From cugambetta at yahoo.com Fri Feb 1 02:05:22 2008 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:35:22 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: REVIEW: Kalia on Sinha _Landscapes in India_ Message-ID: <176379.41575.qm@web56809.mail.re3.yahoo.com> Book review by Ravi Kalia. If we could get some (even informal) book reviews on the list in the future, I think it would be productive! Curt From: "Sumit Guha, Rutgers U." To: H-ASIA at H-NET.MSU.EDU Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 4:19:01 PM Subject: REVIEW: Kalia on Sinha _Landscapes in India_ REVIEW: H-NET BOOK REVIEW Published by H-Asia at h-net.msu.edu (January 2008) Amita Sinha. _Landscapes in India: Forms and Meanings_. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2006. 228 pp. Index. $55.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-87081-815-5. Reviewed for H-Asia by Ravi Kalia, City College, CUNY Indian landscapes are vibrant, textured, and colorful, and encompass the imprint of many a ruler that has invaded and controlled the subcontinent. Through all the invasions of the subcontinent, from the Greeks to the Mughals to the English, Indian civilization and Hindu religion have displayed remarkable adaptability, and it is that adaptability, the ability to assimilate, which has allowed Hinduism to flourish. It is therefore hard to understand that why Amita Sinha in her book limits herself. She declares that she has "used Hindu and Buddhist examples … that have had the greatest impact" on the Indian landscape (p. 15). At best, this proposition is suspect; at worst, it repudiates the diversity of other influences, even within broader Hindu tradition. Her explanation for addressing her subject in this arbitrary manner is simple: according to her, Jainism, Sikhism, Islam, and Christianity (albeit the British period) deserve separate book-length treatments. Why then does she call the book _Landscapes of India_? Sinha evidently failed to notice that such rigid compartmentalization of Indian landscapes, like compartmentalization of Indian history, has been long debunked. Hindus revere nature; however, they have rarely felt the need to mold nature into a design of their own. Banyan trees are never trimmed or cut down; instead, they are allowed to spread their drooping creepers into the middle of any village square or road. The tree is revered for itself, personifying perfection without human interference. This Hindu reverence for nature also spilled over into architecture, resulting in Hindu towns, palaces, temples, and buildings growing organically, with no geometric discipline. The Islamic tradition, informed by the Greek passion for order and logic, produced gardens and architecture that were guided by regimented lines in order to achieve perfect symmetry. According to Sinha's scheme, Indian society is driven by religion, and Indian landscapes are formulated by respective religious ideas. This suggestion is problematic, to say the least, because it ignores the syncretic influences of the Bhakti and Sufi traditions that flourished on the subcontinent. Having placed herself outside the historical context, and having locked herself into a compartmentalized landscape, Sinha relies on Jungian archetypes to work her way through the Indian (or Hindu) landscape. This allows her to search for "a common thread" that ties together Hindu "archetypal symbols" with the works of contemporary architects like Charles Correa, B. K. Doshi, Raj Rewal, and others discussed in the latter part of the book. This too is problematic because, locked in the essentialist archetype of her own creation, Sinha ignores the works of the American Louis Kahn, perhaps the most ardent follower of Jungian ideas, who profoundly influenced Doshi and, to a lesser extent, Correa. Sinha provides no space for common cultural understandings that transcend religion; she pays no attention to class, education, or economic factors. While Sinha makes multiple references to changes in urban/rural India, she provides no explanation of these changes or how they have evolved. Nonetheless, Sinha ably discusses rich Hindu mythological and epic traditions of the subcontinent. Divided into four parts--the introduction, "Natural Archetypes," "Spatial Archetypes," and "Archetypes and Design"--and drawing on the works of earlier scholars, the book explores the ideas that have sustained _vaastu purusha mandala_, Indian temple architecture, Hindu pilgrim places, and so on. According to Sinha, natural formulations such as mountains, hills, rivers, water tanks, and caves all have influenced the built environment: temples, shrines, pilgrim places. Sinha falters in her narrative when she does not question her sources. Consequently, her narrative varies in quality, depending on what sources she is consulting. For example, her discussion of Buddhist stories and the importance of the cosmic tree in Buddhist landscapes is excellent, but her treatment of Ayodhya, the site associated with the great god Rama, is problematic because she uncritically accepts nineteenth-century political inventions about that city. Similarly lacking in historical insight is the debatable claim that the Rajasthani city of Jaipur was planned in accordance with the principles of _Vaastu shastras_. The Rajput rulers themselves were transplants from Central Asia, and the sixteenth-century city could not have ignored the monumentality of Islamic structures. By compartmentalizing her work, Sinha achieves an intellectual isolation that hinders her investigation. The last section of the book is the strongest. Here she describes her work in, as a practicing architect and member of the Department of Architecture at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, developing plans for the conservation of sacred places in India and exploring low-cost housing for the poor in Navi Mumbai. (Incidentally, Correa was the main force behind the new city, which has developed as a poor cousin of the old city, with acute housing problems, particularly for the poor.) While recognizing the contradiction of "juxtaposition of modernity and tradition" in urban India (p. 3), Sinha seeks to resolve this dilemma by deploying "cosmological and cosmogonic motifs that have consistently appeared in the history of Hindu sacred landscape" (p. 197). Given the multireligious, multicultural population of India, this is problematic. She celebrates Correa's work for drawing on the traditions of each area where he is commissioned to build. His Vidhan Bhavan (State Assembly) in Bhopal (which won the Aga Khan Award) is inspired by a nearby Buddhist stupa; but such pastiche is not new to Indian architecture, which continues to struggle between recovering the great Hindu tradition and inventing the brave and promising future. (Bhopal was once ruled by a Muslim dynasty and has a sizable Muslim population.) In the 1950s, when Le Corbusier was ushering in modernism in the capital city of Chandigarh, Julius Vaz was building the auditorium for the capital city of Bhubaneswar, drawing his inspiration from the nearby Buddhist stupa at Dhauli. The American Albert Mayer's first plans for Chandigarh drew on Indian villages and bazaars, whereas the Frenchman Le Corbusier promised in his plans a design for India's industrial future. In the end, Prime Minister Nehru opted for Le Corbusier's vision. That debate between historicism and modernity remains unresolved in Indian architectural/planning circles. As India industrializes, and as the middle class expands, the demand for resources, both indigenous and imported, will increase, putting even greater pressure on the environment that is already showing signs of fatigue. It remains to be seen whether the new urban environment created from the "natural world" that Sinha calls for will materialize; but she ought to be lauded for drawing attention to an important issue facing Indian architecture and urbanism. Copyright (c) 2007 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For other uses contact the Reviews editorial staff: hbooks at mail.h-net.msu.edu ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping DEFANGED.149> ----- Forwarded Message ---- From cugambetta at yahoo.com Fri Feb 1 02:13:04 2008 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:43:04 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] cities/citizenship symposium at berkeley Message-ID: <927573.33569.qm@web56812.mail.re3.yahoo.com> http://ced.berkeley.edu/symposia/southasia/symposiumprogram.htm I came across this, and thought you all might be interested to see the papers presented at this recent symposium. Curt ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ From elkamath at yahoo.com Fri Feb 1 09:24:35 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:54:35 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: REMINDER: Migrant/Media/Metropolis: New Labour Struggles in the global city Message-ID: <580774.22799.qm@web53608.mail.re2.yahoo.com> FYI > Migrant / Media / Metropolis > New labour struggles in the global city > Saturday February 2nd, Amsterdam (Program Below) > > Migration and media-activists gather with theorists and labour > organizers to discuss and share best practices in the fight against > precarity and insecure labour conditions. Sharing inspiring examples of > social justice unionism and creative campaigning like "Justice for > Janitors" in the U.S. and "Cleaners For a Better Future" in the > Netherlands. The aim is to challenge traditional labour practices, > syndicate and inspire a sharper network of social activists, academics, > media makers and artists to join contemporary urban labour struggles and > confederate into a globalization from below. > > With: Enrica Rigo (migration researcher); Marcel van der Linden (Labour > Historian) Zoe Romano (Chainworkers); Nico Sguiglia (Oficinas Sociales), > Massimo De Angelis (the Commoner), Dagmar Diesner (No Borders London), > Seoren Kohler (Multitude), Hagen Kopp (migration activist), preceded by > the book launch of Urban Politics Now! (NAi, 2007). > > Date | Saturday February 2 > > Time | 13.00 - 18.30 hrs. > > Language | English > > Live webcast | www.debalie.nl/live > > Organised in collaboration with Flexmens / Coalition For a Better Future / > FNV Bongenoten > > ========== > > Programme: > > 13:00-13:45 preprogramme – book launch: Urban Politics Now! Reimagining > democracy in the Neoliberal City. With participation from BAVO, Henk van > Houtum en Merijn Oudenampsen. > > 14:00 – 15:30 Start main programme > > panel #1 "Towards a Globalisation from Below" > Facilator: Valery Alzaga (Justice for Janitors – Global Campaign) > > -Massimo De Angelis, Beginning of History: global capital, global value > struggle > -Enrica Rigo, Contested Migrant Citizenship in Europe > -Marcel van der Linden, Organizing and New Labour Internationalism > -Hagen Kopp, Forging a Transnational chain of migration-activism > > Globalization has brought us an increasingly integrated global circuit > of large corporations and financial conglomerates, which have > concentrated power in fewer and fewer hands. On the other side, we can > find an emerging globalization from below, that of migrants, labour > struggles and social activists, claiming space and redistributing wealth. > > 15:30-16:00 Break with possibility of sandwich and conspiring. > > 16:00- 17:15 > panel #2 "Syndicalism 2.0" > > -Dutch Cleaners Campaign (Juliano Vieira & Herrie Hoogenboom,organizer FNV > Bongenoten) > -Migrant labour struggles in South Spain (Nico Scuglia, Indymedia > Estrecho) > -Filipino Migrant Domestic Workers Union (Fe Jusay - CFMW & Katrien > Depuydt - Abvakabo) > -German Retail Strike (Franziska Bruder, Verdi) > > Examples of campaigns that have brought inspiration and innovation back > to labour, revolving around organizing and social movement unionism, > building community, going back to the base and out of the office. > > 17:15-18:30 > panel #3 "No Longer Invisible: Labour & Media" > -Zoe Romano (Chainworkers Milano), interventions of a bio syndicate > -Merijn Oudenampsen (Betere Toekomst), Mediawork in Dutch Cleaners > Campaign > -Soeren Kohler (Multitude e.V) : Media-activism and worker participation > at German Retail strike > -Dagmar Diesner (NoBorders London), Screening Underground Londoners > > Media-activism has provided a vital ingredient to new campaigns, to > visibilize what normally remains hidden from view. Media-activists > showcase their work, and discuss issues of participation and > representation. > Cross-posted frm DEBATE list ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080131/84cd79e6/attachment.html From prem.cnt at gmail.com Sat Feb 2 18:55:15 2008 From: prem.cnt at gmail.com (Prem Chandavarkar) Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2008 18:55:15 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Of Roads and Widening Perspectives In-Reply-To: <416067.58511.qm@web36105.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <416067.58511.qm@web36105.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <7e230b560802020525x1cbf71dfs730fbc1e3e8b894c@mail.gmail.com> On 29/01/2008, Zainab Bawa wrote: > > > If the city is experience, isn't experience the city? What produces this > experience? Whose experience is valid? Whose experience is legitimate? Are > there invalid and illegitimate experiences? Now with that horratta about 85 > roads to be widened, does the experience change? Whose experience changes? > Who changes experience? What was experienced before, what is experienced > now, what will be experienced down the line? "To put it polemically, there is no such *thing* as a city. Rather *the city* designates the space produced by the interaction of historically and geographically specific institutions, social relations of production and reproduction, practices of government, forms and media of communication, and so forth. By calling this diversity 'the city', we ascribe to it a coherence or integrity. *The city*, then, is above all a representation. But what sort of representation? By analogy with the now familiar idea that the nation provides us with an 'imagined community', I would argue that the city constitutes an *imagined* *environment*. What is involved in that imagining – the discourses, symbols, metaphors and fantasies through which we ascribe meaning to the modern experience of urban living – is as important a topic for the social sciences as the material determinants of the physical environment." James Donald, "Metropolis: The City as Text", in R. Bocock and K. Thompson (eds.), *Social and Cultural Forms of Modernity* (Polity Press, Cambridge, 1992), pp. 417-61, p.427. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080202/0d765193/attachment-0001.html From conlon at u.washington.edu Sat Feb 2 20:43:30 2008 From: conlon at u.washington.edu (Frank Conlon) Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2008 07:13:30 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Of Roads and Widening Perspectives In-Reply-To: <7e230b560802020525x1cbf71dfs730fbc1e3e8b894c@mail.gmail.com> References: <416067.58511.qm@web36105.mail.mud.yahoo.com> <7e230b560802020525x1cbf71dfs730fbc1e3e8b894c@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Is James Donald a Buddhist? His analysis of what might be called "the city that isn't" sounds like a derivative of the famous Buddhist story the Milindapanha or Questions of Menander in which the Venerable Nagasena demonstrates to the Hellinized ruler the contingent and constructed nature of our personhood. I have appreciated Zainab Bawa's thoughts on living in a city--her perceptions may be invalid from the Donald perspective, but I recall Finley Peter Dunne's Mr. Dooley--a fictional Irish tavern keeper in Chicago--when speaking to his friend and customer Hennesey, observing of "History"--"Hinnisey, I dont care to know what people died of; I want to know what they lived of." Carry on Zainab. cheers (from the presently still convenient assemblage of atoms, water, actions and memories) Frank Frank F. Conlon Professor Emeritus of History, South Asian Studies & Comparative Religion University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195-3560 USA Co-editor, H-ASIA President, H-NET Humanities & Social Sciences Online Managing Director, Bibliography of Asian Studies Online On Sat, 2 Feb 2008, Prem Chandavarkar wrote: > On 29/01/2008, Zainab Bawa wrote: >> >> >> If the city is experience, isn't experience the city? What produces this >> experience? Whose experience is valid? Whose experience is legitimate? Are >> there invalid and illegitimate experiences? Now with that horratta about 85 >> roads to be widened, does the experience change? Whose experience changes? >> Who changes experience? What was experienced before, what is experienced >> now, what will be experienced down the line? > > > > "To put it polemically, there is no such *thing* as a city. Rather *the > city* designates the space produced by the interaction of historically and > geographically specific institutions, social relations of production and > reproduction, practices of government, forms and media of communication, and > so forth. By calling this diversity 'the city', we ascribe to it a > coherence or integrity. *The city*, then, is above all a representation. But > what sort of representation? By analogy with the now familiar idea that the > nation provides us with an 'imagined community', I would argue that the city > constitutes an *imagined* *environment*. What is involved in that imagining > – the discourses, symbols, metaphors and fantasies through which we ascribe > meaning to the modern experience of urban living – is as important a topic > for the social sciences as the material determinants of the physical > environment." > > James Donald, "Metropolis: The City as Text", in R. Bocock and K. Thompson > (eds.), *Social and Cultural Forms of Modernity* (Polity Press, Cambridge, > 1992), pp. 417-61, p.427. > From sollybenj at yahoo.co.in Sat Feb 2 21:01:45 2008 From: sollybenj at yahoo.co.in (solomon benjamin) Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2008 15:31:45 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Of Roads and Widening Perspectives In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <888929.66237.qm@web8905.mail.in.yahoo.com> This is a useful conceptual string, thanks Zainab, Prem and Frank. .. I think the 'Buddhist' idea is an interesting metaphor, and in the Donald's rather meta narrative take reminded me of Doreen Massey's critique of Harvey et.al (her book 'For Space', and on 'Locality... in the journal progress and planning). In those accounts she sees a problem with the city and space being subject to a larger historical process and of a larger structure. Thus, while the city might be an 'imaginary' the issue may be of whose imaginary and where do these get constituted from. The other issue is if the 'imaginary' and the material get set up into a binary that values one over the other rather than see the 'space' via its day to day engagement..(as reflected in Zainab's text)... perhaps its in these day to day experiences we would see forms of subversions of the mega imaginary, not just an 'encroachment' as Bayat in his very useful work on street politics, that is dependent on 'social movements' but rather when day to day practices (both imaginary and material) form the mainstream itself... (much to the dismay of the progressive activist who loose out a constituency to 'organize' and educate) Cheers Solly --- Frank Conlon wrote: > Is James Donald a Buddhist? His analysis of what > might be called "the > city that isn't" sounds like a derivative of the > famous Buddhist story the > Milindapanha or Questions of Menander in which the > Venerable Nagasena > demonstrates to the Hellinized ruler the contingent > and constructed nature > of our personhood. > > I have appreciated Zainab Bawa's thoughts on living > in a city--her > perceptions may be invalid from the Donald > perspective, but I recall > Finley Peter Dunne's Mr. Dooley--a fictional Irish > tavern keeper in > Chicago--when speaking to his friend and customer > Hennesey, observing of > "History"--"Hinnisey, I dont care to know what > people died of; I want to > know what they lived of." > > Carry on Zainab. > > cheers (from the presently still convenient > assemblage of atoms, water, > actions and memories) > > Frank > > Frank F. Conlon > Professor Emeritus of History, South Asian > Studies & Comparative Religion > University of Washington > Seattle, WA 98195-3560 USA > Co-editor, H-ASIA > President, H-NET Humanities & Social Sciences Online > Managing Director, Bibliography of Asian Studies > Online > > On Sat, 2 Feb 2008, Prem Chandavarkar wrote: > > > On 29/01/2008, Zainab Bawa > wrote: > >> > >> > >> If the city is experience, isn't experience the > city? What produces this > >> experience? Whose experience is valid? Whose > experience is legitimate? Are > >> there invalid and illegitimate experiences? Now > with that horratta about 85 > >> roads to be widened, does the experience change? > Whose experience changes? > >> Who changes experience? What was experienced > before, what is experienced > >> now, what will be experienced down the line? > > > > > > > > "To put it polemically, there is no such *thing* > as a city. Rather *the > > city* designates the space produced by the > interaction of historically and > > geographically specific institutions, social > relations of production and > > reproduction, practices of government, forms and > media of communication, and > > so forth. By calling this diversity 'the city', > we ascribe to it a > > coherence or integrity. *The city*, then, is > above all a representation. But > > what sort of representation? By analogy with the > now familiar idea that the > > nation provides us with an 'imagined community', I > would argue that the city > > constitutes an *imagined* *environment*. What is > involved in that imagining > > – the discourses, symbols, metaphors and fantasies > through which we ascribe > > meaning to the modern experience of urban living – > is as important a topic > > for the social sciences as the material > determinants of the physical > > environment." > > > > James Donald, "Metropolis: The City as Text", in > R. Bocock and K. Thompson > > (eds.), *Social and Cultural Forms of Modernity* > (Polity Press, Cambridge, > > 1992), pp. 417-61, p.427. > >> _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group > archives, please visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > Asst. Prof Solomon Benjamin Room 3035, Dept of Political Science, Sidney Smith Building, University of Toronto 100 St George Street Toronto M5 S 3G3 Ph: (416) 978 3344 Cell: 647 - 291 - 5910 Bring your gang together - do your thing. Go to http://in.promos.yahoo.com/groups From sharma_mail at yahoo.com Sat Feb 2 19:16:46 2008 From: sharma_mail at yahoo.com (manish sharma) Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2008 05:46:46 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] IKEA city_idea Message-ID: <82058.22508.qm@web51403.mail.re2.yahoo.com> my first posting 'IKEA city'_idea attached with this mail would love comments manish sharma photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/futureisinbeta/ contact +65 93397934 (handphone/ mobile) +65 63007904 (resi.) