The intersection of rapid peripheral urbanisation, profound climate impacts, and sharply growing inequalities has placed our existing conceptual frameworks and approaches in disarray. While we have a rich body of research examining each of these domains independently, we lack two vital understandings. First, how do we make sense of the intersection between these processes, particularly at the rapidly growing urban periphery? Second, what does understanding this intersection mean for working towards ‘the good city’?

Peripheral expansion has emerged as a dominant mode of urbanization today, reshaping urban lives, economies, socialities, and ecologies. We identify four key forms of peripheralisation: one, as a result of deliberate intervention by state or private actors including corridors, magnet cities, new towns, or programmes of massive suburbanization; two, off-shoot growth from larger urban centres which might include expansionary real estate speculation on the urban edge; three, the formation of peripheries through often gradual settlement of and auto construction by new and typically lower-income migrants, and the diversity of activities that emerge in unplanned and underserved areas such as urban villages; four, the marginalization and lack of research on certain types of urban residents who exist at urban peripheries (Keil, 2017; Brenner and Schmid, 2011; Guney et al, 2019; Caldeira, 2017; Holston, 2009; Holston and Caldeira, 2008; Pati, 2022; Tucker and Hassan 2021; Tucker 2023).

This workshop offers a platform for a series of conversations that will enable participants to ‘step back’ and reflect, in an open-ended, dialogic way, to make sense of this intersection between peripheral urbanisation, climate change, and inequality, and what we can do about it.  For the workshop, we invite a wide set of stakeholders and perspectives on the periphery, as well as scholars whose work lies at the intersection of at least two of the above three trends to think about what these mean for our ideas about the ‘good city’.

Application Process

The seminar will be conducted at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Bengaluru and will host 15 participants. Interested candidates should send a 350-word paper proposal to peripheries.usf@gmail.com. 

Important Dates

Submission Deadline | 10 September 2023

Announcement of Results | 29 September 2023

Accommodation/Meals

Meals during the workshop will be provided for all participants. Where possible, local accommodation will be provided. We have a small amount of funding to support the travel of some participants to Bengaluru. This will be used to prioritise travel for early career scholars. The remaining participants will be required to fund their travel costs for attending the workshop. Online participation will be considered for a small set of participants that are unable to travel. 

For queries write to peripheries.usf@gmail.com