From debsinha at gmail.com Sun Mar 2 22:16:45 2008 From: debsinha at gmail.com (Deb Ranjan Sinha (Gmail)) Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2008 11:46:45 -0500 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Urban Evangelists : outlookindia.com Message-ID: <005801c87c86$42372030$0200000a@PAGOL> 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'. http://outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080226&fname=sugata&sid=1 Sugata Srinivasaraju From elkamath at yahoo.com Mon Mar 3 20:07:43 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008 06:37:43 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] photos of the mini skirt march Joburg 29 Feb Message-ID: <429370.94298.qm@web53612.mail.re2.yahoo.com> In the run up to International Women's Day here are some pics of the mini skirt march in Joburg, Feb 29, 2008. Photos at: http://www.flickr.com/gp/14762218 at N05/Zir3NY Cross posted from Debate ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080303/debd2da1/attachment.html From bawazainab79 at gmail.com Tue Mar 4 07:37:03 2008 From: bawazainab79 at gmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 07:37:03 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Story of the Bangalore Metro Rail Message-ID: 26/02/2008 I was sitting in the verandah of the Karnataka High Court. That day, Judge K. L. Manjunath was to pass an order on whether the alignment of the Metro Rail should run along CMH Road or along Old Madras Road. The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation has been fighting tooth and nail to ensure that the alignment of the Metro stays on CMH Road. The traders along CMH Road argue that their trades will be shut for two years, in addition to the displacement that will take place owing to the demolition of a number of shops to build the Metro. "We have made CMH Road what it is today. Who wants compensation? We want our place!" "We want our place!" "We want our place!" "We want our place!" "We want our place!" "We want our place!" "We want our place!" "We want our place!" "We want our place!" 26/02/2008 I was sitting in the verandah of the Karnataka High Court. That day, Judge K. L. Manjunath was to pass an order on whether the alignment of the Metro Rail should run along CMH Road or along Old Madras Road. I found myself as nervous, perhaps even more nervous than the traders whose fates were to be determined by a legal order. Well, but of course, in the city, our fates are sealed by forces more than one, that is if the avenues for negotiations remain open. So eventually, I asked one of the traders, "Are you nervous?" He smiled and said, "We are confident. God is on our sides." Now, I wonder how God aligns himself/herself and how we align God and how the BMRCl aligns God ... The arguments took place in the court. At one point, the counsel for the BMRCL openly stated, "The court is not a forum for deciding on the merits and demerits of economic and administrative policies." The judge was not perturbed by this statement. Eventually, the judge declares that the court is not the authority to decide on the alignment of the Metro. Neither can people question the genesis of the Metro. The plan and infrastructure are declared supreme! (Is there anything more to say?) .... For more details, see http://www.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/81-cmh-road-no-to-metro -- 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/20080304/57f30cd3/attachment.html From elkamath at yahoo.com Wed Mar 5 21:32:01 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2008 08:02:01 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] gavipuram public space event, Bangalore, Mar 8 Message-ID: <569898.93553.qm@web53609.mail.re2.yahoo.com> FYI Discover Bangalore! At the Gavipuram Public Space Event on March 8, 2008 How well do you know your City? Make a start by exploring Gavipuram, an integral part of the City, but an unknown to most of its citizens. Gavipuram (the Kannada word for cave neighborhood) with its cave temple, small settlement and large tank in the valley existed long before formal Bangalore came into being. Though much has changed, remnants of the past are still to be seen and appreciated. Find out more at the Bangalore City Project(BCP)-sponsored Gavipuram Public Space Event on March 8, 2008. The event starts at 3.30 p.m. at the entrance to Gavigangadeeshwara Cave temple. A guided walk around the temple and the area with commentary by a leading historian, a local street theatre performance, presentation of a media art installation on the cave temple by a local artist, display and sale of books on Bangalore and a group discussion at the Udayabhanu Kala Sangha. The event is being organised for the Bangalore City Project by Udbhava, a forum for urban design, built heritage, architecture and visual arts. The event is free and open to all. For further information, please call the Bhavan(080 2520 5305/6/7/8) or Udbhava (080 2679 4220) or visit the BCP website. The Bangalore City Project comprises a group of concerned citizens from different fields, including art, culture, urban planning and architecture, as well as organisations such as the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan and Udbhava. It aims to create awareness about art and culture in the City of Bangalore, by initiating discussions and programmes on a neutral platform - to publicise the importance of cultural infrastructure, as well as the history and importance of various places in the city that remain silent and veiled. One of the objectives is to help create a unique identity for the City, a concept that will bear special significance for the future, as Bangalore grows in manifold directions and on manifold levels. Join the group, go to Gavipuram, make the City your own! More details at: BCP Website ____________________________________________________________________________________ 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/20080305/bd15cbe7/attachment-0001.html From bawazainab79 at gmail.com Thu Mar 6 13:29:03 2008 From: bawazainab79 at gmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 13:29:03 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Query about slums Message-ID: Dear all, I need to find out how a slum is defined under planning. Can anyone help? Thanks, 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/20080306/fd919c17/attachment.html From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Thu Mar 6 17:57:26 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 17:57:26 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] =?windows-1252?q?Mere_stamp_won=92t_do=2C_Customs_to?= =?windows-1252?q?_burn_=91wrong=92_India_map?= Message-ID: <908adbd0803060427p10e5dbaexa050dbfad5ba3eb4@mail.gmail.com> http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/281066.html Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn 'wrong' India map Anubhuti Vishnoi Posted online: Thursday, March 06, 2008 at 0111 hrs IST NEW DELHI, MARCH 5 As The Sunday Express reported this week, any "offensive" map of India, depicting the Indo-Pak border in particular, when carried in a foreign publication is defaced with a blue stamp of denial by a 40-member cell in the Customs Department. But those who get away with a stamped map are the more fortunate ones. There are others who have to see all their printed material burnt. Even if it's part of a brochure showing a firm's global network. That's what's happened to a web-based global news and financial platform that feeds news agencies across the world. The agency's New Delhi office was to receive some 300 brochures from its headquarters in USA detailing its operations and reach. Instead, it received a show-cause notice from Customs for importing "in contravention of the Import & Export (Control) Act, 1947," imposition of a penalty of Rs 5,000 for the offence and, worse, information that the entire consignment would be burnt. Last week, when the Customs Department at the cargo section of Delhi airport opened the consignment — it had been lying for a month and a half in its warehouse — and pulled out one of the 75-page brochures, it found spread across Pages 2 and 3 a world map showing the firm's international network. The map showed India's international boundary with Pakistan as the world sees it (without Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) and so was deemed "neither authentic nor correct." A show-cause was sent on February 22. "They sent us a show cause notice and said they will have to burn the entire consignment. We suggested they either stamp the map as incorrect or even tear out the two pages across which the map is spread out but they refused to do so. Customs officials say we will have to forego this consignment. The fact that we will not even be commercially distributing these and only planned to use it internally and share rate lists with some of our corporate clients has not helped. If they do destroy the consignment it is a major loss of time for us and re-printing takes quite long", said the agency's senior executive. He said they were seeking legal advice on the issue as they had been importing such maps for six years now. "While we had maps showing our global network imported every year, these were physical maps. This time political maps were also published and that is what is holding back the consignment. However, the intent is not even remotely dangerous or malicious on our part", the executive said. Customs officials say the "destruction" of such a consignment is fully within rules. "Only a map certified by the Surveyor General of India can be published. If the map published in any printed material that is imported does not have that clearance, it is liable to be confiscated and destroyed under Section 11 of the Customs Act. It is fully within our purview to detain such material, issue show cause notice to the party importing it and to impose a penalty. There is also a Delhi High court order on this issue. In some cases the map is stamped to declare its inauthenticity subject to a close scrutiny — that is usually done for foreign news magazines but this being a brochure, we need to destroy it," said A K Khanna, Assistant Commissioner (Technical), Customs department, IGI airport. In 2004, on the issue of import and sale of Chinese-made toy globes incorrectly depicting India's external boundaries, the Delhi High Court ruled that Customs officials should not permit imports of globes or maps which depict the territory of India incorrectly. From varanashi at gmail.com Fri Mar 7 10:19:47 2008 From: varanashi at gmail.com (varanashi) Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 10:19:47 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] bangalorevent-lis: What's on at MMB Bangalore - March 2008 Message-ID: <47d0c97e.06045a0a.0461.5891@mx.google.com> FYI Sathya What's on at MMB Bangalore - March 2008 Welcome to our update on cultural events! This newsletter serves as a personal invitation-cum-reminder about current events. Discover Bangalore! At the Gavipuram Public Space Event on March 8, 2008 How well do you know your City? Make a start by exploring Gavipuram, an integral part of the City, but an unknown to most of its citizens. Gavipuram (the Kannada word for cave neighborhood) with its cave temple, small settlement and large tank in the valley existed long before formal Bangalore came into being. Though much has changed, remnants of the past are still to be seen and appreciated. Find out more at the Bangalore City Project(BCP)-sponsored Gavipuram Public Space Event on March 8, 2008. The event starts at 3.30 p.m. at the entrance to Gavigangadeeshwara Cave temple. A guided walk around the temple and the area with commentary by a leading historian, a local street theatre performance, presentation of a media art installation on the cave temple by a local artist, display and sale of books on Bangalore and a group discussion at the Udayabhanu Kala Sangha. The event is being organised for the Bangalore City Project by Udbhava, a forum for urban design, built heritage, architecture and visual arts. The event is free and open to all. For further information, please call the Bhavan(080 2520 5305/6/7/8) or Udbhava (080 2679 4220) or visit the BCP website. The Bangalore City Project comprises a group of concerned citizens from different fields, including art, culture, urban planning and architecture, as well as organisations such as the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan and Udbhava. It aims to create awareness about art and culture in the City of Bangalore, by initiating discussions and programmes on a neutral platform - to publicise the importance of cultural infrastructure, as well as the history and importance of various places in the city that remain silent and veiled. One of the objectives is to help create a unique identity for the City, a concept that will bear special significance for the future, as Bangalore grows in manifold directions and on manifold levels. Join the group, go to Gavipuram, make the City your own! More details at: BCP Website If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, you may unsubscribe from the mailing list (bangalorevent-lis at goethe.de) at any time: Unsubscribe C Goethe-Institut -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080307/5bb2f907/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 19354 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080307/5bb2f907/attachment-0001.jpe -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 71 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080307/5bb2f907/attachment-0001.gif From varanashi at gmail.com Fri Mar 7 10:26:11 2008 From: varanashi at gmail.com (varanashi) Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 10:26:11 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] final poster gavipuram event Message-ID: <47d0cafe.24035a0a.2423.75bd@mx.google.com> FYI Sathya -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080307/c6c75888/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: gavi_event_poster.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 52420 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080307/c6c75888/attachment-0001.pdf From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Fri Mar 7 12:24:42 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 12:24:42 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: [RichardDuffee] Fw: Why does United Technologies want to buy a voting machine company??? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <908adbd0803062254y54c69359k8e22b4f9e714576a@mail.gmail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Fri Mar 7 12:43:56 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 12:43:56 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: Why does United Technologies want to buy a voting machine company??? In-Reply-To: <21f4f7390803061537y248bacbw6a30b99c5c22ef94@mail.gmail.com> References: <21f4f7390803061537y248bacbw6a30b99c5c22ef94@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <908adbd0803062313w29e43ab1o5e5490d58819b57b@mail.gmail.com> Sorry the previous post seems to have been truncated somehow. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Fri Mar 7 12:48:29 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 12:48:29 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: Fw: Why does United Technologies want to buy a voting machine company??? In-Reply-To: <908adbd0803062313w29e43ab1o5e5490d58819b57b@mail.gmail.com> References: <21f4f7390803061537y248bacbw6a30b99c5c22ef94@mail.gmail.com> <908adbd0803062313w29e43ab1o5e5490d58819b57b@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <908adbd0803062318p638c8d80i9b412c958e97fc2f@mail.gmail.com> Sorry the previous post seems to have been truncated somehow. From: Richard Duffee Date: Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 5:07 AM Subject: Re: [RichardDuffee] Fw: Why does United Technologies want to buy a voting machine company??? To: RichardDuffee at yahoogroups.com Cc: CTVOTER at yahoogroups.com On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 4:44 PM, David Bedell wrote: > >  Why does United Technologies (a defense contractor) want to buy a voting > machine company? > > http://utc.com/press/releases/2008-03-02.htm > HARTFORD, Conn., March 2, 2008 –- United Technologies Corporation (NYSE: > UTX) today announced that it has made a proposal to the Board of Directors > of Diebold, Incorporated (NYSE: DBD) to acquire all the outstanding shares > of Diebold for $40.00 per share in cash, > Just as interesting, why does UT want to buy ALL THE OUTSTANDING SHARES when to control it, it only needs a majority? Is it because any shareholder has the right to go to court and UT does not want any shareholder to have standing to sue? If so, what is UT planning to do that it thinks it might be sued for? Somebody BUY A SHARE QUICK! And probably we should be demanding anti-trust proceedings--though of course Mukasey would never bring them. From yanivbin at gmail.com Fri Mar 7 13:13:04 2008 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 13:13:04 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Pedestrians oppose Chennai Corporation road widening schemes Message-ID: <86b8a7050803062343r410c6b22uc660fac7ee82c6be@mail.gmail.com> http://straphanger.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/pedestrians-oppose-chennai-corporation-road-widening-schemes/ Pedestrians oppose Chennai Corporation road widening schemes Straphangers United demands that the Chennai Corporation stop its planned programme of road widening, because it is against the interests of pedestrians and violative of the National Policies of the UPA Government on people-friendly development of cities. Chennai Corporation Zones Five and Ten have advertised works in The Hindu today, along with those of Zone IV, seeking to widen roads in Divisions 152 in Zone Ten (Sastri Nagar First Ave, First Main Road, Besant Nagar 1st and 2nd Cross Streets, Durgabai Deshmukh Road, Division 155 (Tiger Varadachari Street) and so on. The advertisements are found in the print edition of today's The Hindu. Put together, the value of these works comes to tens of lakhs of rupees in the three Zones. As this blog has pointed out in the past, road widening is an anti-people concept affecting the rights of pedestrians. To make it sound politically correct, the Corporation talks in some cases of forming new footpaths. This is contrary to what the civic body does on the ground. In most cases, the so-called new footpaths do not meet the stipulation of the Indian Roads Congress, do not have a standard kerb height and are hostile to pedestrians, particularly the handicapped and the aged. Also, pedestrians have to compete with commercial interests on such footpaths (see photos). The Chennai Corporation is obliged to uphold the rights of pedestrians, as it is seeking funds from the Centre under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission; the Metropolitan Transport Corporation hopes to augment the fleet using funds available under the National Urban Transport Policy. By failing to follow the norms stipulated in these policy documents, the Chennai Corporation and where applicable the State Highways have forfeited their claim to Central assistance. Straphangers United demands that the Ministry of Urban Development at the Centre and the World Bank suspend all funds to the Corporation and the MTC, until these agencies implement the policy formulations in letter and spirit. Pedestrians have lost much of the space that they had, historically speaking, for safe movement over the last two decades; unabated cornering of their space by commercial interests, and by the car and motor-cycle lobbies cannot be accepted. Neither the Corporation nor the Highways Department has spent a paisa to create new walking facilities and safe road crossing points, although they derive revenues from pedestrians by way of State and civic taxes. Not one new pedestrian subway has been constructed by the Chennai Corporation in more than a decade despite massive investments in shopping and commercial real estate. It has failed to invest in approach roads and street lighting for railway stations including the new MRTS, and for better access to bus stops and bus stands. The pictures here speak for themselves on the loss of pedestrian rights in the City of Chennai. The scenes show: Kodambakkam Station View Road - Free space for commerce on the footpath. No space to walk to the Railway Station. A cycle shop functions practically on the footpath on Station View Road, Kodambakkam. Just off Anna Road, next to MRTS Chintadripet Station: The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board has appropriated the entire pavement for a transformer pushing pedestrians to the road.[image: Free space for commerce. No space to walk to the Kodambakkam Railway Station] ------------------------------ [image: A cycle shop functions practically on the footpath on Station View Road, Kodambakkam] ------------------------------ [image: The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board has appropriated the entire pavement for a transformer at Chintadripet, pushing pedestrians to the road] (All photos taken with Nokia 3500c and edited with open source freeware GIMP) Tags: Chennai Corporation , Footpaths , GIMP, Nokia , Nokia 3500, World Bank -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080307/5a85db1a/attachment.html From elkamath at yahoo.com Fri Mar 7 13:18:56 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 23:48:56 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: Indian women: peace keeping and providing security to the President... in Liberia Message-ID: <580463.65210.qm@web53610.mail.re2.yahoo.com> FYI http://www.tehelka.com/story_main37.asp?filename=hub010308good_morning.asp RYAN LOBO meets the extraordinary Indian women who keep peace and guard the President in war-torn Liberia I HAD GONE to Liberia to work on a self-funded documentary film and photo project about a certain war criminal. Midproject, while driving through Monrovia, the Liberian capital, I thought I heard someone yell something in Kannada. I turned around and saw several women standing by an armored truck and they all looked Indian. A friend, who I was working with on the project, said she was in the process of doing a radio story about the very same women and after a day’s work with the helpful bureaucracy at the United Nations (UN) headquarters, we landed up at the base of the Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) contingent in Congo town, Monrovia. This 125 strong, spectacular UN contingent composed mostly of Indian women helps keep the peace in the West African nation of Liberia, devastated by one of Africa's most bloody civil wars. This war has left more than 2,00,000 people dead, thousands scarred by violence and rape, a shattered economy, 85 percent unemployment, drug addiction and crime on a spectacular scale. The Indian contingent consists of 125 officers of whom 105 are women from CRPF battalions all over India. The men cook, drive and maintain the vehicles. The women help maintain law and order and provide armed backup to the Liberian National Police. India has been a longtime contributor to UN missions all over the world and has sent women to conflict zones before, though not in such numbers. The contingent commander Seema Dhundia, says that the biggest challenge was proving their competence. Sitting in her spartan office with a large “Incredible India” print overhead, she said that, at first, the idea of an all-female contingent did not convince superiors at home or in the UN but, she continues, “Our girls are experienced and have served in insurgent areas all over India. When things finally got started here, people took them very seriously as the members of the contingent proved themselves competent.” The UN has called India’s decision to deploy female officers in policing “unprecedented”. The girls, as Dhundia calls them, now provide security to the Liberian President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (Africa’s first elected head of office), patrol dangerous neighborhoods and guard critical government buildings. The unit used to be called the FFPU or the “Female Formed Police Unit”. It’s now just called the FPU or the “formed police unit”. “We are just as good if not better than most of the FPUs,” says Poonam, FPU member. One of the reasons why the Indian contingent was called to duty is that UN deployments themselves in the past have been accused of sexual exploitation of local women and children. The presence of the Indian female contingent is expected to sensitise the police force and encourage more Liberian women to join the force. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, a government survey of ten of Liberia’s fifteen counties claim that 92 percent of the 1,600 women interviewed said they had experienced some form of sexual violence, including rape. Women’s groups in Liberia estimate that approximately 40 percent of all girls and women in Liberia have been sexually abused. DHUNDIA believes that the women’s maternal instinct can help them perform better in post conflict scenarios, especially where women and children are victims. She also believes that women can often gauge a situation much better than men when it comes to reading emotions and are more capable of defusing a situation non-aggressively. “I think the presence of women when it comes to riot control can actually have a calming effect,” Dhundia says. As members of the CRPF these women have served in Jammu and Kashmir and the North East. They have ended communal riots, repulsed cross border terrorists and insurgents and sustained casualties. Dhundia says the number of Liberian women applying for police jobs has increased dramatically after the arrival of the Indian contingent. 70 percent of the women are married with children. The women I spoke with said the hardest part of their deployment was being away from their families. “Our children are on our minds all the time,” says Dhundia. “Leaving one’s children to work in a far off war zone is not easy and I miss them terribly.” Valsala, a member of the contingent, disagrees. “We are very busy and can’t be thinking of other things. Our lives depend on it.” But she leaves and returns with photos of her children. “Maybe they will see themselves if you publish them and know I’m thinking of them,” she says. The women wake at 6 am, have roll call, drill and exercises at 7 am, then sit down to a vegetarian Indian breakfast. On to weapons maintenance. They don’t leave the premises except on duty. Seventy percent of the women are deployed at any point, day or night. Recently they shot dead an armed robber who had fired an AK47 at them. The unit has been lucky. It has not sustained any casualties though dozens of other military personnel have been killed in the past four years. Their free time is spent playing volleyball and resting before their patrols through Monrovia’s most dangerous neighbourhoods. The only other entertainment are three Indian TV channels. While I was present a small group was watching a soap opera. They left for patrols a few minutes before the climax, when on screen the police bursts through the door to arrest the beautiful, innocent heroine who silently takes the blame for a murder her husband commited. I felt comforted that India’s own diversity and serious problems have not split it as deeply as Liberian society. The women’s unit, efficient despite speaking different languages and being from different parts of India, seemed to represent our continuing cohesiveness. On February 1, the unit I met returned to India and was replaced by another women’s contingent. From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 8, Dated Mar 01, 2008 Print this story Feedback Add to favorites Email this story Click here ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080306/9d5f7031/attachment-0001.html From gaurav at schmizz.net Fri Mar 7 13:28:03 2008 From: gaurav at schmizz.net (Gaurav Bhushan) Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 13:28:03 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Design Project: The Culture of Haats in India In-Reply-To: <8f821bcf0802290750q67dcb85esc0baf3a249005219@mail.gmail.com> References: <8f821bcf0802290750q67dcb85esc0baf3a249005219@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <8f821bcf0803062358v663fd251t6ae8a4ea4142668e@mail.gmail.com> ** Sorry for cross-posting ** Hi! I am a post-graduate student of 'Information Design' at National Institute of Design , India (NID). Currently, I am doing a project on the Culture of Haats in India. You can refer to my project blog... http://projecthaat.blogspot.com/ The term 'Haat' which originally referred to any marketplace, is being reinvented in the form of cultural centers in urban areas where craftsmen, artisans, merchants from all over the country assemble. This kind of a trend is seen in many cities like Delhi, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Udaipur etc. They have their own little niche at these places, and are quite popular amongst foreigners and Indians alike. They are seen as a means of revival for the arts and crafts community in India. Through this project, I want to explore the myths and realities behind the concept and identify problems and opportunity areas. At the end of it my plan is to compile all the information I gather in the form of a series of Information Graphics about the Haats in general. I wish to gather some starting points/pointers/references/links/etc. about Haats. Right now I am planning my field visits for the project. I would be really glad if I can get some help regarding these before I begin my field research in March second week. Do check the project blog and send in your comments about the project or opinions about 'Haats' if you find the subject interesting! Thanks... Regards, Gaurav Bhushan Information Design (07- 09) National Institute of Design, India P.S: I am also trying to find the meaning of the word 'Haat' in different languages. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080307/91c3918f/attachment.html From bawazainab79 at gmail.com Fri Mar 7 13:53:56 2008 From: bawazainab79 at gmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 13:53:56 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] The IT and non-IT binary of Bangalore Message-ID: So here are these two women, waiting at the bus, for buses to arrive. They seem middle-class, workingwomen. Perhaps Bangloreans for a long time. And the buses that arrive are of the 360 series. All these buses are bound for Electronic City. One of the two of the women complains, "what is this? all these buses going to Electronics City? It is holiday season. Therefore there are fewer buses for our destination in the evenings." Her irritation appeared as a matter of fact, as a matter of acceptance that work patterns and therefore routines in Bangalore have changed and some crowds will be serviced more than others owing to the economic changes in this city. I am entirely unsure if she was complaining of the distinction between IT and non-IT crowds, that distinction which is being emphasized off late in order to comprehend the pathologies of this city. Would it make a difference to our cognition of the city and its conditions if we view IT as just another economy? What is this IT imaginary? Why does it have to feature in our attempt to make sense of this city, its cacophony, its, spatiality and the place? -- 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/20080307/15235dc1/attachment.html From lalitbatra at gmail.com Fri Mar 7 20:24:41 2008 From: lalitbatra at gmail.com (lalit batra) Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 20:24:41 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <7e8688b30803070654o672f48fbw3c6584baa03115fb@mail.gmail.com> dear zainab, the central act on slums, namely, Slum Areas (Improvement and Clearance) Act, 1956 defines slums as "any area (where) buildings…(a) are in any respect unfit for human habitation, or (b) are by reason of dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty arrangement and design of such buildings, narrowness or faulty arrangement of streets, lack of ventilation, light or sanitation, or any combination of these factors, are detrimental, to safety, health or morals". then most states have their own state level slum acts. Census of India 2001 has adopted the definition of 'Slum' areas as follows: - (i) All areas notified as 'Slum' by State/Local Government and UT Administration under any Act; (ii) All areas recognised as 'Slum' by State/Local Government and UT Administration, which have not been formally notified as slum under any Act; (ii) A compact area of at least 300 population or about 60-70 households of poorly built congested tenements, in unhygienic environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in proper sanitary and drinking water facilities. best, lalit On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 10:20 AM, wrote: > Send Urbanstudygroup mailing list submissions to > urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > urbanstudygroup-request at sarai.net > > You can reach the person managing the list at > urbanstudygroup-owner at sarai.net > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Urbanstudygroup digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Query about slums (Zainab Bawa) > 2. Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn 'wrong' India map > (Prashant Iyengar) > 3. bangalorevent-lis: What's on at MMB Bangalore - March 2008 > (varanashi) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 13:29:03 +0530 > From: "Zainab Bawa" > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Query about slums > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > Message-ID: > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Dear all, > > I need to find out how a slum is defined under planning. Can anyone help? > > Thanks, > > 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/20080306/fd919c17/attachment-0001.html > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 17:57:26 +0530 > From: "Prashant Iyengar" > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn > 'wrong' India map > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net, "Commons law" > Message-ID: > <908adbd0803060427p10e5dbaexa050dbfad5ba3eb4 at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="WINDOWS-1252" > > http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/281066.html > > Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn 'wrong' India map > > Anubhuti Vishnoi > > Posted online: Thursday, March 06, 2008 at 0111 hrs IST > > NEW DELHI, MARCH 5 > As The Sunday Express reported this week, any "offensive" map of > India, depicting the Indo-Pak border in particular, when carried in a > foreign publication is defaced with a blue stamp of denial by a > 40-member cell in the Customs Department. But those who get away with > a stamped map are the more fortunate ones. There are others who have > to see all their printed material burnt. > > Even if it's part of a brochure showing a firm's global network. > > That's what's happened to a web-based global news and financial > platform that feeds news agencies across the world. The agency's New > Delhi office was to receive some 300 brochures from its headquarters > in USA detailing its operations and reach. Instead, it received a > show-cause notice from Customs for importing "in contravention of the > Import & Export (Control) Act, 1947," imposition of a penalty of Rs > 5,000 for the offence and, worse, information that the entire > consignment would be burnt. > > Last week, when the Customs Department at the cargo section of Delhi > airport opened the consignment — it had been lying for a month and a > half in its warehouse — and pulled out one of the 75-page brochures, > it found spread across Pages 2 and 3 a world map showing the firm's > international network. The map showed India's international boundary > with Pakistan as the world sees it (without Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) > and so was deemed "neither authentic nor correct." > > A show-cause was sent on February 22. > > "They sent us a show cause notice and said they will have to burn the > entire consignment. We suggested they either stamp the map as > incorrect or even tear out the two pages across which the map is > spread out but they refused to do so. Customs officials say we will > have to forego this consignment. The fact that we will not even be > commercially distributing these and only planned to use it internally > and share rate lists with some of our corporate clients has not > helped. If they do destroy the consignment it is a major loss of time > for us and re-printing takes quite long", said the agency's senior > executive. > > He said they were seeking legal advice on the issue as they had been > importing such maps for six years now. > > "While we had maps showing our global network imported every year, > these were physical maps. This time political maps were also published > and that is what is holding back the consignment. However, the intent > is not even remotely dangerous or malicious on our part", the > executive said. > > Customs officials say the "destruction" of such a consignment is fully > within rules. "Only a map certified by the Surveyor General of India > can be published. If the map published in any printed material that is > imported does not have that clearance, it is liable to be confiscated > and destroyed under Section 11 of the Customs Act. It is fully within > our purview to detain such material, issue show cause notice to the > party importing it and to impose a penalty. There is also a Delhi High > court order on this issue. In some cases the map is stamped to declare > its inauthenticity subject to a close scrutiny — that is usually done > for foreign news magazines but this being a brochure, we need to > destroy it," said A K Khanna, Assistant Commissioner (Technical), > Customs department, IGI airport. > > In 2004, on the issue of import and sale of Chinese-made toy globes > incorrectly depicting India's external boundaries, the Delhi High > Court ruled that Customs officials should not permit imports of globes > or maps which depict the territory of India incorrectly. > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 10:19:47 +0530 > From: "varanashi" > Subject: [Urbanstudy] bangalorevent-lis: What's on at MMB Bangalore - > March 2008 > To: , , > > Message-ID: <47d0c97e.06045a0a.0461.5891 at mx.google.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > FYI > > Sathya > > > > > > > > > What's on at MMB Bangalore - March 2008 > > Welcome to our update on cultural events! This newsletter serves as a > personal invitation-cum-reminder about current events. > > > > > > > Discover Bangalore! > At the Gavipuram Public Space Event on March 8, 2008 > > How well do you know your City? Make a start by exploring Gavipuram, an > integral part of the City, but an unknown to most of its citizens. > Gavipuram > (the Kannada word for cave neighborhood) with its cave temple, small > settlement and large tank in the valley existed long before formal > Bangalore > came into being. Though much has changed, remnants of the past are still > to > be seen and appreciated. > > Find out more at the Bangalore City Project(BCP)-sponsored Gavipuram > Public > Space Event on March 8, 2008. The event starts at 3.30 p.m. at the > entrance > to Gavigangadeeshwara Cave temple. A guided walk around the temple and the > area with commentary by a leading historian, a local street theatre > performance, presentation of a media art installation on the cave temple > by > a local artist, display and sale of books on Bangalore and a group > discussion at the Udayabhanu Kala Sangha. The event is being organised for > the Bangalore City Project by Udbhava, a forum for urban design, built > heritage, architecture and visual arts. > > The event is free and open to all. For further information, please call > the > Bhavan(080 2520 5305/6/7/8) or Udbhava (080 2679 4220) or visit the BCP > website. > > The Bangalore City Project comprises a group of concerned citizens from > different fields, including art, culture, urban planning and architecture, > as well as organisations such as the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan > and > Udbhava. It aims to create awareness about art and culture in the City of > Bangalore, by initiating discussions and programmes on a neutral platform > - > to publicise the importance of cultural infrastructure, as well as the > history and importance of various places in the city that remain silent > and > veiled. One of the objectives is to help create a unique identity for the > City, a concept that will bear special significance for the future, as > Bangalore grows in manifold directions and on manifold levels. > > Join the group, go to Gavipuram, make the City your own! > > More details at: > > BCP Website > > > > > > > If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, you may unsubscribe from > the mailing list (bangalorevent-lis at goethe.de) at any time: > > ?subject=unsubscribec-lis&body=unsubscribe%20%20ba > ngalorevent-lis> Unsubscribe > > > > > > > C Goethe-Institut > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080307/5bb2f907/attachment.html > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: not available > Type: image/jpeg > Size: 19354 bytes > Desc: not available > Url : > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080307/5bb2f907/attachment.jpe > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: not available > Type: image/gif > Size: 71 bytes > Desc: not available > Url : > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080307/5bb2f907/attachment.gif > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > End of Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 > ********************************************** > -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-3823 Size: 17337 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080307/d6f52e68/attachment-0001.bin From sharan at sarai.net Sat Mar 8 11:10:51 2008 From: sharan at sarai.net (sharan at sarai.net) Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2008 11:10:51 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 In-Reply-To: <7e8688b30803070654o672f48fbw3c6584baa03115fb@mail.gmail.com> References: <7e8688b30803070654o672f48fbw3c6584baa03115fb@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dear Lalit, Zainab and List Members, Do notice the disappearance of the 'moral' aspect in the latter definition. Here's my hypothesis: in the period of upto about 1970s slum improvement was closely tied to the idea of moral reform of the inhabitants of the slums; since then the focus has been mostly on the physical infrastructure or (il)legality - either by way of land-use, as in the case of squatters or in terms of 'illegitimate' access to such things as water and electricity. This aspect - the (il)legality of built structures - was not entirely absent in the earlier phase, but seems to have been clearly subordinate to the moral question. I have been trying to understand the nature of this transformation and its implication and would apppreciate any comments on it. Cheers, Dipu On 7:54 am 03/07/08 "lalit batra" wrote: > dear zainab, > > the central act on slums, namely, Slum Areas (Improvement and > Clearance) Act, 1956 defines slums as > > "any area (where) buildings…(a) are in any respect unfit for human > habitation, or (b) are by reason of dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty > arrangement and design of such buildings, narrowness or faulty > arrangement of streets, lack of ventilation, light or sanitation, or > any combination of these factors, are detrimental, to safety, health > or morals". > > then most states have their own state level slum acts. > > Census of India 2001 has adopted the definition of 'Slum' areas as > follows: - > > (i) All areas notified as 'Slum' by State/Local Government and UT > Administration under any Act; > (ii) All areas recognised as 'Slum' by State/Local Government and UT > Administration, which have not been formally notified as slum under > any Act; > > (ii) A compact area of at least 300 population or about 60-70 > households of poorly built congested tenements, in unhygienic > environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in > proper sanitary and drinking water facilities. > > best, > > lalit > > On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 10:20 AM, > wrote: > > > Send Urbanstudygroup mailing list submissions to > > urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > > urbanstudygroup-request at sarai.net > > > > You can reach the person managing the list at > > urbanstudygroup-owner at sarai.net > > > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > > than "Re: Contents of Urbanstudygroup digest..." > > > > > > Today's Topics: > > > > 1. Query about slums (Zainab Bawa) > > 2. Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn 'wrong' India map > > (Prashant Iyengar) > > 3. bangalorevent-lis: What's on at MMB Bangalore - March 2008 > > (varanashi) > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > --- > > > > Message: 1 > > Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 13:29:03 +0530 > > From: "Zainab Bawa" > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Query about slums > > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > Message-ID: > > > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > > > Dear all, > > > > I need to find out how a slum is defined under planning. Can > > anyone help? > > Thanks, > > > > 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/2008030 > 6/fd919c17/attachment-0001.html > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > Message: 2 > > Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 17:57:26 +0530 > > From: "Prashant Iyengar" > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn > > 'wrong' India map > > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net, "Commons law" > > > Message-ID: > > <908adbd0803060427p10e5dbaexa050dbfad5ba3eb4 at mail.gmail.com> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="WINDOWS-1252" > > > > http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/281066.html > > > > Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn 'wrong' India map > > > > Anubhuti Vishnoi > > > > Posted online: Thursday, March 06, 2008 at 0111 hrs IST > > > > NEW DELHI, MARCH 5 > > As The Sunday Express reported this week, any "offensive" map of > > India, depicting the Indo-Pak border in particular, when carried > > in a foreign publication is defaced with a blue stamp of denial by > > a 40-member cell in the Customs Department. But those who get away > > with a stamped map are the more fortunate ones. There are others > > who have to see all their printed material burnt. > > > > Even if it's part of a brochure showing a firm's global network. > > > > That's what's happened to a web-based global news and financial > > platform that feeds news agencies across the world. The agency's > > New Delhi office was to receive some 300 brochures from its > > headquarters in USA detailing its operations and reach. Instead, > > it received a show-cause notice from Customs for importing "in > > contravention of the Import & Export (Control) Act, 1947," > > imposition of a penalty of Rs 5,000 for the offence and, worse, > > information that the entire consignment would be burnt. > > > > Last week, when the Customs Department at the cargo section of > > Delhi airport opened the consignment — it had been lying for a > > month and a half in its warehouse — and pulled out one of the > > 75-page brochures, it found spread across Pages 2 and 3 a world > > map showing the firm's international network. The map showed > > India's international boundary with Pakistan as the world sees it > > (without Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) and so was deemed "neither > > authentic nor correct." > > A show-cause was sent on February 22. > > > > "They sent us a show cause notice and said they will have to burn > > the entire consignment. We suggested they either stamp the map as > > incorrect or even tear out the two pages across which the map is > > spread out but they refused to do so. Customs officials say we will > > have to forego this consignment. The fact that we will not even be > > commercially distributing these and only planned to use it > > internally and share rate lists with some of our corporate clients > > has not helped. If they do destroy the consignment it is a major > > loss of time for us and re-printing takes quite long", said the > > agency's senior executive. > > > > He said they were seeking legal advice on the issue as they had > > been importing such maps for six years now. > > > > "While we had maps showing our global network imported every year, > > these were physical maps. This time political maps were also > > published and that is what is holding back the consignment. > > However, the intent is not even remotely dangerous or malicious on > > our part", the executive said. > > > > Customs officials say the "destruction" of such a consignment is > > fully within rules. "Only a map certified by the Surveyor General > > of India can be published. If the map published in any printed > > material that is imported does not have that clearance, it is > > liable to be confiscated and destroyed under Section 11 of the > > Customs Act. It is fully within our purview to detain such > > material, issue show cause notice to the party importing it and to > > impose a penalty. There is also a Delhi High court order on this > > issue. In some cases the map is stamped to declare its > > inauthenticity subject to a close scrutiny — that is usually done > > for foreign news magazines but this being a brochure, we need to > > destroy it," said A K Khanna, Assistant Commissioner (Technical), > > Customs department, IGI airport. > > In 2004, on the issue of import and sale of Chinese-made toy globes > > incorrectly depicting India's external boundaries, the Delhi High > > Court ruled that Customs officials should not permit imports of > > globes or maps which depict the territory of India incorrectly. > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > Message: 3 > > Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 10:19:47 +0530 > > From: "varanashi" > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] bangalorevent-lis: What's on at MMB > > Bangalore - March 2008 > > To: , , > > > > Message-ID: <47d0c97e.06045a0a.0461.5891 at mx.google.com> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > > > FYI > > > > Sathya > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > What's on at MMB Bangalore - March 2008 > > > > Welcome to our update on cultural events! This newsletter serves > > as a personal invitation-cum-reminder about current events. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Discover Bangalore! > > At the Gavipuram Public Space Event on March 8, 2008 > > > > How well do you know your City? Make a start by exploring > > Gavipuram, an integral part of the City, but an unknown to most of > > its citizens. Gavipuram > > (the Kannada word for cave neighborhood) with its cave temple, > > small settlement and large tank in the valley existed long before > > formal Bangalore > > came into being. Though much has changed, remnants of the past are > > still to > > be seen and appreciated. > > > > Find out more at the Bangalore City Project(BCP)-sponsored > > Gavipuram Public > > Space Event on March 8, 2008. The event starts at 3.30 p.m. at the > > entrance > > to Gavigangadeeshwara Cave temple. A guided walk around the temple > > and the area with commentary by a leading historian, a local > > street theatre performance, presentation of a media art > > installation on the cave temple by > > a local artist, display and sale of books on Bangalore and a group > > discussion at the Udayabhanu Kala Sangha. The event is being > > organised for the Bangalore City Project by Udbhava, a forum for > > urban design, built heritage, architecture and visual arts. > > > > The event is free and open to all. For further information, please > > call the > > Bhavan(080 2520 5305/6/7/8) or Udbhava (080 2679 4220) or visit > > the BCP website. > > > > The Bangalore City Project comprises a group of concerned citizens > > from different fields, including art, culture, urban planning and > > architecture, as well as organisations such as the > > Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan and > > Udbhava. It aims to create awareness about art and culture in the > > City of Bangalore, by initiating discussions and programmes on a > > neutral platform - > > to publicise the importance of cultural infrastructure, as well as > > the history and importance of various places in the city that > > remain silent and > > veiled. One of the objectives is to help create a unique identity > > for the City, a concept that will bear special significance for > > the future, as Bangalore grows in manifold directions and on > > manifold levels. > > Join the group, go to Gavipuram, make the City your own! > > > > More details at: > > > > BCP Website > > > > > > > > > > > > > > If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, you may > > unsubscribe from the mailing list (bangalorevent-lis at goethe.de) at > > any time: > > > ?subject=unsubscribec-lis&body=unsubscribe%20%20ba > > ngalorevent-lis> Unsubscribe > > > > > > > > > > > > > > C Goethe-Institut > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > > URL: > > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/2008030 > 7/5bb2f907/attachment.html > > -------------- next part -------------- > > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > > Name: not available > > Type: image/jpeg > > Size: 19354 bytes > > Desc: not available > > Url : > > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/2008030 > 7/5bb2f907/attachment.jpe > > -------------- next part -------------- > > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > > Name: not available > > Type: image/gif > > Size: 71 bytes > > Desc: not available > > Url : > > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/2008030 > 7/5bb2f907/attachment.gif > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > > Urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > > > > End of Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 > > ********************************************** From bawazainab79 at gmail.com Sat Mar 8 16:09:27 2008 From: bawazainab79 at gmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2008 16:09:27 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 In-Reply-To: References: <7e8688b30803070654o672f48fbw3c6584baa03115fb@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Hi Dipu, This is very interesting. Do you have any idea/conjectures on why this change in focus came about. Regards, Zainab Sat, Mar 8, 2008 at 11:10 AM, sharan at sarai.net wrote: > Dear Lalit, Zainab and List Members, > Do notice the disappearance of the 'moral' aspect in the latter > definition. > Here's my hypothesis: in the period of upto about 1970s slum improvement > was closely tied to the idea of moral reform of the inhabitants of the > slums; since then the focus has been mostly on the physical infrastructure > or (il)legality - either by way of land-use, as in the case of squatters > or > in terms of 'illegitimate' access to such things as water and electricity. > This aspect - the (il)legality of built structures - was not entirely > absent in the earlier phase, but seems to have been clearly subordinate to > the moral question. > > I have been trying to understand the nature of this transformation and its > implication and would apppreciate any comments on it. > > Cheers, > Dipu > > On 7:54 am 03/07/08 "lalit batra" wrote: > > dear zainab, > > > > the central act on slums, namely, Slum Areas (Improvement and > > Clearance) Act, 1956 defines slums as > > > > "any area (where) buildings…(a) are in any respect unfit for human > > habitation, or (b) are by reason of dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty > > arrangement and design of such buildings, narrowness or faulty > > arrangement of streets, lack of ventilation, light or sanitation, or > > any combination of these factors, are detrimental, to safety, health > > or morals". > > > > then most states have their own state level slum acts. > > > > Census of India 2001 has adopted the definition of 'Slum' areas as > > follows: - > > > > (i) All areas notified as 'Slum' by State/Local Government and UT > > Administration under any Act; > > (ii) All areas recognised as 'Slum' by State/Local Government and UT > > Administration, which have not been formally notified as slum under > > any Act; > > > > (ii) A compact area of at least 300 population or about 60-70 > > households of poorly built congested tenements, in unhygienic > > environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in > > proper sanitary and drinking water facilities. > > > > best, > > > > lalit > > > > On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 10:20 AM, > > wrote: > > > > > Send Urbanstudygroup mailing list submissions to > > > urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > > > > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > > > urbanstudygroup-request at sarai.net > > > > > > You can reach the person managing the list at > > > urbanstudygroup-owner at sarai.net > > > > > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > > > than "Re: Contents of Urbanstudygroup digest..." > > > > > > > > > Today's Topics: > > > > > > 1. Query about slums (Zainab Bawa) > > > 2. Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn 'wrong' India map > > > (Prashant Iyengar) > > > 3. bangalorevent-lis: What's on at MMB Bangalore - March 2008 > > > (varanashi) > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > > --- > > > > > > Message: 1 > > > Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 13:29:03 +0530 > > > From: "Zainab Bawa" > > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Query about slums > > > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > > Message-ID: > > > > > > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > > > > > Dear all, > > > > > > I need to find out how a slum is defined under planning. Can > > > anyone help? > > > Thanks, > > > > > > 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/2008030 > > 6/fd919c17/attachment-0001.html > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > > > Message: 2 > > > Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 17:57:26 +0530 > > > From: "Prashant Iyengar" > > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn > > > 'wrong' India map > > > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net, "Commons law" > > > > > Message-ID: > > > <908adbd0803060427p10e5dbaexa050dbfad5ba3eb4 at mail.gmail.com> > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="WINDOWS-1252" > > > > > > http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/281066.html > > > > > > Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn 'wrong' India map > > > > > > Anubhuti Vishnoi > > > > > > Posted online: Thursday, March 06, 2008 at 0111 hrs IST > > > > > > NEW DELHI, MARCH 5 > > > As The Sunday Express reported this week, any "offensive" map of > > > India, depicting the Indo-Pak border in particular, when carried > > > in a foreign publication is defaced with a blue stamp of denial by > > > a 40-member cell in the Customs Department. But those who get away > > > with a stamped map are the more fortunate ones. There are others > > > who have to see all their printed material burnt. > > > > > > Even if it's part of a brochure showing a firm's global network. > > > > > > That's what's happened to a web-based global news and financial > > > platform that feeds news agencies across the world. The agency's > > > New Delhi office was to receive some 300 brochures from its > > > headquarters in USA detailing its operations and reach. Instead, > > > it received a show-cause notice from Customs for importing "in > > > contravention of the Import & Export (Control) Act, 1947," > > > imposition of a penalty of Rs 5,000 for the offence and, worse, > > > information that the entire consignment would be burnt. > > > > > > Last week, when the Customs Department at the cargo section of > > > Delhi airport opened the consignment — it had been lying for a > > > month and a half in its warehouse — and pulled out one of the > > > 75-page brochures, it found spread across Pages 2 and 3 a world > > > map showing the firm's international network. The map showed > > > India's international boundary with Pakistan as the world sees it > > > (without Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) and so was deemed "neither > > > authentic nor correct." > > > A show-cause was sent on February 22. > > > > > > "They sent us a show cause notice and said they will have to burn > > > the entire consignment. We suggested they either stamp the map as > > > incorrect or even tear out the two pages across which the map is > > > spread out but they refused to do so. Customs officials say we will > > > have to forego this consignment. The fact that we will not even be > > > commercially distributing these and only planned to use it > > > internally and share rate lists with some of our corporate clients > > > has not helped. If they do destroy the consignment it is a major > > > loss of time for us and re-printing takes quite long", said the > > > agency's senior executive. > > > > > > He said they were seeking legal advice on the issue as they had > > > been importing such maps for six years now. > > > > > > "While we had maps showing our global network imported every year, > > > these were physical maps. This time political maps were also > > > published and that is what is holding back the consignment. > > > However, the intent is not even remotely dangerous or malicious on > > > our part", the executive said. > > > > > > Customs officials say the "destruction" of such a consignment is > > > fully within rules. "Only a map certified by the Surveyor General > > > of India can be published. If the map published in any printed > > > material that is imported does not have that clearance, it is > > > liable to be confiscated and destroyed under Section 11 of the > > > Customs Act. It is fully within our purview to detain such > > > material, issue show cause notice to the party importing it and to > > > impose a penalty. There is also a Delhi High court order on this > > > issue. In some cases the map is stamped to declare its > > > inauthenticity subject to a close scrutiny — that is usually done > > > for foreign news magazines but this being a brochure, we need to > > > destroy it," said A K Khanna, Assistant Commissioner (Technical), > > > Customs department, IGI airport. > > > In 2004, on the issue of import and sale of Chinese-made toy globes > > > incorrectly depicting India's external boundaries, the Delhi High > > > Court ruled that Customs officials should not permit imports of > > > globes or maps which depict the territory of India incorrectly. > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > > > Message: 3 > > > Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 10:19:47 +0530 > > > From: "varanashi" > > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] bangalorevent-lis: What's on at MMB > > > Bangalore - March 2008 > > > To: , , > > > > > > Message-ID: <47d0c97e.06045a0a.0461.5891 at mx.google.com> > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > > > > > FYI > > > > > > Sathya > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > What's on at MMB Bangalore - March 2008 > > > > > > Welcome to our update on cultural events! This newsletter serves > > > as a personal invitation-cum-reminder about current events. