Neha Sami

Associate Dean - School of Environment and Sustainability
Senior Lead - Academics & Research | nsami at iihs dot ac dot in
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EDUCATION:
2012    PhD, Urban and Regional Planning, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Taubman College of               Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
2004    Master of Environmental Management, Industrial & Urban Ecology, Yale School of Forestry and                           Environmental Studies, New Haven, Connecticut
2002    MMS, Finance, Rizvi Institute of Management Studies, University of Mumbai, Mumbai
2000    BA, Economics (Hons), St. Xavier’s College, University of Mumbai, Mumbai

Countries: India, United States
States: Karnataka, Maharashtra
Cities: Bengaluru, Pune
Languages: English, Hindi, Malayalam, Gujarati, Marathi, French

Neha Sami studies urban and regional development and governance in post-liberalisation India. Her research focuses on the governance arrangements of mega-projects, regional planning and on environmental governance questions in Indian cities, particularly around issues of climate change adaptation. Her earlier work focussed on the way local urban stakeholders, both within and outside government use their personal, social and political networks to shape and facilitate large developmental projects and governance initiatives that are rapidly emerging in contemporary Indian cities. She is currently studying industrial corridor development projects between Indian cities like the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, focusing particularly on governance issues. She is also interested in regional approaches to land use planning. Other ongoing research focuses on questions of environmental governance at sub-national scales, focusing especially on planning for climate change at the city and regional scales. Her writing on some of these issues has been published in the Economic and Political Weekly, the International Journal for Urban and Regional Research (IJURR) and Land Use Policy, as well as through contributions to several edited volumes.


Neha is currently faculty at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements in Bangalore, India where she teaches on questions of urban and regional governance and sustainability, and research methods and ethics. She also anchors the Research Programme at IIHS. Neha is also a member of the Editorial Collective of Urbanisation (published by SAGE).


She holds a Ph.D. in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan, a master’s degree in Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Mumbai. Prior to beginning graduate school at the University of Michigan, Sami worked with the Boston Redevelopment Authority as an analyst with the Economic Development Division, as well as with the Environment and Sustainable Development Division of the UN-ESCAP (Bangkok).

Research Projects at IIHS

2013How Urban is India?
2013Urban Corridors: Strategies for economic and urban development
2013Environmental governance and planning for CARIAA Project

 

Practice Projects at IIHS

2014Future Proofing Indian Cities (FPIC) Project
2013India Urban Policy Support Partnership
2013Identifying Emerging Locations of High-Intensity Economic Agglomerations Project in Odisha
2013–15IIHS–IGC study Project

IIHS

Commons·         Anchor & faculty: Urban Governance, Urban Sustainability

·         Faculty: Urban Economy

Concentrations·         Co-anchor & faculty: Land and Economic Development
Concentration Elective Courses:·         Environmental Planning/Policy

·         Urban Planning & Governance

·         Land

·         Built Form, Infrastructure, and the Environment

 

UPP

Urban governance (proposed course)
Part of UNDP-IIHS team on HD, DRR, and CC teaching

 

Previous Teaching Experience

2011 – 2012

2006 –2007

Institutions:

Instructor

·         Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Taubman

·         College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, September 2006 – May 2007, January 2011 – May 2012.

January 2003 – May 2003Teaching Fellow

·         Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, January – May 2003.

September 2006- May 2007 and January 2011-May 2012

 

Courses: At the University of Michigan

·         UP 423: Introduction to Urban and Environmental Planning. (Undergraduate)

·         UP 507: Intermediate Geographic Information Systems. (Graduate)

·         UP 503: Introductory Statistics. (Graduate)

·         UP 610: Fiscal Planning and Management. (Graduate)

·         UP 671: Transportation Planning and Policy. (Graduate)

June 2003 – August 2003At Yale University

·         Global Problems of Population Growth. (Undergraduate)