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080202/7481a4c6/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: IKEA city_idea.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 857901 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080202/7481a4c6/attachment-0001.pdf From bawazainab79 at gmail.com Sun Feb 3 00:16:02 2008 From: bawazainab79 at gmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2008 00:16:02 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Of Roads and Widening Perspectives In-Reply-To: <888929.66237.qm@web8905.mail.in.yahoo.com> References: <888929.66237.qm@web8905.mail.in.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Dear Prem, Frank and Solly (in that order), Thanks for the comments and the discussion. I will also disagree with James Donald and the textual analysis of the city. On reflecting back on the posting, I recognize that the experience is constituted on and through a material terrain that is also the city. This material terrain becomes critical because it is on this material grounds that experiences are developed (and the experiences in turn shape the material terrain). Claims are made on the material terrain of the city and contests and politics are located around the material terrain. But as Solly pointed out, this is not moving towards a material/experience binary because both are implicated in each other. Again, materiality must not be read as mundane and economistic. Harvey's work tends to reduce materiality to economism whereas I would guess (and I don't know if other scholars have posited this) that the material is constituted of and produced through practices, affect and politics (among others). Therefore I threw the question that if the city is experience, then whose experiences are valid, legitimate and are there invalid and illegitimate experiences because I alluding to the material grounds of the city which seems to have become the turf for contests and conflicts. To make the distinction between the city and the urban, Lefebvre suggests that the city is the practico-material base while the urban is constituted through social relations. But I understand that Lefebvre made this distinction to draw our attention to questions of scale and levels. I guess he also suggested this in order to hint towards a way of doing research and understanding the city. Seems to be getting messy, but anyway, my tuppence to the discussion. Thanks again for taking this forward. Cheers, Zainab On Feb 2, 2008 9:01 PM, solomon benjamin wrote: > This is a useful conceptual string, thanks Zainab, > Prem and Frank. .. > I think the 'Buddhist' idea is an interesting > metaphor, and in the Donald's rather meta narrative > take reminded me of Doreen Massey's critique of > Harvey et.al (her book 'For Space', and on > 'Locality... in the journal progress and planning). In > those accounts she sees a problem with the city and > space being subject to a larger historical process and > of a larger structure. Thus, while the city might be > an 'imaginary' the issue may be of whose imaginary and > where do these get constituted from. The other issue > is if the 'imaginary' and the material get set up into > a binary that values one over the other rather than > see the 'space' via its day to day engagement..(as > reflected in Zainab's text)... perhaps its in these > day to day experiences we would see forms of > subversions of the mega imaginary, not just an > 'encroachment' as Bayat in his very useful work on > street politics, that is dependent on 'social > movements' but rather when day to day practices (both > imaginary and material) form the mainstream itself... > (much to the dismay of the progressive activist who > loose out a constituency to 'organize' and educate) > Cheers > Solly > > > > --- Frank Conlon wrote: > > > Is James Donald a Buddhist? His analysis of what > > might be called "the > > city that isn't" sounds like a derivative of the > > famous Buddhist story the > > Milindapanha or Questions of Menander in which the > > Venerable Nagasena > > demonstrates to the Hellinized ruler the contingent > > and constructed nature > > of our personhood. > > > > I have appreciated Zainab Bawa's thoughts on living > > in a city--her > > perceptions may be invalid from the Donald > > perspective, but I recall > > Finley Peter Dunne's Mr. Dooley--a fictional Irish > > tavern keeper in > > Chicago--when speaking to his friend and customer > > Hennesey, observing of > > "History"--"Hinnisey, I dont care to know what > > people died of; I want to > > know what they lived of." > > > > Carry on Zainab. > > > > cheers (from the presently still convenient > > assemblage of atoms, water, > > actions and memories) > > > > Frank > > > > Frank F. Conlon > > Professor Emeritus of History, South Asian > > Studies & Comparative Religion > > University of Washington > > Seattle, WA 98195-3560 USA > > Co-editor, H-ASIA > > President, H-NET Humanities & Social Sciences Online > > Managing Director, Bibliography of Asian Studies > > Online > > > > On Sat, 2 Feb 2008, Prem Chandavarkar wrote: > > > > > On 29/01/2008, Zainab Bawa > > wrote: > > >> > > >> > > >> If the city is experience, isn't experience the > > city? What produces this > > >> experience? Whose experience is valid? Whose > > experience is legitimate? Are > > >> there invalid and illegitimate experiences? Now > > with that horratta about 85 > > >> roads to be widened, does the experience change? > > Whose experience changes? > > >> Who changes experience? What was experienced > > before, what is experienced > > >> now, what will be experienced down the line? > > > > > > > > > > > > "To put it polemically, there is no such *thing* > > as a city. Rather *the > > > city* designates the space produced by the > > interaction of historically and > > > geographically specific institutions, social > > relations of production and > > > reproduction, practices of government, forms and > > media of communication, and > > > so forth. By calling this diversity 'the city', > > we ascribe to it a > > > coherence or integrity. *The city*, then, is > > above all a representation. But > > > what sort of representation? By analogy with the > > now familiar idea that the > > > nation provides us with an 'imagined community', I > > would argue that the city > > > constitutes an *imagined* *environment*. What is > > involved in that imagining > > > – the discourses, symbols, metaphors and fantasies > > through which we ascribe > > > meaning to the modern experience of urban living – > > is as important a topic > > > for the social sciences as the material > > determinants of the physical > > > environment." > > > > > > James Donald, "Metropolis: The City as Text", in > > R. Bocock and K. Thompson > > > (eds.), *Social and Cultural Forms of Modernity* > > (Polity Press, Cambridge, > > > 1992), pp. 417-61, p.427. > > >> _______________________________________________ > > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group > > archives, please visit > > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > > > Asst. Prof Solomon Benjamin > Room 3035, Dept of Political Science, Sidney Smith Building, > University of Toronto 100 St George Street > Toronto M5 S 3G3 > Ph: (416) 978 3344 Cell: 647 - 291 - 5910 > > > > > Bring your gang together - do your thing. Go to > http://in.promos.yahoo.com/groups > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > -- Zainab Bawa Ph.D. Student and Independent Researcher Between Places ... http://wbfs.wordpress.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080203/0064ed19/attachment.html From rajeevy at gmail.com Sun Feb 3 01:47:51 2008 From: rajeevy at gmail.com (Rajeev Yerneni) Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2008 15:17:51 -0500 Subject: [Urbanstudy] IKEA city_idea In-Reply-To: <82058.22508.qm@web51403.mail.re2.yahoo.com> References: <82058.22508.qm@web51403.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <74276e6f0802021217w65282cf6qafcf0e854058e6b3@mail.gmail.com> Just something to add to your idea, as cities change (or face change) there also seems to be a movement to embrace the old, be it brownstones in NYC or old neighborhoods in Shanghai. Somehow the 'antique' needs to be mixed in with the 'IKEA' concept so that it does not just become a specification, an interchangeable part in a homogeneous system. Rajeev Yerneni On Feb 2, 2008 8:46 AM, manish sharma wrote: > my first posting > > 'IKEA city'_idea > attached with this mail > > would love comments > > > > manish sharma > *photos* http://www.flickr.com/photos/futureisinbeta/ *contact* +65 > 93397934 (handphone/ mobile) +65 63007904 (resi.) > > > > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080202/517c0e82/attachment.html From debsinha at gmail.com Sun Feb 3 03:16:12 2008 From: debsinha at gmail.com (Deb Ranjan Sinha (Gmail)) Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2008 16:46:12 -0500 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Of Roads and Widening Perspectives References: <888929.66237.qm@web8905.mail.in.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <01b201c865e5$0a5025c0$0200000a@PAGOL> hi all, my understanding of the urban literature is limited to say the least, but i feel that what harvey and others (including lefebvre and massey) have tried hard to incorporate in their work is a way of working out the non-material through their expression in the material world....now i agree there are different degrees to which they have succeeded in doing that and their ideas may not agree with those who conceptualise a space/place outside the material world....but the post-structural literature in rich in examples of people trying to understand how spaces are destroyed, co-opted, created, etc.... harvey's 'justice, nature and the geography of difference' and marshall berman's 'all that is solid melts into air' are two of my favourite books... regards, deb. From sharma_mail at yahoo.com Sun Feb 3 12:09:10 2008 From: sharma_mail at yahoo.com (manish sharma) Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2008 22:39:10 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] IKEA city_idea Message-ID: <889453.15010.qm@web51408.mail.re2.yahoo.com> would work on it a bit more perhaps i try and make a city out of it. let see what it looks like in real manish sharma photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/futureisinbeta/ contact +65 93397934 (handphone/ mobile) +65 63007904 (resi.) ----- Original Message ---- From: Rajeev Yerneni To: manish sharma Cc: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net Sent: Sunday, 3 February, 2008 4:17:51 AM Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] IKEA city_idea Just something to add to your idea, as cities change (or face change) there also seems to be a movement to embrace the old, be it brownstones in NYC or old neighborhoods in Shanghai. Somehow the 'antique' needs to be mixed in with the 'IKEA' concept so that it does not just become a specification, an interchangeable part in a homogeneous system. Rajeev Yerneni On Feb 2, 2008 8:46 AM, manish sharma wrote: my first posting 'IKEA city'_idea attached with this mail would love comments manish sharma photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/futureisinbeta/ contact +65 93397934 (handphone/ mobile) +65 63007904 (resi.) _______________________________________________ Urbanstudygroup mailing list Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080202/e837de19/attachment-0001.html From renu_d at berkeley.edu Tue Feb 5 10:54:05 2008 From: renu_d at berkeley.edu (renu_d at berkeley.edu) Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2008 21:24:05 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Research Opportunity/Job re: Urban Local Governance Message-ID: <49885.67.116.241.209.1202189045.squirrel@calmail.berkeley.edu> Hello all, Navdeep Mathur, a professor with the Public Systems Group at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, sent me the following information that might be of interest to people on this group. He wrote: "We're starting a two year project looking at the impact of neoliberal discourse on urban local governance spaces. Would you know anyone working in this area who might like a research opportunity/job for 2 years stationed at IIM?" Attached is the ad for this research opportunity/job. Best, Renu Desai PhD Candidate Department of Architecture University of California, Berkeley -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: RF_Globalisation_Cities_Local_Governance.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 32121 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080204/a7add8ed/attachment-0001.pdf From anilaemmanuel at gmail.com Tue Feb 5 11:38:13 2008 From: anilaemmanuel at gmail.com (anila emmanuel) Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:38:13 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] save the yamuna Message-ID: <59ead66c0802042208p30ebc135u9a98d6f4f76f3441@mail.gmail.com> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080205/978b0e3d/attachment.htm From prem.cnt at gmail.com Wed Feb 6 19:33:58 2008 From: prem.cnt at gmail.com (Prem Chandavarkar) Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2008 19:33:58 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Of Roads and Widening Perspectives In-Reply-To: References: <888929.66237.qm@web8905.mail.in.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <7e230b560802060603j2fbf3b1bvb330e286b7d9bd4@mail.gmail.com> Dear Zainab, I threw in that James Donald quote to argue that that the coherence of the city is constituted by our imagination and not to argue that it is primarily textual. One cannot deny the materiality of the city - particularly how its materiality is constituted in a way that excludes many. For example the parceling of land by the land use plan, which sets up a subsequent pricing of land values and rentals that make the city (in the Indian context) unaffordable to significant segments of the population. This forces them to use the gaps in the system, and locate on parcels of land through forms of tenure that do not have official sanction. Their so called 'criminality of squatting' is forced on them by the system; it is not a choice. They survive through the poor enforcement of the system; if we started enforcing master plans more effectively upon the current socio-economic order, we would have a disaster. There has been some discussion on fighting for housing as a fundamental constitutional right. I have been wondering if it would be more useful to broaden this discussion around the question of citizenship. While we have a well recognised concept of political citizenship that revolves around the issue of voting rights, should we also recognise that citizenship is incomplete unless it is also spatial. One should have a process by which one can officially locate oneself on the official maps of the political territory - and if the process by which the maps is develop results in exclusion of people, then the process needs redefinition as it is violative of fundamental citizenship rights. Ultimately the question becomes political. Solly has already cited Doreen Massey - and it would be useful to cite her in more detail, particular the relationship she draws between space and time. She demonstrates that when there is a failure to see this relationship as continuous and dynamic, it results in distortions of political power. Massey identifies three typical distortions: 1. Space and time are delinked. The example she gives is the army of Hernan Cortes poised to invade the Aztec city Tenochtitlan. To Cortes and his army, the city spaces he sees in front of him are devoid of any relationship with time. They are seen as empty of history, and therefore reduced to mere phenomena on a surface; therefore subject to appropriation. While this was the primary outlook of colonialism, it is still present in the power equations of many parts of the world (Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, etc.). 2. Spaces are differentiated only in terms of time. This is the current rhetoric of globalisation which argues for a uniform economic order through WTO, GATT, GATS, etc. When it is argued that Mali, Mozambique or Nicaragua are perhaps different and may need a different order, the response is that they are merely behind in time and given an opportunity will be able to catch up. 3. The relationship between space and time is seen as stable and fixed. This drives conservative and fundamentalist claims to a pure cultural order that must be preserved. Massey argues for a dynamic relationship of space and time through which we see space as: a. The product of interrelations b. The space for multiplicities c. Never closed, always open, and continuously constructed. All this brings us back to the political. The dominant discourse will always assume that there is such a thing as "the public interest", and this thing is easily definable if we turn our attention to it. It does not pause to consider that what is actually happening are competing private claims to define the public interest. What kind of system do we need to develop so that this competition is foregrounded and transparent, rather than the current status of background and opaque. As an architect, my interest is from the viewpoint of urban planning, and I wonder how we should define the discipline. Should we say it is primarily the definition of a proper spatial order to which a population should adjust itself, or should we seek to make it a process by which a population negotiates its spatial order in an inclusive manner. It is probably not a black and white either/or choice. But conventional practice only considers the former question, and we have not devoted enough conceptual rigour and analysis to the latter. Regards, Prem On 03/02/2008, Zainab Bawa wrote: > > Dear Prem, Frank and Solly (in that order), > > Thanks for the comments and the discussion. I will also disagree with > James Donald and the textual analysis of the city. On reflecting back on the > posting, I recognize that the experience is constituted on and through a > material terrain that is also the city. This material terrain becomes > critical because it is on this material grounds that experiences are > developed (and the experiences in turn shape the material terrain). Claims > are made on the material terrain of the city and contests and politics are > located around the material terrain. But as Solly pointed out, this is not > moving towards a material/experience binary because both are implicated in > each other. Again, materiality must not be read as mundane and economistic. > Harvey's work tends to reduce materiality to economism whereas I would guess > (and I don't know if other scholars have posited this) that the material is > constituted of and produced through practices, affect and politics (among > others). Therefore I threw the question that if the city is experience, then > whose experiences are valid, legitimate and are there invalid and > illegitimate experiences because I alluding to the material grounds of the > city which seems to have become the turf for contests and conflicts. > > To make the distinction between the city and the urban, Lefebvre suggests > that the city is the practico-material base while the urban is constituted > through social relations. But I understand that Lefebvre made this > distinction to draw our attention to questions of scale and levels. I guess > he also suggested this in order to hint towards a way of doing research and > understanding the city. > > Seems to be getting messy, but anyway, my tuppence to the discussion. > Thanks again for taking this forward. > > Cheers, > > Zainab > > On Feb 2, 2008 9:01 PM, solomon benjamin wrote: > > > This is a useful conceptual string, thanks Zainab, > > Prem and Frank. .. > > I think the 'Buddhist' idea is an interesting > > metaphor, and in the Donald's rather meta narrative > > take reminded me of Doreen Massey's critique of > > Harvey et.al (her book 'For Space', and on > > 'Locality... in the journal progress and planning). In > > those accounts she sees a problem with the city and > > space being subject to a larger historical process and > > of a larger structure. Thus, while the city might be > > an 'imaginary' the issue may be of whose imaginary and > > where do these get constituted from. The other issue > > is if the 'imaginary' and the material get set up into > > a binary that values one over the other rather than > > see the 'space' via its day to day engagement..(as > > reflected in Zainab's text)... perhaps its in these > > day to day experiences we would see forms of > > subversions of the mega imaginary, not just an > > 'encroachment' as Bayat in his very useful work on > > street politics, that is dependent on 'social > > movements' but rather when day to day practices (both > > imaginary and material) form the mainstream itself... > > (much to the dismay of the progressive activist who > > loose out a constituency to 'organize' and educate) > > Cheers > > Solly > > > > > > > > --- Frank Conlon wrote: > > > > > Is James Donald a Buddhist? His analysis of what > > > might be called "the > > > city that isn't" sounds like a derivative of the > > > famous Buddhist story the > > > Milindapanha or Questions of Menander in which the > > > Venerable Nagasena > > > demonstrates to the Hellinized ruler the contingent > > > and constructed nature > > > of our personhood. > > > > > > I have appreciated Zainab Bawa's thoughts on living > > > in a city--her > > > perceptions may be invalid from the Donald > > > perspective, but I recall > > > Finley Peter Dunne's Mr. Dooley--a fictional Irish > > > tavern keeper in > > > Chicago--when speaking to his friend and customer > > > Hennesey, observing of > > > "History"--"Hinnisey, I dont care to know what > > > people died of; I want to > > > know what they lived of." > > > > > > Carry on Zainab. > > > > > > cheers (from the presently still convenient > > > assemblage of atoms, water, > > > actions and memories) > > > > > > Frank > > > > > > Frank F. Conlon > > > Professor Emeritus of History, South Asian > > > Studies & Comparative Religion > > > University of Washington > > > Seattle, WA 98195-3560 USA > > > Co-editor, H-ASIA > > > President, H-NET Humanities & Social Sciences Online > > > Managing Director, Bibliography of Asian Studies > > > Online > > > > > > On Sat, 2 Feb 2008, Prem Chandavarkar wrote: > > > > > > > On 29/01/2008, Zainab Bawa > > > wrote: > > > >> > > > >> > > > >> If the city is experience, isn't experience the > > > city? What produces this > > > >> experience? Whose experience is valid? Whose > > > experience is legitimate? Are > > > >> there invalid and illegitimate experiences? Now > > > with that horratta about 85 > > > >> roads to be widened, does the experience change? > > > Whose experience changes? > > > >> Who changes experience? What was experienced > > > before, what is experienced > > > >> now, what will be experienced down the line? > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > "To put it polemically, there is no such *thing* > > > as a city. Rather *the > > > > city* designates the space produced by the > > > interaction of historically and > > > > geographically specific institutions, social > > > relations of production and > > > > reproduction, practices of government, forms and > > > media of communication, and > > > > so forth. By calling this diversity 'the city', > > > we ascribe to it a > > > > coherence or integrity. *The city*, then, is > > > above all a representation. But > > > > what sort of representation? By analogy with the > > > now familiar idea that the > > > > nation provides us with an 'imagined community', I > > > would argue that the city > > > > constitutes an *imagined* *environment*. What is > > > involved in that imagining > > > > – the discourses, symbols, metaphors and fantasies > > > through which we ascribe > > > > meaning to the modern experience of urban living – > > > is as important a topic > > > > for the social sciences as the material > > > determinants of the physical > > > > environment." > > > > > > > > James Donald, "Metropolis: The City as Text", in > > > R. Bocock and K. Thompson > > > > (eds.), *Social and Cultural Forms of Modernity* > > > (Polity Press, Cambridge, > > > > 1992), pp. 417-61, p.427. > > > >> _______________________________________________ > > > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > > > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > > > > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group > > > archives, please visit > > > > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > > > > > > > Asst. Prof Solomon Benjamin > > Room 3035, Dept of Political Science, Sidney Smith Building, > > University of Toronto 100 St George Street > > Toronto M5 S 3G3 > > Ph: (416) 978 3344 Cell: 647 - 291 - 5910 > > > > > > > > > > Bring your gang together - do your thing. Go to > > http://in.promos.yahoo.com/groups > > _______________________________________________ > > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > > > > -- > Zainab Bawa > Ph.D. Student and Independent Researcher > > Between Places ... > http://wbfs.wordpress.com > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080206/8c957750/attachment-0001.html From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Thu Feb 7 06:45:17 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 01:15:17 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Of Roads and Widening Perspectives In-Reply-To: <7e230b560802060603j2fbf3b1bvb330e286b7d9bd4@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <280435.87122.qm@web23005.