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Discover Bangalore! > > > At the Gavipuram Public Space Event on March 8, 2008 > > > > > > How well do you know your City? Make a start by exploring > > > Gavipuram, an integral part of the City, but an unknown to most of > > > its citizens. Gavipuram > > > (the Kannada word for cave neighborhood) with its cave temple, > > > small settlement and large tank in the valley existed long before > > > formal Bangalore > > > came into being. Though much has changed, remnants of the past are > > > still to > > > be seen and appreciated. > > > > > > Find out more at the Bangalore City Project(BCP)-sponsored > > > Gavipuram Public > > > Space Event on March 8, 2008. The event starts at 3.30 p.m. at the > > > entrance > > > to Gavigangadeeshwara Cave temple. A guided walk around the temple > > > and the area with commentary by a leading historian, a local > > > street theatre performance, presentation of a media art > > > installation on the cave temple by > > > a local artist, display and sale of books on Bangalore and a group > > > discussion at the Udayabhanu Kala Sangha. The event is being > > > organised for the Bangalore City Project by Udbhava, a forum for > > > urban design, built heritage, architecture and visual arts. > > > > > > The event is free and open to all. For further information, please > > > call the > > > Bhavan(080 2520 5305/6/7/8) or Udbhava (080 2679 4220) or visit > > > the BCP website. > > > > > > The Bangalore City Project comprises a group of concerned citizens > > > from different fields, including art, culture, urban planning and > > > architecture, as well as organisations such as the > > > Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan and > > > Udbhava. It aims to create awareness about art and culture in the > > > City of Bangalore, by initiating discussions and programmes on a > > > neutral platform - > > > to publicise the importance of cultural infrastructure, as well as > > > the history and importance of various places in the city that > > > remain silent and > > > veiled. One of the objectives is to help create a unique identity > > > for the City, a concept that will bear special significance for > > > the future, as Bangalore grows in manifold directions and on > > > manifold levels. > > > Join the group, go to Gavipuram, make the City your own! > > > > > > More details at: > > > > > > BCP Website > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, you may > > > unsubscribe from the mailing list (bangalorevent-lis at goethe.de) at > > > any time: > > > > > ?subject=unsubscribec-lis&body=unsubscribe%20%20ba > > > ngalorevent-lis> Unsubscribe > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > C Goethe-Institut > > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > > > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > > > URL: > > > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/2008030 > > 7/5bb2f907/attachment.html > > > -------------- next part -------------- > > > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > > > Name: not available > > > Type: image/jpeg > > > Size: 19354 bytes > > > Desc: not available > > > Url : > > > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/2008030 > > 7/5bb2f907/attachment.jpe > > > -------------- next part -------------- > > > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > > > Name: not available > > > Type: image/gif > > > Size: 71 bytes > > > Desc: not available > > > Url : > > > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/2008030 > > 7/5bb2f907/attachment.gif > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > > > Urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > > > > > > > End of Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 > > > ********************************************** > > _______________________________________________ > 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/20080308/f30f8031/attachment-0001.html From cugambetta at yahoo.com Sat Mar 8 18:58:36 2008 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2008 05:28:36 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 Message-ID: <801224.44848.qm@web56801.mail.re3.yahoo.com> Dipu: Was this shift at all precipitated by the Emergency? I am wondering what role the Emergency played in this shift. Unfortunately, I cannot substantiate this further, it's more of an open question. Curt ----- Original Message ---- From: "sharan at sarai.net" To: lalit batra Cc: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net Sent: Friday, March 7, 2008 11:40:51 PM Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 Dear Lalit, Zainab and List Members, Do notice the disappearance of the 'moral' aspect in the latter definition. Here's my hypothesis: in the period of upto about 1970s slum improvement was closely tied to the idea of moral reform of the inhabitants of the slums; since then the focus has been mostly on the physical infrastructure or (il)legality - either by way of land-use, as in the case of squatters or in terms of 'illegitimate' access to such things as water and electricity. This aspect - the (il)legality of built structures - was not entirely absent in the earlier phase, but seems to have been clearly subordinate to the moral question. I have been trying to understand the nature of this transformation and its implication and would apppreciate any comments on it. Cheers, Dipu On 7:54 am 03/07/08 "lalit batra" wrote: > dear zainab, > > the central act on slums, namely, Slum Areas (Improvement and > Clearance) Act, 1956 defines slums as > > "any area (where) buildings…(a) are in any respect unfit for human > habitation, or (b) are by reason of dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty > arrangement and design of such buildings, narrowness or faulty > arrangement of streets, lack of ventilation, light or sanitation, or > any combination of these factors, are detrimental, to safety, health > or morals". > > then most states have their own state level slum acts. > > Census of India 2001 has adopted the definition of 'Slum' areas as > follows: - > > (i) All areas notified as 'Slum' by State/Local Government and UT > Administration under any Act; > (ii) All areas recognised as 'Slum' by State/Local Government and UT > Administration, which have not been formally notified as slum under > any Act; > > (ii) A compact area of at least 300 population or about 60-70 > households of poorly built congested tenements, in unhygienic > environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in > proper sanitary and drinking water facilities. > > best, > > lalit > > On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 10:20 AM, > wrote: > > > Send Urbanstudygroup mailing list submissions to > > urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > > urbanstudygroup-request at sarai.net > > > > You can reach the person managing the list at > > urbanstudygroup-owner at sarai.net > > > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > > than "Re: Contents of Urbanstudygroup digest..." > > > > > > Today's Topics: > > > > 1. Query about slums (Zainab Bawa) > > 2. Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn 'wrong' India map > > (Prashant Iyengar) > > 3. bangalorevent-lis: What's on at MMB Bangalore - March 2008 > > (varanashi) > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > --- > > > > Message: 1 > > Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 13:29:03 +0530 > > From: "Zainab Bawa" > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Query about slums > > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > Message-ID: > > > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > > > Dear all, > > > > I need to find out how a slum is defined under planning. Can > > anyone help? > > Thanks, > > > > 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/2008030 > 6/fd919c17/attachment-0001.html > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > Message: 2 > > Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 17:57:26 +0530 > > From: "Prashant Iyengar" > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn > > 'wrong' India map > > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net, "Commons law" > > > Message-ID: > > <908adbd0803060427p10e5dbaexa050dbfad5ba3eb4 at mail.gmail.com> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="WINDOWS-1252" > > > > http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/281066.html > > > > Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn 'wrong' India map > > > > Anubhuti Vishnoi > > > > Posted online: Thursday, March 06, 2008 at 0111 hrs IST > > > > NEW DELHI, MARCH 5 > > As The Sunday Express reported this week, any "offensive" map of > > India, depicting the Indo-Pak border in particular, when carried > > in a foreign publication is defaced with a blue stamp of denial by > > a 40-member cell in the Customs Department. But those who get away > > with a stamped map are the more fortunate ones. There are others > > who have to see all their printed material burnt. > > > > Even if it's part of a brochure showing a firm's global network. > > > > That's what's happened to a web-based global news and financial > > platform that feeds news agencies across the world. The agency's > > New Delhi office was to receive some 300 brochures from its > > headquarters in USA detailing its operations and reach. Instead, > > it received a show-cause notice from Customs for importing "in > > contravention of the Import & Export (Control) Act, 1947," > > imposition of a penalty of Rs 5,000 for the offence and, worse, > > information that the entire consignment would be burnt. > > > > Last week, when the Customs Department at the cargo section of > > Delhi airport opened the consignment — it had been lying for a >> month and a half in its warehouse — and pulled out one of the > > 75-page brochures, it found spread across Pages 2 and 3 a world > > map showing the firm's international network. The map showed > > India's international boundary with Pakistan as the world sees it > > (without Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) and so was deemed "neither > > authentic nor correct." > > A show-cause was sent on February 22. > > > > "They sent us a show cause notice and said they will have to burn > > the entire consignment. We suggested they either stamp the map as > > incorrect or even tear out the two pages across which the map is > > spread out but they refused to do so. Customs officials say we will > > have to forego this consignment. The fact that we will not even be > > commercially distributing these and only planned to use it > > internally and share rate lists with some of our corporate clients > > has not helped. If they do destroy the consignment it is a major > > loss of time for us and re-printing takes quite long", said the > > agency's senior executive. > > > > He said they were seeking legal advice on the issue as they had > > been importing such maps for six years now. > > > > "While we had maps showing our global network imported every year, > > these were physical maps. This time political maps were also > > published and that is what is holding back the consignment. > > However, the intent is not even remotely dangerous or malicious on > > our part", the executive said. > > > > Customs officials say the "destruction" of such a consignment is > > fully within rules. "Only a map certified by the Surveyor General > > of India can be published. If the map published in any printed > > material that is imported does not have that clearance, it is > > liable to be confiscated and destroyed under Section 11 of the > > Customs Act. It is fully within our purview to detain such > > material, issue show cause notice to the party importing it and to > > impose a penalty. There is also a Delhi High court order on this > > issue. In some cases the map is stamped to declare its > > inauthenticity subject to a close scrutiny — that is usually done > > for foreign news magazines but this being a brochure, we need to > > destroy it," said A K Khanna, Assistant Commissioner (Technical), > > Customs department, IGI airport. > > In 2004, on the issue of import and sale of Chinese-made toy globes > > incorrectly depicting India's external boundaries, the Delhi High > > Court ruled that Customs officials should not permit imports of > > globes or maps which depict the territory of India incorrectly. > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > Message: 3 > > Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 10:19:47 +0530 > > From: "varanashi" > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] bangalorevent-lis: What's on at MMB > > Bangalore - March 2008 > > To: , , > > > > Message-ID: <47d0c97e.06045a0a.0461.5891 at mx.google.com> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > > > FYI > > > > Sathya > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > What's on at MMB Bangalore - March 2008 > > > > Welcome to our update on cultural events! This newsletter serves > > as a personal invitation-cum-reminder about current events. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Discover Bangalore! > > At the Gavipuram Public Space Event on March 8, 2008 > > > > How well do you know your City? Make a start by exploring > > Gavipuram, an integral part of the City, but an unknown to most of > > its citizens. Gavipuram > > (the Kannada word for cave neighborhood) with its cave temple, > > small settlement and large tank in the valley existed long before > > formal Bangalore > > came into being. Though much has changed, remnants of the past are > > still to > > be seen and appreciated. > > > > Find out more at the Bangalore City Project(BCP)-sponsored > > Gavipuram Public > > Space Event on March 8, 2008. The event starts at 3.30 p.m. at the > > entrance > > to Gavigangadeeshwara Cave temple. A guided walk around the temple > > and the area with commentary by a leading historian, a local > > street theatre performance, presentation of a media art > > installation on the cave temple by > > a local artist, display and sale of books on Bangalore and a group > > discussion at the Udayabhanu Kala Sangha. The event is being > > organised for the Bangalore City Project by Udbhava, a forum for > > urban design, built heritage, architecture and visual arts. > > > > The event is free and open to all. For further information, please > > call the > > Bhavan(080 2520 5305/6/7/8) or Udbhava (080 2679 4220) or visit > > the BCP website. > > > > The Bangalore City Project comprises a group of concerned citizens > > from different fields, including art, culture, urban planning and > > architecture, as well as organisations such as the > > Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan and > > Udbhava. It aims to create awareness about art and culture in the > > City of Bangalore, by initiating discussions and programmes on a > > neutral platform - > > to publicise the importance of cultural infrastructure, as well as > > the history and importance of various places in the city that > > remain silent and > > veiled. One of the objectives is to help create a unique identity > > for the City, a concept that will bear special significance for > > the future, as Bangalore grows in manifold directions and on > > manifold levels. > > Join the group, go to Gavipuram, make the City your own! > > > > More details at: > > > > BCP Website > > > > > > > > > > > > > > If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, you may > > unsubscribe from the mailing list (bangalorevent-lis at goethe.de) at > > any time: > > > ?subject=unsubscribec-lis&body=unsubscribe%20%20ba > > ngalorevent-lis> Unsubscribe > > > > > > > > > > > > > > C Goethe-Institut > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > > URL: > > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/2008030 > 7/5bb2f907/attachment.html > > -------------- next part -------------- > > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > > Name: not available > > Type: image/jpeg > > Size: 19354 bytes > > Desc: not available > > Url : > > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/2008030 > 7/5bb2f907/attachment.jpe > > -------------- next part -------------- > > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > > Name: not available > > Type: image/gif > > Size: 71 bytes > > Desc: not available > > Url : > > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/2008030 > 7/5bb2f907/attachment.gif > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > > Urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > > > > End of Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 > > ********************************************** _______________________________________________ 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 ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping From bernhard at not.priv.at Sun Mar 9 02:42:40 2008 From: bernhard at not.priv.at (Bernhard Wernitznig) Date: Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:12:40 +0100 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 In-Reply-To: References: <7e8688b30803070654o672f48fbw3c6584baa03115fb@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <47D30148.1020300@not.priv.at> dear Dipu and others I was thinking about this as well, maybe you find some of my ideas reasonable, though they are coming from 'off the map'? -everywhere in the world slums had first to be associated with disease, crime, before the state/elite addressed the housing lack, sanitation problems. You have to make (term, declare, criminalize) a slum in order to get rid of it! Same is true for demographicy (Population "explosion", population 'bomb',ecc. ) As slums didn't 'vanish' along with (the promise of) modernization, and industrialization, policy makers maybe had to handle the 'problem' in a different way: the policies and discourses became more sophisticated- as demolition, ignorance, ecc. didn't work out politically Tthey tended to address property rights, infrastructure, isolated and in greater detail. ( see e.g. the size-argument: it plays a crucial role, politically (infrastructure provision and electoral politics) and economically (e.g. for redevelopment, relevance of areas to urban planning..) - the gradual loss of the normative setting of housing as a human right.( though I have no idea what 'adequate' or 'fit' housing means!) - the harsh critique of this criminalization, 'othering' of slum dwellers since the 1970s, this critique is - in my opinion, coming along with the critique of modernist state planning- a la Hernando de Soto and Turner (working on informal labour and informal settlements respectively, but on latin america both) (as always this is a development full of contradictions: while rightly challenging a wrong elite discourse, it also brought about the individualization of social problems: first, houses have been unfit for habitation, later some have even depicted slum dwelling (informal housing/informal labour) primarily as a 'creative solution', Consequently, one could see those still hoping for a properly built house (public/cheap housing ecc. ) as 'unfit' to cope with their present dwelling situation or I think one should have a look WHEN the break came and how they can be contextualized with other processes, of course, in this regard, the juridical text of law is not the richest source- and maybe underlying arguments are not required and are there implicitly. 1970...hm. here in Vienna, the most 'unfit' public/working class houses were built after 1970 - in a period of economic crisis. (worse than houses built before 1900 or in the 1920s!) Housing is no right anymore, it's a market, and it's political dimension has fallen prey to amnesia best bernhard sharan at sarai.net wrote: > Dear Lalit, Zainab and List Members, > Do notice the disappearance of the 'moral' aspect in the latter definition. > Here's my hypothesis: in the period of upto about 1970s slum improvement > was closely tied to the idea of moral reform of the inhabitants of the > slums; since then the focus has been mostly on the physical infrastructure > or (il)legality - either by way of land-use, as in the case of squatters or > in terms of 'illegitimate' access to such things as water and electricity. > This aspect - the (il)legality of built structures - was not entirely > absent in the earlier phase, but seems to have been clearly subordinate to > the moral question. > > I have been trying to understand the nature of this transformation and its > implication and would apppreciate any comments on it. > > Cheers, > Dipu > > On 7:54 am 03/07/08 "lalit batra" wrote: >> dear zainab, >> >> the central act on slums, namely, Slum Areas (Improvement and >> Clearance) Act, 1956 defines slums as >> >> "any area (where) buildings…(a) are in any respect unfit for human >> habitation, or (b) are by reason of dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty >> arrangement and design of such buildings, narrowness or faulty >> arrangement of streets, lack of ventilation, light or sanitation, or >> any combination of these factors, are detrimental, to safety, health >> or morals". >> >> then most states have their own state level slum acts. >> >> Census of India 2001 has adopted the definition of 'Slum' areas as >> follows: - >> >> (i) All areas notified as 'Slum' by State/Local Government and UT >> Administration under any Act; >> (ii) All areas recognised as 'Slum' by State/Local Government and UT >> Administration, which have not been formally notified as slum under >> any Act; >> >> (ii) A compact area of at least 300 population or about 60-70 >> households of poorly built congested tenements, in unhygienic >> environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in >> proper sanitary and drinking water facilities. >> >> best, >> >> lalit >> >> On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 10:20 AM, >> wrote: >> >>> Send Urbanstudygroup mailing list submissions to >>> urbanstudygroup at sarai.net >>> >>> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit >>> https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup >>> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to >>> urbanstudygroup-request at sarai.net >>> >>> You can reach the person managing the list at >>> urbanstudygroup-owner at sarai.net >>> >>> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific >>> than "Re: Contents of Urbanstudygroup digest..." >>> >>> >>> Today's Topics: >>> >>> 1. Query about slums (Zainab Bawa) >>> 2. Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn 'wrong' India map >>> (Prashant Iyengar) >>> 3. bangalorevent-lis: What's on at MMB Bangalore - March 2008 >>> (varanashi) >>> >>> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> --- >>> Message: 1 >>> Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 13:29:03 +0530 >>> From: "Zainab Bawa" >>> Subject: [Urbanstudy] Query about slums >>> To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net >>> Message-ID: >>> >> >>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" >>> >>> Dear all, >>> >>> I need to find out how a slum is defined under planning. Can >>> anyone help? >>> Thanks, >>> >>> 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/2008030 >> 6/fd919c17/attachment-0001.html >>> ------------------------------ >>> >>> Message: 2 >>> Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 17:57:26 +0530 >>> From: "Prashant Iyengar" >>> Subject: [Urbanstudy] Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn >>> 'wrong' India map >>> To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net, "Commons law" >> >>> Message-ID: >>> <908adbd0803060427p10e5dbaexa050dbfad5ba3eb4 at mail.gmail.com> >>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="WINDOWS-1252" >>> >>> http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/281066.html >>> >>> Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn 'wrong' India map >>> >>> Anubhuti Vishnoi >>> >>> Posted online: Thursday, March 06, 2008 at 0111 hrs IST >>> >>> NEW DELHI, MARCH 5 >>> As The Sunday Express reported this week, any "offensive" map of >>> India, depicting the Indo-Pak border in particular, when carried >>> in a foreign publication is defaced with a blue stamp of denial by >>> a 40-member cell in the Customs Department. But those who get away >>> with a stamped map are the more fortunate ones. There are others >>> who have to see all their printed material burnt. >>> >>> Even if it's part of a brochure showing a firm's global network. >>> >>> That's what's happened to a web-based global news and financial >>> platform that feeds news agencies across the world. The agency's >>> New Delhi office was to receive some 300 brochures from its >>> headquarters in USA detailing its operations and reach. Instead, >>> it received a show-cause notice from Customs for importing "in >>> contravention of the Import & Export (Control) Act, 1947," >>> imposition of a penalty of Rs 5,000 for the offence and, worse, >>> information that the entire consignment would be burnt. >>> >>> Last week, when the Customs Department at the cargo section of >>> Delhi airport opened the consignment — it had been lying for a >>> month and a half in its warehouse — and pulled out one of the >>> 75-page brochures, it found spread across Pages 2 and 3 a world >>> map showing the firm's international network. The map showed >>> India's international boundary with Pakistan as the world sees it >>> (without Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) and so was deemed "neither >>> authentic nor correct." >>> A show-cause was sent on February 22. >>> >>> "They sent us a show cause notice and said they will have to burn >>> the entire consignment. We suggested they either stamp the map as >>> incorrect or even tear out the two pages across which the map is >>> spread out but they refused to do so. Customs officials say we will >>> have to forego this consignment. The fact that we will not even be >>> commercially distributing these and only planned to use it >>> internally and share rate lists with some of our corporate clients >>> has not helped. If they do destroy the consignment it is a major >>> loss of time for us and re-printing takes quite long", said the >>> agency's senior executive. >>> >>> He said they were seeking legal advice on the issue as they had >>> been importing such maps for six years now. >>> >>> "While we had maps showing our global network imported every year, >>> these were physical maps. This time political maps were also >>> published and that is what is holding back the consignment. >>> However, the intent is not even remotely dangerous or malicious on >>> our part", the executive said. >>> >>> Customs officials say the "destruction" of such a consignment is >>> fully within rules. "Only a map certified by the Surveyor General >>> of India can be published. If the map published in any printed >>> material that is imported does not have that clearance, it is >>> liable to be confiscated and destroyed under Section 11 of the >>> Customs Act. It is fully within our purview to detain such >>> material, issue show cause notice to the party importing it and to >>> impose a penalty. There is also a Delhi High court order on this >>> issue. In some cases the map is stamped to declare its >>> inauthenticity subject to a close scrutiny — that is usually done >>> for foreign news magazines but this being a brochure, we need to >>> destroy it," said A K Khanna, Assistant Commissioner (Technical), >>> Customs department, IGI airport. >>> In 2004, on the issue of import and sale of Chinese-made toy globes >>> incorrectly depicting India's external boundaries, the Delhi High >>> Court ruled that Customs officials should not permit imports of >>> globes or maps which depict the territory of India incorrectly. >>> >>> >>> ------------------------------ >>> >>> Message: 3 >>> Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 10:19:47 +0530 >>> From: "varanashi" >>> Subject: [Urbanstudy] bangalorevent-lis: What's on at MMB >>> Bangalore - March 2008 >>> To: , , >>> >>> Message-ID: <47d0c97e.06045a0a.0461.5891 at mx.google.com> >>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" >>> >>> FYI >>> >>> Sathya >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> What's on at MMB Bangalore - March 2008 >>> >>> Welcome to our update on cultural events! This newsletter serves >>> as a personal invitation-cum-reminder about current events. >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> Discover Bangalore! >>> At the Gavipuram Public Space Event on March 8, 2008 >>> >>> How well do you know your City? Make a start by exploring >>> Gavipuram, an integral part of the City, but an unknown to most of >>> its citizens. Gavipuram >>> (the Kannada word for cave neighborhood) with its cave temple, >>> small settlement and large tank in the valley existed long before >>> formal Bangalore >>> came into being. Though much has changed, remnants of the past are >>> still to >>> be seen and appreciated. >>> >>> Find out more at the Bangalore City Project(BCP)-sponsored >>> Gavipuram Public >>> Space Event on March 8, 2008. The event starts at 3.30 p.m. at the >>> entrance >>> to Gavigangadeeshwara Cave temple. A guided walk around the temple >>> and the area with commentary by a leading historian, a local >>> street theatre performance, presentation of a media art >>> installation on the cave temple by >>> a local artist, display and sale of books on Bangalore and a group >>> discussion at the Udayabhanu Kala Sangha. The event is being >>> organised for the Bangalore City Project by Udbhava, a forum for >>> urban design, built heritage, architecture and visual arts. >>> >>> The event is free and open to all. For further information, please >>> call the >>> Bhavan(080 2520 5305/6/7/8) or Udbhava (080 2679 4220) or visit >>> the BCP website. >>> >>> The Bangalore City Project comprises a group of concerned citizens >>> from different fields, including art, culture, urban planning and >>> architecture, as well as organisations such as the >>> Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan and >>> Udbhava. It aims to create awareness about art and culture in the >>> City of Bangalore, by initiating discussions and programmes on a >>> neutral platform - >>> to publicise the importance of cultural infrastructure, as well as >>> the history and importance of various places in the city that >>> remain silent and >>> veiled. One of the objectives is to help create a unique identity >>> for the City, a concept that will bear special significance for >>> the future, as Bangalore grows in manifold directions and on >>> manifold levels. >>> Join the group, go to Gavipuram, make the City your own! >>> >>> More details at: >>> >>> BCP Website >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, you may >>> unsubscribe from the mailing list (bangalorevent-lis at goethe.de) at >>> any time: >>> >> ?subject=unsubscribec-lis&body=unsubscribe%20%20ba >>> ngalorevent-lis> Unsubscribe >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> C Goethe-Institut >>> >>> -------------- next part -------------- >>> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >>> URL: >>> http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/2008030 >> 7/5bb2f907/attachment.html >>> -------------- next part -------------- >>> A non-text attachment was scrubbed... >>> Name: not available >>> Type: image/jpeg >>> Size: 19354 bytes >>> Desc: not available >>> Url : >>> http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/2008030 >> 7/5bb2f907/attachment.jpe >>> -------------- next part -------------- >>> A non-text attachment was scrubbed... >>> Name: not available >>> Type: image/gif >>> Size: 71 bytes >>> Desc: not available >>> Url : >>> http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/2008030 >> 7/5bb2f907/attachment.gif >>> ------------------------------ >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Urbanstudygroup mailing list >>> Urbanstudygroup at sarai.net >>> https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup >>> >>> >>> End of Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 >>> ********************************************** > > _______________________________________________ > 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 From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Sun Mar 9 08:28:03 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 02:58:03 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <638926.77842.qm@web23002.mail.ird.yahoo.com> zainab/dipu i am assuming that you mean that the census definition does not have the moral element. this is however not in place of the slum act. it is in addition to it. the reason for this is that the legislation is meant for notifying an area as a slum such that once the territory is marked and its boundaries defined, the government can then determine whether to remove it (if the area is seen as unfit for habitation or if the land is desired for some other purpose) or to upgrade it. under the act, designated local authorities notify and gazette slums. but in practice, notifications are done only when there is funding for a developmental project whether for moral or for physical. thus you have hundreds of thousands of areas which are just not notified as slums but still have to be taken into account for census purposes. so the census people take have come up with their own definition which they use in addition to the legally notified slums. this does not point to a shift from moral to physical. anant --- Zainab Bawa wrote: > Hi Dipu, > > This is very interesting. Do you have any > idea/conjectures on why this > change in focus came about. > > Regards, > > Zainab > > Sat, Mar 8, 2008 at 11:10 AM, sharan at sarai.net > wrote: > > > Dear Lalit, Zainab and List Members, > > Do notice the disappearance of the 'moral' aspect > in the latter > > definition. > > Here's my hypothesis: in the period of upto about > 1970s slum improvement > > was closely tied to the idea of moral reform of > the inhabitants of the > > slums; since then the focus has been mostly on the > physical infrastructure > > or (il)legality - either by way of land-use, as in > the case of squatters > > or > > in terms of 'illegitimate' access to such things > as water and electricity. > > This aspect - the (il)legality of built structures > - was not entirely > > absent in the earlier phase, but seems to have > been clearly subordinate to > > the moral question. > > > > I have been trying to understand the nature of > this transformation and its > > implication and would apppreciate any comments on > it. > > > > Cheers, > > Dipu > > > > On 7:54 am 03/07/08 "lalit batra" > wrote: > > > dear zainab, > > > > > > the central act on slums, namely, Slum Areas > (Improvement and > > > Clearance) Act, 1956 defines slums as > > > > > > "any area (where) buildings (a) are in any > respect unfit for human > > > habitation, or (b) are by reason of > dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty > > > arrangement and design of such buildings, > narrowness or faulty > > > arrangement of streets, lack of ventilation, > light or sanitation, or > > > any combination of these factors, are > detrimental, to safety, health > > > or morals". > > > > > > then most states have their own state level slum > acts. > > > > > > Census of India 2001 has adopted the definition > of 'Slum' areas as > > > follows: - > > > > > > (i) All areas notified as 'Slum' by State/Local > Government and UT > > > Administration under any Act; > > > (ii) All areas recognised as 'Slum' by > State/Local Government and UT > > > Administration, which have not been formally > notified as slum under > > > any Act; > > > > > > (ii) A compact area of at least 300 population > or about 60-70 > > > households of poorly built congested tenements, > in unhygienic > > > environment usually with inadequate > infrastructure and lacking in > > > proper sanitary and drinking water facilities. > > > > > > best, > > > > > > lalit > > > > > > On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 10:20 AM, > > > > wrote: > > > > > > > Send Urbanstudygroup mailing list submissions > to > > > > urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > > > > > > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World > Wide Web, visit > > > > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > > or, via email, send a message with subject or > body 'help' to > > > > urbanstudygroup-request at sarai.net > > > > > > > > You can reach the person managing the list at > > > > urbanstudygroup-owner at sarai.net > > > > > > > > When replying, please edit your Subject line > so it is more specific > > > > than "Re: Contents of Urbanstudygroup > digest..." > > > > > > > > > > > > Today's Topics: > > > > > > > > 1. Query about slums (Zainab Bawa) > > > > 2. Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn > 'wrong' India map > > > > (Prashant Iyengar) > > > > 3. bangalorevent-lis: What's on at MMB > Bangalore - March 2008 > > > > (varanashi) > > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > --- > > > > > > > > Message: 1 > > > > Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 13:29:03 +0530 > > > > From: "Zainab Bawa" > > > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Query about slums > > > > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > > > Message-ID: > > > > > > > > > > > > Content-Type: text/plain; > charset="iso-8859-1" > > > > > > > > Dear all, > > > > > > > > I need to find out how a slum is defined > under planning. Can > > > > anyone help? > > > > Thanks, > > > > > > > > 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/2008030 > > > 6/fd919c17/attachment-0001.html > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > > > > > Message: 2 > > > > Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 17:57:26 +0530 > > > > From: "Prashant Iyengar" > > > > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Mere stamp won't do, > Customs to burn > > > > 'wrong' India map > > > > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net, "Commons law" > > > > > > > > Message-ID: > > > > > <908adbd0803060427p10e5dbaexa050dbfad5ba3eb4 at mail.gmail.com> > > > > Content-Type: text/plain; > charset="WINDOWS-1252" > > > > > > > > > http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/281066.html > > > > > > > > Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn 'wrong' > India map > > > > > > > > Anubhuti Vishnoi > > > > > > > > Posted online: Thursday, March 06, 2008 at > 0111 hrs IST > > > > > > > > NEW DELHI, MARCH 5 > > > > As The Sunday Express reported this week, any > "offensive" map of > > > > India, depicting the Indo-Pak border in > particular, when carried > > > > in a foreign publication is defaced with a > blue stamp of denial by > > > > a 40-member cell in the Customs Department. > But === 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 . __________________________________________________________ Sent from Yahoo! Mail. The World's Favourite Email http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html From ghertner at gmail.com Sun Mar 9 10:33:56 2008 From: ghertner at gmail.com (Asher Ghertner) Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 10:33:56 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 In-Reply-To: References: <7e8688b30803070654o672f48fbw3c6584baa03115fb@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dear Dipu, Lalit and list, I would agree with Dipu that the emphasis on the physicality of slums and their illegality, especially pertaining to land use, was the prevalent model for how slums were viewed and thought about through the 1980s and 1990s at least. I'd just add that I think the emphasis on slum improvement did not disappear from policy during this period, despite the withdrawal of an explicitly moralizing discourse. I'm thinking here of the attempt in Delhi at least to form cooperative societies for slum dwellers with the idea to gradually improve their physical living conditions as well as the Planning Commission's decision after the 6th 5 year plan to change slum policy away from demolition and resettlement toward in-situ upgradation, etc. So the emphasis on improvement remains, but the target of improvement changes from reforming the residents of slums to reforming the territory of slums. The emergency, I think, partly explains the move away from "demolition and resettlement," but my guess would be that the management of slum dwellers as a population group (concerning their "morality") became administratively difficult (I'm saying this without knowing what slum programs really looked like other than resettlement during this time), whereas the focus on the territory of slums and their features (e.g. road width, sanitation level, water supply, type of land they occupy, etc.) was more feasible. The period I'm more familiar with is the mid-1990s to the present in Delhi, where a moralizing discourse returns to the government's administration of slums, especially by 2000. I argue in a forthcoming paper in EPW that from this period to the present, one of the primary mechanisms by which slums are demolished (in a context of accelerated demolition, mind you) is through their depiction as nuisances. Nuisance law through the 1980s and 1990s was typically used to improve the environmental condition of slums, whereas today it is used to eliminate slums to remove the threat of the nuisance of slums spreading to the rest of the "legal" city. In terms of morals, this marks a reversal I think. Within any moral framework is embedded a definition of a norm. Who is normal, what is normal conduct? The way "morality" is used in the early days in the Slum Act, 1956 -- to define slums as areas where buildings "are detrimental, to safety, health or morals" -- shows that it is the physical conditions of the living quarters that can harm the moral character of slum residents. It seems to me that morals here refer to the well-being of slum residents themselves. Today, morals in slum discourse are used to refer not to the well-being of slum residents, but the risk of slums to the morality of non-slum residents. In my paper, I look at petitions files by Resident Welfare Associations requesting the demolition of neighboring slums as well as the orders and judgments passed by the courts in slum demolition cases to show that nuisance has established a new moral grid for viewing and controlling slums. The use of terms like "public immorality" and "morally questionable behavior" is widespread in these documents. "Moral" is defined as something "concerned with or adhering to the code of interpersonal conduct that is considered right or acceptable in a particular society" (online dictionary). Acceptable conduct in India's aspiring world-class cities does not include living in a slum, shitting or conducting other acts the middle class considers private in public, etc. This type of morality and governmental action (and the discourse of nuisance that accompanies it) is very reminiscent of the colonial discourse of slums that Dipu talks about in his EPW article from a couple of years back. Thus, "nuisance" seems to be an "environmental register" that is resurgent. I'm extremely interested in looking at how different registers or logics have combined and worked together historically... I said above that my guess is that "morality" waned and a focus on the built environment of the slum grew in the 70s because it was administratively difficult to guide slum residents into proper moral conduct. This problem does not arise in the new configuration of morality because the moral standing of slum residents isn't the concern (in fact, it is just presumed that they are of a low moral standing); the concern is the welfare of non-slum-dwelling, propertied citizens. So, the easy "moral" solution to slums is to just clear them. Isn't that what's happening today? Cheers, Asher On Sat, Mar 8, 2008 at 11:10 AM, sharan at sarai.net wrote: > Dear Lalit, Zainab and List Members, > Do notice the disappearance of the 'moral' aspect in the latter > definition. > Here's my hypothesis: in the period of upto about 1970s slum improvement > was closely tied to the idea of moral reform of the inhabitants of the > slums; since then the focus has been mostly on the physical infrastructure > or (il)legality - either by way of land-use, as in the case of squatters > or > in terms of 'illegitimate' access to such things as water and electricity. > This aspect - the (il)legality of built structures - was not entirely > absent in the earlier phase, but seems to have been clearly subordinate to > the moral question. > > I have been trying to understand the nature of this transformation and its > implication and would apppreciate any comments on it. > > Cheers, > Dipu > > On 7:54 am 03/07/08 "lalit batra" wrote: > > dear zainab, > > > > the central act on slums, namely, Slum Areas (Improvement and > > Clearance) Act, 1956 defines slums as > > > > "any area (where) buildings…(a) are in any respect unfit for human > > habitation, or (b) are by reason of dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty > > arrangement and design of such buildings, narrowness or faulty > > arrangement of streets, lack of ventilation, light or sanitation, or > > any combination of these factors, are detrimental, to safety, health > > or morals". > > > > then most states have their own state level slum acts. > > > > Census of India 2001 has adopted the definition of 'Slum' areas as > > follows: - > > > > (i) All areas notified as 'Slum' by State/Local Government and UT > > Administration under any Act; > > (ii) All areas recognised as 'Slum' by State/Local Government and UT > > Administration, which have not been formally notified as slum under > > any Act; > > > > (ii) A compact area of at least 300 population or about 60-70 > > households of poorly built congested tenements, in unhygienic > > environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in > > proper sanitary and drinking water facilities. > > > > best, > > > > lalit > > > > On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 10:20 AM, > > wrote: > > > > > Send Urbanstudygroup mailing list submissions to > > > urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > > > > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > > > urbanstudygroup-request at sarai.net > > > > > > You can reach the person managing the list at > > > urbanstudygroup-owner at sarai.net > > > > > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > > > than "Re: Contents of Urbanstudygroup digest..." > > > > > > > > > Today's Topics: > > > > > > 1. Query about slums (Zainab Bawa) > > > 2. Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn 'wrong' India map > > > (Prashant Iyengar) > > > 3. bangalorevent-lis: What's on at MMB Bangalore - March 2008 > > > (varanashi) > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > > --- > > > > > > Message: 1 > > > Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 13:29:03 +0530 > > > From: "Zainab Bawa" > > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Query about slums > > > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > > Message-ID: > > > > > > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > > > > > Dear all, > > > > > > I need to find out how a slum is defined under planning. Can > > > anyone help? > > > Thanks, > > > > > > 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/2008030 > > 6/fd919c17/attachment-0001.html > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > > > Message: 2 > > > Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 17:57:26 +0530 > > > From: "Prashant Iyengar" > > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn > > > 'wrong' India map > > > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net, "Commons law" > > > > > Message-ID: > > > <908adbd0803060427p10e5dbaexa050dbfad5ba3eb4 at mail.gmail.com> > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="WINDOWS-1252" > > > > > > http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/281066.html > > > > > > Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn 'wrong' India map > > > > > > Anubhuti Vishnoi > > > > > > Posted online: Thursday, March 06, 2008 at 0111 hrs IST > > > > > > NEW DELHI, MARCH 5 > > > As The Sunday Express reported this week, any "offensive" map of > > > India, depicting the Indo-Pak border in particular, when carried > > > in a foreign publication is defaced with a blue stamp of denial by > > > a 40-member cell in the Customs Department. But those who get away > > > with a stamped map are the more fortunate ones. There are others > > > who have to see all their printed material burnt. > > > > > > Even if it's part of a brochure showing a firm's global network. > > > > > > That's what's happened to a web-based global news and financial > > > platform that feeds news agencies across the world. The agency's > > > New Delhi office was to receive some 300 brochures from its > > > headquarters in USA detailing its operations and reach. Instead, > > > it received a show-cause notice from Customs for importing "in > > > contravention of the Import & Export (Control) Act, 1947," > > > imposition of a penalty of Rs 5,000 for the offence and, worse, > > > information that the entire consignment would be burnt. > > > > > > Last week, when the Customs Department at the cargo section of > > > Delhi airport opened the consignment — it had been lying for a > > > month and a half in its warehouse — and pulled out one of the > > > 75-page brochures, it found spread across Pages 2 and 3 a world > > > map showing the firm's international network. The map showed > > > India's international boundary with Pakistan as the world sees it > > > (without Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) and so was deemed "neither > > > authentic nor correct." > > > A show-cause was sent on February 22. > > > > > > "They sent us a show cause notice and said they will have to burn > > > the entire consignment. We suggested they either stamp the map as > > > incorrect or even tear out the two pages across which the map is > > > spread out but they refused to do so. Customs officials say we will > > > have to forego this consignment. The fact that we will not even be > > > commercially distributing these and only planned to use it > > > internally and share rate lists with some of our corporate clients > > > has not helped. If they do destroy the consignment it is a major > > > loss of time for us and re-printing takes quite long", said the > > > agency's senior executive. > > > > > > He said they were seeking legal advice on the issue as they had > > > been importing such maps for six years now. > > > > > > "While we had maps showing our global network imported every year, > > > these were physical maps. This time political maps were also > > > published and that is what is holding back the consignment. > > > However, the intent is not even remotely dangerous or malicious on > > > our part", the executive said. > > > > > > Customs officials say the "destruction" of such a consignment is > > > fully within rules. "Only a map certified by the Surveyor General > > > of India can be published. If the map published in any printed > > > material that is imported does not have that clearance, it is > > > liable to be confiscated and destroyed under Section 11 of the > > > Customs Act. It is fully within our purview to detain such > > > material, issue show cause notice to the party importing it and to > > > impose a penalty. There is also a Delhi High court order on this > > > issue. In some cases the map is stamped to declare its > > > inauthenticity subject to a close scrutiny — that is usually done > > > for foreign news magazines but this being a brochure, we need to > > > destroy it," said A K Khanna, Assistant Commissioner (Technical), > > > Customs department, IGI airport. > > > In 2004, on the issue of import and sale of Chinese-made toy globes > > > incorrectly depicting India's external boundaries, the Delhi High > > > Court ruled that Customs officials should not permit imports of > > > globes or maps which depict the territory of India incorrectly. > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > > > Message: 3 > > > Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 10:19:47 +0530 > > > From: "varanashi" > > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] bangalorevent-lis: What's on at MMB > > > Bangalore - March 2008 > > > To: , , > > > > > > Message-ID: <47d0c97e.06045a0a.0461.5891 at mx.google.com> > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > > > > > FYI > > > > > > Sathya > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > What's on at MMB Bangalore - March 2008 > > > > > > Welcome to our update on cultural events! This newsletter serves > > > as a personal invitation-cum-reminder about current events. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Discover Bangalore! > > > At the Gavipuram Public Space Event on March 8, 2008 > > > > > > How well do you know your City? Make a start by exploring > > > Gavipuram, an integral part of the City, but an unknown to most of > > > its citizens. Gavipuram > > > (the Kannada word for cave neighborhood) with its cave temple, > > > small settlement and large tank in the valley existed long before > > > formal Bangalore > > > came into being. Though much has changed, remnants of the past are > > > still to > > > be seen and appreciated. > > > > > > Find out more at the Bangalore City Project(BCP)-sponsored > > > Gavipuram Public > > > Space Event on March 8, 2008. The event starts at 3.30 p.m. at the > > > entrance > > > to Gavigangadeeshwara Cave temple. A guided walk around the temple > > > and the area with commentary by a leading historian, a local > > > street theatre performance, presentation of a media art > > > installation on the cave temple by > > > a local artist, display and sale of books on Bangalore and a group > > > discussion at the Udayabhanu Kala Sangha. The event is being > > > organised for the Bangalore City Project by Udbhava, a forum for > > > urban design, built heritage, architecture and visual arts. > > > > > > The event is free and open to all. For further information, please > > > call the > > > Bhavan(080 2520 5305/6/7/8) or Udbhava (080 2679 4220) or visit > > > the BCP website. > > > > > > The Bangalore City Project comprises a group of concerned citizens > > > from different fields, including art, culture, urban planning and > > > architecture, as well as organisations such as the > > > Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan and > > > Udbhava. It aims to create awareness about art and culture in the > > > City of Bangalore, by initiating discussions and programmes on a > > > neutral platform - > > > to publicise the importance of cultural infrastructure, as well as > > > the history and importance of various places in the city that > > > remain silent and > > > veiled. One of the objectives is to help create a unique identity > > > for the City, a concept that will bear special significance for > > > the future, as Bangalore grows in manifold directions and on > > > manifold levels. > > > Join the group, go to Gavipuram, make the City your own! > > > > > > More details at: > > > > > > BCP Website > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, you may > > > unsubscribe from the mailing list (bangalorevent-lis at goethe.de) at > > > any time: > > > > > ?subject=unsubscribec-lis&body=unsubscribe%20%20ba > > > ngalorevent-lis> Unsubscribe > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > C Goethe-Institut > > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > > > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > > > URL: > > > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/2008030 > > 7/5bb2f907/attachment.html > > > -------------- next part -------------- > > > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > > > Name: not available > > > Type: image/jpeg > > > Size: 19354 bytes > > > Desc: not available > > > Url : > > > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/2008030 > > 7/5bb2f907/attachment.jpe > > > -------------- next part -------------- > > > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > > > Name: not available > > > Type: image/gif > > > Size: 71 bytes > > > Desc: not available > > > Url : > > > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/2008030 > > 7/5bb2f907/attachment.gif > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > > > Urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > > > > > > > End of Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 > > > ********************************************** > > _______________________________________________ > 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/20080309/37753388/attachment-0001.html From gauribharat at gmail.com Sun Mar 9 12:18:30 2008 From: gauribharat at gmail.com (gauri bharat) Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 12:18:30 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] slum discussion Message-ID: <34e2292d0803082248j36d3e4d5r7c5c02f757f95dc0@mail.gmail.com> Dear list members, My first posting to this forum, I'd like to add my two bits to this discussion on the slum. The 'moral' mention in the 1956 definition was probably a result of the nature of early scholarship/ way of thinking on the slums. Slums have been written about since the late 19 century (Jacob Riis, 1896) and in the US, were a product of a middle class outraged at the depravity they saw around them. The forays into the slum were tinted by a (often Christian) moral reform agenda, and the writings of the time reflected this. This attitude carried on for the next few decades, and as late as the 1960s, scholars like Oscar Lewis spoke of the slums as having a 'culture of poverty'. Basically, the slums were considered a pathologically deficient body, distinctly different and depraved in comparison to the main stream city. In the early 1970s, the works of people like John Turner (mentioned in an earlier reply) began to see the slums in more positive light, in terms of its potential for housing the poor. And this was followed in the late 1970s and 1980s by the the works of people like Janice Perlman who debunked the 'myth of marginality' among the urban poor, and Manuel Castells and the political economy of slum housing etc. These shifts in ways of thinking corresponded with shifts in policy - like the govt. agenda for instance. From subsidised housing provision in the 1960s, the govt position shifted to site and services schemes and in situ upgrading in the 1980s, and further to the whole sector reform in recent times. My point, in all this, is to suggest the the ways of seeing/ understanding the slum, and subsequently, of policy has undergone a change over the decades. What I've written above is sketchy, but indicative of some of the shifts that have taken place. I also hope this makes clear that the absence of the 'moral' aspect in later years is due to a more fundamental shift in the perception of slums. Roy and AlSayyad's Urban Informality (2004) offers a detailed discussion on the historiography of scholarship on slums, and cases and theoretical positions from different parts of the world today. Regards, Gauri Bharat > > > > Dipu: > > Was this shift at all precipitated by the Emergency? I am wondering what > role the Emergency played in this shift. Unfortunately, I cannot > substantiate this further, it's more of an open question. > > Curt > > ----- Original Message ---- > From: "sharan at sarai.net" > To: lalit batra > Cc: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > Sent: Friday, March 7, 2008 11:40:51 PM > Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 > > Dear Lalit, Zainab and List Members, > Do notice the disappearance of the 'moral' aspect in the latter > definition. > Here's my hypothesis: in the period of upto about 1970s slum improvement > was closely tied to the idea of moral reform of the inhabitants of the > slums; since then the focus has been mostly on the physical infrastructure > or (il)legality - either by way of land-use, as in the case of squatters > or > in terms of 'illegitimate' access to such things as water and electricity. > This aspect - the (il)legality of built structures - was not entirely > absent in the earlier phase, but seems to have been clearly subordinate to > the moral question. > > I have been trying to understand the nature of this transformation and its > implication and would apppreciate any comments on it. > > Cheers, > Dipu > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080309/55d37a5f/attachment.html From gautam.bhan at gmail.com Sun Mar 9 12:39:27 2008 From: gautam.bhan at gmail.com (gautam bhan) Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2008 23:09:27 -0800 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 In-Reply-To: References: <7e8688b30803070654o672f48fbw3c6584baa03115fb@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dear Lalit, Dipu, Asher and All, I wanted to add a little to what Asher was saying about the moral shift, and also the changing representations of the poor in general in indian cities. I think part of the ability of the non-poor/middle classes to carry out such a shift in the terms by which the "morals" of the poor can be articulated has to do with the changing contexts of cities in the post-91 period that Asher mentions. There is one notion i wanted to add to the discourse: a certain commodification of the image of the slum that allows it to be "flattened" and reduced in a sense to a physical environment, emptied of those who live within it but also of the history of the layers of inhabitation and claims to land in those sites. Solly Benjamin argued in an article on bangalore once that the poor were "reduced to a slum." I think he's onto something very important when he says that. its interesting to debate how the physicality of slums figures in how different actors understand them. In a sense, articulations of morality and definitely of the environment [lets not forget that the demolition intensive decade in delhi almost always has had an environmental logic as part of its reasoning] are able to be much more effective when slums becomes distanced and reduced "objects" that can be handled, removed, and erased. people are much harder to move than objects, especially in ostensibly democratic contexts. A lot of texts and agents perform this kind of aestheticisation -- from texts like Mike Davis's Planet of Slums, to census definitions, to media portrayals, to well-intentioned NGOs that aim to describe diverse residents and spaces within settlements as "one community." It is a process that I think we should be aware of, because it identifies a new site of struggle: that of how a slum is viewed culturally and symbolically, not just within legal discourse. Cities rarely look like their plans, and often tend to make space for those that can be imagined as legitimate or at least needed residents -- its important to see how different and changing representations can negate this aspirational belonging for so many. best, Gautam On 3/8/08, Asher Ghertner wrote: > > Dear Dipu, Lalit and list, > > I would agree with Dipu that the emphasis on the physicality of slums and > their illegality, especially pertaining to land use, was the prevalent model > for how slums were viewed and thought about through the 1980s and 1990s at > least. I'd just add that I think the emphasis on slum improvement did not > disappear from policy during this period, despite the withdrawal of an > explicitly moralizing discourse. I'm thinking here of the attempt in Delhi > at least to form cooperative societies for slum dwellers with the idea to > gradually improve their physical living conditions as well as the Planning > Commission's decision after the 6th 5 year plan to change slum policy away > from demolition and resettlement toward in-situ upgradation, etc. So the > emphasis on improvement remains, but the target of improvement changes from > reforming the residents of slums to reforming the territory of slums. The > emergency, I think, partly explains the move away from "demolition and > resettlement," but my guess would be that the management of slum dwellers as > a population group (concerning their "morality") became administratively > difficult (I'm saying this without knowing what slum programs really looked > like other than resettlement during this time), whereas the focus on the > territory of slums and their features (e.g. road width, sanitation level, > water supply, type of land they occupy, etc.) was more feasible. > > The period I'm more familiar with is the mid-1990s to the present in > Delhi, where a moralizing discourse returns to the government's > administration of slums, especially by 2000. I argue in a forthcoming paper > in EPW that from this period to the present, one of the primary mechanisms > by which slums are demolished (in a context of accelerated demolition, mind > you) is through their depiction as nuisances. Nuisance law through the 1980s > and 1990s was typically used to improve the environmental condition of > slums, whereas today it is used to eliminate slums to remove the threat of > the nuisance of slums spreading to the rest of the "legal" city. In terms of > morals, this marks a reversal I think. Within any moral framework is > embedded