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Journal Articles

  • Sami, N. (2023). Rethinking the research funding process: An Indian perspective. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13148
  • Sami, N., Lall, R., Anand, G., & Anand, S. (2022). Rethinking planning education for urban equality: Higher education as a site for change. Environment and Urbanization, 34(2), 413-429. https://doi.org/10.1177/09562478221113623
  • Quentin Grafton, R., Biswas, A. K., Bosch, H., Fanaian, S., Gupta, J., Revi, A., Sami, N., & Tortajada, C. (2023). Goals, progress and priorities from Mar del Plata in 1977 to New York in 2023. Nature Water. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-023-00041-4
  • Koshy, N. S., Jagadeesh, K., Govindan, S., & Sami, N. (2021). Middlemen versus middlemen in agri-food supply chains in Bengaluru, India: Big data takes a byte. Geoforum, 127, 293-302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.11.013
  • Schindler, S., Gillespie, T., Banks, N., Bayırbağ, M. K., Burte, H., Kanai, J. M., & Sami, N. (2020). Deindustrialization in cities of the Global South. Area Development and Policy, 5(3), 283-304.
  • Sami, N., and Anand, S. (2016). Scaling up, Scaling down: State rescaling along the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor. Economic & Political Weekly, 51(17), 50-58.
  • Anand, S., & Sami, N. (2015). Urban Corridors: Strategies for Economic and Urban Development (Working Paper: C-35117-INC-1).
  • Sami, N. (2013). From Farming to Development: Urban Coalitions in Pune, India. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 37(1), 151-164.
  • Loh, C. G., & Sami, N. (2013). Death of a Planning Department: Challenges for Regionalism in a Weak Mandate State. Land Use Policy, 32(0), 39-49.

 

Books/ Book Chapters

  • Surie, A., Goswami, A., Arakali, A., Revi, A., Ravindranath, D., Bhan, G., Anand, G., Balakrishnan, K., Kapoor, N., Sami, N., Vasanth, P., Anand, S., Smitha, M. B., Viswanath, S., Baberwal, S., Mitra, S., Batikar, T., & John, V. (2023). Towards a new urban practice: The urban fellows programme 2016-2022. Indian Institute for Human Settlements. https://doi.org/10.24943/9788195847303
  • Sami, N., & Anand, S. (2023). Scaling Up, scaling down: State rescaling along the Delhi–Mumbai industrial corridor. In A. Sood & L. Kennedy (Eds.), India’s greenfield urban future: The politics of land, planning and infrastructure (pp. 65-91). Orient BlackSwan.
  • Bhatikar, T., & Sami, N. (2021). Cities and regions in South Asia. In. A. M. Orum, J. Ruiz-Tagle, & S. V. Haddock (Eds.)., Companion to urban and regional studies (pp. 3-20) Wiley Blackwell.
  • Sami, N., & Anand, S. (2021). Expert Advice? Assessing the Role of the State in Promoting Privatized Planning. In C. Hurl, & A. Vogelpohl (Eds.), Professional service firms and politics in a global era (pp. 273-292). Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Bracken, G., Rabe, P. Parthasarathy, R.,  Sami, N., & Zhang, B. (2020). Future challenges of cities in Asia: An introduction. In G. Bracken, P. Rabé, R. Parthasarathy, N. Sami, & B. Zhang (Eds.), Future challenges of cities in Asia (pp. 13-23). Amsterdam University Press.
  • Bracken, G., Rabé, P., Parthasarathy, R., Sami, N., & Zhang, B. (Eds.). (2020). Future challenges of cities in Asia. Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press.
  • Sami, N. (2018). Localising environmental governance in India: Mapping urban institutional structures. In A. Luque-Ayala, H. A. Bulkeley & S. Marvin. (Eds.), Rethinking urban transitions: Politics in the low carbon city (pp. 164-181).  London, UK: Routledge.
  • Sami, N. (2018). Multi-level climate change planning: Scale, capacity, and the ability for local action. In S. Moloney, H. Funfgeld & M. Granberg (Eds.), Local action on climate change: Opportunities and constraints (pp. 92-110). London: Routledge.
  • Sami, N. (2017). Learning by Doing: Urban Planning in Bangalore. In: Vidyarthi, S., Mathur, S. & Agrawal, S. (Eds.), Understanding India’s New Approach to Spatial Planning and Development: A Salient Shift? (pp. 90-113). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
  • Sami, N., Singh, C., & Bazaz, A. (2016). Climate change policy in India and Goal 13. In Urban policy dialogues: Operationalising SDGs. Bangalore: Indian Institute for Human Settlements. doi.org/10.24943/updsdg2016_1
  • Jana, A., Malladi, T., Anand, S., Koduganti, J., Raju, M. J. S., & Sami, N. (2015). In A. Revi (Ed.), Urban economy. Urban India 2015: Evidence. Bangalore: Indian Institute for Human Settlements.
  • Revi, A., Jana, A., Malladi, T., Anand, G., Anand, S., Bazaz, A., . . . Shah, S. (2015). Urban India 2015: Evidence. Bangalore: Indian Institute for Human Settlements.
  • Sami, N. (2014). Power to the People? A study of Bangalore’s Urban Task Forces. In Shatkin, G. (Ed.), Contesting the Indian City: Global Visions and the Politics of the Local. West Sussex, UK: Wiley Blackwell.
  • Weinstein, L., Sami, N., & Shatkin, G. (2014). Contested Developments: Enduring Legacies and Urban India. In Shatkin, G. (Ed.), Contesting the Indian city: Global Visions and the Policies of the Local (pp.39-64). West Sussex, UK: Wiley Blackwell.
  • Revi, A. & N. Sami (2013). Social Science Research and Global Environmental Change in India and South Asia. In ISSC and UNESCO, World Social Science Report 2013: Changing Global Environments (pp. 198-206). Paris: OECD Publishing/UNESCO Publishing.