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Dear Prem/all I have been reading the exchanges on this thread with curiosity, although I just could not find time to intervene earlier. Let me just say as a preliminary remark that the textual/material opposition is often overplayed in academic debates simply because of 1) methodological limitations. 2) prior political commitments of writers -- versions of feminism versus versions of marxism. This is not an unresolvable problem -- one way to go forward is to recognize that the 'sign' the 'image' the 'representation' is not just an add on but integral to the processes of value extraction. see for example Melissa Wright's study of violence against women in the maquiladoras on US Mexico border in the 90s followed up by recent work on the protests by sex workers in Ciudad Juarez. But, to take forward Prem's point about questions of citizenship -- I think the real challenge lies in theorizing the relationship between the state and the citizen in India and how it is being reworked with differential consequences for different social groups. The trouble as on date I think is that we are often transfixed by either or the citizen end of it or the state end of it leading us to produce studies that are based in cultural studies for citizenship and studies that are based in political economy for the state restructuring. In doing so we miss the crucial linking question: what new ways of practicing citizenship are emerging ? especially in the indian city with its peculiar post independence development trajectory, unique regional histories, this becomes very difficult because the transformations are not uniform across space. we cannot quite determine what specific variables we should be looking at and what interlinked scales are important and so on. For example, the places occupied by the poor in the city, are not merely the gaps in the market but also places that have a complex texture because of the way the city is territorialized - where citizenship is practised in ways that simply cannot be captured through liberal democratic lenses. yet these are not completely illegal either. e.g. notified slums whose fortunes depend as much on international donor funding as on the trajectories of local and regional politics. i often feel that it would be great to do a series of comparative studies across a few cities in a collaborative effort such that at least some of the critical issues can brought onto the agenda. anant --- Prem Chandavarkar wrote: > Dear Zainab, > I threw in that James Donald quote to argue that > that the coherence of the > city is constituted by our imagination and not to > argue that it is primarily > textual. One cannot deny the materiality of the > city - particularly how its > materiality is constituted in a way that excludes > many. For example the > parceling of land by the land use plan, which sets > up a subsequent pricing > of land values and rentals that make the city (in > the Indian context) > unaffordable to significant segments of the > population. This forces them to > use the gaps in the system, and locate on parcels of > land through forms of > tenure that do not have official sanction. Their > so called 'criminality of > squatting' is forced on them by the system; it is > not a choice. They > survive through the poor enforcement of the system; > if we started enforcing > master plans more effectively upon the current > socio-economic order, we > would have a disaster. > > There has been some discussion on fighting for > housing as a fundamental > constitutional right. I have been wondering if it > would be more useful to > broaden this discussion around the question of > citizenship. While we have a > well recognised concept of political citizenship > that revolves around the > issue of voting rights, should we also recognise > that citizenship is > incomplete unless it is also spatial. One should > have a process by which > one can officially locate oneself on the official > maps of the political > territory - and if the process by which the maps is > develop results in > exclusion of people, then the process needs > redefinition as it is violative > of fundamental citizenship rights. > > Ultimately the question becomes political. Solly > has already cited Doreen > Massey - and it would be useful to cite her in more > detail, particular the > relationship she draws between space and time. She > demonstrates that when > there is a failure to see this relationship as > continuous and dynamic, it > results in distortions of political power. Massey > identifies three typical > distortions: > > 1. Space and time are delinked. The example she > gives is the army of > Hernan Cortes poised to invade the Aztec city > Tenochtitlan. To Cortes and > his army, the city spaces he sees in front of him > are devoid of any > relationship with time. They are seen as empty > of history, and therefore > reduced to mere phenomena on a surface; therefore > subject to appropriation. > While this was the primary outlook of > colonialism, it is still present in > the power equations of many parts of the world > (Iraq, Afghanistan, > Palestine, etc.). > 2. Spaces are differentiated only in terms of > time. This is the > current rhetoric of globalisation which argues > for a uniform economic order > through WTO, GATT, GATS, etc. When it is argued > that Mali, Mozambique or > Nicaragua are perhaps different and may need a > different order, the response > is that they are merely behind in time and given > an opportunity will be able > to catch up. > 3. The relationship between space and time is > seen as stable and > fixed. This drives conservative and > fundamentalist claims to a pure > cultural order that must be preserved. > > Massey argues for a dynamic relationship of space > and time through which we > see space as: > a. The product of interrelations > b. The space for multiplicities > c. Never closed, always open, and continuously > constructed. > > All this brings us back to the political. The > dominant discourse will > always assume that there is such a thing as "the > public interest", and this > thing is easily definable if we turn our attention > to it. It does not pause > to consider that what is actually happening are > competing private claims to > define the public interest. What kind of system do > we need to develop so > that this competition is foregrounded and > transparent, rather than the > current status of background and opaque. > > As an architect, my interest is from the viewpoint > of urban planning, and I > wonder how we should define the discipline. Should > we say it is primarily > the definition of a proper spatial order to which a > population should adjust > itself, or should we seek to make it a process by > which a population > negotiates its spatial order in an inclusive manner. > It is probably not a > black and white either/or choice. But conventional > practice only considers > the former question, and we have not devoted enough > conceptual rigour and > analysis to the latter. > > Regards, > Prem > > > On 03/02/2008, Zainab Bawa > wrote: > > > > Dear Prem, Frank and Solly (in that order), > > > > Thanks for the comments and the discussion. I will > also disagree with > > James Donald and the textual analysis of the city. > On reflecting back on the > > posting, I recognize that the experience is > constituted on and through a > > material terrain that is also the city. This > material terrain becomes > > critical because it is on this material grounds > that experiences are > > developed (and the experiences in turn shape the > material terrain). Claims > > are made on the material terrain of the city and > contests and politics are > > located around the material terrain. But as Solly > pointed out, this is not > > moving towards a material/experience binary > because both are implicated in > > each other. Again, materiality must not be read as > mundane and economistic. > > Harvey's work tends to reduce materiality to > economism whereas I would guess > > (and I don't know if other scholars have posited > this) that the material is > > constituted of and produced through practices, > affect and politics (among > > others). Therefore I threw the question that if > the city is experience, then > > whose experiences are valid, legitimate and are > there invalid and > > illegitimate experiences because I alluding to the > material grounds of the > > city which seems to have become the turf for > contests and conflicts. > > > > To make the distinction between the city and the > urban, Lefebvre suggests > > that the city is the practico-material base while > the urban is constituted > > through social relations. But I understand that > Lefebvre made this > > distinction to draw our attention to questions of > scale and levels. I guess > > he also suggested this in order to hint towards a > way of doing research and > > understanding the city. > > > > Seems to be getting messy, but anyway, my tuppence > to the discussion. > > Thanks again for taking this forward. > > > > Cheers, > > > > Zainab > > > > On Feb 2, 2008 9:01 PM, solomon benjamin > wrote: > > > > > This is a useful conceptual string, thanks > Zainab, > > > Prem and Frank. .. > > > I think the 'Buddhist' idea is an interesting > > > metaphor, and in the Donald's rather meta > narrative > === message truncated ===> _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group > archives, please visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > ---------------- A place does not merely exist...it has to be invented in one's imagination . ___________________________________________________________ Support the World Aids Awareness campaign this month with Yahoo! For Good http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/ From bawazainab79 at gmail.com Mon Feb 11 12:23:05 2008 From: bawazainab79 at gmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:23:05 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Of Roads and Widening Perspectives In-Reply-To: <280435.87122.qm@web23005.mail.ird.yahoo.com> References: <7e230b560802060603j2fbf3b1bvb330e286b7d9bd4@mail.gmail.com> <280435.87122.qm@web23005.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Dear Anant and Prem (and again, Prem, Frank and Solly), This getting to be a really interesting and rich discussion. I was away to a workshop on Culture and Economic Life organized by CSSSC, Kolkatta and some of these issues that we are talking of, came up in the various discussions and presentations. This also partly links with my doctoral thesis work. Here are some thoughts/questions that I have been bearing on myself for sometime: It is but obvious now that most of the discussions on material bases, claims, cities, etc. will veer around questions of citizenship. What is this citizenship is something that I am also wondering about and am deeply concerned about it. While reviewing some of the works of Partha Chatterjee, Asef Bayat and Diane Singerman, the question that I have been asking of myself is what is this citizenship that these thinkers are alluding to? Does citizenship mean the integration of the person with the state? Is our ultimate trajectory that of merging with the state? This brings me to Anant's point of what are the various practices of citizenship that are emerging? Even when Chatterjee talks of civil society, does he mean that the inhabitants of civil society have completely merged their identities with the state? I doubt and wonder. This also leads to the question of what is the state of the state that we are talking about? Is the state that ultimate authority that we have to eventually turn to? What is our relationship/s with the state? And both of the above will lead us to into questions of illegality and legality and law? What kinds of constructs are these? Are these agencies too in addition to being constructs? Still thinking ... Zainab On Feb 7, 2008 6:45 AM, anant m wrote: > Dear Prem/all > > I have been reading the exchanges on this thread with > curiosity, although I just could not find time to > intervene earlier. Let me just say as a preliminary > remark that the textual/material opposition is often > overplayed in academic debates simply because of 1) > methodological limitations. 2) prior political > commitments of writers -- versions of feminism versus > versions of marxism. This is not an unresolvable > problem -- one way to go forward is to recognize that > the 'sign' the 'image' the 'representation' is not > just an add on but integral to the processes of value > extraction. see for example Melissa Wright's study of > violence against women in the maquiladoras on US > Mexico border in the 90s followed up by recent work on > the protests by sex workers in Ciudad Juarez. > > But, to take forward Prem's point about questions of > citizenship -- I think the real challenge lies in > theorizing the relationship between the state and the > citizen in India and how it is being reworked with > differential consequences for different social groups. > The trouble as on date I think is that we are often > transfixed by either or the citizen end of it or the > state end of it leading us to produce studies that are > based in cultural studies for citizenship and studies > that are based in political economy for the state > restructuring. In doing so we miss the crucial linking > question: what new ways of practicing citizenship are > emerging ? especially in the indian city with its > peculiar post independence development trajectory, > unique regional histories, this becomes very difficult > because the transformations are not uniform across > space. we cannot quite determine what specific > variables we should be looking at and what interlinked > scales are important and so on. > For example, the places occupied by the poor in the > city, are not merely the gaps in the market but also > places that have a complex texture because of the way > the city is territorialized - where citizenship is > practised in ways that simply cannot be captured > through liberal democratic lenses. yet these are not > completely illegal either. e.g. notified slums whose > fortunes depend as much on international donor funding > as on the trajectories of local and regional politics. > i often feel that it would be great to do a series of > comparative studies across a few cities in a > collaborative effort such that at least some of the > critical issues can brought onto the agenda. > anant > > > > --- Prem Chandavarkar wrote: > > > Dear Zainab, > > I threw in that James Donald quote to argue that > > that the coherence of the > > city is constituted by our imagination and not to > > argue that it is primarily > > textual. One cannot deny the materiality of the > > city - particularly how its > > materiality is constituted in a way that excludes > > many. For example the > > parceling of land by the land use plan, which sets > > up a subsequent pricing > > of land values and rentals that make the city (in > > the Indian context) > > unaffordable to significant segments of the > > population. This forces them to > > use the gaps in the system, and locate on parcels of > > land through forms of > > tenure that do not have official sanction. Their > > so called 'criminality of > > squatting' is forced on them by the system; it is > > not a choice. They > > survive through the poor enforcement of the system; > > if we started enforcing > > master plans more effectively upon the current > > socio-economic order, we > > would have a disaster. > > > > There has been some discussion on fighting for > > housing as a fundamental > > constitutional right. I have been wondering if it > > would be more useful to > > broaden this discussion around the question of > > citizenship. While we have a > > well recognised concept of political citizenship > > that revolves around the > > issue of voting rights, should we also recognise > > that citizenship is > > incomplete unless it is also spatial. One should > > have a process by which > > one can officially locate oneself on the official > > maps of the political > > territory - and if the process by which the maps is > > develop results in > > exclusion of people, then the process needs > > redefinition as it is violative > > of fundamental citizenship rights. > > > > Ultimately the question becomes political. Solly > > has already cited Doreen > > Massey - and it would be useful to cite her in more > > detail, particular the > > relationship she draws between space and time. She > > demonstrates that when > > there is a failure to see this relationship as > > continuous and dynamic, it > > results in distortions of political power. Massey > > identifies three typical > > distortions: > > > > 1. Space and time are delinked. The example she > > gives is the army of > > Hernan Cortes poised to invade the Aztec city > > Tenochtitlan. To Cortes and > > his army, the city spaces he sees in front of him > > are devoid of any > > relationship with time. They are seen as empty > > of history, and therefore > > reduced to mere phenomena on a surface; therefore > > subject to appropriation. > > While this was the primary outlook of > > colonialism, it is still present in > > the power equations of many parts of the world > > (Iraq, Afghanistan, > > Palestine, etc.). > > 2. Spaces are differentiated only in terms of > > time. This is the > > current rhetoric of globalisation which argues > > for a uniform economic order > > through WTO, GATT, GATS, etc. When it is argued > > that Mali, Mozambique or > > Nicaragua are perhaps different and may need a > > different order, the response > > is that they are merely behind in time and given > > an opportunity will be able > > to catch up. > > 3. The relationship between space and time is > > seen as stable and > > fixed. This drives conservative and > > fundamentalist claims to a pure > > cultural order that must be preserved. > > > > Massey argues for a dynamic relationship of space > > and time through which we > > see space as: > > a. The product of interrelations > > b. The space for multiplicities > > c. Never closed, always open, and continuously > > constructed. > > > > All this brings us back to the political. The > > dominant discourse will > > always assume that there is such a thing as "the > > public interest", and this > > thing is easily definable if we turn our attention > > to it. It does not pause > > to consider that what is actually happening are > > competing private claims to > > define the public interest. What kind of system do > > we need to develop so > > that this competition is foregrounded and > > transparent, rather than the > > current status of background and opaque. > > > > As an architect, my interest is from the viewpoint > > of urban planning, and I > > wonder how we should define the discipline. Should > > we say it is primarily > > the definition of a proper spatial order to which a > > population should adjust > > itself, or should we seek to make it a process by > > which a population > > negotiates its spatial order in an inclusive manner. > > It is probably not a > > black and white either/or choice. But conventional > > practice only considers > > the former question, and we have not devoted enough > > conceptual rigour and > > analysis to the latter. > > > > Regards, > > Prem > > > > > > On 03/02/2008, Zainab Bawa > > wrote: > > > > > > Dear Prem, Frank and Solly (in that order), > > > > > > Thanks for the comments and the discussion. I will > > also disagree with > > > James Donald and the textual analysis of the city. > > On reflecting back on the > > > posting, I recognize that the experience is > > constituted on and through a > > > material terrain that is also the city. This > > material terrain becomes > > > critical because it is on this material grounds > > that experiences are > > > developed (and the experiences in turn shape the > > material terrain). Claims > > > are made on the material terrain of the city and > > contests and politics are > > > located around the material terrain. But as Solly > > pointed out, this is not > > > moving towards a material/experience binary > > because both are implicated in > > > each other. Again, materiality must not be read as > > mundane and economistic. > > > Harvey's work tends to reduce materiality to > > economism whereas I would guess > > > (and I don't know if other scholars have posited > > this) that the material is > > > constituted of and produced through practices, > > affect and politics (among > > > others). Therefore I threw the question that if > > the city is experience, then > > > whose experiences are valid, legitimate and are > > there invalid and > > > illegitimate experiences because I alluding to the > > material grounds of the > > > city which seems to have become the turf for > > contests and conflicts. > > > > > > To make the distinction between the city and the > > urban, Lefebvre suggests > > > that the city is the practico-material base while > > the urban is constituted > > > through social relations. But I understand that > > Lefebvre made this > > > distinction to draw our attention to questions of > > scale and levels. I guess > > > he also suggested this in order to hint towards a > > way of doing research and > > > understanding the city. > > > > > > Seems to be getting messy, but anyway, my tuppence > > to the discussion. > > > Thanks again for taking this forward. > > > > > > Cheers, > > > > > > Zainab > > > > > > On Feb 2, 2008 9:01 PM, solomon benjamin > > wrote: > > > > > > > This is a useful conceptual string, thanks > > Zainab, > > > > Prem and Frank. .. > > > > I think the 'Buddhist' idea is an interesting > > > > metaphor, and in the Donald's rather meta > > narrative > > > === message truncated ===> > _______________________________________________ > > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group > > archives, please visit > > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > > > ---------------- > A place does not merely exist...it has to be invented in one's > imagination…. > > > ___________________________________________________________ > Support the World Aids Awareness campaign this month with Yahoo! For Good > http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/ > > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > -- Zainab Bawa Ph.D. Student and Independent Researcher Between Places ... http://wbfs.wordpress.