a definition of a norm. Who is normal, what is normal conduct? The > way "morality" is used in the early days in the Slum Act, 1956 -- to define > slums as areas where buildings "are detrimental, to safety, health or > morals" -- shows that it is the physical conditions of the living quarters > that can harm the moral character of slum residents. It seems to me that > morals here refer to the well-being of slum residents themselves. Today, > morals in slum discourse are used to refer not to the well-being of slum > residents, but the risk of slums to the morality of non-slum residents. In > my paper, I look at petitions files by Resident Welfare Associations > requesting the demolition of neighboring slums as well as the orders and > judgments passed by the courts in slum demolition cases to show that > nuisance has established a new moral grid for viewing and controlling slums. > The use of terms like "public immorality" and "morally questionable > behavior" is widespread in these documents. > > "Moral" is defined as something "concerned with or adhering to the code > of interpersonal conduct that is considered right or acceptable in a > particular society" (online dictionary). Acceptable conduct in India's > aspiring world-class cities does not include living in a slum, shitting or > conducting other acts the middle class considers private in public, etc. > This type of morality and governmental action (and the discourse of nuisance > that accompanies it) is very reminiscent of the colonial discourse of slums > that Dipu talks about in his EPW article from a couple of years back. Thus, > "nuisance" seems to be an "environmental register" that is resurgent. I'm > extremely interested in looking at how different registers or logics have > combined and worked together historically... > > I said above that my guess is that "morality" waned and a focus on the > built environment of the slum grew in the 70s because it was > administratively difficult to guide slum residents into proper moral > conduct. This problem does not arise in the new configuration of morality > because the moral standing of slum residents isn't the concern (in fact, it > is just presumed that they are of a low moral standing); the concern is the > welfare of non-slum-dwelling, propertied citizens. So, the easy "moral" > solution to slums is to just clear them. Isn't that what's happening today? > > Cheers, > Asher > > > > On Sat, Mar 8, 2008 at 11:10 AM, sharan at sarai.net > wrote: > > > Dear Lalit, Zainab and List Members, > > Do notice the disappearance of the 'moral' aspect in the latter > > definition. > > Here's my hypothesis: in the period of upto about 1970s slum improvement > > was closely tied to the idea of moral reform of the inhabitants of the > > slums; since then the focus has been mostly on the physical > > infrastructure > > or (il)legality - either by way of land-use, as in the case of squatters > > or > > in terms of 'illegitimate' access to such things as water and > > electricity. > > This aspect - the (il)legality of built structures - was not entirely > > absent in the earlier phase, but seems to have been clearly subordinate > > to > > the moral question. > > > > I have been trying to understand the nature of this transformation and > > its > > implication and would apppreciate any comments on it. > > > > Cheers, > > Dipu > > > > > > On 7:54 am 03/07/08 "lalit batra" wrote: > > > dear zainab, > > > > > > the central act on slums, namely, Slum Areas (Improvement and > > > Clearance) Act, 1956 defines slums as > > > > > > "any area (where) buildings…(a) are in any respect unfit for human > > > habitation, or (b) are by reason of dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty > > > arrangement and design of such buildings, narrowness or faulty > > > arrangement of streets, lack of ventilation, light or sanitation, or > > > any combination of these factors, are detrimental, to safety, health > > > or morals". > > > > > > then most states have their own state level slum acts. > > > > > > Census of India 2001 has adopted the definition of 'Slum' areas as > > > follows: - > > > > > > (i) All areas notified as 'Slum' by State/Local Government and UT > > > Administration under any Act; > > > (ii) All areas recognised as 'Slum' by State/Local Government and UT > > > Administration, which have not been formally notified as slum under > > > any Act; > > > > > > (ii) A compact area of at least 300 population or about 60-70 > > > households of poorly built congested tenements, in unhygienic > > > environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in > > > proper sanitary and drinking water facilities. > > > > > > best, > > > > > > lalit > > > > > > On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 10:20 AM, > > > wrote: > > > > > > > Send Urbanstudygroup mailing list submissions to > > > > urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > > > > > > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > > > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > > > > urbanstudygroup-request at sarai.net > > > > > > > > You can reach the person managing the list at > > > > urbanstudygroup-owner at sarai.net > > > > > > > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > > > > than "Re: Contents of Urbanstudygroup digest..." > > > > > > > > > > > > Today's Topics: > > > > > > > > 1. Query about slums (Zainab Bawa) > > > > 2. Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn 'wrong' India map > > > > (Prashant Iyengar) > > > > 3. bangalorevent-lis: What's on at MMB Bangalore - March 2008 > > > > (varanashi) > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > --- > > > > > > > > Message: 1 > > > > Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 13:29:03 +0530 > > > > From: "Zainab Bawa" > > > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Query about slums > > > > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > > > Message-ID: > > > > > > > > > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > > > > > > > Dear all, > > > > > > > > I need to find out how a slum is defined under planning. Can > > > > anyone help? > > > > Thanks, > > > > > > > > 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/2008030 > > > 6/fd919c17/attachment-0001.html > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > > > > > Message: 2 > > > > Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 17:57:26 +0530 > > > > From: "Prashant Iyengar" > > > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn > > > > 'wrong' India map > > > > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net, "Commons law" > > > > > > > Message-ID: > > > > <908adbd0803060427p10e5dbaexa050dbfad5ba3eb4 at mail.gmail.com> > > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="WINDOWS-1252" > > > > > > > > http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/281066.html > > > > > > > > Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn 'wrong' India map > > > > > > > > Anubhuti Vishnoi > > > > > > > > Posted online: Thursday, March 06, 2008 at 0111 hrs IST > > > > > > > > NEW DELHI, MARCH 5 > > > > As The Sunday Express reported this week, any "offensive" map of > > > > India, depicting the Indo-Pak border in particular, when carried > > > > in a foreign publication is defaced with a blue stamp of denial by > > > > a 40-member cell in the Customs Department. But those who get away > > > > with a stamped map are the more fortunate ones. There are others > > > > who have to see all their printed material burnt. > > > > > > > > Even if it's part of a brochure showing a firm's global network. > > > > > > > > That's what's happened to a web-based global news and financial > > > > platform that feeds news agencies across the world. The agency's > > > > New Delhi office was to receive some 300 brochures from its > > > > headquarters in USA detailing its operations and reach. Instead, > > > > it received a show-cause notice from Customs for importing "in > > > > contravention of the Import & Export (Control) Act, 1947," > > > > imposition of a penalty of Rs 5,000 for the offence and, worse, > > > > information that the entire consignment would be burnt. > > > > > > > > Last week, when the Customs Department at the cargo section of > > > > Delhi airport opened the consignment — it had been lying for a > > > > month and a half in its warehouse — and pulled out one of the > > > > 75-page brochures, it found spread across Pages 2 and 3 a world > > > > map showing the firm's international network. The map showed > > > > India's international boundary with Pakistan as the world sees it > > > > (without Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) and so was deemed "neither > > > > authentic nor correct." > > > > A show-cause was sent on February 22. > > > > > > > > "They sent us a show cause notice and said they will have to burn > > > > the entire consignment. We suggested they either stamp the map as > > > > incorrect or even tear out the two pages across which the map is > > > > spread out but they refused to do so. Customs officials say we will > > > > have to forego this consignment. The fact that we will not even be > > > > commercially distributing these and only planned to use it > > > > internally and share rate lists with some of our corporate clients > > > > has not helped. If they do destroy the consignment it is a major > > > > loss of time for us and re-printing takes quite long", said the > > > > agency's senior executive. > > > > > > > > He said they were seeking legal advice on the issue as they had > > > > been importing such maps for six years now. > > > > > > > > "While we had maps showing our global network imported every year, > > > > these were physical maps. This time political maps were also > > > > published and that is what is holding back the consignment. > > > > However, the intent is not even remotely dangerous or malicious on > > > > our part", the executive said. > > > > > > > > Customs officials say the "destruction" of such a consignment is > > > > fully within rules. "Only a map certified by the Surveyor General > > > > of India can be published. If the map published in any printed > > > > material that is imported does not have that clearance, it is > > > > liable to be confiscated and destroyed under Section 11 of the > > > > Customs Act. It is fully within our purview to detain such > > > > material, issue show cause notice to the party importing it and to > > > > impose a penalty. There is also a Delhi High court order on this > > > > issue. In some cases the map is stamped to declare its > > > > inauthenticity subject to a close scrutiny — that is usually done > > > > for foreign news magazines but this being a brochure, we need to > > > > destroy it," said A K Khanna, Assistant Commissioner (Technical), > > > > Customs department, IGI airport. > > > > In 2004, on the issue of import and sale of Chinese-made toy globes > > > > incorrectly depicting India's external boundaries, the Delhi High > > > > Court ruled that Customs officials should not permit imports of > > > > globes or maps which depict the territory of India incorrectly. > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > > > > > Message: 3 > > > > Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 10:19:47 +0530 > > > > From: "varanashi" > > > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] bangalorevent-lis: What's on at MMB > > > > Bangalore - March 2008 > > > > To: , , > > > > > > > > Message-ID: <47d0c97e.06045a0a.0461.5891 at mx.google.com> > > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > > > > > > > FYI > > > > > > > > Sathya > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > What's on at MMB Bangalore - March 2008 > > > > > > > > Welcome to our update on cultural events! This newsletter serves > > > > as a personal invitation-cum-reminder about current events. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Discover Bangalore! > > > > At the Gavipuram Public Space Event on March 8, 2008 > > > > > > > > How well do you know your City? Make a start by exploring > > > > Gavipuram, an integral part of the City, but an unknown to most of > > > > its citizens. Gavipuram > > > > (the Kannada word for cave neighborhood) with its cave temple, > > > > small settlement and large tank in the valley existed long before > > > > formal Bangalore > > > > came into being. Though much has changed, remnants of the past are > > > > still to > > > > be seen and appreciated. > > > > > > > > Find out more at the Bangalore City Project(BCP)-sponsored > > > > Gavipuram Public > > > > Space Event on March 8, 2008. The event starts at 3.30 p.m. at the > > > > entrance > > > > to Gavigangadeeshwara Cave temple. A guided walk around the temple > > > > and the area with commentary by a leading historian, a local > > > > street theatre performance, presentation of a media art > > > > installation on the cave temple by > > > > a local artist, display and sale of books on Bangalore and a group > > > > discussion at the Udayabhanu Kala Sangha. The event is being > > > > organised for the Bangalore City Project by Udbhava, a forum for > > > > urban design, built heritage, architecture and visual arts. > > > > > > > > The event is free and open to all. For further information, please > > > > call the > > > > Bhavan(080 2520 5305/6/7/8) or Udbhava (080 2679 4220) or visit > > > > the BCP website. > > > > > > > > The Bangalore City Project comprises a group of concerned citizens > > > > from different fields, including art, culture, urban planning and > > > > architecture, as well as organisations such as the > > > > Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan and > > > > Udbhava. It aims to create awareness about art and culture in the > > > > City of Bangalore, by initiating discussions and programmes on a > > > > neutral platform - > > > > to publicise the importance of cultural infrastructure, as well as > > > > the history and importance of various places in the city that > > > > remain silent and > > > > veiled. One of the objectives is to help create a unique identity > > > > for the City, a concept that will bear special significance for > > > > the future, as Bangalore grows in manifold directions and on > > > > manifold levels. > > > > Join the group, go to Gavipuram, make the City your own! > > > > > > > > More details at: > > > > > > > > BCP Website > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, you may > > > > unsubscribe from the mailing list (bangalorevent-lis at goethe.de) at > > > > any time: > > > > > > > ?subject=unsubscribec-lis&body=unsubscribe%20%20ba > > > > ngalorevent-lis> Unsubscribe > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > C Goethe-Institut > > > > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > > > > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > > > > URL: > > > > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/2008030 > > > 7/5bb2f907/attachment.html > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > > > > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > > > > Name: not available > > > > Type: image/jpeg > > > > Size: 19354 bytes > > > > Desc: not available > > > > Url : > > > > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/2008030 > > > 7/5bb2f907/attachment.jpe > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > > > > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > > > > Name: not available > > > > Type: image/gif > > > > Size: 71 bytes > > > > Desc: not available > > > > Url : > > > > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/2008030 > > > 7/5bb2f907/attachment.gif > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > > > > Urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > > > > > > > > > > End of Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 > > > > ********************************************** > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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 > > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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 -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-29307 Size: 33226 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080308/a2a9ab70/attachment-0001.bin From geetanjoy at isec.ac.in Mon Mar 10 14:28:52 2008 From: geetanjoy at isec.ac.in (geetanjoy at isec.ac.in) Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:28:52 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] [Fwd: FW: MEET ON PEOPLE'S MOVEMENTS, KOLKATA] Message-ID: <48462.203.200.22.246.1205139532.squirrel@www.isec.ac.in> ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: FW: MEET ON PEOPLE'S MOVEMENTS, KOLKATA From: "Divya Badami" Date: Mon, March 10, 2008 2:49 pm To: geetanjoy at isec.ac.in -------------------------------------------------------------------------- fyi ------------------------------ *From:* Aditi Chowdhury [mailto:chowaditi at gmail.com] *Sent:* Thursday, March 06, 2008 11:40 AM *To:* sumit_chowdhury at yahoo.com; mengineer2003 at yahoo.com; pdasgupta at yahoo.com; kbandyo at gmail.com *Subject:* MEET ON PEOPLE'S MOVEMENTS, KOLKATA Dear Friends We are pleased to invite you to a three-day intensive interface among people's movements in the country towards evolving a common strategy and plan of action, to be held under the aegis of the Indian Academy of Social Sciences in Kolkata over 13-15 March 2008. The three-day meet will be followed by the observance of Resistance Day in Nandigram on 16 March 2008. Representatives of various people's movements as well as a number of activist-academics and activist-cultural workers are expected to participate in the four-day event. The idea is to initiate exchanges between the grassroots leadership of the people's movements and the concerned intelligentsia. The attached concept note and programme will throw greater light on what we are aiming at. Due to constraints of space and to enable more meaningful discussions, the number of participants is limited to 70 (25 outstation). All participants from the grassroots movements across the country will be reimbursed Second Class trainfare and their stay and board in Kolkata will be provided. We will require immediate confirmation regarding your participation in this event. You can reply by e-mail or call any of the numbers listed below. In solidarity Sumit Chowdhury Contact: *Aditi* 91 98301 76085; *Krishna* 91 98304 06870; *Meher* 033 2228 6089; *Premangsu* 91 98311 02614; *Sumit* 91 98302 49430 __._ Visit Your Group Yahoo! Groups How-To Zone Do-It-Yourselfers Connect & share. All-Bran Day 10 Club on Yahoo! Groups Feel better with fiber. Cat Groups on Yahoo! Groups Share pictures & stories about cats. . __,_._,___ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080310/f0ddc00f/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 0308 Concept.doc Type: application/msword Size: 23552 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080310/f0ddc00f/attachment-0002.doc -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 0308 Programme.doc Type: application/msword Size: 20992 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080310/f0ddc00f/attachment-0003.doc From cheryl.deutsch at gmail.com Mon Mar 10 17:23:35 2008 From: cheryl.deutsch at gmail.com (Cheryl Deutsch) Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:23:35 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] The Culture of Haats in India Message-ID: <189301e00803100453x2e33c211wf7bec5b0aec74b65@mail.gmail.com> Regarding Gaurav's research into Haats, I would recommend that you read some literature referring to the struggles of street vendors, or hawkers, in Indian cities. I've been doing research and activism with the hawkers' unions for the last year and a half, mostly in Bombay. In that city, I don't know of any either formal or informal haats, but I know that in Delhi, where weekly markets are also quite popular, haats have been offered, on various occassions, as a solution to the hawker "problem." This is a trend that can be seen across cities in many countries of the world: an attempt to reduce hawkers to cultural or even foreign/exotic symbols of a bygone era or faraway place, rather than empowering them as workers who daily provide necessary goods and services in an urban community. Anyway, I think you'll have to distinguish between haats, weekly markets of 'ordinary' hawkers, and everyday hawkers for your design project. Gita Dewan Verma is an urban planner based in Delhi who has been involved in hawkers' issues. I have one article of hers entitled "Hawking Hawkers" which gives a good summary of the different schemes that have been concocted over the years in that city, including proposals for haats. You might be able to find that article or some of her other writing online. If you want to pursue this line further, I'd be happy to share with you other links and articles on the formalization (and its consequences) of hawkers in India and other parts of the world. I am not familiar with the history of haats per se, but I would guess that today they follow trends similar to those of "model hawking markets" and such - which to me embody commodification of 'the traditional,' and/or a way of discursively (ad)dressing the poor in a way that is palatable (and thus, consumable) for the middle class. Alternatively, as unions, hawkers are everywhere fighting for implementation of the National Policy on Urban Street Vendors - passed in 2004, which calls for recognition and legalization of "natural markets," and recognizes hawkers' basic rights and the importance of the services they provide both socio-economically and in terms of urban planning. Best, Cheryl On 3/7/08, urbanstudygroup-request at sarai.net < urbanstudygroup-request at sarai.net> wrote: > > Send Urbanstudygroup mailing list submissions to > urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > urbanstudygroup-request at sarai.net > > You can reach the person managing the list at > urbanstudygroup-owner at sarai.net > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Urbanstudygroup digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Design Project: The Culture of Haats in India (Gaurav Bhushan) > 2. The IT and non-IT binary of Bangalore (Zainab Bawa) > 3. Re: Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 (lalit batra) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 13:28:03 +0530 > From: "Gaurav Bhushan" > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Design Project: The Culture of Haats in India > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > Message-ID: > <8f821bcf0803062358v663fd251t6ae8a4ea4142668e at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > ** Sorry for cross-posting ** > > Hi! > > I am a post-graduate student of 'Information Design' at National Institute > of Design , India (NID). > > Currently, I am doing a project on the Culture of Haats in India. You can > refer to my project blog... http://projecthaat.blogspot.com/ > > The term 'Haat' which originally referred to any marketplace, is being > reinvented in the form of cultural centers in urban areas where craftsmen, > artisans, merchants from all over the country assemble. This kind of a > trend > is seen in many cities like Delhi, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Udaipur etc. They > have their own little niche at these places, and are quite popular amongst > foreigners and Indians alike. They are seen as a means of revival for the > arts and crafts community in India. > > Through this project, I want to explore the myths and realities behind the > concept and identify problems and opportunity areas. At the end of it my > plan is to compile all the information I gather in the form of a series of > Information Graphics about the Haats in general. > > I wish to gather some starting points/pointers/references/links/etc. about > Haats. Right now I am planning my field visits for the project. I would be > really glad if I can get some help regarding these before I begin my field > research in March second week. > > Do check the project blog and send in > your comments about the project or opinions about 'Haats' if you find the > subject interesting! Thanks... > > Regards, > > Gaurav Bhushan > Information Design (07- 09) > National Institute of Design, India > > P.S: I am also trying to find the meaning of the word 'Haat' in different > languages. > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080307/91c3918f/attachment-0001.html > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 13:53:56 +0530 > From: "Zainab Bawa" > Subject: [Urbanstudy] The IT and non-IT binary of Bangalore > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > Message-ID: > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > So here are these two women, waiting at the bus, for buses to arrive. They > seem middle-class, workingwomen. Perhaps Bangloreans for a long time. And > the buses that arrive are of the 360 series. All these buses are bound for > Electronic City. One of the two of the women complains, "what is this? all > these buses going to Electronics City? It is holiday season. Therefore > there > are fewer buses for our destination in the evenings." Her irritation > appeared as a matter of fact, as a matter of acceptance that work patterns > and therefore routines in Bangalore have changed and some crowds will be > serviced more than others owing to the economic changes in this city. I am > entirely unsure if she was complaining of the distinction between IT and > non-IT crowds, that distinction which is being emphasized off late in > order > to comprehend the pathologies of this city. Would it make a difference to > our cognition of the city and its conditions if we view IT as just another > economy? What is this IT imaginary? Why does it have to feature in our > attempt to make sense of this city, its cacophony, its, spatiality and the > place? > > > -- > 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/20080307/15235dc1/attachment-0001.html > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 20:24:41 +0530 > From: "lalit batra" > Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > Message-ID: > <7e8688b30803070654o672f48fbw3c6584baa03115fb at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" > > dear zainab, > > the central act on slums, namely, Slum Areas (Improvement and Clearance) > Act, 1956 defines slums as > > "any area (where) buildings…(a) are in any respect unfit for human > habitation, or (b) are by reason of dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty > arrangement and design of such buildings, narrowness or faulty arrangement > of streets, lack of ventilation, light or sanitation, or any combination > of > these factors, are detrimental, to safety, health or morals". > > then most states have their own state level slum acts. > > Census of India 2001 has adopted the definition of 'Slum' areas as > follows: > - > > (i) All areas notified as 'Slum' by State/Local Government and UT > Administration under any Act; > (ii) All areas recognised as 'Slum' by State/Local Government and UT > Administration, which have not been formally notified as slum under any > Act; > > (ii) A compact area of at least 300 population or about 60-70 households > of > poorly built congested tenements, in unhygienic environment usually with > inadequate infrastructure and lacking in proper sanitary and drinking > water > facilities. > > best, > > lalit > > On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 10:20 AM, > wrote: > > > Send Urbanstudygroup mailing list submissions to > > urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > > urbanstudygroup-request at sarai.net > > > > You can reach the person managing the list at > > urbanstudygroup-owner at sarai.net > > > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > > than "Re: Contents of Urbanstudygroup digest..." > > > > > > Today's Topics: > > > > 1. Query about slums (Zainab Bawa) > > 2. Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn 'wrong' India map > > (Prashant Iyengar) > > 3. bangalorevent-lis: What's on at MMB Bangalore - March 2008 > > (varanashi) > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > Message: 1 > > Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 13:29:03 +0530 > > From: "Zainab Bawa" > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Query about slums > > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > Message-ID: > > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > > > Dear all, > > > > I need to find out how a slum is defined under planning. Can anyone > help? > > > > Thanks, > > > > 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/20080306/fd919c17/attachment-0001.html > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > Message: 2 > > Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 17:57:26 +0530 > > From: "Prashant Iyengar" > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn > > 'wrong' India map > > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net, "Commons law" > > Message-ID: > > <908adbd0803060427p10e5dbaexa050dbfad5ba3eb4 at mail.gmail.com> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="WINDOWS-1252" > > > > http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/281066.html > > > > Mere stamp won't do, Customs to burn 'wrong' India map > > > > Anubhuti Vishnoi > > > > Posted online: Thursday, March 06, 2008 at 0111 hrs IST > > > > NEW DELHI, MARCH 5 > > As The Sunday Express reported this week, any "offensive" map of > > India, depicting the Indo-Pak border in particular, when carried in a > > foreign publication is defaced with a blue stamp of denial by a > > 40-member cell in the Customs Department. But those who get away with > > a stamped map are the more fortunate ones. There are others who have > > to see all their printed material burnt. > > > > Even if it's part of a brochure showing a firm's global network. > > > > That's what's happened to a web-based global news and financial > > platform that feeds news agencies across the world. The agency's New > > Delhi office was to receive some 300 brochures from its headquarters > > in USA detailing its operations and reach. Instead, it received a > > show-cause notice from Customs for importing "in contravention of the > > Import & Export (Control) Act, 1947," imposition of a penalty of Rs > > 5,000 for the offence and, worse, information that the entire > > consignment would be burnt. > > > > Last week, when the Customs Department at the cargo section of Delhi > > airport opened the consignment — it had been lying for a month and a > > half in its warehouse — and pulled out one of the 75-page brochures, > > it found spread across Pages 2 and 3 a world map showing the firm's > > international network. The map showed India's international boundary > > with Pakistan as the world sees it (without Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) > > and so was deemed "neither authentic nor correct." > > > > A show-cause was sent on February 22. > > > > "They sent us a show cause notice and said they will have to burn the > > entire consignment. We suggested they either stamp the map as > > incorrect or even tear out the two pages across which the map is > > spread out but they refused to do so. Customs officials say we will > > have to forego this consignment. The fact that we will not even be > > commercially distributing these and only planned to use it internally > > and share rate lists with some of our corporate clients has not > > helped. If they do destroy the consignment it is a major loss of time > > for us and re-printing takes quite long", said the agency's senior > > executive. > > > > He said they were seeking legal advice on the issue as they had been > > importing such maps for six years now. > > > > "While we had maps showing our global network imported every year, > > these were physical maps. This time political maps were also published > > and that is what is holding back the consignment. However, the intent > > is not even remotely dangerous or malicious on our part", the > > executive said. > > > > Customs officials say the "destruction" of such a consignment is fully > > within rules. "Only a map certified by the Surveyor General of India > > can be published. If the map published in any printed material that is > > imported does not have that clearance, it is liable to be confiscated > > and destroyed under Section 11 of the Customs Act. It is fully within > > our purview to detain such material, issue show cause notice to the > > party importing it and to impose a penalty. There is also a Delhi High > > court order on this issue. In some cases the map is stamped to declare > > its inauthenticity subject to a close scrutiny — that is usually done > > for foreign news magazines but this being a brochure, we need to > > destroy it," said A K Khanna, Assistant Commissioner (Technical), > > Customs department, IGI airport. > > > > In 2004, on the issue of import and sale of Chinese-made toy globes > > incorrectly depicting India's external boundaries, the Delhi High > > Court ruled that Customs officials should not permit imports of globes > > or maps which depict the territory of India incorrectly. > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > Message: 3 > > Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 10:19:47 +0530 > > From: "varanashi" > > Subject: [Urbanstudy] bangalorevent-lis: What's on at MMB Bangalore - > > March 2008 > > To: , , > > > > Message-ID: <47d0c97e.06045a0a.0461.5891 at mx.google.com> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > > > FYI > > > > Sathya > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > What's on at MMB Bangalore - March 2008 > > > > Welcome to our update on cultural events! This newsletter serves as a > > personal invitation-cum-reminder about current events. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Discover Bangalore! > > At the Gavipuram Public Space Event on March 8, 2008 > > > > How well do you know your City? Make a start by exploring Gavipuram, an > > integral part of the City, but an unknown to most of its citizens. > > Gavipuram > > (the Kannada word for cave neighborhood) with its cave temple, small > > settlement and large tank in the valley existed long before formal > > Bangalore > > came into being. Though much has changed, remnants of the past are still > > to > > be seen and appreciated. > > > > Find out more at the Bangalore City Project(BCP)-sponsored Gavipuram > > Public > > Space Event on March 8, 2008. The event starts at 3.30 p.m. at the > > entrance > > to Gavigangadeeshwara Cave temple. A guided walk around the temple and > the > > area with commentary by a leading historian, a local street theatre > > performance, presentation of a media art installation on the cave temple > > by > > a local artist, display and sale of books on Bangalore and a group > > discussion at the Udayabhanu Kala Sangha. The event is being organised > for > > the Bangalore City Project by Udbhava, a forum for urban design, built > > heritage, architecture and visual arts. > > > > The event is free and open to all. For further information, please call > > the > > Bhavan(080 2520 5305/6/7/8) or Udbhava (080 2679 4220) or visit the BCP > > website. > > > > The Bangalore City Project comprises a group of concerned citizens from > > different fields, including art, culture, urban planning and > architecture, > > as well as organisations such as the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan > > and > > Udbhava. It aims to create awareness about art and culture in the City > of > > Bangalore, by initiating discussions and programmes on a neutral > platform > > - > > to publicise the importance of cultural infrastructure, as well as the > > history and importance of various places in the city that remain silent > > and > > veiled. One of the objectives is to help create a unique identity for > the > > City, a concept that will bear special significance for the future, as > > Bangalore grows in manifold directions and on manifold levels. > > > > Join the group, go to Gavipuram, make the City your own! > > > > More details at: > > > > BCP Website > > > > > > > > > > > > > > If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, you may unsubscribe > from > > the mailing list (bangalorevent-lis at goethe.de) at any time: > > > > > ?subject=unsubscribec-lis&body=unsubscribe%20%20ba > > ngalorevent-lis> Unsubscribe > > > > > > > > > > > > > > C Goethe-Institut > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > > URL: > > > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080307/5bb2f907/attachment.html > > -------------- next part -------------- > > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > > Name: not available > > Type: image/jpeg > > Size: 19354 bytes > > Desc: not available > > Url : > > > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080307/5bb2f907/attachment.jpe > > -------------- next part -------------- > > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > > Name: not available > > Type: image/gif > > Size: 71 bytes > > Desc: not available > > Url : > > > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080307/5bb2f907/attachment.gif > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > > Urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > > > > End of Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 2 > > ********************************************** > > > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: not available > Type: application/defanged-3823 > Size: 17337 bytes > Desc: not available > Url : > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080307/d6f52e68/attachment.bin > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > End of Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 5 > ********************************************** > -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-8 Size: 27287 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080310/aeabc540/attachment-0001.bin From prem.cnt at gmail.com Tue Mar 11 15:12:35 2008 From: prem.cnt at gmail.com (Prem Chandavarkar) Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:12:35 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] The Culture of Haats in India In-Reply-To: <189301e00803100453x2e33c211wf7bec5b0aec74b65@mail.gmail.com> References: <189301e00803100453x2e33c211wf7bec5b0aec74b65@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <7e230b560803110242r143cab34p9f776ea8bedc422c@mail.gmail.com> Gita Dewan Verma's article "Hawking Hawkers" is available at http://plan.architexturez.org/site/mpisg/c/020212/index_html The National Policy on Urban Street Vendors is available at: http://nceus.gov.in/Street%20Vendors%20policy.pdf One organisation seeking to organise street vendors: http://www.nasvinet.org/about.htm Cheryl, If you have recommendations for any other useful links on this subject, I am sure that many of us on the urban study group would be interested, and it would be great if you could post this info. Thanks, Prem -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080311/1e8e5e2a/attachment.html From svati22 at gmail.com Thu Mar 13 15:12:47 2008 From: svati22 at gmail.com (Swati Dandekar) Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:12:47 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Bangalore based Research Organisation looking for researchers Message-ID: <002b01c884ee$9c3dae30$1401a8c0@desktop> CBPS is a non-profit research organisation with interests in decentralised governance, and uses government finances to monitor the performance of States, PRI institutions, and urban local governments. Data from NSSO and other organisations is also used to generate information that is aimed to help good decision-making by institutions of governance. CBPS also does capacity building for elected representatives and administrators in budget making and use of other data. CBPS would like to hire research staff with the following qualifications: · M.A. / M.Phil. / Ph.D. in economics or a related field (fresh degree holders are also encouraged to apply) · Good grasp of quantitative analysis and interest in research · Proficiency in spreadsheet and word processing software · Excellent command over English (spoken and written) · Willingness to travel within India · Independent and goal oriented Those interested should send complete resume with names and contact details of 3 references to the following email address: cbpsmail at gmail.com Put the legend 'Research staff application' in the subject line. Or send to the following postal address: Centre for Budget and Policy Studies S.V. Complex, 55 K.R. Road Basavanagudi, Bangalore 560 004 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080313/8a8f705a/attachment.html From aashu.gupta20 at gmail.com Thu Mar 13 18:48:01 2008 From: aashu.gupta20 at gmail.com (Aashish Gupta) Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:48:01 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Announcement: Invitation to skillshare - Urban natural resources protection Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Suresh Saila Date: Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 3:07 PM Subject: Fw: Invitation to skillshare - Urban natural resources protection To: Aashish Gupta IIT , Aashish Singh IIT < aashishthegreat at gmail.com>, aadya singh IIT , "R. Niruj Mohan" E-mail: rightstn at yahoo.com - ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Rajesh Rangarajan To: Suresh Saila Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 11:07:08 AM Subject: Invitation to skillshare - Urban natural resources protection Dear Dr.Suresh, Dr.Saila, Please find attached the details of the talk by Prof.Soni. Extremely sorry about the short notice. We look forward to your participation. Please do pass it on to those who may find it beneficial. (The hall can take upto 50 people.) Rajesh - ----------------------------- Invitation to Skill-Share *Urban Natural Resources:* *Evaluation, preservation and sustainable use* Our natural resource base is shrinking, as 60% of all ecosystems in the planet are showing terminal loss. Unlike climate change which is still reversible, perhaps inconveniently, natural resource loss is not. Extreme urbanization is likely to substantially further this loss. Most cities do not yet preserve and creatively use their natural resource. In scenarios concerning big cities such as Delhi or Chennai this becomes vital for sustainability and the very future of human habitat. *Prof.Vikram Soni* associated with the *Citizens for Preservation of Quarries and Lake Wilderness* and the *National Physical Laboratory* will talk on *'Urban Natural Resource as a vital element in Future of Cities'*sharing his expertise in showing how one could develop an archive of urban natural resources in a city, how they can be evaluated, preserved and non-invasively used, using Delhi as a case study. Prof.Vikram Soni is a Delhi-based environmentalist who has been fighting campaigns and cases for protecting the Delhi Ridge, for stopping the Vasant Kunj hotels and malls, and more recently who has filed a case challenging the construction taking place on the Yamuna flood plains for the Commonwealth games in Delhi. *Dr.Jayashree Vencatesan, CARE EARTH* will address the gathering on how such an exercise would be contextualized to a city like Chennai with the specific example of Pallikaranai marsh which continues to be under threat. The event will be chaired by *Ms.Tara Murali, *architect and environmentalist. The Skill-share is jointly being organised by Citizen consumer civic Action Group (CAG) and Department of Humanities and Social Sciences (IIT, Madras) and is open to environmentalists, NGOs, planners, social scientists, academia, students and others interested in Chennai and the protection of its natural resources and ecological hotspots! The skillshare aims to get civil society and academia interested in the concept and enthuse people in getting strongly involved in protecting urban natural resources of Chennai. *Venue: HALL NO. HSB 356, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT, **Madras*** *Date: **14th MARCH 2008*** *Time:* *4.30PM* We keenly look forward to your participation. - -- Rajesh Rangarajan Citizen consumer and civic Action Group (CAG) 9/5, 2nd street (near Sishya school) Padmanabha Nagar, Adayar Chennai 600 020, INDIA Ph:+91 44 24460387 Telefax:+91 44 24914358 E-mail:rajesh at cag.org.in Web:www.cag.org.in - ------------------------------ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. - -- Chal Bulleya chal othae challeeya, jithae sarae annae. Naa koi saddi zaat paehchannae, thae na koi sanu mannae -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080313/5f1cb82b/attachment-0001.html From svati22 at gmail.com Thu Mar 13 20:58:15 2008 From: svati22 at gmail.com (Swati Dandekar) Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:58:15 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Looking for screening coordinators for a film on governance Message-ID: <002401c8851e$ddf71610$1401a8c0@desktop> Centre For Budget and Policy Studies, Bangalore is a non-profit research organisation with interests in decentralised governance. Recently CBPS has produced a film on municipal governance, and wishes to screen it in various municipalities in Maharashtra. (Film details and synopsis given at the end) For this, it is looking for screening coordinators who would go to the municipalities, organise screenings, conduct a discussion after the screening, and write up a brief report. The project is for a period of about 6 months. · Screening coordinators should be completely conversant with Marathi, since discussions will have to be conducted in Marathi. · They should be willing to travel all over Maharashtra. · CBPS is open to two persons working as pair on the project. · Those undertaking the project will be given adequate training on how to organise the screening and conduct the discussion. Interested persons may please get in touch with the following along with their CV. srath66 at yahoo.com; svati22 at gmail.com; cbpsmail at gmail.com Details of the film: Film title: Local Self Governments - Some reflections Director: Swati Dandekar Duration: 50 minutes Language: Marathi and English Available formats: DVD and CD Synopsis The 74th amendment to the Indian constitution called for decentralisation of city and town municipalities and ushered in a new era in governance. It enabled towns and small urban centres to collect taxes from its people and provide services in return. Over the past 12 years, this reform has had uneven success in different states. The key idea behind decentralisation is that local solutions must be found for local problems. This sounds simple enough, but how does it work in practice? This film is an attempt to study how a city municipal council actually works. Taking the case of the Jaisingpur Municipal Council in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra, the film attempts to underline some of the issues that concern local self-governance. Through interviews with councillors and the Chief Officer, the film explores how the two arms of the municipality - the political and administrative work in tandem with each other, how responsibility is shared, decisions made, and implemented. While the film is entirely set in Jaisingpur, the issues it raises apply to most mid sized towns and cities in India. It underlines the pressing need for long term planning and urges local governments to look to their constitutional mandate that of ensuring economic development and social justice. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080313/a30d1108/attachment.html From debsinha at gmail.com Fri Mar 14 00:40:12 2008 From: debsinha at gmail.com (Deb Ranjan Sinha (Gmail)) Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:10:12 -0400 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Maximum City: exhausting and beautiful love-note to Mumbai - Boing Boing Message-ID: <008101c8853d$f0726ff0$0200000a@PAGOL> http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/10/maximum-city-exhaust.html From geetanjoy at rediffmail.com Sat Mar 15 19:34:36 2008 From: geetanjoy at rediffmail.com (geetanjoy sahu) Date: 15 Mar 2008 14:04:36 -0000 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: [WaterWatch] NARMADA VALLEY REHABILITATION WORK: LET RIGHT BE DONE Message-ID: <20080315140436.29147.qmail@f4mail-235-239.rediffmail.com> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080315/12a170c1/attachment-0001.pl -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: alakhnarayan at gmail.com Subject: [WaterWatch] NARMADA VALLEY REHABILITATION WORK: LET RIGHT BE DONE Date: no date Size: 26718 Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080315/12a170c1/attachment-0001.mht From leofsaldanha at gmail.com Sun Mar 16 12:06:24 2008 From: leofsaldanha at gmail.com (Leo Saldanha) Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 12:06:24 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Setting the Record Straight (on SLAPP against ESG) Message-ID: <47DCBFE8.30703@gmail.com> Press Release: 14 March 2008, Bangalore Setting the record straight My clients, Mr. Leo Saldanha, Coordinator, Environment Support Group, and his wife, Dr. Lakshmi Nilakantan, Ph.D., Mathematics teacher at The Valley School, would like to set the record straight with respect to their alleged involvement in the alleged "encroachment" of forest land by The Valley School, Bangalore and recovery of sandalwood in the school. My clients are constrained to state the facts in view of the ongoing trial by media which has prematurely pronounced them "guilty" and done so in a manner that has sullied their unblemished social standing and record. Various sections of the media have portrayed my clients as: 1) Involved in the activity of making artefacts from sandalwood by engaging children in The Art Village of The Valley School 2) Obstructing government officials from discharging their duty of recovering forest land 3) Absconding as soon as sandalwood was allegedly "recovered" from The Valley School 4) Evading from being subjected to investigation 5) Defending encroachment of forest lands My client Dr. Lakshmi Nilakantan is a Mathematics teacher in The Valley School and my other client, her husband, Mr. Leo F. Saldanha has nothing to do with the school management and is in fact a full time Coordinator and Trustee of Environment Support Group. Hence, imputing that my clients had an active role in the misuse of sandalwood and also in the alleged encroachment of forest land has no basis whatsoever. My clients lawful and justified dissent to the manner in which priceless artefacts (pictures enclosed) of the Art Village in The Valley School was being destroyed with the use of excavators and also the potential destruction of trees and other vegetation due to the movement of heavy vehicles through the thickly wooded areas, did not go down well with the officials of the forest and police departments. At no time did they ever object to the recovery of forest land; only pleaded for protection of works of art created by children and renowned artists. (The social, educational and cultural importance of The Art Village is reported in /"Celebration of art at Valley School"/, Deccan Herald, January 12, 2004 accessible at: http://www.deccanherald.com/Archives/jan122004/metro1.asp and /"A song of eternal STONE"/, The Hindu, http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mp/2004/01/12/stories/2004011201790200.htm) My clients state that in view of their position as outsiders /vis a vis /the property of The Valley School, allegations implicating my clients in the alleged presence of sandalwood in The Valley School and alleged encroachment of forest land is irresponsible, defamatory and beyond any logical reasoning. My clients rebut the allegations that they absconded as soon as sandalwood was allegedly recovered on 16^th February 2008 in The Valley School. As a matter of fact my client Leo Saldanha was not in The Valley School at the time of alleged recovery of sandalwood. Instead he was with Dr. U. V. Singh, Conservator of Forests, Bangalore Circle, Karnataka Forest Department at the latter's office at Aranya Bhavan between 12 pm and 2 pm, along with Dr. Satish Inamdar, Director of the Valley School and Mr. Jayaram, Principal of The Valley School. My other client, Dr. Lakshmi Nilakantan was in fact present in The Valley School on the 17^th February 2008 when Dr. U. V. Singh visited the school to verify the media reports. Hence, alleging that my clients were absconding on the aforesaid dates, and subsequently, is mischievous and irresponsible. My clients have been hurt by media reports which have not been backed by any verifiable facts. In some instances quotes have been ascribed to my clients when in fact no such comment was ever made by them to the media. My client Leo Saldanha is of the view that the trial by a section of the media appears to be playing into a motivated campaign that has been generated at the instance of various vested interests that are bearing the brunt of public interest campaigns of Environment Support Group, of which he is the Coordinator. More details of ESG's work can be sourced at: www.esgindia.org . /My clients appeal to all public spirited people to view the present smear campaign and ill motivated prosecution as part of a broader *Strategic Litigation Against Public Purpose* (SLAPP) which is being initiated at the behest of vested interests/. Seen in such context the vicious attacks on the social standing of my clients would fall into perspective. The final word on the present unsavoury episode appears to have been stated by the Hon'ble I Additional Sessions Judge, Bangalore Rural District while granting anticipatory bail in Crl. Misc. Petition No.s 225/2008 and 226/2008 which appears to have slipped the eagle eyes of the media. The Hon'ble Judge has stated thus: "In the instant case, as already stated above, none of the petitioners are alleged to be either the holders or occupants of the land wherein the sandal pieces are alleged to have been seized and recovered. There are also no allegations to this effect either in the F.I.R. or in the case diary. There are no allegations that the petitioners are in the control or management of the land or buildings in which the said sandalwood pieces were found. There are no allegations that the sandalwood was kept in the precincts with the knowledge or connivance of the said petitioners. Merely because the sandalwood pieces were found in the unauthorized forest land, in the absence of any /prima facie/ material to show that the said property was in the possession and control of the petitioners, it does not lead to the inference that the petitioners are instrumental in storing the said sandalwood. There are no allegations that any of the petitioners offered resistance to the forest officials or interfered with the discharge of the lawful duty of the forest officials in taking possession of the unauthorized land. There are no allegations attracting the offence under the Section 353 of I.P.C. The petitioners have produced relevant documents to show that the Valley School and all its lands are owned and managed by a Registered Society formerly known as Krishnamurthi Foundation India as per the Memorandum of Association, and Rule and Regulations as amended from time to time. It is undisputed that the Valley School and all its precincts are held by the said Society. The memorandum of association clearly disclosed that the said Society is governed by the body of Management and the Rule specifically provide the representation thereof by the Secretary. Therefore, in the absence of any allegations that the petitioners were instrumental in storing or keeping the sandalwood pieces or encroaching the forest land, I am of the view that, there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the petitioners are guilty of the various offences invoked against them." S. Sunil Dutt Yadav Advocate No. 11, K. S. Building 2^nd Main Road Gandhinagar Bangalore 560009 Tel: 91-80-22268839 Email: sunil_dy at yahoo.com *Annexure: Extracts of certain Press Reports on the incident* *Deccan Herald, "Land grabbed by school recovered", *dated 17 February 2008, page 1:** 'The forest officer alleged that environmentalist Leo Saldanha rushed to the spot and "obstructed" their operations. "He said his wife Lakshmi is a teacher in the school and they bring the sandalwood to teach children wood carving. He didn't allow us to start the demolition. We have filed an FIR against him under section 353 of the IPC, for obstructing government officials from carrying their duty and Sections 86 and 87 of the Forest Act, for illegal possession and cutting of sandalwood".' *The New Indian Express, *"*Encroached forest land recovered**", dated **17 February 2008**:* 'This was not all adding to the Saturday blast, environmentalist Leo Saldana was taken to task for obstructing the officials on duty and two cases were booked against him. Leo, in the past, had fought several battles against the government and civic agencies for protecting the environment, but here he was found threatening officials. Saldanha refused to speak about the logs recovered but rather justified his act saying: "I was not against demolition. I wanted to safeguard the artworks of the children. I did not fight because my children are studying there, but I could not see brutal attack on their creativity".' *The Hindu*, *"Sandalwood recovery: search on for accused"*, dated 25 February 2008: 'The department had registered cases against school principal Jairam, teacher Lakshmi and her husband Leo Saldanha. Mr. Saldanha was associated with Environmental Support Group, a non-governmental organisation. The three were yet to be traced, officials said. On February 16, Mr. Saldanha had come to the school to drop his wife and two children. He opposed the demolition of the structures of the "Arts Village" that had come up on the encroached property. He argued that the demolition would destroy the art created by the schoolchildren. The Forest Department booked a case against him for obstructing the work and illegally trespassing into the forest land. According to the officials, Mr. Saldanha and his wife went away just as sandalwood artifacts and sandalwood logs were found in the vicinity. "This made us suspect Mr. Saldanha and his wife," said an officer, who did not want to be named. Mr. Jairam, Mr. Saldanha and his wife have been accused under Section 86 of the Karnataka Forest Act. A person convicted under this section will have to undergo imprisonment which may extend to 10 years.' Detailed media reports can be sourced at: http://newsrack.in/Browse.do?owner=demo&issue=Valley+School&catID=1 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080316/7d61b2e1/attachment-0001.html From ehijam at yahoo.com Mon Mar 17 11:15:20 2008 From: ehijam at yahoo.com (eskoni hijam) Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:45:20 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Condition of slums in Berhampur, Orissa In-Reply-To: <47DCBFE8.30703@gmail.com> Message-ID: <586701.44285.qm@web31502.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Just wanted to share some of my experiece on my field visit to the slums of Berhampur City, Orissa. Berhampur city is one of the five biggest cities of Orissa. It is observed that there were 109 identified slums in the city. The total slum population is 29.57% of the total city population and the number of household is 38.46% of the total city households. Some of the major observations are: The conditions of the slums are very poor in terms of access to services, the living condition, livelihood, etc. It was shocking that even in this era the mindset of the people has not changed at all. On a visit to one of the slums where the Harijans stay, it was found that the society still very strongly believes in the caste system which is the cause of the hurdles to any development of the Harijans. Most of the Harijans work as sweepers in the Municipality as there are very few job opportunities for them. From the group discussion conducted with some of residents it became obvious that since they are Harijans, their opportunity for job is very much restricted as they are not acceptable in the society in many places like hotels, eateries, service sectors, etc. So they are left with low profile job like sweeping, garbage collection, rickshaw pulling, etc. They are very vulnerable class, in terms of social security also. One of the residents commented, “I was a sweeper in the Municipality but now I have retired. The Municipality doesn’t provide the pension regularly. They provide only after three to four months. It is very difficult to run the family at such circumstances”. As many other slums of India, the slums of Berhampur are in no different condition. They are faced with lack of basic services. 1. The main concern in all the slums is sanitation. Almost all the slums do not have toilet facilities. Open defecation is prevalent. They have to go to nearby open ground to answer their nature’s call. It was shocking to know that some of the grounds are about one to two kilometers away from the slums. This is a big issue mainly for the women due to security reasons. The women face a lot of harassment as well. One of the women told that due to insecurity at night they have to stop themselves and sometimes end up defecating in the open drains. 2. Water supply is very poor in terms of access and also quantity. The slum dwellers depend on the public stand posts. Very few slums have the alternative of tube wells; the quality of the tube well water is bad. On an average the supply is two hours daily but in some slums it comes only for one hour on every alternate day. Due to this lack of water fights among the slum dwellers occur very frequently. 3. Not a single slum has got health facility. They have to depend on the local medical college. 4. In terms of transportation, it is very poor in some of the slums. In one of the slums, people have to walk down a distance of four kilometers to get the bus, (public transport system). 5. Very few slums have schools. Most of them up to fifth standard and a few which up to seventh standard. All the schools have a maximum of two rooms where all the classes are conducted batch wise. The children of different standards are accommodated at different corners. 6. Solid waste management is very poor throughout the city. All the wastes lie on the roadside. In some of the slums about 5-10% of the houses are in very good condition. When asked about such disparity, it was found that those in good conditions are the ones who have got loan due to the Orissa cyclone. It is the common mindset that the dwellers will not be able to pay for the services if they are charged. This is not true as it was found that if there will be improvement in services, most of the slum dwellers, except a few are willing to pay. Another very shocking thing observed was that when I went for a Focused Group Discussion for the women, the men were trying to show their dominance. One of the men told, “The women don’t know anything. If you have to ask, ask us.” When I told them that I need to know the specific need and problems faced by the women the reply I got was “We know what problem they face. We will tell you.” The women were not given the right even to express their feelings. Gender bias is mostly prevalent amongst slum dwellers and this can pose problems for holistic development of the slum especially in regards to the welfare and needs of women. Regards Eskoni ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ From geetanjoy at rediffmail.com Mon Mar 17 11:38:25 2008 From: geetanjoy at rediffmail.com (geetanjoy sahu) Date: 17 Mar 2008 06:08:25 -0000 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Condition of slums in Berhampur, Orissa Message-ID: <20080317060825.16651.qmail@f4mail-235-233.rediffmail.com>  hi eskoni, you have rightly observed the painful conditions of slum area in berhampur city of orissa. Since i belong to berhampur I just want to add few more points to your observation. 1. most of the slum areas in berhampur are highly politicised based on caste and location. if you visit some of the slum areas near new bus stand then they are mobilised by the BJD party. if you come near to railway station then those slum areas are highly mobilised by the congress party. But the fact of the matter is that the politicians virtually don't extend any logistic support to them except vote bank. 2. again there is hardly any NGO working for slum development in Berhampur. correct me if i am wrong. 3. most slum dwellers for livelihood use their children as beggers in cinema hall, bus stop, railway station. 