Urban ARC 2023 | Cities in Flux
IIHS Annual Research Conference | 12-14 January 2023
Urban ARC 2023 | Cities in Flux
IIHS Annual Research Conference | 12-14 January 2023
The seventh edition of Urban ARC, the Annual Research Conference of the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, will be conducted between 12-14 January 2023, virtually and in person at the IIHS Bengaluru City Campus. The theme for this edition is ‘Cities in Flux’.
The call emphasises the broad spectrum of the nature of flux in and across our cities. Indeed, flux and the organic pathways that it creates in the development and evolution of cities have been the impetus for knowledge production in the Urban. They are influenced by changes in societal settings and inequality, economic processes and structure, social and technical innovation, climate change, political will and/or inaction, and many other factors. These lead more often than not, to ultrastability and the strengthening of the current order or alternatively, dramatic changes in the midst deepening inequality and conflict amidst the great accelerations of the Anthropocene. Knowledge production, through research, practice or tied to Indigenous and Local traditions, has responded to these changes by creating an expanding body of knowledge that attempts to engage and make sense of these complex and systemic changes.
Our current collective moment presents a unique blend of inevitable changes, and consequent challenges, to our practice of knowledge production. Factors like the global pandemic, deepening inequality and poverty, impending ecological overshoot, voluntary and involuntary migration, political turmoil and conflict, have sharpened in intensity, occurred simultaneously and cascaded through urban systems, via new forms of flux.
These economic, political, ecological and social processes have influenced the ways in which one accesses and thinks about housing, livelihoods, food, water, energy and goods supply, health and education services, transportation, ecological and other services – that form the core of urban living. Recent publications show how these already fast-paced changes have been further exacerbated by recent incidents like widespread protests, continuing climate crisis, Brexit, the COVID pandemic,, the Afghanistan crisis, the Ukraine-Russia war, political unrest in Sri Lanka and many other socio-economic and political upheavals, the cities around the world have experienced.
Indeed, the very nature of change in cities is changing as geopolitical conflicts, economic turmoil and inequality continue to overwhelm our often unplanned, organically grown urban spaces. Further, the cities in the global south are disproportionately impacted, due to their differential mandates, capacities and resources to respond to these factors. In recent years, as the vulnerabilities of our cities become conspicuous when faced with a new challenge, the knowledge building around understanding the fluxes our urban spaces undergo have gained increased importance.
Flux in the Urban, however, doesn’t always carry a negative connotation. The very nature of organic change is that it is driven by positive impacts, balanced by negative feedback. This when taken together can span a range of processes from homeostasis to transitions and further to transformational change. Technology for instance, in spite of its often unequal access and spread, has enabled multiple new ways of being in the Urban. The challenge for knowledge production is to critically examine these changes, build a new set of propositional calculus, and ensure voice and agency to engender more just and equitable benefits of these changes.
As a response to changes and resultant fluxes, the nature of our practices needs to be responsive, empathetic, reflexive and well honed. To do better during these moments of choice, we need to fine tune our epistemic practices, and be clearer about the values that underpin them. What to study, where to study, how to study, with whom to co-create knowledge, who gains and who loses from these choices, are key questions that need to be continually asked?
The imperative for research, practice and diverse forms of urban knowledge production is that it has to be innovative, relying on inter- and cross-disciplinary learning, challenge canonical ontology and epistemology that may no longer be fit-for-purpose (e.g. categorisations of the global North and South) and retooling methods to encompass a wide range of investigative strategies.
In keeping up with the need to understand the evolution of cities and the resultant flux, Urban ARC 2023, presents an opportunity for knowledge exchange keeping in mind the need for interdisciplinarity, locally recognised and globally relevant knowledge(s), innovative methods and methods, grounded in the principles of epistemic justice.
The conference invites researchers and practitioners to a space that allows for reflection on their practice(s) and knowledges, against the background of economic, environmental, socio-cultural and political upheaval, using diverse modes of engagement, in ideation, methodology, history, and investigation.
To understand the dynamism that urban spaces experience, the conference encourages bringing together an assortment of methods used, questions asked, geographies covered, disciplines explored, and outcomes reached. We welcome panel as well as paper submissions covering several sectors (e.g. environment and sustainability, planning and policy, among others), disciplines (e.g. social sciences, climate sciences, humanities, architecture, planning) and methods (quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods), using the lens of research, academia, policy and practice. We invite work that looks at both contemporary and historical ways of studying the urban.