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080211/3b353455/attachment-0001.html From elkamath at yahoo.com Mon Feb 11 22:52:49 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:22:49 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] An anti-poverty scheme invented in Latin America is winning converts worldwide Message-ID: <829335.28421.qm@web53602.mail.re2.yahoo.com> FYI Brazil Happy families Feb 7th 2008 | MACEIÓ >From The Economist print edition An anti-poverty scheme invented in Latin America is winning converts worldwide MENTION globalisation and most people think of goods heading across the world from East to West and dollars moving in the other direction. Yet globalisation works for ideas too. Take Brazil's Bolsa Família ("Family Fund") anti-poverty scheme, the largest of its kind in the world. Known in development jargon as a "conditional cash transfer" programme, it was modelled partly on a similar scheme in Mexico. After being tested on a vast scale in several Latin American countries, a refined version was recently implemented in New York City in an attempt to improve opportunities for children from poor families. Brazilian officials were in Cairo this week to help Egyptian officials set up a similar scheme. "Governments all over the world are looking at this programme," says Kathy Lindert of the World Bank's office in Brasília, who is about to begin work on similar schemes for Eastern Europe. Bolsa Família works as follows. Where a family earns less than 120 reais ($68) per head per month, mothers are paid a benefit of up to 95 reais on condition that their children go to school and take part in government vaccination programmes. Municipal governments do much of the collection of data on eligibility and compliance, but payments are made by the federal government. Each beneficiary receives a debit card which is charged up every month, unless the recipient has not met the necessary conditions, in which case (and after a couple of warnings) the payment is suspended. Some 11m families now receive the benefit, equivalent to a quarter of Brazil's population. In the north-eastern state of Alagoas, one of Brazil's poorest, over half of families get Bolsa Família. Most of the rest receive a state pension. "It's like Sweden with sunshine," says Cícero Péricles de Carvalho, an economist at the Federal University of Alagoas. Up to a point. Some 70% of the population in Alagoas is either illiterate or did not complete first grade at school. Life expectancy at birth is 66, six years below the average for Brazil. "In terms of human development," says Sérgio Moreira, the planning minister in the state government, "Alagoas is closer to Mozambique than to parts of Brazil." Vote-buying is rife: the going rate in the last election for state governor was 50 reais. "People come to us complaining that they sold their vote to a politician and he hasn't paid them yet," says Antônio Sapucaia da Silva, the head of Alagoas's electoral court. As well as providing immediate help to the poor, Bolsa Família aims in the long run to break this culture of dependency by ensuring that children get a better education than their parents. There are some encouraging signs. School attendance has risen in Alagoas, as it has across the country, thanks in part to Bolsa Família and to an earlier programme called Bolsa Escola. The scheme has also helped to push the rate of economic growth in the poor north-east above the national average. This has helped to reduce income inequality in Brazil. Although only 30% of Alagoas's labour force of 1.3m has a formal job, more than 1.5m of its people had a mobile phone last year. "The poor are living Chinese rates of growth," says Aloizio Mercadante, a senator for São Paulo state, repeating a proud boast of the governing Workers' Party. Look hard enough and it is also possible to find businesses spawned by this consumption boom among the poor. Pedro dos Santos and his wife Dayse started a soap factory with 20 reais at their home in an improvised neighbourhood on the edge of Maceió, the state capital. With the help of a microcredit bank, they have increased daily output to 2,000 bars of crumbly soap the colour of Dijon mustard. Nearby, another beneficiary of a microfinance scheme has opened a shop selling beer, crisps (potato chips) and sweets. On the shop's wall hangs a reminder that the state's politics will take longer to change: a campaign poster with the slogan "Collor: the people's Senator". Fernando Collor was forced to resign as Brazil's president in 1992 after his campaign manager ran an influence-peddling racket. In his home state of Alagoas, though, Mr Collor's political career is thriving. Despite the early success of Bolsa Família, three concerns remain. The first is over fraud. Because money is paid directly to the beneficiary's debit card, there is little scope for leakage. The question is whether local governments are collecting accurate data on eligibility and enforcing the conditions. Some 15% of municipal councils make the improbable claim that 100% of pupils are in school 100% of the time. Despite this, most of the money does go to the right people: 70% ends up in the pockets of the poorest 20% of families, the World Bank finds. Second, some people worry that Bolsa Família will end up as a permanent feature of Brazilian society, rather than a temporary boost aimed at changing the opportunities available to the poorest. Whether this happens will depend largely on whether Brazil's public schools improve fast enough to give all their new pupils a reasonable education. Since the scheme began on a large scale only in 2003, it is still too early to tell. Third, Bolsa Família is sometimes equated with straightforward vote-buying. That is unfair. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's name is strongly associated with the scheme—even among some people in Alagoas who are unaware that he is Brazil's president. But their gratitude does not extend to support for his Workers' Party. There are signs that mayors who administer the programme well get a reward at the polls while those who do not suffer. For a relatively modest outlay (0.8% of GDP), Brazil is getting a good return. If only the same could be said of the rest of what the government spends. Cross posted from Debate _______________________________________________ DEBATE mailing list DEBATE at debate.kabissa.org http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/debate ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080211/2baa5368/attachment.html From dewahdan at aucegypt.edu Tue Feb 12 12:26:43 2008 From: dewahdan at aucegypt.edu (dewahdan) Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 06:56:43 +0000 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Salata Baladi in India Message-ID: Dear Friends You may find this quite an interesting "documentary" or may be "docudrama". "As any House salad every thing is there. But it mainly deals with the political issue of Arab-Israel conflict through the familial story of a friend of a friend Ms. Nadia Kamel, the producer. If you have time to see it, some thing might change in your perception of some questions... Swati, I guess it must be ironic that I am forwarding this to YOU at FTI :D Habib, c'est ton quote vraiment mais un peu realistique... Take Care Salata Baladi in India Salade Maison (A House Salad) BOMBAY 5th February 2008 11:30 A.M. Mumbai International Film Festival international competition Tata Theatre National Centre for Performing Arts, Nariman Point Mumbai 400021 ****** NEW DELHI 12th February 2008 5:00 P.M. Alliance Française de Delhi ( Indo- French Cultural Centre) 72, Lodi Estate, New Delhi 110003 (INDIA) Tel : (91 11) 43500200 Fax : (91 11) 43500228/29 Email: afdelhi at afdelhi.org Website: www.afdelhi.org ***** HYDERABAD 15th February 2008 7:00 P.M. Prasad Preview Theatre, Road No. 2, Banjara Hills, Near LV Prasad Eye Hospital, Hyderabad 500 004 ******* BANGALORE 17th Februrary 2008 6:30 P.M. Nani Cinematheque, Centre for Film and Drama 5th floor, Sona Towers, 71 Millers Road, Bangalore 560052 TIMBAKTU 18th February 2008 7:00 P.M. C.K. Palli Village, Anantapur District,A.P. , 515 101, India tel;work:0091 8559 240335 tel;home:0091 8559 240337 tel;cell:0091 9440686837 url:http://www.timbaktu.org ****** PUNE 20th February 2008 Film & Television Institute of India, Law college Road, Pune 411004 3:00 P.M. Discussion with student scriptwriters 5.30 P.M. Screening Website: www.ftiindia.com Windows Live Messenger 2008 vient de sortir, discutez avec vos amis en vidéo ! Téléchargez gratuitement Messenger 2008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080212/eb1fe1b2/attachment-0001.html From bawazainab79 at gmail.com Tue Feb 12 23:54:48 2008 From: bawazainab79 at gmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 23:54:48 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Of Roads and Widening Perspectives II Message-ID: Thus it was the usual jaunt, but in its usual-ness, it unusually revealed ... The autorickshaw fares in Bangalore have risen, from Rs.6 a kilometer to Rs.7. Now I can no longer ask the rickshaw drivers what has changed about Bangalore. Now, I know for myself, that what has changed about the city is the greater pinch on my pocket. Recently in Pune, I experienced the high rickshaw fares and at one point in the night, the experience of not getting rickshaws back and depending on the call center taxis to give a group of us a ride back into the city. What configuration of mobilities as cities are making. But that is the subject of another story, some other time ... For now, maybe it is useful to stick to the streets. Thus it was the usual jaunt, but in its usual-ness, it unusually revealed ... The jaunt was from Hosur Road until a little ahead of Dairy Circle. Now, roads are being widened in Bangalore to make way for the motorists and the traffic.The city is growing, *swalpa jaaga bekaa*. So the roads have to be tended to. In the process, the footpaths and pavements deteriorate. The usual plaint is that the footpaths and pavements are taken over by vendors and hawkers. In the case of this stretch, that is not even the matter. What is the matter is that the pavements are uneven, often bearing turd and pee and in some cases, the pavements have become parking sites for trucks, vans and tempos, by default, or rather by practice. Now, is it that Bangalore has been a city where people don't walk at all on the streets? Or over time, has it become practice not to walk in order to move from one place to another in the city? How is it that a city like London is known to be a walker's paradise? What makes a city worth walking? Thus it was the usual jaunt, but in its usual-ness, it unusually revealed ... So, the pavements, rough, unsteady, sometimes non-existent, sometimes, reduced to disuse. I began walking along one, one pavement that was a public toilet. As I began walking, I noticed at some distance, that an autorickshaw driver had stopped his auto and had gotten down to urinating on that pavement. Perhaps he noticed me coming from a distance. I noticed him, but could not change track because the pavement was barricaded with grills. A sense of disgust and unease filled me. How do I get out of here quickly? Don't men understand? Why don't they just let pavements be taken over for vending et al? Maybe life might be easier then. (My schizophrenia had disappeared. It was all but me, naked and covered in all my vulnerability ...) Thus it was the usual jaunt, but in its usual-ness, it unusually revealed ... So, *swalpa jaaga maadtaye*, widening the roads in Bangalore to increase the capacity of the roads to handle traffic. While that remains, in what realm do the pavements and footpaths fall? Or is it that all pavements and all footpaths are not the same because they carry different premiums in different locations? Are pavements and footpaths public or private or both? Or, are they none at all? Or are they non-existent from the experience of the city because the city is assumed to be subsumed under the hegemony of time where people don't walk at all? Or that the figure of the pedestrian has died its death? Or that the pedestrian becomes existent in certain parts of the city even when the actual pedestrian is non-existent? (Yakka-yakaa-doo! ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................) -- Zainab Bawa Ph.D. Student and Independent Researcher Between Places ... http://wbfs.wordpress.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080212/4287c8e0/attachment.html From esgindia at gmail.com Wed Feb 13 11:17:06 2008 From: esgindia at gmail.com (ESG India) Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:17:06 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Of Roads and Widening Perspectives In-Reply-To: References: <7e230b560802060603j2fbf3b1bvb330e286b7d9bd4@mail.gmail.com> <280435.87122.qm@web23005.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Hi all Without in any manner affecting the flow of this very interesting discussion, could I make a request, a rather pedestrian one, on the issue of road widening. ESG, as you may be aware, has been in the forefront of opening up the debate on the ongoing road widening programme in Blore. In addition we are keen to ensure that the ongoing programme is shelved, as it is clearly a stupid idea. I don't want to go into any further detail to justify the proposal besides stating it is a truly stupid idea. We are in immediate need of well researched, hopefully published, material on the road as a landscape that involves pedestrians, pavement dwellers, trees, street infrastructure, and yes traffic too, etc. etc and how all demands placed collectively by these items need to be carefully addressed. The present trend in any metropolis in India, quite stupidly, is to pave the roads almost to the property line (eg. chennai and mumbai), and leave the rest to users' karma. We are in the process of filing a PIL against the ongoing road widening programme in Blore, and would *not *like to present it as merely an issue of losing Blore's trees.... which is where we have found most support. (Unfortunately actually, making us wonder whatever happened to organisations working for the rights of pavement dwellers here?) The Road as a Landscape is a complex spatial entity and even more highly complicated process. In our PIL we would like to draw the attention of the Judges to this complexity and direct the State and its agencies to acknowledge such, involve the public and thus allow for the visioning of a city's streets by a democratic process, and not merely by the arrogated power of the bureaucracy as is presently the case. You are aware that Indian law in fact arrogates most of such planning powers to the bureaucracy, and thus constrains us very much on challenging their road widening proposals on the basis of law. Persuasive arguments that these proposals do not meet the objective of serving the wider public interest is perhaps our best chance to secure the support of the judiciary. As trees are being felled by the dozens everyday, we are really rushing against time and earliest attention to this request will be deeply appreciated. regards Leo Saldanha www.esgindia.org On Feb 11, 2008 12:23 PM, Zainab Bawa wrote: > Dear Anant and Prem (and again, Prem, Frank and Solly), > > This getting to be a really interesting and rich discussion. I was away to > a workshop on Culture and Economic Life organized by CSSSC, Kolkatta and > some of these issues that we are talking of, came up in the various > discussions and presentations. This also partly links with my doctoral > thesis work. Here are some thoughts/questions that I have been bearing on > myself for sometime: > > It is but obvious now that most of the discussions on material bases, > claims, cities, etc. will veer around questions of citizenship. What is this > citizenship is something that I am also wondering about and am deeply > concerned about it. While reviewing some of the works of Partha Chatterjee, > Asef Bayat and Diane Singerman, the question that I have been asking of > myself is what is this citizenship that these thinkers are alluding to? Does > citizenship mean the integration of the person with the state? Is our > ultimate trajectory that of merging with the state? This brings me to > Anant's point of what are the various practices of citizenship that are > emerging? Even when Chatterjee talks of civil society, does he mean that the > inhabitants of civil society have completely merged their identities with > the state? I doubt and wonder. > > This also leads to the question of what is the state of the state that we > are talking about? Is the state that ultimate authority that we have to > eventually turn to? What is our relationship/s with the state? > > And both of the above will lead us to into questions of illegality and > legality and law? What kinds of constructs are these? Are these agencies too > in addition to being constructs? > > Still thinking ... > > Zainab > > > > > On Feb 7, 2008 6:45 AM, anant m wrote: > > > Dear Prem/all > > > > I have been reading the exchanges on this thread with > > curiosity, although I just could not find time to > > intervene earlier. Let me just say as a preliminary > > remark that the textual/material opposition is often > > overplayed in academic debates simply because of 1) > > methodological limitations. 2) prior political > > commitments of writers -- versions of feminism versus > > versions of marxism. This is not an unresolvable > > problem -- one way to go forward is to recognize that > > the 'sign' the 'image' the 'representation' is not > > just an add on but integral to the processes of value > > extraction. see for example Melissa Wright's study of > > violence against women in the maquiladoras on US > > Mexico border in the 90s followed up by recent work on > > the protests by sex workers in Ciudad Juarez. > > > > But, to take forward Prem's point about questions of > > citizenship -- I think the real challenge lies in > > theorizing the relationship between the state and the > > citizen in India and how it is being reworked with > > differential consequences for different social groups. > > The trouble as on date I think is that we are often > > transfixed by either or the citizen end of it or the > > state end of it leading us to produce studies that are > > based in cultural studies for citizenship and studies > > that are based in political economy for the state > > restructuring. In doing so we miss the crucial linking > > question: what new ways of practicing citizenship are > > emerging ? especially in the indian city with its > > peculiar post independence development trajectory, > > unique regional histories, this becomes very difficult > > because the transformations are not uniform across > > space. we cannot quite determine what specific > > variables we should be looking at and what interlinked > > scales are important and so on. > > For example, the places occupied by the poor in the > > city, are not merely the gaps in the market but also > > places that have a complex texture because of the way > > the city is territorialized - where citizenship is > > practised in ways that simply cannot be captured > > through liberal democratic lenses. yet these are not > > completely illegal either. e.g. notified slums whose > > fortunes depend as much on international donor funding > > as on the trajectories of local and regional politics. > > i often feel that it would be great to do a series of > > comparative studies across a few cities in a > > collaborative effort such that at least some of the > > critical issues can brought onto the agenda. > > anant > > > > > > > > > > --- Prem Chandavarkar wrote: > > > > > Dear Zainab, > > > I threw in that James Donald quote to argue that > > > that the coherence of the > > > city is constituted by our imagination and not to > > > argue that it is primarily > > > textual. One cannot deny the materiality of the > > > city - particularly how its > > > materiality is constituted in a way that excludes > > > many. For example the > > > parceling of land by the land use plan, which sets > > > up a subsequent pricing > > > of land values and rentals that make the city (in > > > the Indian context) > > > unaffordable to significant segments of the > > > population. This forces them to > > > use the gaps in the system, and locate on parcels of > > > land through forms of > > > tenure that do not have official sanction. Their > > > so called 'criminality of > > > squatting' is forced on them by the system; it is > > > not a choice. They > > > survive through the poor enforcement of the system; > > > if we started enforcing > > > master plans more effectively upon the current > > > socio-economic order, we > > > would have a disaster. > > > > > > There has been some discussion on fighting for > > > housing as a fundamental > > > constitutional right. I have been wondering if it > > > would be more useful to > > > broaden this discussion around the question of > > > citizenship. While we have a > > > well recognised concept of political citizenship > > > that revolves around the > > > issue of voting rights, should we also recognise > > > that citizenship is > > > incomplete unless it is also spatial. One should > > > have a process by which > > > one can officially locate oneself on the official > > > maps of the political > > > territory - and if the process by which the maps is > > > develop results in > > > exclusion of people, then the process needs > > > redefinition as it is violative > > > of fundamental citizenship rights. > > > > > > Ultimately the question becomes political. Solly > > > has already cited Doreen > > > Massey - and it would be useful to cite her in more > > > detail, particular the > > > relationship she draws between space and time. She > > > demonstrates