4. they don't get any informal working opportunity like maid servent in upper caste house as berhampur city is very conservative and not free from caste domination. 5. finally, to your first observation i want to add that municipality has not only failed to extend basic service to slum areas but also it is totally dyfunctional even to collect garbage from educated residence area. this is due to two reasons. first, municipality is not at all bothered as there is no active NGO or civil society group to bring their attention and second, there is lack of civic sense among the public to fight for their rights. we had a tough time during our college days to convince people including the so-called educated masses to keep their street clean and not to dump garbage in open place. hope these observations may help you further to know more about berhampur slum areas. if you need any help in the city then let me know. On Mon, 17 Mar 2008 eskoni hijam wrote : >Just wanted to share some of my experiece on my field >visit to the slums of Berhampur City, Orissa. > >Berhampur city is one of the five biggest cities of >Orissa. It is observed that there were 109 identified >slums in the city. The total slum population is 29.57% >of the total city population and the number of >household is 38.46% of the total city households. > >Some of the major observations are: > >The conditions of the slums are very poor in terms of >access to services, the living condition, livelihood, >etc. > >It was shocking that even in this era the mindset of >the people has not changed at all. On a visit to one >of the slums where the Harijans stay, it was found >that the society still very strongly believes in the >caste system which is the cause of the hurdles to any >development of the Harijans. Most of the Harijans work >as sweepers in the Municipality as there are very few >job opportunities for them. From the group discussion >conducted with some of residents it became obvious >that since they are Harijans, their opportunity for >job is very much restricted as they are not acceptable >in the society in many places like hotels, eateries, >service sectors, etc. So they are left with low >profile job like sweeping, garbage collection, >rickshaw pulling, etc. > >They are very vulnerable class, in terms of social >security also. One of the residents commented, “I was >a sweeper in the Municipality but now I have retired. >The Municipality doesn’t provide the pension >regularly. They provide only after three to four >months. It is very difficult to run the family at such >circumstances”. > >As many other slums of India, the slums of Berhampur >are in no different condition. They are faced with >lack of basic services. > >1. The main concern in all the slums is sanitation. >Almost all the slums do not have toilet facilities. >Open defecation is prevalent. They have to go to >nearby open ground to answer their nature’s call. It >was shocking to know that some of the grounds are >about one to two kilometers away from the slums. This >is a big issue mainly for the women due to security >reasons. The women face a lot of harassment as well. >One of the women told that due to insecurity at night >they have to stop themselves and sometimes end up >defecating in the open drains. > >2. Water supply is very poor in terms of access and >also quantity. The slum dwellers depend on the public >stand posts. Very few slums have the alternative of >tube wells; the quality of the tube well water is bad. >On an average the supply is two hours daily but in >some slums it comes only for one hour on every >alternate day. Due to this lack of water fights among >the slum dwellers occur very frequently. > >3. Not a single slum has got health facility. They >have to depend on the local medical college. > >4. In terms of transportation, it is very poor in some >of the slums. In one of the slums, people have to walk >down a distance of four kilometers to get the bus, >(public transport system). > >5. Very few slums have schools. Most of them up to >fifth standard and a few which up to seventh standard. >All the schools have a maximum of two rooms where all >the classes are conducted batch wise. The children of >different standards are accommodated at different >corners. > >6. Solid waste management is very poor throughout the >city. All the wastes lie on the roadside. > >In some of the slums about 5-10% of the houses are in >very good condition. When asked about such disparity, >it was found that those in good conditions are the >ones who have got loan due to the Orissa cyclone. > >It is the common mindset that the dwellers will not be >able to pay for the services if they are charged. This >is not true as it was found that if there will be >improvement in services, most of the slum dwellers, >except a few are willing to pay. > >Another very shocking thing observed was that when I >went for a Focused Group Discussion for the women, the >men were trying to show their dominance. One of the >men told, “The women don’t know anything. If you have >to ask, ask us.” When I told them that I need to know >the specific need and problems faced by the women the >reply I got was “We know what problem they face. We >will tell you.” The women were not given the right >even to express their feelings. > >Gender bias is mostly prevalent amongst slum dwellers >and this can pose problems for holistic development of >the slum especially in regards to the welfare and >needs of women. > >Regards >Eskoni > > > > ____________________________________________________________________________________ >Be a better friend, newshound, and >know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ > >_______________________________________________ >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 From cugambetta at yahoo.com Mon Mar 17 12:14:18 2008 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 23:44:18 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: PANEL SEARCH: Mobility & Urban Spaces in Asia Message-ID: <379241.60203.qm@web56810.mail.re3.yahoo.com> ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Wendy Plotkin To: H-URBAN at H-NET.MSU.EDU Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2008 4:32:42 PM Subject: PANEL SEARCH: Mobility & Urban Spaces in Asia From: Frank Conlon Cross-posted from H-ASIA (March 14, 2008) Looking for paper presenter on mobility and urban space ************************************************************************ Ed. note: Here is a fascinating opening for recent work on "automobility"--personally I hope we can locate someone who has done something on the post-Maruti Indian case, but Vietnam or Korea are also noted--I am forwarding this also to H-Net's urban history list H-Urban to cast the net a bit wider. Regardless of the subject I don't recommend you plan on driving to San Francisco; the parking is a nightmare! FFC - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Notar, Beth E." Looking for paper presenter on mobility and urban space We are looking for a paper presenter for a conference panel <> (please see the full panel description below) The conference will be the American Anthropological Association meetings to be held in San Franciso, November 19 -23, 2008. We already have panel participants who conduct research in China and Japan and are interested in finding an anthropologist, geographer or sociologist who does research in another part of Asia, particularly India, Korea or Vietnam. If you are interested, please contact Joshua Roth at jroth at mtholyoke.edu before March 21st. Panel Description: Mobility Mentalities: Moving through Urban Spaces in Asia Panel Organizer: Joshua H. Roth, Mount Holyoke College Throughout the past century, the mass production and consumption of automobiles has transformed daily life for most people throughout the world, and reshaped not only geographical landscapes, but also the mindscapes, or mentalities, of those who could newly afford to own or ride in automobiles and those who could not. In many contexts, the acquisition of one's own car represented full participation in modern life, among other things characterized by the thrill of speed, broader encounters, greater individual freedom and status mobility. However, mass automobility has been accompanied by the human tragedy of traffic accidents, making automobility at best an ambivalent form of modernity. Moreover, automobility, while representing individual freedom, has quickly become the object of quintessentially modern forms of risk analysis and management and forms of neoliberal governance, such as mandatory insurance systems, licensing requirements, and traffic law and law enforcement. More informally, but connected to the institutionalized focus on safety, driving manners have evolved in certain societies to control interactions among strangers in the public spaces of the road. While mass automobility began in the U.S. and parts of Europe in the first half of the 20th century, and in Japan in the 1960s, it has only gotten underway in China, India, and other countries in the last ten to fifteen years. To what extent has the meaning of automobility in these various countries differed from each other? Has it symbolized modernity and status equally in each context? To what extent has automobility followed a single developmental pattern? Has the later arrival of automobility in certain countries allowed it to follow this developmental patter in condensed format or has it allow it to develop differently? The collection of papers on this panel allows insight into these kinds of comparative questions. Moreover, it explores local cultural, social, and institutional configurations, with special attention to the complex of driving emotions, desires, manners, and mental mappings of danger. Thank you! Joshua H. Roth Associate Professor Department of Anthropology and Sociology Mount Holyoke College South Hadley, MA 01040 jroth at mtholyoke.edu Beth E. Notar Associate Professor Anthropology Department Trinity College Hartford, CT 06106 beth.notar at trincoll.edu ********************************************************************** 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 ehijam at yahoo.com Tue Mar 18 09:34:51 2008 From: ehijam at yahoo.com (eskoni hijam) Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:04:51 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Condition of slums in Berhampur, Orissa In-Reply-To: <47DE227B.5030300@altlawforum.org> Message-ID: <192948.55395.qm@web31513.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hi Geeetanjan, Thanks for the aditional notes. Hi Clifton, Yes it is true that the willingness to pay discourse cannot be the basis for determining whether a particular citizen is entitled to basic civic amenities. It is disheartenining that not all the citizens are getting their basic services. For those who don’t have the capability to pay the government has different mechanism in the form of schemes, grants, etc. government are trying but still it is not reaching the right place. May be there is some missing link which need to be addressed. Some slum dwellers are in the notion that they should get all the services for free which is not true always. We need to put some value to the services provided, otherwise it is taken for granted and hence wasted. For those who are poor but can pay, may be the government can provide in a subsidized manner, they can be charged nominally. For those who don’t have the capacity to pay it is fine that they are getting for free. There are also cases where the rich are enjoying in the name of poor. Hence there is a need of thorough field survey. Government is providing the services in the slums in form of public stand posts for water supply, schools, etc. though not in a satisfactory level. It is also true that to maintain a service, government requires some mechanism of cost recovery. But one more point is that anyway they are spending on health and other things if the service is not good. During the field visit that I took I found that some of the slums are resided by middle class families. Why should the government not charge when they have the capacity to pay. When asked to the municipality the reason is they will not be willing to pay. But it was found that actually they are, if service improves, and yes they have the capacity to pay also. Government is not able to perform its duty because of bad financial condition. To improve the financial condition one needs to bring some change, to bring a recovery mechanism. Lack of access to credits business or house leads to Inability to afford adequate housing, which in turn leads to tenure insecurity, evictions, loss of small savings invested in housing. Due to this there is unhygienic living conditions, low quality public services which leads to poor health and education and this inturn again lead to lack of employment, inability to have a regular job, lack of regular income and social security, poor nutrition. And again this leads to lack of access to credits business or house. It is a cycle, which needs to break. Hence there is a need of reforms. Change is required from both side, government as well as the citizens. Regards Eskoni --- clifton wrote: > Hi, > > The situation that you have described in the slums > of Berhampur could > very easily have been for slums in Karnataka, and > arguably in most large > cities across India. Your observation of the caste > composition of slum > dwellers and that most are dalit again would be seen > in most other slums > as well. Atleast here in Karnataka we see most of > the slum dwellers > being dalit, dalit christian, muslim and some OBCs. > > I wanted to comment on one observation of yours: > > It is the common mindset that the dwellers will > not be able to pay for the services if they are > charged. This is not true as it was found that if > there will be improvement in services, most of the > slum dwellers, except a few are willing to pay. > > > > > I am not sure about the manner in which this is > framed. While on the one > hand there is a lament of the poor employment > opportunities and on the > other hand this claim that they are "able to and > willing to pay" for > better services. For instance, in Bangalore, the > contract street > sweepers, who are predominantly dalit women, earn > about Rs. 1900/- month > (a couple of years back they were earning anywhere > between Rs. 1000/- to > Rs. 1500/-). Several of them also have their > husbands doing the same > work and earning the same salary. Now with this > cumulative income it is > difficult to imagine how these people would pay for > better services. > > Still, the question, i feel is not about their > willingness to pay but > should be around their capacity to pay and moreover > the necessity for > them to pay. The willingess to pay discourse > invented and distributed by > the World Bank cannot be the basis for determining > whether a particular > citizen is entitled to basic civic amenities. This > commodification > cannot be at the cost of poor people being denied > any basic access > whatsoever. The World Bank, and seceral NGOs, all > push this argument > that there is a willingness to pay and yet the > governments are unwilling > to charge. > > One needs to break out of this frame of analysis > which is premised on > commodification and the reduction of citizens to the > class of consumers. > > Clifton > ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Tue Mar 18 12:06:07 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:36:07 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] scrap the sez act meet in AP In-Reply-To: <192948.55395.qm@web31513.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <175008.25536.qm@web23010.mail.ird.yahoo.com> This is a brief report on a seminar in Hyderabad on the SEZ Act. It was organized by the AP Human Rights Forum on March 11. Aseem srivastava of Citizens Research Initiative, Delhi and Pravin Sabnis of Save Goa Abhiyan were the invited speakers. Several local activists from different districts in AP presented field reports. Aseem's presentation was an overview and Pravin's a powerpoint presentation on the mobilizational strategies that worked in Goa. Aseem's talk drew on examples from places like Singur, Posco and Nandigram, Mundra. Pravin's talk was mainly on the lessons of Goa campaign. I wont go into the details but a few things they said are worth following up on. 1) Aseem said the Constitution of India does not include or mandate economic growth. Actually Article 38 of the constitution mandates that the state should see to it that the fruits of economic development do not get concentrated in a few hands. There may be other provisions in the constitution related to this. 2) He said the SEZ act says that each SEZ is required to generate a net positive export revenue and pointed out that this is a matter of how revenue is calculated. For instance, during the period of development and if we include the infrastructure, then net exports could actually turn out to be negative. He also pointed out that a majority of the ... the companies coming up are IT firms and have a large real estate component. On the whole the fluid flow of funds in this unregulated way can create conditions for a potential currency meltdown. 3) Land acquisition is messy because land records are all in a mess. 4) Killings on the stock market: One key consequence for a company being allocated an SEZ seems to be that the company's stock market value goes up instantly. That is, the company makes a killing on land rent/speculation and stock market speculation. I think Aseem is developing a database on this, but other people can do their own tracking or chip in to help Aseem. 5) SEZs it is claimed will develop infrastructure. But what this rhetoric conceals is that SEZs come up in areas that are already infrastructure/resource rich. And then develop captive infrastructure. In other words it is basically a transfer of infrastructure to the deve 6) Private governance: There is no clarity on political representation in SEZs. They can be huge --the total area in India of the nearly 1000 proposed for SEZs is about the size o Delhi city. But the size of individual SEZ and its shadow area can vary significantly. They are not accountable to local governments. Each SEZ is like an independent territory under the control of the development commissioner. This is a sort of privatization of government and hasserious consequences. 7) Passage of the bill. The bill was introduced on 9th May 2005 and passed on 11th May by voice vote. It was on among 45 items for debate on 10th May. There were only 7 members in the house at the time of passage of the bill. (This didnt sound right -- even to guillotine a bill you need a quorum in the house. But regardless there is no doubt that the bill like many others was the handiwork of a few individuals and was guillotined.) 8) Other than this Aseem talked about food security, environmental safety and labor rights. Pravin Sabnis: 1) The campaign did not rely on mass mobilization for its strength but on tight networking. 2) Campaign was led by the middle class. 3) Campaign was supported by many political parties but the campaign does not permit except those at the village level to become members of local committees. 4) Goa's small size was both an advantage and disadvantage. Tighter networking quick access etc. but also greater surveillance. 5) The church played an active role by supporting the campaign.By and large the strategy was to include religious leaders with the only condition that they should not be sectarian. 6) The campaign recruited web savy youngsters who did most of the internet research. 7) Among other things, the campaign rhetoric revolved around the metaphor of family. The land is the mother. The government is the father. Our father is a drunkard who is taking away the gold from the mother and giving it to anoter woman -- he is giving our mother away to promoters and so let us oppose it. We cannot let him do this. We have to teach him a lesson! 8) The campaign had room for an anti non local sentiment, but the abhiyan as a matter of principle excluded people who pushed the local-non local sentiment by promoting for goa- anti goa as the contradiction. 9)The media was largely supportive of the anti sez campaign but it completely blacks out anti mining campaigns which are part of the same campaign. Both Aseem and Pravin thought in the run up to the elections next year the campaign should be for repealing the SEZ Act. It was good to see the energy. but i came away with a lot of reservations/questions. That the slightest stirring is crushed and fragmented very quickly and the process of seziation of andhra pradesh is progressing rapidly became clear in the presentations from the AP activists later in the day.More about that later. ---------------- A place does not merely exist...it has to be invented in one's imagination .. ---------------- A place does not merely exist...it has to be invented in one's imagination . ___________________________________________________________ Rise to the challenge for Sport Relief with Yahoo! For Good http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/ From ravighadge at gmail.com Tue Mar 18 23:53:40 2008 From: ravighadge at gmail.com (Ravi) Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:23:40 -0500 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Need information on street vendors in Mumbai Message-ID: <5780e5350803181123t220efcd6q3f3d944176d4971@mail.gmail.com> Hello everyone, Gaurav, Cheryl, and Prem had a very interesting discussion going on haats, natural markets, and street vendors. I am some on who is researching on urban politics in Mumbai and would be very interested to know more about street vendors in Mumbai and in the international context. I (and I am sure a lot of others) will really appreciate if those who know more about books, articles, films or anything on this subject can post the information on the listserv. Thank you, Ravi On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 4:42 AM, Prem Chandavarkar wrote: > Gita Dewan Verma's article "Hawking Hawkers" is available at > > http://plan.architexturez.org/site/mpisg/c/020212/index_html > > > > The National Policy on Urban Street Vendors is available at: > > http://nceus.gov.in/Street%20Vendors%20policy.pdf > > > > One organisation seeking to organise street vendors: > > http://www.nasvinet.org/about.htm > > > > Cheryl, > > If you have recommendations for any other useful links on this subject, I > am sure that many of us on the urban study group would be interested, and it > would be great if you could post this info. > > > > Thanks, > > Prem > > _______________________________________________ > 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/20080318/fcdb5c78/attachment.html From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Wed Mar 19 01:28:57 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:58:57 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Need information on street vendors in Mumbai In-Reply-To: <5780e5350803181123t220efcd6q3f3d944176d4971@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <11433.53320.qm@web23005.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Ravi, one sociologist i can recommend without hesitation is Asef Bayat. You should be able to find his articles and book chapters from google scholar. look out specifically for his work on the urban poor in Iran. In contrast to the Latin American and central american work which tends to be focused on focused on the homes of the urban poor, Bayat's work focuses on street life. My hunch is that his understanding of what he calls the 'urban subaltern' strategies -- he calls it the 'quiet encroachment of the ordinary' can open up several possibilities for working on street vendors in Mumbai. best anant --- Ravi wrote: > Hello everyone, > > Gaurav, Cheryl, and Prem had a very interesting > discussion going on haats, > natural markets, and street vendors. I am some on > who is researching on > urban politics in Mumbai and would be very > interested to know more about > street vendors in Mumbai and in the international > context. I (and I am sure > a lot of others) will really appreciate if those who > know more about books, > articles, films or anything on this subject can post > the information on the > listserv. > > Thank you, > > Ravi > > On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 4:42 AM, Prem Chandavarkar > > wrote: > > > Gita Dewan Verma's article "Hawking Hawkers" is > available at > > > > > http://plan.architexturez.org/site/mpisg/c/020212/index_html > > > > > > > > The National Policy on Urban Street Vendors is > available at: > > > > http://nceus.gov.in/Street%20Vendors%20policy.pdf > > > > > > > > One organisation seeking to organise street > vendors: > > > > http://www.nasvinet.org/about.htm > > > > > > > > > Cheryl, > > > > If you have recommendations for any other useful > links on this subject, I > > am sure that many of us on the urban study group > would be interested, and it > > would be great if you could post this info. > > > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > Prem > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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 > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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 . ___________________________________________________________ Rise to the challenge for Sport Relief with Yahoo! For Good http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/ From outtes at uol.com.br Wed Mar 19 12:43:18 2008 From: outtes at uol.com.br (outtes) Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 04:13:18 -0300 Subject: [Urbanstudy] =?iso-8859-1?q?CFP=3A_Latin_America_and_Internationa?= =?iso-8859-1?q?l_Institutions_and/or_Cities=2C_LASA_Congress=2C_Ri?= =?iso-8859-1?q?o_de_Janeiro=2C_June_11-4=2C_2009?= Message-ID: Dear Colleagues, I would like to organize a panel for the next LASA-Latin American Studies Association Congress to take place in Rio de Janeiro in June 11-14, 2009. My own work would be on the Latin American participation in international urban institutions such as the International Federation for Housing and Planning and/or the IULA-International Union of Local Authorities (now GCLG-Global Cities and Local Governments after IULA merged with other institutions to become GCLG). In case I do not find enough candidates for a panel of this kind I will propose a more conventional one on Latin American Cities. In short, the panel/s can be on Latin America and International Institutions and/or Latin American Cities The deadline for proposals is March 28 (we only have nine days) so please send a title and/or idea to me as soon as possible in case you are interested so that we put abstracts together and submitt the proposal/s. Thank you for your time and consideration, Joel Outtes Rowan University -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-6993 Size: 1770 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080319/8af0b01e/attachment.bin From sannihitahyd at yahoo.com Thu Mar 20 09:33:56 2008 From: sannihitahyd at yahoo.com (sannihita) Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:03:56 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] scrap the sez act meet in AP In-Reply-To: <175008.25536.qm@web23010.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <356418.52269.qm@web90501.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hi Anant This is Usha from Sannihita. Hope you remember me. I have read the report, and thanks for the report, because i could not attend the meet, though Jeevan invited me to participate. I was not n town. 3 more SEZs are going to be approved. one for AP IIC, and the other two for private companies. the AP IIC (Andhra Pradesh Industrial infrastructure Corporation) which has a very corrupt back ground, and misuse of funds is been alloted the areas of 2,500 acres. Out of this 500 acres are for Lord Swarajpal, of Kaparo group, and the rest for MNCs. The second of the 3 is at Anantapur Dist, village Kurakalapatnam, by Limitless properties company in 1000 acres . The Third is of Gazwel Mandal Pragnapur village, by Vivo Bayoteck" in 10.93 Hectars. these proposals will be examined (mostely ready madely accepted) on 20th of this month. Means today. The news about resistence in the SEZs as far as my knowledge is concerned is very less. People like me alos have not having much idea about what happening with the people. There is no systematic study or approach to understand, or assess the views of the people who are affected in these areas. I am dying to do one quick visit to the alloted areas. Looking for a chance to explore the un touched issues, and underlying views of the people in general and women and children in particular. There is a need to start with a team visiting to these places. I feel all the land that is been grabbed in the name of the SEZs are really not an industry but mostly likely will become a big real estate Danda, and leaving the farmers men and women into the labour in the construction area. Becoming a labour in your own land is what the issue primarily disturbs me. Recently visited Shamshabad Airport, and happend to talk to some local people of Mamidipally. I spoke very casualy to a person who s just sitting in a chai kottu, when i asked him, what does he think about the much talked, developed Airport. He said, "emavtundi, ma bhoomullo memu pani kudurchukunnam. okappudu pedda rytula daggara pani chesi ma boomilo antho intho pandichukunnam. ippudu peddolla daggara, kotta booswamula daggara, oodugam chese kadikocche." ( means we have become land laborers in our own farms, previously at least we were protecting our land and use to have some thing of our own by working for the local land lords. But now we are forced to accept the neo landlardism and work under ruthless policies, and in human systems. If u go to the airport, near to the Air port on SEZ. There is a compound wall and flags hanging to the poles of some company, reminds of the history where we had 'nagara rajyams' claiming of the power over the land. Adding to that the culture of the Gated communities which reminds us of the mandi marbalam ( personnel of the kings). Most of these lands are fertile. The status of women's work, livelihood of the people, education of the children, and the survival i think should have already has affected. Now its reaching the danger level. The internal news is that there is going to be a shortage of food grains and its going to be a worst state. The so called Ngo run livelihood programmes can no where meet the needs of the aam janata. In AP there is less talk about JNNURM. No body knows, and the website of the ap gov, does not cover, or agive information on these issues. There is a controversy over allotment of Indiramma padhakam. Andhra jyothi have gave clear data to whom the houses were allotted. All these are MLAs, and contractors. So thus there is a need to study the Indiramma pathakam, fact finding, information collection etc., Then the JNNURM - information, and awareness to the public and a discussion session, and study the status of SEZ - people affected, and promises made. Finally i am willing to work with some one who wants to study these areas, or i can initiate my slef if there is any support for the study cost. Regards Usha Rani Secreatry Sannihita --------------------------------- Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-67964 Size: 5440 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080319/c2a99473/attachment.bin From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Thu Mar 20 11:01:10 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:31:10 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] slum discussion In-Reply-To: <34e2292d0803082248j36d3e4d5r7c5c02f757f95dc0@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <434230.38635.qm@web23005.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Just to take this note from Gauri Bharath a little further -- two different directions are worth pursuing. 