 

Other Writing

  • Grafton, Q., Gupta, J., Revi, A., Mazzucato, M., Okonjo-Iewala, N., Rockström, J., Shanmugaratnam, T., Aki-Sawyerr, Y., Bárcena Ibarra, A., Cantrell, L., Espinosa, M. F., Ghosh, A., Ishii, N., Jintiach, J. C., Qui, B., Ramphele, M., Urrego, M. R., Serageldin, I., Damania, R., … Réalé, I. (2023). The what, why and how of the world water crisis: Global Commission on the Economics of Water phase 1 review and findings. https://doi.org/10.25911/GC7J-QM22
  • Revi, A., Ray, M., Mitra, S., Anand, S., Sami, N., & Malladi, T. (2020). Report to the XV finance commission on the potential of urbanisation to accelerate Post-COVID economic recovery. Indian Institute for Human Settlements.
  • 2017 Surie, A., & Neha S. (2017). The urban food system of Bengaluru, India. Cape Town, South Africa: Hungry Cities Partnership, University of Cape Town.
  • 2016 Sami, N. (2016). Can peri-urban development choose partnerships over displacement? IIHS Case No. 1-0006. Bangalore: Indian Institute for Human Settlements. https://doi.org/10.24943/1-0006
  • 2015 Anand, S., & Sami, N. (2015). Urban corridors: Strategies for economic and urban development (Working Paper: C-35117-INC-1). London: International Growth Centre.
  • 2016 Spaces of Exception
  • 2016 Bangalore’s Food Systems
  • 2016 Anand, S., & Sami, N. (2016, Forthcoming). Industrial Corridors and Urbanisation: Learnings from the DMIC.
  • Sami, N., Singh, C., & Bazaz, A. (2016). Climate change policy in India and Goal 13. In Urban policy dialogues: Operationalising SDGs. Bangalore: Indian Institute for Human Settlements. doi.org/10.24943/updsdg2016_1
  • 2015 States of Development: Does Infrastructure Planning Reinforce Trajectories of Inequality?
  • 2015 Anand, S., Arakali, A., Jana, A., Koduganti, J. & Sami, N. (2015). Manufacturing Cities: Industrial Policy and Urban Growth. (IIHS-RF Paper on Manufacturing Cities).  Bangalore: Indian Institute for Human Settlements.
  • 2015 Evading the Hierarchy: Top-Down Structure and Climate Change Adaptation in Indian Cities
  • 2014 Revi, A., Jain, G., & Sami, N. (2014). Bangalore, India: Sustainable cities initiative city report. Bangalore: Indian Institute for Human Settlements. https://doi.org/10.24943/scicr.bangalore.2014
  • 2013 Economic Planning and Urban Growth: RF Urban Policy Partnership
  • 2013 Forthcoming, Economic planning and urban growth: RF Urban Policy Partnership
  • 2013 Case for Re-framing Urban Inclusion on Magarpatta City, Pune
  • 2012-13 Future Proofing Indian Cities (FPIC): Bangalore Urban Diagnostic, Fieldwork Report & Action Plan
  • 2012 Building Alliances: Power and Politics in urban India
  • 2011 Sami, N. (2011). The Political Economy of Urban Land in India: Key Issues. Bangalore: Indian Institute for Human Settlements.
  • 2006 Local Labour for Global Exhibition – How the Rise of Construction in Preparation for the 2010 World Exposition Has Affected the Rural-Urban Migrant Population of Shanghai