that when > > > there is a failure to see this relationship as > > > continuous and dynamic, it > > > results in distortions of political power. Massey > > > identifies three typical > > > distortions: > > > > > > 1. Space and time are delinked. The example she > > > > > gives is the army of > > > Hernan Cortes poised to invade the Aztec city > > > Tenochtitlan. To Cortes and > > > his army, the city spaces he sees in front of him > > > are devoid of any > > > relationship with time. They are seen as empty > > > of history, and therefore > > > reduced to mere phenomena on a surface; therefore > > > subject to appropriation. > > > While this was the primary outlook of > > > colonialism, it is still present in > > > the power equations of many parts of the world > > > (Iraq, Afghanistan, > > > Palestine, etc.). > > > 2. Spaces are differentiated only in terms of > > > > > time. This is the > > > current rhetoric of globalisation which argues > > > for a uniform economic order > > > through WTO, GATT, GATS, etc. When it is argued > > > that Mali, Mozambique or > > > Nicaragua are perhaps different and may need a > > > different order, the response > > > is that they are merely behind in time and given > > > an opportunity will be able > > > to catch up. > > > 3. The relationship between space and time is > > > > > seen as stable and > > > fixed. This drives conservative and > > > fundamentalist claims to a pure > > > cultural order that must be preserved. > > > > > > Massey argues for a dynamic relationship of space > > > and time through which we > > > see space as: > > > a. The product of interrelations > > > b. The space for multiplicities > > > c. Never closed, always open, and continuously > > > constructed. > > > > > > All this brings us back to the political. The > > > dominant discourse will > > > always assume that there is such a thing as "the > > > public interest", and this > > > thing is easily definable if we turn our attention > > > to it. It does not pause > > > to consider that what is actually happening are > > > competing private claims to > > > define the public interest. What kind of system do > > > we need to develop so > > > that this competition is foregrounded and > > > transparent, rather than the > > > current status of background and opaque. > > > > > > As an architect, my interest is from the viewpoint > > > of urban planning, and I > > > wonder how we should define the discipline. Should > > > we say it is primarily > > > the definition of a proper spatial order to which a > > > population should adjust > > > itself, or should we seek to make it a process by > > > which a population > > > negotiates its spatial order in an inclusive manner. > > > It is probably not a > > > black and white either/or choice. But conventional > > > practice only considers > > > the former question, and we have not devoted enough > > > conceptual rigour and > > > analysis to the latter. > > > > > > Regards, > > > Prem > > > > > > > > > On 03/02/2008, Zainab Bawa > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > Dear Prem, Frank and Solly (in that order), > > > > > > > > Thanks for the comments and the discussion. I will > > > also disagree with > > > > James Donald and the textual analysis of the city. > > > On reflecting back on the > > > > posting, I recognize that the experience is > > > constituted on and through a > > > > material terrain that is also the city. This > > > material terrain becomes > > > > critical because it is on this material grounds > > > that experiences are > > > > developed (and the experiences in turn shape the > > > material terrain). Claims > > > > are made on the material terrain of the city and > > > contests and politics are > > > > located around the material terrain. But as Solly > > > pointed out, this is not > > > > moving towards a material/experience binary > > > because both are implicated in > > > > each other. Again, materiality must not be read as > > > mundane and economistic. > > > > Harvey's work tends to reduce materiality to > > > economism whereas I would guess > > > > (and I don't know if other scholars have posited > > > this) that the material is > > > > constituted of and produced through practices, > > > affect and politics (among > > > > others). Therefore I threw the question that if > > > the city is experience, then > > > > whose experiences are valid, legitimate and are > > > there invalid and > > > > illegitimate experiences because I alluding to the > > > material grounds of the > > > > city which seems to have become the turf for > > > contests and conflicts. > > > > > > > > To make the distinction between the city and the > > > urban, Lefebvre suggests > > > > that the city is the practico-material base while > > > the urban is constituted > > > > through social relations. But I understand that > > > Lefebvre made this > > > > distinction to draw our attention to questions of > > > scale and levels. I guess > > > > he also suggested this in order to hint towards a > > > way of doing research and > > > > understanding the city. > > > > > > > > Seems to be getting messy, but anyway, my tuppence > > > to the discussion. > > > > Thanks again for taking this forward. > > > > > > > > Cheers, > > > > > > > > Zainab > > > > > > > > On Feb 2, 2008 9:01 PM, solomon benjamin > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > This is a useful conceptual string, thanks > > > Zainab, > > > > > Prem and Frank. .. > > > > > I think the 'Buddhist' idea is an interesting > > > > > metaphor, and in the Donald's rather meta > > > narrative > > > > > === message truncated ===> > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > > > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > > > > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group > > > archives, please visit > > > > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > > > > > > > ---------------- > > A place does not merely exist...it has to be invented in one's > > imagination…. > > > > > > > > ___________________________________________________________ > > Support the World Aids Awareness campaign this month with Yahoo! For > > Good http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/ > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > > > > -- > Zainab Bawa > Ph.D. Student and Independent Researcher > > Between Places ... > http://wbfs.wordpress.com > > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080213/c3d29ddd/attachment-0001.html From yanivbin at gmail.com Wed Feb 13 11:47:31 2008 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:47:31 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Privatization making a mess for rag pickers Message-ID: <86b8a7050802122217r75c1b2f3rf3fcede5e648a268@mail.gmail.com> Privatization making a mess for rag pickers The push for privatization in waste management has forced rag pickers to choose between losing their jobs and joining the companies that have landed government contracts Aliyah Shahid New Delhi: Hari Singh sorts—bare-handed—through egg shells, used condoms, broken bottles and the occasional dead rat for a living. He's been doing this job for more than 30 years, but the business of garbage collection is starting to feel dirty. [image: Waste side story: Hari Singh at a garbage dump in New Delhi's Connaught Place. After privatization, work conditions for rag pickers have remained largely unchanged; some of them are making even less than they were before they joined the firms that won the government contracts. (Photo: Harikrishna Katragadda/Mint)]Waste side story: Hari Singh at a garbage dump in New Delhi's Connaught Place. After privatization, work conditions for rag pickers have remained largely unchanged; some of them are making even less than they were before they joined the firms that won the government contracts. (Photo: Harikrishna Katragadda/Mint) Across the country, the push for privatization in waste management has forced rag pickers such as 65-year-old Singh to choose between losing their jobs and joining the companies that have landed government contracts. Most have opted for the latter—attracted by the promise of fair compensation, uniforms and safety gear. And yet, Singh and advocates for rag pickers say, work conditions have largely remained unchanged and some are making less than they were before industry stepped in—with no leverage to demand better. And, then, there are the sticky, cyclical questions that seem to have no end or answer: Just whom does garbage—and the profits that can be reaped from recycle or reuse—belong to: the picker, the employer or the municipality? Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Bangalore all have begun to engage private sector garbage collection. In New Delhi, the contract to collect trash in the area around the Capital's teeming Connaught Place was handed over to Ramky Group, the private waste management organization based in Hyderabad, by the New Delhi Municipal Corporation. Under a contract signed on 20 August 2007 by Harit Recyclers Association (HRA), which represents the rag pickers, and Ramky, it was agreed that HRA's rag pickers would be hired to segregate solid waste into organic and inorganic material into the Ramky bins and keep the appointed territories around the bins clean in areas that include Connaught Place, Mandir Marg and Gole Market. "Ramky told us that 'we will give you work, give you a better sitting place with lots of space, tube lights, water taps and money,'" said Singh, through a translator. "This is what they said, but nothing has been given." Sanjiv Kumar, Ramky's general manager of operations in Delhi, admitted to some allegations against his organization and disputed others. The ones he admitted to, he says were justified because the rag pickers did not live up to their side of the contract. The contract states that rag pickers would receive, among other things, safety and cleaning gear, and payment on the 10th of every month starting October 2007—though the exact amount of this pay goes unmentioned in the contract. Shashi Bhushan, general secretary of HRA, through a translator said some compensation should have been given for the rag pickers' work. HRA now claims that neither compensation nor supplies have been given to rag pickers. Ramky terminated the contract on 31 January. "Ramky has not released even a paisa to us," said Bhushan. "Ramky has violated the entire agreement paper." He added that the rag pickers will have no choice but to work for private companies because government contracts currently give the right over solid waste to the private contractor, not waste pickers. In some areas, rag pickers before privatization earned Rs3,000 every month. Now, they make as little as Rs1,200, according to HRA. Kumar admitted to not paying the workers. He justified this by saying that rag pickers did not keep the areas around the bins clean, and instead of putting waste in the bins, workers would spend more time sorting out items that they could sell to junk dealers. "They did not meet our expectations," he said. Kumar also says he detailed these complaints in three non-compliance letters he sent to HRA, though he would not provide copies of these letters. HRA said it received only one letter from Ramky. Kumar denied the charges of not providing materials to his workers. He said he has the receipts of brooms, shovels, gloves, masks and aprons given to HRA workers. He declined, however, to show *Mint *the receipts. Bhushan said no materials were ever given to the workers. The government supplied some safety materials to rag pickers in the last year, but not everyone has been reached, said several organizations that work with rag pickers. "It's important that they keep themselves healthy," said B.C. Sabat, a senior scientific officer from the department of environment, New Delhi. Sabat would not comment specifically on Ramky, but said the government is looking into how privatization affects rag pickers. "Private companies are only concerned with profit," said Anand Mishra, a project officer of Chintan, a New Delhi-based NGO that has been working with waste pickers for several years. "They are only concerned with carrying waste to the landfill. They are paid on a tonnage basis, so many times all of the mixed garbage goes to the landfill. There is no segregation." Kumar said privatization is important because it is an essential public service. "Urban development, population and economic growth have overgrown the government machinery," he said, adding that the private sector is often more organized and efficient. Ramky manages waste collection in seven sizeable zones in the NDMC area and will expand to an additional four areas by March, said Kumar. This is bad news for rag pickers, said Bhushan. Many of them will have no choice but to work for private firms. The only other choice they have will be to be displaced, he said. Although the contract between HRA and Ramky has been broken, Singh said he will continue to work in Connaught Place to segregate what can be recycled and sold, and put the remaining waste into Ramky's bins. He's been working in the area for more than 30 years, sending money to his family in Himachal Pradesh every chance he gets. He has no intention to leave just yet. "In exchange for work, give us money," he says of what he wants from Ramky. "The thing you have promised about employment and livelihood—give me that." -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-1 Size: 9083 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080213/103d8a8a/attachment.bin From justin.pickard at gmail.com Wed Feb 13 17:30:04 2008 From: justin.pickard at gmail.com (Justin Pickard) Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 12:00:04 +0000 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Of Roads and Widening Perspectives In-Reply-To: References: <7e230b560802060603j2fbf3b1bvb330e286b7d9bd4@mail.gmail.com> <280435.87122.qm@web23005.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Hey Leo, I don't know if this is quite what you're looking for, but Nikhil Anand (a Stanford anthropology grad student) has a draft paper - 'Disconnecting Experience'(link opens pdf) - about roads in Mumbai. Hope you can get some use out of it, Justin Pickard -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080213/0b3b972a/attachment.html From leofsaldanha at gmail.com Wed Feb 13 17:56:36 2008 From: leofsaldanha at gmail.com (ESGINDIA Gmail) Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:56:36 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] [Fwd: [Fwd: Design for SASEC transport project by September]] Message-ID: <47B2E1FC.4010904@gmail.com> http://www.projectsmonitor.com/detailnews.asp?newsid=15497 *Design for SASEC transport project by September* Venugopal Pillai Japan and Asian Development Bank have targeted to complete the design of the South Asia Subregional Economic Transport Logistics and Trade Facilitation Project by September 2008. Dong-Soo Pyo, Principal Financial Analysis Specialist of ADB's Southeast Asia Department, told Projectmonitor that the design will be completed over six months from April to September 2008. Consultants will soon be appointed, he added. Japan is extending a $1 million grant to draw up the design while ADB will manage the grant. The project will work towards improving cross-border transport infrastructure and introducing movement of people four member-countries of the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) - India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and India. The project comprises three parts including a two-lane 50-km road corridor from Kakarvitta in Nepal to Banglabandha in Bangladesh, passing through Panitanki-Fulbari in India. There will also be a rail link from Akhaura in Bangladesh to Agartala in Tripura, India. The rail link would be around 20 km, but the exact distance and its gauge will be known only after the alignment study is complete, Dong-Soo Pyo said. A modernised regime at key cross-border points also forms part of the project. Across the mainland of South Asia, the original transport infrastructure is already in place but has fallen into disuse and needs upgrading in many areas. Apart from the inconvenience to travelers, these barriers have raised the cost of travel and trade.

From bawazainab79 at gmail.com Fri Feb 15 00:23:45 2008 From: bawazainab79 at gmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:23:45 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] References/literature on metro rail systems Message-ID: Dear all, I am working on an article/series of articles on the upcoming metro rail project in Bangalore. I am looking for literature/references on metro rail systems across the world in terms of the how metro rail systems work/don't work for certain cities, displacements that have occurred owing to the construction of the metro and the various social, economic and political impacts of metro rail projects. Thanks. Cheers, Zainab -- Zainab Bawa Ph.D. Student and Independent Researcher Between Places ... http://wbfs.wordpress.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080215/7600cbca/attachment.html From prem.cnt at gmail.com Sun Feb 17 01:30:46 2008 From: prem.cnt at gmail.com (Prem Chandavarkar) Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2008 01:30:46 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] [Reader-list] References/literature on metro rail systems In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <7e230b560802161200g4e30187agd244db086364621b@mail.gmail.com> Dear Zainab, I notice that elsewhere in this thread someone has suggested you contact Dinesh Mohan. I endorse that, and in addition will refer you to a recent issue of Seminar on the them of transportation in which he has written an article which argues that metro rails only tend to work with cities that have a dominant central business district. Since most Indian cities are multi-centered, the effectiveness of a metro rail is reduced. Given this fact, the investment when calculated on a cost per trip can be questioned on whether it is the most effective expenditure of public funds. This is especially given that there is no real debate of alternatives, and the metro is typically presented as an unavoidable necessity. All the best - would be interested in staying in touch with your research on this topic. Regards, Prem On 15/02/2008, Zainab Bawa wrote: > > Dear all, > > I am working on an article/series of articles on the upcoming metro rail > project in Bangalore. I am looking for literature/references on metro rail > systems across the world in terms of the how metro rail systems work/don't > work for certain cities, displacements that have occurred owing to the > construction of the metro and the various social, economic and political > impacts of metro rail projects. > > Thanks. > > Cheers, > > Zainab > > -- > Zainab Bawa > Ph.D. Student and Independent Researcher > > Between Places ... > http://wbfs.wordpress.com > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > subscribe in the subject header. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080217/1dbff9c0/attachment-0001.html From cugambetta at yahoo.com Sun Feb 17 04:37:09 2008 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2008 15:07:09 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: H-ASIA: Mumbai-Dharavi Urban Typhoon Workshop Mar 16-22, 2008 Message-ID: <128881.14461.qm@web56802.mail.re3.yahoo.com> ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Frank Conlon To: H-ASIA at H-NET.MSU.EDU Sent: Monday, February 11, 2008 12:05:46 PM Subject: H-ASIA: Mumbai-Dharavi Urban Typhoon Workshop Mar 16-22, 2008 H-ASIA February 11, 2008 Invitation to PUKAR Urban Typhoon Workshop in Dharavi (Mumbai), March 16 to 22, 2008 ************************************************************************* From: PUKAR Dear Friends, This is an invitation to participate in the Urban Typhoon Workshop to be held in Dharavi, Mumbai during March 16 and 22, 2008. (http://www.urbantyphoon.com) The workshop is being organized together with the residents of Dharavi Koliwada, the support of PUKAR, a Mumbai based research collective and Asia Initiatives. Dharavi's Koliwada is a traditional fisher folk community in one of Asia's largest informal settlements. Koliwada's village like character has been preserved even in the midst of the dramatic urban and demographic changes that Mumbai has experienced in the last century. The workshop will produce creative design alternatives for Koliwada as well as a multimedia testimony to the unique spirit of the community. This workshop will also be an experiment in participatory planning and global collaborative work. Architects, urban planners, artists, activist and legal experts from India and the rest of the world will work in small teams with local residents. At the end of the workshop all the produced output work will be uploaded on a community owned website. This material could then be used to inform any future redevelopment plan - whether it is lead by the government, NGOs, or local communities. In case you or your organization is interested in joining the workshop, please contact us at the earliest - through the website - (http://www.urbantyphoon.com. We look forward to your participation and are confident that the workshop will generate innovative ideas through this rare encounter with a community in such an open and creative environment. The Urban Typhoon 2008 Committee Ravi Keny, Secretary, Koliwada-Dharavi Association Anita Patil-Deshmukh, Director, PUKAR, Mumbai Geeta Mehta, Professor, Temple University, Tokyo Matias Echanove, Coordinator, Urban Typhoon, University of Tokyo Rahul Srivastava, Research Advisor, PUKAR, Mumbai and others. ________________________________________________________________________________ PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action and Research) Address:: 1-4, 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Sir P. M. Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001 Telephone:: +91 (22) 6574 8152 Fax:: +91 (22) 6664 0561 Email:: pukar at pukar.org.in Website:: www.pukar.org.in ****************************************************************** To post to H-ASIA simply send your message to: For holidays or short absences send post to: with message: SET H-ASIA NOMAIL Upon return, send post with message SET H-ASIA MAIL H-ASIA WEB HOMEPAGE URL: http://h-net.msu.edu/~asia/ ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping From cugambetta at yahoo.com Sun Feb 17 04:48:33 2008 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2008 15:18:33 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: PANEL SEARCH: New Towns in India (conference on South Asia at Madison-Wisconsin, 10/2008) Message-ID: <816592.85748.qm@web56809.mail.re3.yahoo.com> Sorry if this forward is a repeat. Thought it might be of interest to people. -Curt ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Nancy H Kwak To: H-URBAN at H-NET.MSU.EDU Sent: Friday, February 1, 2008 7:50:29 PM Subject: PANEL SEARCH: New Towns in India (conference on South Asia at Madison-Wisconsin, 10/2008) From: Vandana Baweja I am a Ph.D. student in the Doctoral Program in History and Theory of Architecture at the University of Michigan. I plan to propose a panel on "New Towns in India" at the 37th Annual Conference on South Asia, to be held on October 16-18, 2008, at Madison-Wisconsin. I welcome papers on the history of New Towns in India, which were planned after the partition. These New Towns include capitals such as Chandigarh, Gandhinagar, and Bhubaneswar; partition resettlement towns such as Faridabad, Nilokheri, and Gandhidham; and industrial towns such Bhilai, Rourkela, and Durgapur. I welcome papers on any aspect of New Towns. I invite paper abstracts of 250 words from scholars working on South-Asian Urban History. Please email the abstract and your CV to me at vbaweja at umich.edu by March 15, 2008. Vandana Baweja University of Michigan H-Urban: http://www.h-net.org/~urban/ (including logs & posting guidelines) Posting Address: h-urban at h-net.msu.edu / mailto:h-urban at h-net.msu.edu (Click) ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ From aashu.gupta20 at gmail.com Sun Feb 17 10:03:47 2008 From: aashu.gupta20 at gmail.com (Aashish Gupta) Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2008 10:03:47 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] [Reader-list] References/literature on metro rail systems In-Reply-To: <7e230b560802161200g4e30187agd244db086364621b@mail.gmail.com> References: <7e230b560802161200g4e30187agd244db086364621b@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: also check out the Feb 8, 2008 issue of science, on cities. available at http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol319/issue5864/index.dtl > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080217/110ead7d/attachment.html From cupadhya at vsnl.com Sun Feb 17 12:30:23 2008 From: cupadhya at vsnl.com (Carol Upadhya) Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2008 12:30:23 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] [Reader-list] References/literature onmetrorailsystems References: <"7e 230b560802161200g4e30187agd244db086364621b"@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <006701c87132$c83ca420$79c9fea9@user62hbhoacal> Hi all, I also endorse the recommendation of Dinesh Mohan's work, and if you haven't seen it, Dinesh also has a piece in the next to last EPW with an excellent analysis of why metro rail systems are neither cost-effective nor environment friendly for Indian cities. I'm glad that Zainab is working on this, there seems to be a singular absence of public debate -- at least in Bangalore -- on the new metro rail and the various other transport projects in the offing. Nor does there seem to be any sensible integrated planning for the city's transport needs, instead there are only last-minute ad hoc solutions. There has been some discussion on this list on the recent road widening campaign, but why do these discussions remain confined to small groups? Even the media have not highlighted these issues -- there seems to be a conspiracy of silence within the media and the middle class, who anyway seem to support whatever hairbrained schemes that appear to solve Bangalore's traffic problems. For instance, studies from around the world show that road widening does not decrease congestion. Why is this never discussed? First we had the elevated road over Hosur Road, now they want to do the same thing from Minsk Square to the Hebbal flyover!! In other words, they (whoever 'they' are) have woken up to the fact that this patchwork road widening going towards the new airport is not going to work. Infact, it will probably worsen matters. And all those nice trees sacrificed for nothing. For those of us who live in Bangalore, perhaps we should think about initiating some action on this front -- also to support Leo's initiative on road widening. I would be happy to organise a discussion at NIAS, but would need help from others who know more about these issues than I do. Carol Upadhya ----- Original Message ----- From: Prem Chandavarkar To: Zainab Bawa Cc: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2008 1:30 AM Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] [Reader-list] References/literature on metrorailsystems Dear Zainab, I notice that elsewhere in this thread someone has suggested you contact Dinesh Mohan. I endorse that, and in addition will refer you to a recent issue of Seminar on the them of transportation in which he has written an article which argues that metro rails only tend to work with cities that have a dominant central business district. Since most Indian cities are multi-centered, the effectiveness of a metro rail is reduced. Given this fact, the investment when calculated on a cost per trip can be questioned on whether it is the most effective expenditure of public funds. This is especially given that there is no real debate of alternatives, and the metro is typically presented as an unavoidable necessity. All the best - would be interested in staying in touch with your research on this topic. Regards, Prem On 15/02/2008, Zainab Bawa wrote: Dear all, I am working on an article/series of articles on the upcoming metro rail project in Bangalore. I am looking for literature/references on metro rail systems across the world in terms of the how metro rail systems work/don't work for certain cities, displacements that have occurred owing to the construction of the metro and the various social, economic and political impacts of metro rail projects. Thanks. Cheers, Zainab -- Zainab Bawa Ph.D. Student and Independent Researcher Between Places ... http://wbfs.wordpress.com _________________________________________ reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. Critiques & Collaborations To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Urbanstudygroup mailing list Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080217/4bb0fe4e/attachment.html From elkamath at yahoo.com Wed Feb 20 09:03:47 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:33:47 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] =?utf-8?q?Gates_Foundation=E2=80=99s_Influence_Criti?= =?utf-8?q?cized?= Message-ID: <994284.51089.qm@web53609.mail.re2.yahoo.com> FYI http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/16/science/16malaria.html?scp=1&sq=kochi&st=nyt February 16, 2008 Gates Foundation's Influence Criticized By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. The chief of malaria for the World Health Organization has complained that the growing dominance of malaria research by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation risks stifling a diversity of views among scientists and wiping out the world health agency's policy-making function. In a memorandum, the malaria chief, Dr. Arata Kochi, complained to his boss, Dr. Margaret Chan, the director general of the W.H.O., that the foundation's money, while crucial, could have "far-reaching, largely unintended consequences." Many of the world's leading malaria scientists are now "locked up in a 'cartel' with their own research funding being linked to those of others within the group," Dr. Kochi wrote. Because "each has a vested interest to safeguard the work of the others," he wrote, getting independent reviews of research proposals "is becoming increasingly difficult." Also, he argued, the foundation's determination to have its favored research used to guide the health organization's recommendations "could have implicitly dangerous consequences on the policy-making process in world health." Dr. Tadataka Yamada, executive director of global health at the Gates Foundation, disagreed with Dr. Kochi's conclusions, saying the foundation did not second-guess or "hold captive" scientists or research partnerships that it backed. "We encourage a lot of external review," he said. The memo, which was obtained by The New York Times, was written late last year but circulated this week to the heads of several health agency departments, with a note asking whether they were having similar struggles with the Gates Foundation. A spokeswoman for the director general said Dr. Chan saw the memo last year but did not respond to it. It is "the view of one department, not the W.H.O.'s view," said the spokeswoman, Christine McNab. The agency has cordial relations with the foundation, and the agency's policies are set by committees, which include others besides Gates-financed scientists, she said. The Gates Foundation has poured about $1.2 billion into malaria research since 2000. In the late 1990s, as little as $84 million a year was spent — largely by the United States military and health institutes, along with European governments and foundations. Drug makers had largely abandoned the field. (China was developing a drug, artemisinin, that is now the cornerstone of treatment.) The World Health Organization is a United Nations agency with a $4 billion budget. It gives advice on policies, evaluates treatments — especially for poor countries — maintains a network of laboratories and sends teams to fight outbreaks of diseases, like avian flu or Ebola. It finances little research; for diseases of the poor, the Gates Foundation is the world's biggest donor. Dr. Kochi, an openly undiplomatic official who won admiration for reorganizing the world fight against tuberculosis but was ousted from that job partly because he offended donors like the Rockefeller Foundation, called the Gates Foundation's decision-making "a closed internal process, and as far as can be seen, accountable to none other than itself." Moreover, he added, the foundation "even takes its vested interest to seeing the data it helped generate taken to policy." As an example, he cited an intervention called intermittent preventive treatment for infants, known as IPTi. Other experts said IPTi involved giving babies doses of an older anti- malaria drug, Fansidar, when they got their shots at 2 months, 3 months and 9 months. In early studies, it was shown to decrease malaria cases about 25 percent. But each dose gave protection for only a month. Since it is not safe or practical to give Fansidar constantly to babies because it is a sulfa drug that can cause rare but deadly reactions and because Fansidar-resistant malaria is growing, World Health Organization scientists had doubts about it. Nonetheless, Dr. Kochi wrote, although it was "less and less straightforward" that the health agency should recommend it, the agency's objections were met with "intense and aggressive opposition" from Gates-backed scientists and the foundation. The W.H.O., he wrote, needs to "stand up to such pressures and ensure that the review of evidence is rigorously independent of vested interests." Amir Attaran, a health policy expert at the University of Ottawa who has criticized many players in the war on malaria, said he thought Dr. Kochi's memo was "dead right." His own experience with Gates-financed policy groups, he said, was that they are cowed into "stomach-churning group think." But Dr. Attaran said he believed that scientists were not afraid of the foundation, but of its chief of malaria, Dr. Regina Rabinovich, whom he described as "autocratic." Dr. Rabinovich, when told of Dr. Attaran's characterization, said she did not want to respond. Dr. Yamada of the Gates Foundation called it "unfortunate and inaccurate." "I'm not a grantee of hers," he said, "but she's an extremely knowledgeable leader. And if she has an opinion, she's entitled to it." He said he did not know the details of the IPTi issue, but added that researchers often differed about policy implications. There have been hints in recent months that the World Health Organization feels threatened by the growing power of the Gates Foundation. Some scientists have said privately that it is "creating its own W.H.O." One oft-cited example is its $105 million grant to create the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. Its mission is to judge, for example, which treatments work or to rank countries' health systems. These are core W.H.O. tasks, but the institute's new director, Dr. Christopher J. L. Murray, formerly a health organization official, said a new path was needed because the United Nations agency came under pressure from member countries. His said his institute would be independent of that. _______________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080219/f425c3e1/attachment-0001.html From elkamath at yahoo.com Thu Feb 21 14:42:09 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:12:09 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: Imp:R&R and Land Acquisition-Memorandu Message-ID: <71909.53952.qm@web53612.mail.re2.yahoo.com> FYI Subject: Imp:R&R and Land Acquisition-Memorandum Dear Friends, Not a day passes by when newspapers or channels in India does not have a story on yet another land acquisition, another resistance against corporate land grab or police atrocities on peaceful demonstrators. Not a single part of the country is untouched by this phenomenon be it Narmada, Kalinga Nagar, Raigad, Singur, Nandigram, Bhadohi, Nandgudi, Jagatsingpur, Gorai, or many such places elsewhere. It is in the midst of these that the UPA led Government at the Centre has brought out the much-awaited draft Bill on Rehabilitation and Resettlement along with the amendments to Land Acquisition Act 1894 first brought out by the rural Development Ministry and now endorsed by the Union Cabinet.. After several debates and negotiations, these two instruments remain a justification for displacement. The Parliamentary Committee on Rural Affairs has put the legislations on the website for comments and suggestions till February 22 2008. People's movements have been demanding larger consultations on these bills, before their presentation in the Parliament. It is in this context that on behalf of several people's movements that have been resisting displacement, Sangharsh 2007, National Alliance of People's Movement (NAPM), and its various constituents called for a two-day National Strategy meeting on the National R&R bill and the LA Amendment Bill 2007 in New Delhi on the 10th & 11th February 2008. Both the Bills continue to legitimise displacement by the accepting the state's 'eminent domain' on land and accepting the concept of involuntary displacement. Other areas of concern include the absence of clear cut mechanisms and procedures for implementation of the clauses like Social Impact Assessment; the non recognition of the need for 'consent' of the gram sabha for before projects are implemented. The Meeting rejected both the Bills and reiterated the long standing demand of people's movements to promulgate a comprehensive legislation on Development Planning, No enforced displacement, and Just rehabilitation and wider consultation. It was also demanded that the government bring out a White Paper on all the land acquired using the Land Acquisition Act in past, current utilisation of the acquired land and the status of the rehabilitation of the displaced persons as a result of such acquisition before these Bills are considered. We call on all groups across the country to oppose both the Bills by organizing discussions and actions on this issue in their respective state capitals or districts on 4th March 2008. Please also find a draft Memorandum prepared on the basis of discussions and decisions of the National Strategy Meeting attached with this letter. Kindly endorse this by sending by sending us an email at action2007 at gmail.com by 21st February 2008 or use the draft to send the Memorandum individually or/and in the name of your group. These may be posted to Smt. Sudesh Luthra, Director, Lok Sabha Secretariat, Room No. 151, Parliament House Annexe, New Delhi-110001, in a sealed cover so as to reach her on or before 22nd February, 2008. The memoranda can also be faxed. (Fax No. 011-23010756). Please ensure that your representation reaches the Ministry by fax of post by the 22nd February 2008. Please do forward this information groups and individuals in your area and network. Sincerely Gautam Bandopadhyay, Medha Patkar, Ashok Choudhury, Rajendra Ravi, Vimalbhai, Bijulal MV, Anil Choudhary, Bhupinder Rawat, Ulka Mahajan, Anand Mazgoankar, Gabriele D. P Chennaiah, Sr.Celia, Thomas Kocherry, Vijayan MJ On Behalf of Sangharsh 2007, National Alliance of People's Movement (NAPM), and its various constituents -- www.action2007.net Delhi Office: Action 2007, 1-A, Goela Lane, Under Hill Road Civil Lines, Delhi – 110054 Tel.: 011-23933307, (0)9868200316 E-Mail: action2007 at gmail.com Mumbai Office: Action 2007, C/0 Chemical Mazdoor Sabha, 29-30, First Floor, 'A wing' Haji Habib Building, Naigaon Cross Road, Dadar (East), Mumbai-400014, Tel.: 022-24150529, (0)9969363065 -- In Solidarity, Delhi Forum F-10/12, Malviya Nagar New Delhi - 110017 INDIA Phones: +91-11-26680883/26680914 Emails: dforum at bol.net.in / delhiforum at gmail.com Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080221/b7979d5a/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: R_R Draft Memorandum.doc Type: application/msword Size: 57344 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080221/b7979d5a/attachment-0001.doc From elkamath at yahoo.com Thu Feb 21 17:52:47 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2008 04:22:47 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: Gates foundation again, this time facing fire wrt its green revoln program in africa Message-ID: <325880.33974.qm@web53604.mail.re2.yahoo.com> As a follow up to the last post on the wide-ranging influence of the Gates Foundation, this article focuses on Gates and Rockefeller foundations efforts to forge a green revolution in Africa. Critics fault the program as a trojan horse to promote the fertilizer-pesticide-GM seed lobbies. Whats also of interest is that doubts about the program's efficacy are based in large part on problems in implementation in india... Business Daily Africa http://www.bdafrica.com:80/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5936&Itemid=5811 Written by Wanjiru Waithaka February 18, 2008: Agriculture experts have criticised a programme seeking to restore soil fertility in Kenya and other African countries, saying that similar programmes implemented in India and elsewhere aggravated farmer's problems instead of providing solutions. At stake is the future of the continent's agricultural practices —what is grown, how it is grown, who gets to grow it, who processes it, who sells it and where and how much the African consumer will pay. The programme is an initiative of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra), which recently announced that it was committing $180 million to the five-year project in 13 African countries. Agra's soil health programme is targeted at small scale farmers and aims to increase farm yields and incomes by giving farmers seeds and inputs such as fertilizers through licensed agro-dealers. The Sh12.6 billion grant has been funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Sh11.55 billion) and the Rockefeller Foundation (Sh1.05 billion). Kenya's pilot project started last year and farmers have been receiving a Sh6,000 voucher from the Government enabling them to acquire various farm inputs like seeds, fertilisers, stock borer dust and post-harvest pesticides. Agro-dealers in major towns are being trained on how to handle farmers and supported financially to have enough stocks to ensure farmers have adequate supply. 8,000 farmers in 10 districts across the country, mainly in Western Kenya are currently signed up. In Chuka and Runyenjes, the programme is being made sustainable by compelling farmers to give to the village programme coordinator about five bags of the harvest, which is collectively sold and used to buy inputs for the next planting season. In western Kenya, farmers who meet every day or the last day of the week to discuss farming issues also deposit about Sh10 per day each. The money is deposited with an agro-dealer and used to purchase inputs when the planting season arrives. Critics, however say that Agra's programmes are a Trojan horse for genetically modified seeds which in Africa have only been fully embraced by South Africa. Although popular in many regions of the world GMO use in Africa has been hindered by safety concerns and regulatory issues even though the continent is in dire need of boosting its food production. Agra has also been accused of fronting for seed and fertilizer companies in the West such as Syngenta and Monsanto that are hungry to take a slice of the African seed market. "Although Agra does not on the face of it promote the use of GM technologies, 70 organisations from 12 African countries see Agra as shifting African agriculture to a system dependent on expensive, harmful chemicals, monocultures of hybrid seeds, and ultimately GMOs," says the African Centre for Biosafety in a paper authored by Mariam Mayet. "These groups argue that the Green Revolution under the guise of solving hunger in Africa is nothing more than a push for a parasitic corporate-controlled chemical system of agriculture that will feed on Africa's rich biodiversity," she says. These concerns were also echoed by participants from 25 countries representing farmers, agricultural and pastoralist organisations at a forum held in Mali from November 25 to December 2 last year to discuss the pitfalls of Green Revolution in Africa. "Once the mask of philanthropy is removed, we find profit-hungry corporations vying to control the seed market in African countries, create a path for genetically modified seeds and foods and to pry open a market for chemical fertilizers—which in turn will have an adverse effect on African indigenous seed populations and destroy bio-diversity, not to mention the devastation of the environment and the salination of the soil," said Mukoma wa Ngugi, co-editor of Pambazuka News in a recent commentary in Business Daily. Agra's programme has been likened to Monsato's "Seeds of Hope Campaign" in South Africa. The company which has a strong foothold in South Africa's seed industry introduced 'Combi-Packs' containing hybrid maize seed, some fertilizer, and some herbicide. The company also promotes 'no or low till farming' meant to meant to be a minimally invasive conservation farming technique, in that farmers do not plough or till the land. Instead, they cut small furrows for the seeds. This farming practice entails negligible soil disturbance, maintenance of a permanent vegetative soil cover, direct sowing, and sound crop rotation and is particularly beneficial for smallholder farmers, because there is no need to use a tractor, a major cost saving. However, using this technique requires the increased use of herbicides, since weeds are not removed by tilling the land, and Monsanto is therefore a fervent supporter of this technique says Ms Mayet. "Several studies have shown that Monsanto's Roundup herbicide is a threat to human health; not only a hormone-disruptor, but is also associated with birth defects in humans," she says. In most areas these packs are sold through private agents. They are substantially more expensive than conventional seed and usually subsidized meaning that withdrawal of state support will leave poor farmers out in the cold, in a replica of the first Green Revolution in India in the 1960s. Dr. Namanga Ngongi, Agra's president, says comparing Agra's programmes with those of Monsanto in South Africa is a mistaken view of Agra. "Agra's seed programme is firmly rooted in conventional breeding and the use of Africa's rich agro-biodiversity. We will use indigenous