Dates and Procedures:
14th November 2022 | Deadline for Submitting Abstracts |
1st week of December 2022 | Announcement of Selected Papers |
6th January 2023 | Submission of Completed Papers |
12th – 14th January 2023 | Urban ARC 2023 |
Please note that abstracts have to be submitted with the following guidelines:
Abstracts not in the prescribed format will not be considered for inclusion in the conference proceeding.
Location: Urban ARC 2023 will be conducted virtually and in person at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements’ Bengaluru City Campus (BCC), 2nd Main Road, Sadashivanagar, Bengaluru – 560 080.
Copyright: All copyright for original work will lie with the author. IIHS will use material only with prior permission.
References
1 Steffen, W., Crutzen, P. J., & McNeill, J. R. (2007, December 1). The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature. BioOne Complete. Retrieved August 22, 2022, from https://bioone.org/journals/ambio-a-journal-of-the-human-environment/volume-36/issue-8/0044-7447(2007)36%5B614%3ATAAHNO%5D2.0.CO%3B2/The- Anthropocene–Are-Humans-Now-Overwhelming-the-Great-Forces/10.1579/0044-7447(2007)36[614:TAAHNO]2.0.CO;2.short
2 Maharaj, B. (2015). The turn of the south? Social and economic impacts of mega-events in India, Brazil and South Africa.
Local Economy, 30(8), 983–999. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269094215604318
3 Ukey, R & Rai, A. (2021). Impact of Global Warming on Heating and Cooling Degree Days in Major Indian Cities.
Energy and Buildings. 244. 111050. 10.1016/j.enbuild.2021.111050.
4 Grafe, F. J. & Mieg, H. A. (2019). Connecting financialization and urbanization: the changing financial ecology of urban
infrastructure in the UK. Regional Studies, Regional Science, 6:1, 496-511, DOI: 10.1080/21681376.2019.1668291
5 Nigam, R., Pandya, K., Luis, A.J., Sengupta, R., & Kotha, M. (2021). Positive effects of COVID-19 lockdown on air quality of industrial cities. (Ankleshwar & Vapi) of Western India. Sci Rep 11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-83393-9
6 Rakshit, D. & Paul, A. (2020, June 6). Impact of COVID-19 on Sectors of Indian Economy and Business Survival Strategies. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3620727 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3620727
7 Marsden, P. & Samman, E. (2001). Afghanistan: The Economic and Social Impact of Conflict. In Frances Stewart, and Valpy Fitzgerald (eds). War and Underdevelopment, Queen Elizabeth House Series in Development Studies. (Oxford, 2000; online edn, Oxford Academic, 3 Oct. 2011), https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199241880.003.0002, accessed 22 Aug.
2022.
View the complete schedule and register online for each panel separately.
Timings are in Indian Standard Time (IST)
THURSDAY, 12 JANUARY, 2023 | |
9:00 am – 9:30 am | Opening remarks by Aromar Revi, Director, IIHS |
9:30 am – 10:00 am | Break |
10:00 am – 11:30 am | PANEL 1 Lessons for social protection from COVID 19 lockdowns Gautam Bhan, Pooja D’Souza, Harshal Gajjar, Neha Margosa, Rashee Mehra, Krishna Priya, Chimmiri Sai Rashmi, Antara Roy Chowdhury, Kinjal Sampat and Nidhi Sohane, Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) |
11:30 am – 12:00 pm | Break |
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm | PANEL 2 Understanding Inclusion and Inequality: Cases from Indian cities |
Understanding an NGO-led educational program’s efforts to contribute to a just and sustainable Mumbai Abhishek S, Arvind Sakat, Divya Jain, Nagma Shah, Vishal Patel, Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action and Research (PUKAR); Nileema Ambekar, Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) | |
Migration, child labour and the right to education: A case study of structural barriers in the educational rehabilitation of child labour Sujata Bahot, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) | |
Has the geography of deprivation changed in post-reform urban India? A look into relative poverty and access to basic services Dibyendu Biswas, Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK) | |
Impact of digital finance on financial inclusion of urban poor: Empirical evidences from the slum resettlement colonies in Chennai Anjaly Baby, Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) | |
Employer-employee relationship and informality: An employer perspective in times of distress Kinjal Sampat, Indian Institute of Human Settlements (IIHS); Sharon Buteau, Krea University | |
1:30 pm – 2:30 pm | Lunch Break |
2:30 pm – 4:00 pm | PANEL 3 Gendered transitions: Understanding urban change through gender |
Cooking through crisis: Navigating energy breakdowns in Colombo Meghal Perera, Colombo Urban Lab | |