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  • Sami, N., Lall, R., & Anand, S. (2022). Building Knowledge: The challenges of creating a ‘Southern’ frame for urban planning pedagogy. In T. Maloutas., & P. Koutrolikou (Eds.), RC21 Conference Ordinary Cities in Exceptional Times (p. 21). Harokopeio University, Athens. https://az659834.vo.msecnd.net/eventsairwesteuprod/production-pcoconvin-public/c8fe34fbd5e8430b8a304b35ffb6a5bc
  • Anand, S., & Sami, N. (2021). Disjunct realities: The imaginaries of mega-infrastructure projects. In S. Oosterlynck, E. Van Wymeersch, F.  Laoukili, M. Van Dam, & K. Boven (Eds.), RC21 Conference Sensing the City : Place, People, Power (p. 47). University of Antwerp, Belgium. https://medialibrary.uantwerpen.be/files/3713/d4a97a7e-6ba6-4221-b9b4-92c4de1983d5.pdf?_ga=2.2087863.749645352.1628689006-110507554.1628689006
  • Anand, S., & Sami, N. (2016, July). Apples and Oranges: Inter-regional Comparisons within India. Paper presented at the RC21 International Conference on the transgressive city: comparative perspectives on governance and the possibilities of everyday life in the emerging global city. Mexico: El Colegio De México.
  • Neha, S. & Shriya A. (2015).  Manufacturing Cities: Industrial Policy and Urban Planning in India.  Paper presented at the RC21 International Conference on The ideal city: between myth and reality. Representations, policies, contradictions and challenges for tomorrow’s urban life, Urbino, Italy, 27-29 August. Urbino: RC21 – Research Committee on Urban and Regional Development.
  • Power to the People? A study of Bangalore’s urban taskforces: Invited talk, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, 2014 January 31.
  • Anand, S. & Sami, N. (2014). Scaling up: Land Use and Economic Development in India’s urban corridors. Paper presented at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning 2014 Big Ideas, Global Impacts Conference, October 29 – November 2, 2014, Philadelphia, PA.
  • Who Develops: The Role of Urban Coalitions in India’, Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, October 7-10, 2010.
  • ‘Personal Connections: Urban coalitions in Bangalore’, ‘Contesting The Indian City: State, Space, And Citizenship In The Global Era’, Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Indian city, Centre for Studies in the Social Sciences, Kolkata, India, sponsored by the Center for South Asian Studies, University of Michigan & the Trehan India Initiative, March 5-6, 2010
  • ‘From Farming to Development: An Alternative Approach to Real Estate Development in Pune, India’, International Sociological Association RC21 Annual Conference, Sao Paulo, Brazil, August 23-25, 2009.
  • ‘Local Labor for Global Exhibition – How the Rise of Construction in Preparation for the 2010 World Exposition Has Affected the Rural-Urban Migrant Population of Shanghai’ (Joint work with Charles Garcia and Alexander Jacobsen). Outstanding Paper Award, Urban Development and Planning in China: China Planning Network (CPN) 3rd Annual Conference, Beijing, China, June 14-16, 2006.