crop varieties that are adapted to the various agro-ecological zones of the continent," he says. "Green revolution" was first coined in 1968 to describe the success in increasing yields in wheat, maize and rice in India and Southeast Asia. The essential features of that model comprised of a technology package involving the use of external inputs such as inorganic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, laboratory developed hybrid seeds, mechanisation and extensive irrigation projects. The Rockerfeller Foundation which is also financing Agra played a crucial role in promoting this technology package that also formed the basis of agriculture development aid and assistance at that time. "These varieties only produced the desired 'high yielding' results if there was irrigation, mechanisation, and plenty of chemical fertilisers (the real key) and pesticides," says Grain, an international non-governmental organisation which promotes the sustainable management and use of agricultural biodiversity based on people's control over genetic resources and local knowledge. Under the programme, India increased its wheat production ten-fold and its rice production three-fold. But the country paid a heavy price. "The use of large amounts of water, fertilisers and chemical pesticides impoverished soils, leaving them less fertile and highly polluted," says Grain in a paper titled 'A new Green Revolution for Africa?' Local biodiversity was drastically reduced, bringing farmers under the dependence of pesticide manufacturers and outside seed suppliers. "The profound cultural and economic changes wrought by the Green Revolution produced a massive rural exodus, and, with it, a profound loss of traditional knowledge and skills. For most farmers, any early profits were soon converted into debts, with many farmers, unable to repay their debts, taking their own lives," says the NGO. Dr. Ngongi disagrees with this assessment of Asia's green revolution. "Asia's green revolution saved many millions of lives and contributed immensely to the dynamic economic performance of Asian countries. Yes, it also had some negative impact on small-scale farmers and on the environment. However, the positives greatly outweighed the negatives," he says adding that an African green revolution has the advantage of learning from the errors that were committed when Asia was launching its green revolution. Dr Ngongi says that misuse of fertilizers, improper and uncontrolled use of water, the construction of huge dams, and the concentration on breeding a few miracle varieties of a few crops are now well understood and will not be repeated. "Agra's approach is to work with national institutions, in both public and private sector in close partnership with farmers, especially small-scale farmers, most of whom are women, to resolve problems that have a negative impact on farmers' productivity and incomes," he says. _______________________________________________ DEBATE mailing list DEBATE at debate.kabissa.org http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/debate ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080221/d5f7e5dc/attachment.html From debsinha at gmail.com Thu Feb 21 21:46:48 2008 From: debsinha at gmail.com (Deb Ranjan Sinha (Gmail)) Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2008 11:16:48 -0500 Subject: [Urbanstudy] New Journal - Human Geography Message-ID: <022c01c874a5$2f703dd0$0200000a@PAGOL> Human Geography A New Journal Published by the Institute for Human Geography Inc, a non-profit charitable foundation incorporated in the State of Massachusetts, US. Mass ID number 000971232 Address: P.O. Box 307, Bolton, Massachusetts, 01740-0307 US Email Address: insthugeog at gmail.com Call for submissions and donations We are starting a new journal in Human Geography broadly conceived to cover topics ranging from geopolitics, through cultural and economic issues, to political ecology. We envisage a well written, critical, intellectual journal, not full of empirical detail, and not encumbered by too many citations, a journal that can be read in its entirety. The journal will be peer reviewed ­ but we want to give positive, helpful reviews of papers, and not savage them or decline to publish based on minor points made by reviewers who hide behind anonymity. We plan a mix of longer papers up to 7500 words and shorter papers of up to 3000 words, with timely opinion pieces and book review essays interspersed within the body of the main text of the journal. We plan a paper version of the journal for the moment, followed soon after by a web site with multi-media content. The proposal to start the journal is motivated by two main concerns: (1) Need to retain control of the value produced by academic labor. Over the last twenty years, journals that once were owned and produced by universities and academic and professional associations have come to be controlled, in part or in whole, by publishing houses that increasingly are concentrated in a few multinational media conglomerates. This means that the surplus (monetary) value produced by the academic labor that writes the content of journals ends up as profit for media capital. It also means that corporations control the fund of knowledge produced by academic labor. We are determined to resist this trend 'Take Back Our Knowledge'. Hence we have founded a non-profit corporation 'Institute for Human Geography Inc', as owner of a new journal Human Geography ­ the Institute's officers are drawn from the Board of Editors. This Institute will not establish relations of any kind with commercial publishing houses. Let it be clear, we are not proposing an open access, web based journal. However, individual subscriptions, when offered later this year, will be at a low cost, with institutional subscriptions at a moderate cost, and certainly less than they are being charged at the moment ­ multinational publishers charge institutions annual subscription rates in the range of $250-$5000 a year. A single journal can generate half a million to a million dollars a year in profit. We could use this money to sponsor radical research, but only if ownership and control over the knowledge we produce is kept out of corporate hands. As soon as we have a surplus we will announce the availability of radical-geographic research grants, and appoint a committee to administer them. (2) Need for a new publishing outlet for articles on topics of political significance conceived from critical, perspectives. The critical politics that fueled the radical geography movement are being dissipated in philosophical-theoretical niceties and empirical evasions. Particularly, articles written from specifically Marxian philosophical-theoretical and political positions face a difficult time -- young academics have to deny their radical politics to get published. While we can try to change this, we feel it is necessary to also begin a new journal that consciously favors political as well as theoretically-based articles from various left positions that definitely include socialism. Additionally the wide range of urgent social and political issues thrown up by capitalist globalization is not being fully addressed. Some of the most basic issues (the Iraq War, global finance capitalism, environmental crisis) are hardly mentioned in the existing journals. Hence we favor a new, more extensive and politically inclusive journal of broadly, but very politically, conceived Human Geography. So we announce the start of a new journal called Human Geography. We invite your interest, comment and support. We could use donations to fuel the start-up of the journal ­ please make checks out to Institute for Human Geography, and $100 gets you two years of free issues. We invite you to submit papers, opinion pieces, reviews and editorials to our editorial board. If you have an idea for a contribution let us know what you have in mind, so that we can provide immediate feedback ­ please email your proposal or paper to the respective editors: Richard Peet (rpeet at clarku.edu) for substantive articles Derek Gregory (gregory at geog.ubc.ca) for opinion pieces and editorials Salvatore Engel-DiMauro (engeldis at newpaltz.edu) for book reviews and review essays Human Geography Editor: Richard Peet, Graduate School of Geography, Clark University Editorials and Opinions Editor: Derek Gregory, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia Book Review Editor: Salvatore Engel-DiMauro, Department of Geography, SUNY New Paltz Editorial Board: Waquar Ahmed, Pennsylvania State University Swapna Banerjee-Guha, Tata Institute of Social Sciences Patrick Bond, University of KwaZulu-Natal Myrna Breitbart, Hampshire College B.S. Butola, Jawaharlal Nehru University Ipsita Chatterjee, Pennsylvania State University Kevin Cox, Ohio State University Mike Davis, University of California, Irvine Annette Desmarais, University of Regina Jody Emel, Clark University Salvatore Engel-DiMauro, State University of New York, New Paltz Emily Gilbert, University of Toronto Ruthie Gilmore, University of Southern California. Jim Glassman, University of British Columbia Jon Goss, University of Hawaii Derek Gregory, University of British Columbia Elaine Hartwick, Framingham State College David Harvey, City University of New York Andy Herod, University of Georgia Nik Heynen, University of Georgia Maria Kaika, Manchester University Mazen Labban, University of Miami Jenna Loyd , Syracuse University Bernardo Mançano Fernandes, State University of Sao Paulo Geoff Mann, Simon Fraser University Don Mitchell, Syracuse University Jeronimo Montero, Durham University Phil O¹Keefe, Northumbria University Phil O¹Neill, University of Western Sydney Richard Peet, Clark University Laura Pulido, University of Southern California Eric Sheppard, University of Minnesota Neil Smith, City University of New York Ed Soja, University of California, Los Angeles Erik Swyngedouw, Manchester University Wing Shing Tang, Hong Kong Baptist University Michael Watts, University of California, Berkeley Jane Wills, Queen Mary College, University of London Bobby Wilson, University of Alabama From yanivbin at gmail.com Fri Feb 22 22:38:37 2008 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 22:38:37 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Urban health mission to cover 100 cities in phase I Message-ID: <86b8a7050802220908t4bf5484er35f3918f0fa5b53@mail.gmail.com> FYI Vinay * Urban health mission to cover 100 cities in phase I * Aarti Dhar NEW DELHI: The National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) will cover 100 cities, including the four metros and Bangalore, in the first phase. Of the 429 cities identified for the five-year-mission, which aims at improving the health of the urban poor and other disadvantaged sections, facilitating access to the health system, the remaining 329 will be covered in the second phase. This will benefit 22 crore people, with the focus on a five-crore slum population. All cities with a population above one lakh, State capitals and even district headquarters will be brought under NUHM purview. "This is the second largest health programme that will fill the lacunae created after the implementation of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and take care of the unmet needs in the fast urbanisation process," Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss told *The Hindu* here on Wednesday. * Focus on private participation* The Rs. 9,159-crore mission, to be launched in a few months, would focus on private participation and insurance. "The scheme is likely to take off much faster due to awareness, presence of non-governmental organisations and better accessibility in the cities." The Ministry proposed to implement the programme by strengthening the existing systems, rationalising manpower and resources, and filling the gaps in service delivery through private-public partnerships. "The guidelines for administration and operationalisation of the mission will flow from the NRHM which will then be implemented by urban civic bodies," Dr. Ramadoss said. As far as possible, the NUHM would converge with institutional structures such as the Jawaharlal Nehru National Renewal Mission and the Integrated Child Development Services. The mission would need 4,500 Urban Health Centres acting as focal points; of these 2,500 existing structures would be strengthened, followed by priority to private-public partnership and creation of infrastructure. Each centre would be a referral point with the facilities of out-patient department, immunisation and maternal healthcare. Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) of the NRHM in the cities would be known as Urban Social Health Activists (USHAs), each catering for a population of 2,000. As many as 25,000 USHAs would be put in place by 2012. There was also a provision for community risk pooling through the Mahila Arogya Samiti, which is based on the concept of self-help groups, so that money would be easily available during a crisis. *Date:22/02/2008* *URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/22/stories/2008022256041400.htm* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080222/8bd7ee05/attachment.html From yanivbin at gmail.com Sat Feb 23 09:55:06 2008 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 09:55:06 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: [sustran] Delhi BRT In-Reply-To: <17143.92310.qm@web94612.mail.in2.yahoo.com> References: <17143.92310.qm@web94612.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <86b8a7050802222025y22098d8bi56949d122260de99@mail.gmail.com> Fwding mail from Sustran net FYI ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: CP Bhatnagar Date: Fri, Feb 22, 2008 at 10:19 AM Subject: [sustran] Delhi BRT To: sustran-discuss at jca.apc.org This project is currently hogging newspaper headlines on account of its failure and has built-up considerable opposition in almost all circles. As someone who has been directly involved in this project, let me give my insider's perspective. I got involved in the ITS aspect of what was the HCBS project, now re-christened BRT (after I argued in a note that the system proposed was not a high capacity one at all!). Initially, while a DIMTS employee, I had argued that the two terms had different connotations- this was then not accepted and I was told that two were one and the same. Later on, when it came to the ITS tendering, I designed a comprehensive ITS making assumptions that it was to be 1. a 'closed' system and 2. a 'high capacity' system (though these high capacities may take several years to materialize). Only then could we claim that a capacity about the same as the Metro, but at 1/10th cost could be achieved. Incidentally, failure on the HCBS front has also resulted in boosting of the Metro project, though at 10x the cost and at the expense of ruining the city's landscape. I was told that the ITS had not been budgeted for at all (whereas at least 10% cost should have been)! The 'closed, high-capacity system' could ideally be along say, a North-South corridor since north-south traffic has currently to take the circuitous Ring Road route. Sensibly, there is now some talk of extending the current Ambedkar Nagar (south Delhi) to Delhi Gate to Jahangir Puri (north Delhi). Similarly East-West. Only ITS compatible buses would use the central reserved lanes. Ideally, only dedicated, single end-to-end route, with feeder services. The high capacity would be achieved through: 1. high-capacity buses (it is not clear as to why Trolley buses are not being used in Delhi as are elsewhere e.g. in Bagota. In fact, electric trolley buses- ETBs should be used keeping in mind the tremendous pollution problem in Delhi. CNG in fact is better used for power generation, fertilizers etc. than for transportation) and 2. ITS similar to that of the Metro, wherein the track length is divided into communication 'cells' which directly 'talk' to the moving vehicles along it. While the Metro uses the tracks as a medium, in HCBS, the connection will have to be Wireless (which in turn through an Optic fibre link to the control room). With the coming in of Wi-Max in India, such networking possibilities are enhanced. Instead of this, what was decided was: 1. an 'open system' wherein any bus could come into the corridor (possibly under political pressure since powerful nearby area Councillors put pressure) and 2. a BRT system, rather than a HCBS one, wherein each bus would merely have a GPS. It may be noted that GPS has already proved unfeasible in the past as well. The information furnished by GPS merely tells us about the timeliness of the service and does in no way serve as a communication or a networking medium. The problem has lain in the heart of the DIMTS organization- set up as a 'special purpose vehicle', which manages the project. It has government retired old fogies in its roll, who have little incentive to perform, totally out of touch with recent advances in technology. Then there is the 'patronage' factor. Civil engineers who have scarcely seen the inside of a bus are masquerading as transportation experts, even while they cannot bring half the excellence should by the Metro in handling one single BRT corridor- the bad signages and re-routing have resulted in 4 fatalities. Hopefully, things may get better after the conversion of DIMTS into a PPP venture. There is also little concern at DIMTS about taking the 'system design' in its own hands, employing in-house experts for the purpose, rather than trying to merely serve as a supervising agency. As for me, I am an IITian with 3 engineering and management degrees and the best of experience. But considering the way I was treated, despite some outstanding work at DIMTS, I had little option but to leave. C.P.Bhatnagar Forgot the famous last words? Access your message archive online at http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/webmessengerpromo.php - -------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT NOTE to everyone who gets sustran-discuss messages via YAHOOGROUPS. Please go to http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss to join the real sustran-discuss and get full membership rights. The yahoogroups version is only a mirror and 'members' there cannot post to the real sustran-discuss (even if the yahoogroups site makes it seem like you can). Apologies for the confusing arrangement. ================================================================ SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080223/9beef1e5/attachment.html From yanivbin at gmail.com Sat Feb 23 12:08:47 2008 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 12:08:47 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] A bad week for Bus Rapid Transit in Delhi Message-ID: <86b8a7050802222238p3037c8e5u3199461fd5cf47e2@mail.gmail.com> *A highly dominating role by the anti-bus - print-press* This is probably a fight between the cars and the poor on the roads, in which the ToI / HT media speaks for the cars by proxy and the HCBS for the poor who can travel and have benefitted by it. This is not a new binary but if buses squeeze out car space then will the car users go on to Metro and leave the road space for the urban lower middle class and the poor, who need the subsidy which the Delhi Metro is already taking away? If the rationale is that all over the world public transport does not make profits or break even then does the bus system also deserve some of it... Vinay http://reinventingtransport.blogspot.com/ Wednesday, February 20, 2008 A bad week for BRT in Delhi A backlash against BRT has been hitting Delhi. Delhi's BRT, or High Capacity Bus System (HCBS) as it is often known in India, has been facing a barrage of vitriolic newspaper attacks. These have included quite vicious assaults on the credibility of IIT Delhi academics, Dinesh Mohan and Geetam Tiwari, who have championed and helped design the system (if you follow the link, click on 'urban transport'). Anti-BRT headlines have included: - 'Experts' order serial rape of Delhi roads (in the Pioneer) - Will somebody wake up to stop this HCBS madness? (Pioneer) - Buses Hog Space, Cars Squeezed Out (Times of India, Nov 16, 2007) Unfortunately, it appears that these and similar attacks have now drawn a political response. Yesterday, the Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, was reported (somewhat triumphantly by the Times of India) to have halted further BRT development beyond the initial corridor's first phase. Other routes will apparently need to wait until the initial project proves its worth. It is under construction and due to open in August. See hereand here for other viewpoints, for some of the text of the articles mentioned above, and for some analysis of this media phenomenon. A model of part of Delhi's initial BRT corridor by the IIT-Delhi team. Delhi is not alone in its BRT troubles. For example, Jakarta's busways faced setbacks late in 2007, with several corridors forced to open to mixed traffic. This was a response to media uproar over congestion that was attributed to busway construction and a poor level of bus service on the most recently-opened corridors. A Jakarta Post article provides some background (cache version here). If you read Bahasa Indonesia then consult the Batavia Buswayblog for more insight and updates. Posted by Paul Barter at 5:57 PM 0 comments Links to this post Labels: Bus Rapid Transit, Delhi , Jakarta, media -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080223/54e45251/attachment-0001.html From govind_029 at yahoo.com Sat Feb 23 12:31:15 2008 From: govind_029 at yahoo.com (Govind Singh) Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:01:15 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] New Member Intro. Message-ID: <318437.67690.qm@web54505.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Hello All, This is Govind Singh, from the School of Environmental Studies, University of Delhi. I am pursuing my PhD (started about a month ago) on the Urban Ecology of Delhi. Mainly keeping it focused on the issue of water and wastewater scenario in Delhi (and urbanisation), mine is a highly interdisciplinary work that ultimately would talk of sustainability appraisal (the big brother of both EIA and SEA) of the city's urban sprawl, while also talking about the city's ecological history and find the relationship between urbanisation and the depleting surface water bodies (including the Yamuna's depleting quantity and quality) in Delhi. I would also be working on other uban issues viz. transport, air quality, etc. all of which would be required to be studied for the purpose of carrying out a meaningful sustainable appraisal. I am browsing the group and the posts and am sure can and will learn a lot from all the interactions here.. Warm Regards Govind Singh Research Scholar School of Environmental Studies University of Delhi Delhi - 110 007 --------------------------------- Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-1508 Size: 1827 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080222/ad3d89bc/attachment.bin From govind_029 at yahoo.com Sat Feb 23 12:35:35 2008 From: govind_029 at yahoo.com (Govind Singh) Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:05:35 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Event Notification - Big Bird Day Sunday! Message-ID: <698785.21820.qm@web54503.