Long way to go before they sleep: Unravelling commuting time from India’s Time Use Survey Sila Mishra, Indian Institue of Technology-Kanpur | |
The role of women in adaptation to extreme water events in low-developing areas: Case study of Chitra Nagar, Chennai Nony Gupta, IHS, Erasmus University Rotterdam | |
Inclusion or exclusion? Gendered strategies of migrants in informal settlements in Bangalore Soundarya Iyer, RV University; Nitya Rao, University of East Anglia | |
Respectful maternity care during labor and delivery and associated factors among women who gave birth in North Showa zone public health institutions, North Showa, Ethiopia, 2020. Nakachew Amare, Debre Berhan University | |
4:00 pm – 4:30 pm | Break |
4:30 pm – 6:00 pm | PANEL 4 Opening up the city: Creating urban spaces |
Securing open space in an informal settlement of Mumbai: Implications for leisure activities and community participation Balbir Aulakh, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS)-Mumbai | |
Memories of a city in transition: Analysing environmental narratives of urban public places Annie Sadhana Arulraj, Sunitha Don Bosco Anna University | |
Dissecting the word “People” in public spaces: A study of religious shrine spaces in the dominant caste neighborhood of Rajkot city Meet Kakadiya, CEPT University | |
Visual culture of a city in flux: Narratives of public statues and sculptures in Bangalore Salila Vanka, RV College of Architecture; Ravikumar Kashi, Freelance Artist; Madhuri Rao, RV College of Architecture | |
6:00 pm – 6:30 pm | Break |
6:30 pm – 8:00 pm | KEYNOTE Dimensions of Urban Development Politics: Transcalarity, Circuits, Territories Jennifer Robinson, Professor of Human Geography, University College London (UCL) |
FRIDAY, 13 JANUARY, 2023 | |
9:00 am – 11:00 am | PANEL 6 Rethinking dwelling: Housing transitions in Indian cities |
Delayed Allotment, Denied Housing! Unravelling the challenges of low-income housing delivery in Delhi Ismail Haque, Malay Kotal, Meera ML, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) | |
Investigating the need for student rental housing in India Dikchha Tiwari, Uttam Kumar Roy, Indian Institue of Technology-Roorkee | |
Unaffordable flats: The paradox of the cooperative housing society in India Varun Panickar, Priti Narayan, Paroma Wagle, University of British Columbia | |
The “flux” in Mumbai’s rent control system: Accommodating commodification in the decommodified rental sector Paankhi Agrawal, Independent Researcher | |
A method to measure perceived tenure security in low-income settlements in India Rohit Lahoti, Independent Researcher | |
Un-slumming the Slums: Deconstructing ‘Slums’ as a category in a small town of India Ritika Rajput, Aarushi Rai, Independent Researchers | |
11:00 am – 11:30 am | Break |
11:30 am – 1:00 pm | PANEL 7 Roundtable: Remaking Indian cities through peripheral resettlement |
SPEAKERS Kaveri Haritas, O.P.Jindal Global University Lalitha Kamath, Smita Waingankar, Amita Bhide, Simpreet Singh, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS)-Mumbai Kinjal Sampath, Nidhi Sohane, Indian Institute for Human Settlement (IIHS) Naresh Singaravelu, National Law School of India University (NLSU) Marina Joseph, Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA) Karen Coelho, Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) Anant Maringanti, Hyderabad Urban Lab | |
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm | Lunch break |
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm | PANEL 8 Building the city: Analyses from land, real estate and value |
Chasing Land, Chasing Crisis: Speculative urbanism in an age of financial flux Anitra Baliga, IHS, Erasmus University | |
Impacts of industrial developments on landscapes in the case of Jamshedpur (Tatanagar) Reshma Susan Mathew, Architectural Association, London | |
The city values land: an urban history of land acquisition in Delhi 1900-1940 Vandini Mehta, School of Planning and Architecture-Delhi | |
Centring socio-spatiality in the study of urban communities: Middle-class in Neo-Urban India Smriti Singh, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology-Delhi | |
3:30 pm – 4:00 pm | Break |
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm | PANEL 9 Mapping change: Planning as method, knowledge, and technique |
Socio-spatial and comparative approaches to knowledge production in urban peripheries: Insights from Chennai Loraine Kennedy, CNRS, CEIAS-EHESS, Paris | |
City as method: Repair, maintenance, and the production of urban spatiotemporality in Mumbai Proshant Chakraborty, University of Gothenburg | |
Cartographic absences and statutory abdication: The semantics of flow in Bhopal’s urbanism Saurabh Popli, School of Planning and Architecture-Bhopal | |
Simulation games as a design process for Indian Urban Planning Chandrabhanu D V N L, CMR University | |
