[Sarai Newsletter] URBAN ENVIRONMENTS WORKSHOP

[The Sarai Programme]

URBAN ENVIRONMENTS WORKSHOP
NOVEMBER 3 - 4, 2004
SARAI/ CSDS, DELHI

In the recent past, environment has emerged as a major issue in urban politics 
in the cities of South Asia that has elicited a fair bit of response in the 
media, and a more limited one within the academia. The purpose of the workshop 
is to bring together ideas and engagements regarding the issue of environment 
in the cities of South Asia. We expect to sharpen these debates through a 
more historically situated engagement with the notion of 'urban environment'. 
We hope to generate discussions regarding the conceptual tools through which 
to address urban environments and also concerns around specific issues such 
as water, waste and pollution. 

An exhibition of cartoons on the state of our urban environment by Rustam 
Vania will also be on display at the Sarai Interface Zone.

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PROGRAMME SCHEDULE
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DAY 1: November 3, 2004

10.00 am - Introduction to the Workshop

10.30 -11.00 am - Tea

11.00 am - URBANITY AND NATURE

Himanshu Burte - On the Edge: Viewing the Waterside Edge of Mumbai
Prasad Shetty - Beyond Mangroves and Leopards: Mumbai

Chair and Discussant: Solomon Benjamin

1.30 pm - THE POLITICS OF WATER 

Rutul Joshi and Vishal - Story of a Vanished Lake: Gopi Talao of Surat
Shailaja Menon - The Politics of Water in Ahmedabad, 1856-1919

Chair and Discussant: Awadhendra Sharan

3.30 pm - CIRCULATING WASTE 

Bharti Chaturvedi - In the Public Interest: Reclaiming Community 
Aspirations for Recycling

Chair and Discussant: Prasad Shetty

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DAY 2: November 4, 2004

10.00 am - LANDSCAPES OF POPULAR IMAGINATION 

Solomon Benjamin - Localising Urban Environments
Manisha Garg - Turkman Gate DDA Colony: Lessons for the Built to 
Accommodate the Unbuilt

Chair and Discussant: Himanshu Burte

12.00 noon - LOCATING THE (UN)DESIRABLE

Ravi Agarwal  - Rethinking Environmental Standards
Ritika Shrimali - Quo Vadis: The Slaughterhouse in Delhi

Chair and Discussant: Prasad Shetty

2.30 pm - ENVIRONMENT AND THE 'PUBLIC'

Sunalini - In this Greedy Roughhouse of Politics: Issue, Class and the 
Public Sphere in the CNG Controversy in Delhi
Awadhendra Sharan - The City in Science and Law: Industrial Pollution, 
CNG Crisis and the Uncertain Futures of Delhi

Chair and Discussant: Ravi Agarwal

4.30 pm - Concluding Session

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URBAN TANGENT
An Exhibition of Cartoons by Rustam Vania, CSE
November 3 - 17, 2004
Sarai Interface Zone

Globally threatened, locally ignored, with dirty air and even dirtier water,
a government reduced to shooting in the dark and a population more concerned
with consuming than sustaining: sounds familiar?  Welcome to Rustam Vania's
darkly comic take on the state of our urban environment...

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The Sarai Programme
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
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Tel:  (+91) 11 23960040
       (+91) 11 23942199, ext 307
Fax: (+91) 11 23943450
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