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Dear All, The Northern Indian Bird Network (DelhiBird.Net), in collaboration with WWF-India and the School of Environmental Studies, University of Delhi (SES, DU) is celebrating Sunday, 24th February 2008 as the BIG BIRD DAY! The plan is to have a few teams start at different places in Delhi and get as many species of birds recorded as possible for the day. Last year, the count was 188 while two years ago, it was 236. Anyone can join any team for the walk. From there the team would then go to the next place of their choice. In the evening the teams meet over contributory dinner, discuss the day and make the final tally. The School of Environmental Studies, University of Delhi is leading two teams for the event. The first, led by Faiyaz Sir starts from the entry gate of the Yamuna Biodiversity Park (Near Buradi) at 7.00 AM, while the second, led by Professor Mihir Deb (Director, SES) will cover the Kamla Nehru (North Delhi) Ridge and the University Campus. The second team meets at 6.30 AM at the Vishwavidyalya Metro Station (you can also join us at SES at 6.45 AM). In addition, and as mentioned before, different teams head for different parts of the city. To find a team near you, please click the following link: http://delhigreens.wordpress.com/2008/02/21/big-bird-day-sunday/ DelhiBird.Net has prepared a checklist of birds, especially for the event. It can be downloaded at the above link. Also available on the above link: the advertisement of the event by the Department of Environment, Govt. of NCT of Delhi. Hope to see you (somewhere) there! Warm Regards Govind Singh 98111 47754 Event Coordinator (Voluntary) (On behalf of DelhiBird.Net and SES, DU) --------------------------------- Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-42946 Size: 3051 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080222/7d5bcb89/attachment.bin From cugambetta at yahoo.com Sun Feb 24 11:12:01 2008 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 21:42:01 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: Padma Preview Invitation Message-ID: <611600.57656.qm@web56810.mail.re3.yahoo.com> ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: shaina a To: launch at pad.ma Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 12:12:16 PM Subject: Padma Preview Invitation Dear all, you are invited to A Preview of PAD.MA: the public access digital media archive. Thursday, 28th february 2008 6:00pm Jnanapravaha, 3rd floor, Queen's Mansion, (Opposite Gallery Chemould) G.Talwatkar Marg, Fort, Mumbai-1. For directions, see: http://camputer.org/images/jnanaMap.jpg Event Timeline: 6:00 pm. Introductions, and the Collaborative Project: Shaina Anand, Ashok Sukumaran. The Dominant, the Residual and the Emergent in the Imagination of the Archive: Lawrence Liang. Lost/Found/made Public, Images to Narratives: Madhusree Dutta. Introduction to a True History of Digital Video: Sebastian Luetgert, and the unveiling of pad.ma website with Jan Gerber. 7:30 pm. Interval: Browse through the archive over tea and snacks. Followed by presentations on: Legal framework. Practical FAQs, and on how you can contribute. Q and A session, moderated by Bishakha Dutta. ___ PAD.MA is an online archive of video material, primarily footage and not finished films, which have been densely text-annotated. The entire collection is searchable and viewable online, and is free to download for non-commercial use. We see PAD.MA as a way of opening up a set of images, intentions and effects present in video footage, resources that conventions of video- making, editing and spectatorship have tended to suppress, or leave behind. This expanded treatment then points to other, political potentials for such material, and leads us into lesser-known territories for video itself... beyond the finite documentary film or the online video clip. The design of the archive makes possible various types of "viewing", and contextualisation: from an overview of themes and timelines to much closer readings of transcribed dialogue and geographical locations, to layers of "writing" on top of the image material. Descriptions, keywords and other annotations have been placed on timelines by both archive contributors and users. At the moment, PAD.MA has approximately 150 "events" on video, mostly from Mumbai and Bangalore. This adds up to about 100 hours of fully transcribed video footage, which we expect to grow to more than 400 hours by early 2009. The PAD.MA project is initiated by a group consisting of oil21.org from Berlin, the Alternative Law Forum from Bangalore, and three organisations from Mumbai: Majlis, Point of View and chitrakarkhana.net /CAMP. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080223/d6753608/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: padma.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 51259 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080223/d6753608/attachment-0001.jpg From kalakamra at gmail.com Thu Feb 28 03:59:36 2008 From: kalakamra at gmail.com (shaina a) Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 03:59:36 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Announcement: Pad.ma video archive preview | Today Message-ID: <33eee40c0802271429g4af3124fsce9defd0a737238c@mail.gmail.com> Dear all, You are invited to: A Preview of PAD.MA : the public access digital media archive. Thursday, 28th february 2008 6:00pm Jnanapravaha, 3rd floor, Queen's Mansion, (Opposite Gallery Chemould) G.Talwatkar Marg, Fort, Mumbai-1. For directions, see: http://camputer.org/images/jnanaMap.jpg 6:00 pm. Introductions, and the Collaborative Project: Shaina Anand, Ashok Sukumaran. The Dominant, the Residual and the Emergent in the Imagination of the Archive: Lawrence Liang. Lost/Found/made Public, Images to Narratives: Madhusree Dutta. Introduction to a True History of Digital Video: Sebastian Luetgert, and Unveiling of pad.ma website with Jan Gerber. 30 mins. 7:30 pm. Interval: Browse through the archive over tea and snacks. Followed by presentations on: Legal framework: Namita Malhotra Practical FAQs, and on how you can contribute: Sanjay Bhangar Q and A session, moderated by Bishakha Dutta. Pad.ma is an online archive of densely annotated video material,primarily footage and not finished films. The entire collection is text-searchable and viewable online, and is free to download for non- commercial use. We see Pad.ma as a way of opening up a set of images, intentions and effects present in video footage, resources that conventions of video-making, editing and spectatorship have tended to suppress, or leave behind. This expanded treatment then points to other, political potentials for such material, and leads us into lesser-known territory for video-based practices... beyond the finite documentary film or the video clip on youtube. The design of the archive makes possible various types of "viewing", and contextualisation: from an overview of themes and timelines to much closer readings of transcribed dialogue and geographical locations, to layers of "writing" on top of the image material. Descriptions, keywords and other annotations have been placed on timelines by both archive contributors and users. At the moment, Pad.ma has approximately 150 "events" on video, mostly from Mumbai and Bangalore. This adds up to about 100 hours of fully transcribed video footage, which we expect to grow to more than 400 hours by early 2009. The PAD.MA project is initiated by a group consisting of oil21.org from Berlin, the Alternative Law Forum from Bangalore, and three organisations from Mumbai: Majlis, Point of View and chitrakarkhana.net /CAMP. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080228/e51e1341/attachment.html From geetanjoy at isec.ac.in Thu Feb 28 11:54:04 2008 From: geetanjoy at isec.ac.in (geetanjoy at isec.ac.in) Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:54:04 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: Talk on Struggle of Workers against Hindustan Lever Limited in Kodaikanal Message-ID: <47904.203.200.22.246.1204179844.squirrel@www.isec.ac.in> ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: Fwd: Talk on Struggle of Workers against Hindustan Lever Limited in Kodaikanal From: divya at isec.ac.in Date: Wed, February 27, 2008 11:05 am To: ramana at isec.ac.in etheophilius at gmail.com geetanjoy at isec.ac.in -------------------------------------------------------------------------- fyi ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Arpita Joshi Date: 27 Feb 2008 10:58 Subject: Fwd: Talk on Struggle of Workers against Hindustan Lever Limited in Kodaikanal To: Divya Badami Dear All, Please join us this Friday, February 29 for a talk by Rupesh Kumar, Environmental and labour Activist, Volunteer, Campaign for Justice in Bhopal who will speak on the situation in Kodaikkanal due to the pollution by Hindustan Lever, as well as the struggle of the Ponds' Hindustan Lever Limited ex- mercury employees' welfare Association and its supporters. The struggle of the workers and their supporters is to ascertain rights both for the workers and to hold the company accountable for the environmental pollution. March 7th is seen as the day to signify the struggle against HLL in Kodaikkanal. This session is an introduction to the issues leading to the protest in solidarity of the workers in Bangalore on the 7th. > > Time: 5:30 pm Venue: (Old) ALF office, 122/4 Infantry Road, Opposite Infantry Wedding House, Bangalore 560001 If you need directions to ALF's old office please call us at 22356845 or 22865757 Best Maitreyi - -- - ---- Words are things; and a small drop of ink Falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think. ~ Lord Byron, poet (1788-1824) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080228/f8c0be96/attachment.html From elkamath at yahoo.com Thu Feb 28 13:01:38 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:31:38 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] the urban evangelists by sugata srinivasaraju Message-ID: <722964.52317.qm@web53606.mail.re2.yahoo.com> http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080226&fname=sugata&sid=1 Web| Feb 26, 2008 Bangalore Byte Urban Evangelists Are they really "converting" men at key places? Is it a real threat that they may "takeover" Bangalore? Who are they? What language do they speak? What do they do? Where did they come from? SUGATA SRINIVASARAJU The conversation post-lunch, the other day, veered around how 'urban evangelists' were trying to "takeover" Bangalore. I offered a small correction by saying that they have repeatedly tried to "takeover" the city since circa 2000 AD, but have somewhat failed. A friend at the table cautioned me not to be so optimistic after all. The way things are moving, he said, they may actually be in-charge in the near future. They are converting men at key places, he warned. It is not important to know how we went about sticking to our positions in the debate, as much as to profile the ones we had, with incredible ease, labelled as 'urban evangelists'. So who are these urban evangelists? What language do they speak? What do they do? Where did they come from? The answers to these questions cannot be precise, but let's hazard a rough construction of their persona. These are people who have a very clinical and economically-viable, but acultural and ahistorical idea of an urban space. For them the city should naturally homogenise, individualise and universalise itself. Essentially, the city for them is a place where you work. And every infrastructure you build should help you to work more and earn more. So you need big airports, metro rail, malls, expressways etc. This idea is so much different from living and living well. These urban evangelists are an established creed abroad and are fast spreading across India. But it is important to understand them in the context of Bangalore because they have been delivering doomsday messages about the imminent collapse of the city's 'infrastructure' on national television, on frontpages of friendly English newspapers, at five-star seminar halls and even at Page 3 parties. Their voice has now reached a shrill pitch because the road that leads to the new airport at Devanahalli, is not exactly clutter-free. Earlier they had raised an alarm when the roads to the Electronic City and the software parks were narrow and bouncy. Bangalore has crossed their earlier date of doom, but then there is a new date to grapple with: March 30 is the day when the new international airport near Devanahalli will be inaugurated. Airplanes will land and take off, but will people be able to catch the flights is the panic question that these evangelists have spread in the city. Their presumably well-intentioned panic comes with an impractical solution. They have been arguing for keeping the old airport as well, though it is in the diagonally opposite direction. They don't mind reneging the contract that the government has entered into with the European consortium building the new airport to shutdown the old one. They have also been cribbing about the pre-determined user fees that the new airport would be charging for both domestic and international passengers. These arguments are puzzling, given the fact that they come from those who otherwise support the PPP-schemes (the new airport is one); press for sound revenue models and swear by the sanctity of a contract. Expanding the scope of their arguments, they have also raised technical issues related to the ability of the new airport to handle growing traffic with just one runway. The blogs with a focus on the city, as usual, have picked up these arguments and asked one consuming question: Why didn't these people, who are known to have a futuristic pair of eyes, raise these arguments earlier? Has one of those ancient, despicable Indian ailments affected these people too, who not long ago were fresh, dreamy-eyed 'returnees' from prosperous Western cities? The other rather exaggerated suspicion on blogs is that these people may be taking up the cause of those who 'inhabit' the Electronics City and the international tech park in Whitefield, situated far away from the new airport.In essence, it is made out to be a battle between South Bangalore, with a predominantly IT crowd (Jayanagar, Koramangala, BTM Layout, J.P. Nagar, Sarjapura) and North Bangalore, where the new airport is located. The government has no doubt woken up late to clear the clutter on the roads that lead to the new airport. But, the commissioner of the city's municipal corporation, Dr. S. Subramanya, has come up with innovative ideas like 'magic box' underpasses and overpasses that can be installed in less than a month's time and at less than ten per cent of the traditional costs. When was the last time you heard a government servant thinking lateral and taking a risk? Instead of fine-tuning these ideas and offering constructive support, why are the 'evangelists' throwing the whole thing out of gear? Is it primarily because they shoot with borrowed expertise? Perhaps, the 'doubt' about 'urban evangelists' on the blogs would have been less had they even occasionally spoken about the crowded central bus-stand, where ordinary citizens fear being run over by speeding buses; the approach road to the railway station; the congestion on Balepet, Tharugpet, Fort Area, City Market, Magadi Road and Avenue Road. Perhaps they never use the bus-stand or the railway station and their cars never cross the areas mentioned above, but that too is Bangalore. Not the outskirts, but the nerve-centre. They would surely agree that building Bangalore's infrastructure is not simply about building elevated roads, ring roads and six-lane expressways. They may, for all we know, be concerned about all these issues, but in the public eye they are never associated with these concerns and this perception does not augur well for them. I recently drove down to the site of the new airport and the one thing that surprised me was the number of houses, government buildings, farms, small factories, roadside automobile workshops, petty shops etc. that have been ripped and nudged out by earth-moving equipment to build the six-lane expressway to the new airport. The exposed bedrooms and bathrooms of what were once homes seemed to be eagerly waiting to tease the first riders to the airport on March 30. For a moment, I wondered if a bombed road in Bush's 'shock and awe' Iraq would have a similar eerie feel. It is enormously difficult to build homes and livelihoods, but why have these displaced people never become news in our city? Where have they gone? Something similar will soon happen with the route being carved out for the Metro rail. Development has always posed difficult questions and here again they were lining up to haunt. Should or shouldn't the 'evangelists' weave these people into their power-point presentations? Does this serious problem of inclusion arise because these 'evangelists' think they are not shackled by 'ideology' and are 'apolitical,' except of course when it comes to advising governments that can converse with them in English. But can simple utilitarian pragmatism create the inclusiveness that today's India badly needs, not just between the rural and the urban, but also to bridge the growing fissures within our cities? ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080227/3db5426a/attachment-0001.html From sharan at sarai.net Fri Feb 29 11:27:04 2008 From: sharan at sarai.net (sharan at sarai.net) Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:27:04 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] the urban evangelists by sugata srinivasaraju In-Reply-To: <722964.52317.qm@web53606.mail.re2.yahoo.com> References: <722964.52317.qm@web53606.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <66a86f0e3dc1db010cf822b75e501584@sarai.net> Hi, Urban evangelists are no less those who would resist such change in the name of 'public purpose', who too come up with their own ideas about what 'improvement' should mean and how a city ought to be shaped; what activities are permissible and what ought to move to the margins etc.. Maybe 'urban boosters' is a more appropriate phrase for the coalitions of persons lobbying to produce a 'clutter-free Bangalore'. Cheers, Dipu From yanivbin at gmail.com Fri Feb 29 17:54:02 2008 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:54:02 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Boxed-in survey Message-ID: <86b8a7050802290424h626ab214i33bf57fe490e90f2@mail.gmail.com> *Boxed-in survey* Partha Mukhopadhyay Posted online: Thursday , February 28, 2008 at 2322 hrs **What is one to make of an economic survey that has radical policy prescriptions neatly outlined in a box (2.2 to be precise), none of which find any mention in the text? Are such reforms then truly orphaned? A survey which argues for "checking the proliferation of SEZs" while extolling them in another Box (6.7). Is the finance ministry boxed-in on its position on SEZs, like many others mentioned in the survey? There are many other such conundrums. In discussing urbanisation, it refers approvingly to the role of SEZs but also reiterates the government's responsibility to "carry out detailed land use planning" in urban areas. At a time when states like Gujarat and West Bengal are taking away local democratic rights in SEZs and transferring municipal functions to cabals of developers and bureaucrats, this is almost touching. On JNNURM, the flagship urban programme, it ignores governance. Focusing on projects, it notes that "efforts are made to ensure public-private participation (PPP) in the areas where it is feasible", even when PPP is almost non-existent in the 200 odd projects sanctioned till date.* The most novel is its articulation of infrastructure as a public good in rural areas, but as a private good in cities.* Notwithstanding such delightful puzzles, this survey has some distinctly positive features and provides much food for thought. For one, it brings the regional and state-wise variations across India to the fore, along with the corollary that greater decentralisation and a shift from "financial monitoring to output and outcome monitoring" would be needed to improve service outcomes. In making this transition, it acknowledges binding constraints on "bureaucratic capacities" to deliver neglected "public and quasi-public goods" in sufficient quantity and with adequate quality. It notes the need to revamp the accounting system to remove the bias against maintenance and help expenditure tracking at the scheme level. Here, the government could help by releasing the actual expenditure on each scheme in its Budget document, instead of just revised estimates. All this signals a refreshing recognition of the continuing relevance of the State and the need to improve its human resources and systems. But much of the survey is disturbing. When one reads that "export growth [not a typo] in 2006-07 was driven mainly by petroleum products", a more detailed look is necessary. Net exports of non-oil products, which used to be positive until recently, have been dipping dangerously, with textiles leading the fall. This is not because of the Chinese yuan, which the survey points out has appreciated more than the rupee since March 2005. Besides, it notes that the RBI has sterilised much of our inflows, incurring a cost of over $2 billion. Given surging imports, our current account imbalance has been kept manageable by "invisible" forces, inflows now amounting to over 6% of GDP, about whose antecedents even the RBI seems to know little. While there is reason for cheer on state finances—where compensation claims for Vat have fallen and there is an overall revenue surplus, though with inter-state variations—the Central picture is not as rosy. Low rates have kept the interest burden under control, but this could change just as the Sixth Pay Commission award is due. Finally, our stock market has the highest P/E and capitalisation-to-GDP ratios in Asia, which could be interpreted either way. But the most disturbing is the survey's approach to infrastructure, which is identified as a key deficiency. It recognises that "each segment in the physical infrastructure sector has its own specificities" but schizophrenically continues to be boxed into "standardized contractual documents" as a core strategy. In addition to this is an almost Freudian association of PPP with commercial viability, rather than service improvement. This shortsightedness leads it to privilege revenue from negative subsidy bids over better service, and allows Rs 10,000 crore to sit idly in a fund meant to subsidise rural telecom, while exploring user fee models to bridge the digital divide. There is a role for government beyond redistributing taxes. This survey points to a belated realisation of this fact, but in thinking about that role, the government appears—you got it—boxed-in. Hopefully, it will soon think, as the PM often wishes, out of the box. *The author is senior research fellow at Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. These are his personal views http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Boxed-in-survey/278267/ * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080229/c595ecd0/attachment.html