5:30 pm – 6:00 pm | Break |
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm | PANEL 10 Shifting identities, making communities: Lessons on politics, participation and city making |
Caste as an urban problem: Chennai river restoration, slum evictions and resettlement, and vote bank politics Radhika Chander, London School Of Economics and Political Science (LSE) | |
Changing policies and dynamic networks: Implementation of participatory waste management in Mumbai Jennifer Spencer, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS)-Mumbai | |
Contesting the city: Emerging ideas of urbanity and political participation in Delhi Sumedha Chakravarthy, University of Oxford | |
South Korean pop culture and northeastern labor in Delhi’s urban village: Identity and subjectivity of migrant labor in flux Anasma Gayari, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) | |
Tourism pilgrimage and monumentality: competing ritual practices in World-Class Banaras Ishan Shahi, Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay | |
SATURDAY, 14 JANUARY, 2023 | |
11:00 am – 12:30 pm | PANEL 11 Nature and the city: Political ecologies of urban flux |
Planting for penitence: A political ecology and legal geography perspective on court-ordered plantation drives in the Central Ridge, New Delhi Nivedita Tuli, Department of Forests and Wildlife, Government of Delhi | |
Riverfronts with ravines: A case of Sabarmati River in Gandhinagar Hariyali Gajera, Dipani Sutaria, CEPT University | |
Planned beautification of Bada Talab in Ranchi, India: A study of perception and practices of local communities Shubham Bhardwaj, Central University of South Bihar | |
Agamben in Rangpuri Pahari: Emergencies and bare life Christopher Lingelbach, Ambedkar University | |
Multiple forms of environmental injustice: A study of urban political ecology of waste of Jawahar Nagar dumping yard in Hyderabad P. Shalini, University of Hyderabad | |
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm | Lunch Break |
1:30 pm – 3:00 pm | PANEL 12 Building urban resilience: Navigating environmental risk and urban sustainability |
Felt sustainability: How citizen perceptions of sustainability can inform urban water conservation policy using a case study of Delhi Jyoti Sharma, Christopher Lingelbach, FORCE | |
Strategies to strengthen urban flooding resilience: A case study of Jaipur Bineet Chhajer, Shweta Choudhary, Vivekananda Global University | |
The city, residents and the(ir) reservoir: Re-visiting the conservation narrative in rurban Bengaluru Reena Merin Cherian, Christ (Deemed to be) University | |
Assessing Gurugram, Haryana, development plan for preparedness towards pluvial floods using content analysis Venus Kashyap, Kshitij Kumar Sinha, Akanksha Bhardwaj, Deepansha Tyagi, Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women | |
Sensing infrastructures in the time of climate emergency: The case of two protests by the Arabian Sea Sumitra Nair, Ashoka University | |
3:00 pm – 3:30 pm | Break |
3:30 pm – 5:00 pm | PANEL 13 Infrastructure transitions |
The liminal State’s urban flux Glen David Kuecker, Nam Hoang, Chirag Giri, and Ravikant Kisana, DePauw University | |
Agriculture as infrastructure: Preventing and managing “encroachment” through vegetable farming in Mumbai Aayushi Bengani, University of Delhi | |
Politics of mobility: A case of four lane road in the Western Himalayas Vidisha Dhar, CEPT University | |
People Plastic Partnership: Regional identification and allocation system for Ladakh Anubhav Sahni, Sushant School of Art and Architecture | |
Producing new India: State spaces and uncertainty under India’s highway revolution Nitin Bathla, ETH Zurich | |
5:00 pm – 5:30 pm | Break |
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm | PANEL 14 Governing change: State, politics, and urban transitions |
Power over the environment? Investigating the nature of transactions behind violations along Bangalore’s Lakes Sakshi Saxena, CEPT University | |
Making infrastructure work Channaka J. Jayasinghe, Colombo Urban Lab | |
Making the intangible tangible, and the tangible intangible: How does the digital data reshape our understanding of urban mobility flows in Delhi Samuel Benkimoun, Université Paris-1 Panthéon Sorbonne UMR Géographie-Cités / Centre de Sciences Humaines-Delhi | |
Creation of the sanitary regime: A case study of the role of the street level bureaucrats in the everyday sanitation infrastructural governance in a planned residential sector of Gurugram Sumedha Priyadarshini, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS)-Mumbai | |
Smart city for whom? A study of Ahmedabad Smart City Project Sanhita Joshi, University of Mumbai | |
7:00 pm – 7:30 pm | Closing of Urban ARC 2023 |