Within this larger context, the conference will host two plenaries focusing on different aspects of urban equality.

Opening Plenary: Framing Urban Inequality

16 January 2020  |   6 pm to 8 pm

The opening panel of the conference is titled “Framing Urban Inequality”. As part of this, speakers will share reflections from their work on questions that relate to challenges of urban inequality. The panel is scheduled for 16 January 2020, from 6 pm to 8 pm.

Chair:

Aromar Revi

Speakers:

Rathin Roy

Caren Levy

Colin McFarlane

Closing Plenary: Pedagogy of Urban Inequality

18 January 2020  |   6 pm to 8 pm

The closing panel of the conference, titled “Pedagogy of Urban Inequality”, is scheduled for 18 January 2020, 6 pm to 8 pm. As part of this, speakers will reflect from their research and practice on pedagogy in the Urban, and how this connects with questions of inequality.

Chair:

Aromar Revi

Speakers:

Bish Sanyal

Adriana Allen

Shrawan Acharya

Chandrika Bahadur

Nakshe-Kathe

Becoming Bangalore: Maps, Stories

Exhibition opening: 16 January 2020

Located in Southern India on the Deccan Plateau, Bangalore has been in existence for more than 450 years. In the 16^th century, under the Vijayanagara Empire, Bangalore began to grow into a significant fortified settlement and market town, gaining regional dominance during the British Empire as a military or Cantonment town in the 1700s. While the older trading areas of Bangalore were under the control of the Mysore royal family, the northeastern parts were developed by the British.

The patterns of urbanization that emerged under the British and the Mysore royal family continue to echo earlier economic activities as well as the older physical layout and design. Although Bangalore is now a global hub for information technology and biotechnology, it has a long history of manufacturing. Now the fifth largest urban agglomeration in India, its spatial footprint and population has more than doubled since the early 1990s.

However, concerns remain about how sustainable or equitable this growth is. Rapid urbanisation, complex land markets, informalisation of work, a growing population, and consequent pressure on Bangalore’s physical infrastructure and natural resources have led to serious socio-economic and environmental challenges. Unplanned utilisation of resources is making the city prone to severe water scarcity, as the city continues to grow out in areas where there are serious groundwater deficits.

Drawing on research over the last two years, this exhibition charts the journey of a city, from a small trading settlement to contemporary Bangalore. It examines the city’s multiple intersecting transitions over the past 150 years, illustrating the changes in its lakes and water bodies, its economic and industrial transition, and the expansion of transport infrastructure.

These transitions are layered over Bangalore’s physical and spatial features and the city’s terrain.

This exhibition was completed with support from the KNOW (Grant Ref: ES/P011055/1) and PEAK Urban (Grant Ref: ES/P011225/2) programmes, funded by UKRI’s Global Challenge Research Fund.