1) the discursive terrain 2) the state related discussion I am not putting in any citations because this is a rough and ready account. But I will be happy to follow it up if anyone is interested. Discursively, the idea of the 'slum' in India came through the colonial administration. The earliest references of slums in India are to be found in the context of the city/town improvement trusts/boards. The first of these not surprisingly were in the two big port cities -- Calcutta and Bombay. This introduction of slums into colonial port cities happened in the context of both a fear of plague/cholera epidemics and also the need for rationalizing the city. The moral dimension here was a complicated one -- slums were places of vice - but they also reflected badly on how the administrators were discharging their own moral obligation. However, in most instances the residents opposed slum eradication efforts. (Often these places included 'unplanned', 'congested' housing lots which were unintelligible to the planner's (of transportation,roads,sanitation etc.) gaze. In the face of this resistance the colonial administration began to recruit native elites to persuade the Hindoos and Moslems respectively to give up their 'bad' living arrangements. Archives of this kind of stuff are not easy to come by because it will be mostly in the form of city and town improvement trust documents, annual reports etc. as well as diaries and reports of engineers and medical doctors. This process of spotting and removing slums which began in calcutta and bombay gradually migrated to native ruled cities by the first and second decades of the 20th century and got reshaped by both people like patrick geddes and mokshagundam visweswarayya. although neither of these people have written much directly on slums, initiatives that were launched under their guidance -- City Improvement Board in Hyderabad for instance -- record slums removal efforts at that time. during the next two decades, there was a fair amount of physical anthropology kind of work on whether or not living in slums stunts bodily growth, reports of census officers confused by the impossibility of delimiting a family or a household in the enormous diversity of dwellings has developed in India. But it was only in 1939 -- during the Bombay development plan writing that the first serious official pronouncements on slums in India become visible. in that document, the planners effectively say that slums are related to industry. so if we shift industry out of the city, slums will automatically move out with them and then they will be the responsibility of the industry itself. the state does not have to worry about it so much. the 1956 slum act retains the early definition of slums and the moral fervor, developmental vision and so on but two issues are important to note here. this was the time when there was a tremendous mobility of people into state capitals-- lingusitic reorganization of states being only one of the contributory factors. in many states the records of rights were being revamped and resurveyes were being done as a result of all of which there were many violent conflicts in cities over landed property. some of these conflicts were large enough to shape the political careers young local leaders. the act was mainly an attempt to deal with those conflicts through the notification procedures. very very limited housing programs were undertaken in some cities and these were quite diverse -- from self help to hire purchase. beginning late 50s, there has been an important shift in the way slums are dealt with in India. now that there are specific procedures and designated authoritis to deal with them -- officials of housing, district revenue and municipal authorities the slum kept getting reproduced in a myriad ways simply through governmental procedures. in the years to follow two important dimensions were added to this: 1) the envisioning of the urban community development program as a corollary to the rural community development program under the auspices of the community development ministry 2) the tying of these programs to international developmental aid. in some ways what happened was a short circuit between local officials and international discourse on urban poverty from the UN etc. both of these were of course subject to a lot of contingent factors which had to do with political developments at different scales. As a consequence, at this point any attempt to write a n intelligible timeline of governmental attitude towards slums is doomed to fail. each city and some times even each municipal ward can present a bewildering mass of facts. this is not to deny the fact that turner's influence did not matter -- but what needs to be done is to map out how why turner mattered at a certain point of time and exactly through what administrative channels did his ideas get transformed and materialized in different cities. I have not seen much work on this really, except a recent article which talks about how there is a wide gap between international policy discourse and its implementation in thailand. [the entry of British ODA in the 80s, the role of DFID and the mid 90s Indian Population project of the world bank and of course the emergence of a largish urban NGO sector in the 80s and 90s, the plotting and squatting stuff that began after the urban development authorities were enacted in the mid 70s -- all this is a differennt story altogether but as confusing and exciting as the rest:)] anant --- gauri bharat wrote: > Dear list members, > My first posting to this forum, I'd like to add my > two bits to this > discussion on the slum. > > The 'moral' mention in the 1956 definition was > probably a result of the > nature of early scholarship/ way of thinking on the > slums. Slums have been > written about since the late 19 century (Jacob Riis, > 1896) and in the US, > were a product of a middle class outraged at the > depravity they saw around > them. The forays into the slum were tinted by a > (often Christian) moral > reform agenda, and the writings of the time > reflected this. This attitude > carried on for the next few decades, and as late as > the 1960s, scholars like > Oscar Lewis spoke of the slums as having a 'culture > of poverty'. Basically, > the slums were considered a pathologically deficient > body, distinctly > different and depraved in comparison to the main > stream city. > > In the early 1970s, the works of people like John > Turner (mentioned in an > earlier reply) began to see the slums in more > positive light, in terms of > its potential for housing the poor. And this was > followed in the late 1970s > and 1980s by the the works of people like Janice > Perlman who debunked the > 'myth of marginality' among the urban poor, and > Manuel Castells and the > political economy of slum housing etc. > > These shifts in ways of thinking corresponded with > shifts in policy - like > the govt. agenda for instance. From subsidised > housing provision in the > 1960s, the govt position shifted to site and > services schemes and in situ > upgrading in the 1980s, and further to the whole > sector reform in recent > times. > > My point, in all this, is to suggest the the ways of > seeing/ understanding > the slum, and subsequently, of policy has undergone > a change over the > decades. What I've written above is sketchy, but > indicative of some of the > shifts that have taken place. I also hope this makes > clear that the absence > of the 'moral' aspect in later years is due to a > more fundamental shift in > the perception of slums. > > Roy and AlSayyad's Urban Informality (2004) offers a > detailed discussion on > the historiography of scholarship on slums, and > cases and theoretical > positions from different parts of the world today. > > Regards, > Gauri Bharat > > > > > > > > > > > Dipu: > > > > Was this shift at all precipitated by the > Emergency? I am wondering what > > role the Emergency played in this shift. > Unfortunately, I cannot > > substantiate this further, it's more of an open > question. > > > > Curt > > > > ----- Original Message ---- > > From: "sharan at sarai.net" > > To: lalit batra > > Cc: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > Sent: Friday, March 7, 2008 11:40:51 PM > > Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] Urbanstudygroup Digest, > Vol 49, Issue 2 > > > > Dear Lalit, Zainab and List Members, > > Do notice the disappearance of the 'moral' aspect > in the latter > > definition. > > Here's my hypothesis: in the period of upto about > 1970s slum improvement > > was closely tied to the idea of moral reform of > the inhabitants of the > > slums; since then the focus has been mostly on the > physical infrastructure > > or (il)legality - either by way of land-use, as in > the case of squatters > > or > > in terms of 'illegitimate' access to such things > as water and electricity. > > This aspect - the (il)legality of built structures > - was not entirely > > absent in the earlier phase, but seems to have > been clearly subordinate to > > the moral question. > > > > I have been trying to understand the nature of > this transformation and its > > implication and would apppreciate any comments on > it. > > > > Cheers, > > Dipu > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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 . ___________________________________________________________ Rise to the challenge for Sport Relief with Yahoo! For Good http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/ From cheryl.deutsch at gmail.com Thu Mar 20 11:18:55 2008 From: cheryl.deutsch at gmail.com (Cheryl Deutsch) Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:18:55 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Street Vendors in Brazil Message-ID: <189301e00803192248n7532b107y7eb536d7cb1ebeb7@mail.gmail.com> Financial Times (London, England) February 1, 2005 Tuesday London Edition 1 *Brazil's* camelos want to come in from the heat: Making a living as a street vendor is tough not only for the seller but for the national economy, writes Jonathan Wheatley in Sao Paulo *BYLINE: *By JONATHAN WHEATLEY *SECTION: *THE AMERICAS; Pg. 10 *LENGTH: *794 words *DATELINE: *SAO PAULO It is a rainy summer's afternoon in the Bras neighbourhood of Sao Paulo, and Genivaldo Batista de Jesus shelters under the plastic cover of his stall selling handbags and shoulder bags he and his wife have sewn together from jeans fabric. They make 40 bags in a day going flat out, enough in a good month to net a profit of 1,200 real (Dollars 460, Euros 350, Pounds 250). "We're doing well at the moment," he says. "We're among friends and I wouldn't change things." It was not always so. Mr Batista arrived in Sao Paulo in 1999 from *Brazil's * arid north-east, where he worked on cocoa farms until witch's broom disease killed the industry there. With no friends and no job, he spent long periods sleeping in a bus station and selling pieces of cut pineapple in the street. Even now, his business is precarious. "We come under a lot of pressure," Mr Batista says. Shopkeepers often ask inspectors to move on stall holders, he says. Some put obstacles in front of their shops so camelos cannot occupy the space. Mr Batista is one of more than 8,000 street vendors or camelos in Sao Paulo. In spite of the *informal* nature of their jobs, many are organised into local unions, including SINDCISP in Sao Paulo. It estimates that camelos generate 8 per cent of *Brazil's* gross domestic product. But street vendors are merely the tip of an enormous iceberg. According to the World Bank, the entire *informal* economy accounts for 40 per cent of Brazilian GDP. The IBGE, the Brazilian government's statistics office, says 56 per cent of all Brazilians in work are employed outside the formal economy. The rights of a camelo are few. Miguel Soares Silva, who sells Bermuda shorts, worked in the finance department of a building company until he lost his job and became a vendor. "Most camelos can't get credit, they can't even open a bank account, because they can't prove their income," he says. "You have no credibility and there's a lot of discrimination." The leader of SINDCISP, Afonso Jos da Silva (better known as Afonso Camelo) says his members are routinely beaten, arrested and got rid of by police and shopkeepers. "Nobody is a camelo because they want to be," he says. "It's not a choice. It's a lack of choice." The *informal* economy has a surface appeal. Workers pay no taxes. Employers are spared the taxes and *social security* contributions that can bring the total cost of employing someone to nearly twice that person's salary. The burden on Brazilian business of seemingly endless bureaucracy is swept aside. But there are disadvantages. Camelos, says Mr da Silva, live a hand-to-mouth existence with little stability, often buying their merchandise on credit and relying on sales to meet payments. In an effort to regulate the sector in the late 1980s, the Sao Paulo city government started issuing permits to give camelos the right to use an allocated section of pavement. But no new permits have been issued for 12 years and 90 per cent of camelos have no guarantee they will be able to work. Then there is the violence. Camelos, shopkeepers and police are often in conflict. The first recorded incident was in Sao Paulo in 1889, a year after the abolition of slavery swelled camelo numbers. Last October, six people were injured in a similar disturbance. For the wider economy, the effects of the sector are hard to overstate. Emerson Kapaz, president of the Instituto Etco, which lobbies for fair competition in business, says the tax-free, low-cost *informal* economy takes market share from the formal economy and revenue from the government, undermining the creation and distribution of wealth. Workers have no employment benefits, no unemployment benefits and no pensions. Mr Kapaz estimates the cost to the government in lost taxes at Dollars 50bn a year. Informality is often the first step to illegality. Says Mr Kapaz: "Workers accept being unregistered in exchange for having a job. Employers have to keep most of their sales out of their accounts to be able to pay them. From there they enter the underworld. Inspectors have to be bribed and anything goes." *Informal* workers labour alongside those in the formal economy. The soft drinks industry is among the most notorious examples: even though its workers turn up every day to steady factory jobs, an estimated 80 per cent of them are unregistered. Mr da Silva wants the Sao Paulo city government to set up a secretariat for the *informal* economy as a first step towards a constructive dialogue. In December, the city of Joao Pessoa in north-eastern *Brazil* invited him to help set up a camelos' union there, so it will have somebody with whom to negotiate. The dream of all camelos, he says, is to join the formal economy. But for the foreseeable future, they are out in the sun and rain. www.ft.com/globalvillage On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 11:01 AM, wrote: > Send Urbanstudygroup mailing list submissions to > urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > urbanstudygroup-request at sarai.net > > You can reach the person managing the list at > urbanstudygroup-owner at sarai.net > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Urbanstudygroup digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Need information on street vendors in Mumbai (Ravi) > 2. Re: Need information on street vendors in Mumbai (anant m) > 3. CFP: Latin America and International Institutions and/or > Cities, LASA Congress, Rio de Janeiro, June 11-4, 2009 (outtes) > 4. Re: scrap the sez act meet in AP (sannihita) > 5. Re: slum discussion (anant m) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:23:40 -0500 > From: Ravi > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Need information on street vendors in Mumbai > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > Message-ID: > <5780e5350803181123t220efcd6q3f3d944176d4971 at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Hello everyone, > > Gaurav, Cheryl, and Prem had a very interesting discussion going on haats, > natural markets, and street vendors. I am some on who is researching on > urban politics in Mumbai and would be very interested to know more about > street vendors in Mumbai and in the international context. I (and I am > sure > a lot of others) will really appreciate if those who know more about > books, > articles, films or anything on this subject can post the information on > the > listserv. > > Thank you, > > Ravi > > On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 4:42 AM, Prem Chandavarkar > wrote: > > > Gita Dewan Verma's article "Hawking Hawkers" is available at > > > > http://plan.architexturez.org/site/mpisg/c/020212/index_html > > > > > > > > The National Policy on Urban Street Vendors is available at: > > > > http://nceus.gov.in/Street%20Vendors%20policy.pdf > > > > > > > > One organisation seeking to organise street vendors: > > > > http://www.nasvinet.org/about.htm > > > > > > > > Cheryl, > > > > If you have recommendations for any other useful links on this subject, > I > > am sure that many of us on the urban study group would be interested, > and it > > would be great if you could post this info. > > > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > Prem > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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/20080318/fcdb5c78/attachment-0001.html > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:58:57 +0000 (GMT) > From: anant m > Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] Need information on street vendors in Mumbai > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > Message-ID: <11433.53320.qm at web23005.mail.ird.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Ravi, > one sociologist i can recommend without hesitation is > Asef Bayat. You should be able to find his articles > and book chapters from google scholar. look out > specifically for his work on the urban poor in Iran. > In contrast to the Latin American and central > american work which tends to be focused on focused on > the homes of the urban poor, Bayat's work focuses on > street life. My hunch is that his understanding of > what he calls the 'urban subaltern' strategies -- he > calls it the 'quiet encroachment of the ordinary' can > open up several possibilities for working on street > vendors in Mumbai. > best > anant > > > --- Ravi wrote: > > > Hello everyone, > > > > Gaurav, Cheryl, and Prem had a very interesting > > discussion going on haats, > > natural markets, and street vendors. I am some on > > who is researching on > > urban politics in Mumbai and would be very > > interested to know more about > > street vendors in Mumbai and in the international > > context. I (and I am sure > > a lot of others) will really appreciate if those who > > know more about books, > > articles, films or anything on this subject can post > > the information on the > > listserv. > > > > Thank you, > > > > Ravi > > > > On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 4:42 AM, Prem Chandavarkar > > > > wrote: > > > > > Gita Dewan Verma's article "Hawking Hawkers" is > > available at > > > > > > > > > http://plan.architexturez.org/site/mpisg/c/020212/index_html > > > > > > > > > > > > The National Policy on Urban Street Vendors is > > available at: > > > > > > http://nceus.gov.in/Street%20Vendors%20policy.pdf > > > > > > > > > > > > One organisation seeking to organise street > > vendors: > > > > > > http://www.nasvinet.org/about.htm > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Cheryl, > > > > > > If you have recommendations for any other useful > > links on this subject, I > > > am sure that many of us on the urban study group > > would be interested, and it > > > would be great if you could post this info. > > > > > > > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > > > Prem > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > 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 > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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…. > > > ___________________________________________________________ > Rise to the challenge for Sport Relief with Yahoo! For Good > > http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/ > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 04:13:18 -0300 > From: "outtes" > Subject: [Urbanstudy] CFP: Latin America and International > Institutions and/or Cities, LASA Congress, Rio de Janeiro, June > 11-4, > 2009 > To: "outtes" > Message-ID: > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Dear Colleagues, > > I would like to organize a panel for the next LASA-Latin American Studies > Association Congress to take place in Rio de Janeiro in June 11-14, 2009. My > own work would be on the Latin American participation in international urban > institutions such as the International Federation for Housing and Planning > and/or the IULA-International Union of Local Authorities (now GCLG-Global > Cities and Local Governments after IULA merged with other institutions to > become GCLG). In case I do not find enough candidates for a panel of this > kind I will propose a more conventional one on Latin American Cities. > > In short, the panel/s can be on > > Latin America and International Institutions and/or > > Latin American Cities > > The deadline for proposals is March 28 (we only have nine days) so please > send a title and/or idea to me as soon as possible in case you are > interested so that we put abstracts together and submitt the proposal/s. > > Thank you for your time and consideration, > > Joel Outtes > Rowan University > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: not available > Type: application/defanged-6993 > Size: 1770 bytes > Desc: not available > Url : > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080319/8af0b01e/attachment-0001.bin > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:03:56 -0700 (PDT) > From: sannihita > Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] scrap the sez act meet in AP > To: anant m > Cc: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > Message-ID: <356418.52269.qm at web90501.mail.mud.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Hi > Anant > This is Usha from Sannihita. Hope you remember me. I have read the > report, and thanks for the report, because i could not attend the meet, > though Jeevan invited me to participate. I was not n town. 3 more SEZs are > going to be approved. one for AP IIC, and the other two for private > companies. the AP IIC (Andhra Pradesh Industrial infrastructure Corporation) > which has a very corrupt back ground, and misuse of funds is been alloted > the areas of 2,500 acres. Out of this 500 acres are for Lord Swarajpal, of > Kaparo group, and the rest for MNCs. The second of the 3 is at Anantapur > Dist, village Kurakalapatnam, by Limitless properties company in 1000 acres > . The Third is of Gazwel Mandal Pragnapur village, by Vivo Bayoteck" in > 10.93 Hectars. these proposals will be examined (mostely ready madely > accepted) on 20th of this month. Means today. > > The news about resistence in the SEZs as far as my knowledge is concerned > is very less. People like me alos have not having much idea about what > happening with the people. There is no systematic study or approach to > understand, or assess the views of the people who are affected in these > areas. > I am dying to do one quick visit to the alloted areas. Looking for a > chance to explore the un touched issues, and underlying views of the people > in general and women and children in particular. > > There is a need to start with a team visiting to these places. I feel all > the land that is been grabbed in the name of the SEZs are really not an > industry but mostly likely will become a big real estate Danda, and leaving > the farmers men and women into the labour in the construction area. Becoming > a labour in your own land is what the issue primarily disturbs me. > Recently visited Shamshabad Airport, and happend to talk to some local > people of Mamidipally. I spoke very casualy to a person who s just sitting > in a chai kottu, when i asked him, what does he think about the much talked, > developed Airport. He said, "emavtundi, ma bhoomullo memu pani > kudurchukunnam. okappudu pedda rytula daggara pani chesi ma boomilo antho > intho pandichukunnam. ippudu peddolla daggara, kotta booswamula daggara, > oodugam chese kadikocche." ( means we have become land laborers in our own > farms, previously at least we were protecting our land and use to have some > thing of our own by working for the local land lords. But now we are forced > to accept the neo landlardism and work under ruthless policies, and in > human systems. > > If u go to the airport, near to the Air port on SEZ. There is a compound > wall and flags hanging to the poles of some company, reminds of the history > where we had 'nagara rajyams' claiming of the power over the land. Adding > to that the culture of the Gated communities which reminds us of the mandi > marbalam ( personnel of the kings). > > Most of these lands are fertile. The status of women's work, livelihood > of the people, education of the children, and the survival i think should > have already has affected. Now its reaching the danger level. > > The internal news is that there is going to be a shortage of food grains > and its going to be a worst state. > The so called Ngo run livelihood programmes can no where meet the needs > of the aam janata. > > In AP there is less talk about JNNURM. No body knows, and the website of > the ap gov, does not cover, or agive information on these issues. > There is a controversy over allotment of Indiramma padhakam. Andhra > jyothi have gave clear data to whom the houses were allotted. All these are > MLAs, and contractors. > > So thus there is a need to study the Indiramma pathakam, fact finding, > information collection etc., > > Then the JNNURM - information, and awareness to the public and a > discussion session, and study the status of SEZ - people affected, and > promises made. > > Finally i am willing to work with some one who wants to study these > areas, or i can initiate my slef if there is any support for the study cost. > > Regards > Usha Rani > Secreatry > Sannihita > > > --------------------------------- > Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage. > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: not available > Type: application/defanged-67964 > Size: 5440 bytes > Desc: not available > Url : > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080319/c2a99473/attachment-0001.bin > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 5 > Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:31:10 +0000 (GMT) > From: anant m > Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] slum discussion > To: gauri bharat , urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > Message-ID: <434230.38635.qm at web23005.mail.ird.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Just to take this note from Gauri Bharath a little > further -- > two different directions are worth pursuing. > 1) the discursive terrain > 2) the state related discussion > I am not putting in any citations because this is a > rough and ready account. But I will be happy to follow > it up if anyone is interested. > > Discursively, the idea of the 'slum' in India came > through the colonial administration. The earliest > references of slums in India are to be found in the > context of the city/town improvement trusts/boards. > The first of these not surprisingly were in the two > big port cities -- Calcutta and Bombay. This > introduction of slums into colonial port cities > happened in the context of both a fear of > plague/cholera epidemics and also the need for > rationalizing the city. The moral dimension here was a > complicated one -- slums were places of vice - but > they also reflected badly on how the administrators > were discharging their own moral obligation. However, > in most instances the residents opposed slum > eradication efforts. (Often these places included > 'unplanned', 'congested' housing lots which were > unintelligible to the planner's (of > transportation,roads,sanitation etc.) gaze. In the > face of this resistance the colonial administration > began to recruit native elites to persuade the Hindoos > and Moslems respectively to give up their 'bad' living > arrangements. Archives of this kind of stuff are not > easy to come by because it will be mostly in the form > of city and town improvement trust documents, annual > reports etc. as well as diaries and reports of > engineers and medical doctors. This process of > spotting and removing slums which began in calcutta > and bombay gradually migrated to native ruled cities > by the first and second decades of the 20th century > and got reshaped by both people like patrick geddes > and mokshagundam visweswarayya. although neither of > these people have written much directly on slums, > initiatives that were launched under their guidance -- > City Improvement Board in Hyderabad for instance -- > record slums removal efforts at that time. > during the next two decades, there was a fair amount > of physical anthropology kind of work on whether or > not living in slums stunts bodily growth, reports of > census officers confused by the impossibility of > delimiting a family or a household in the enormous > diversity of dwellings has developed in India. > > But it was only in 1939 -- during the Bombay > development plan writing that the first serious > official pronouncements on slums in India become > visible. in that document, the planners effectively > say that slums are related to industry. so if we shift > industry out of the city, slums will automatically > move out with them and then they will be the > responsibility of the industry itself. the state does > not have to worry about it so much. > > the 1956 slum act retains the early definition of > slums and the moral fervor, developmental vision and > so on but two issues are important to note here. this > was the time when there was a tremendous mobility of > people into state capitals-- lingusitic reorganization > of states being only one of the contributory factors. > in many states the records of rights were being > revamped and resurveyes were being done as a result of > all of which there were many violent conflicts in > cities over landed property. some of these conflicts > were large enough to shape the political careers young > local leaders. the act was mainly an attempt to deal > with those conflicts through the notification > procedures. very very limited housing programs were > undertaken in some cities and these were quite diverse > -- from self help to hire purchase. > beginning late 50s, there has been an important shift > in the way slums are dealt with in India. now that > there are specific procedures and designated > authoritis to deal with them -- officials of housing, > district revenue and municipal authorities the slum > kept getting reproduced in a myriad ways simply > through governmental procedures. > in the years to follow two important dimensions were > added to this: 1) the envisioning of the urban > community development program as a corollary to the > rural community development program under the auspices > of the community development ministry 2) the tying of > these programs to international developmental aid. in > some ways what happened was a short circuit between > local officials and international discourse on urban > poverty from the UN etc. both of these were of course > subject to a lot of contingent factors which had to > do with political developments at different scales. > As a consequence, at this point any attempt to write a > n intelligible timeline of governmental attitude > towards slums is doomed to fail. each city and some > times even each municipal ward can present a > bewildering mass of facts. this is not to deny the > fact that turner's influence did not matter -- but > what needs to be done is to map out how why turner > mattered at a certain point of time and exactly > through what administrative channels did his ideas get > transformed and materialized in different cities. I > have not seen much work on this really, except a > recent article which talks about how there is a wide > gap between international policy discourse and its > implementation in thailand. > [the entry of British ODA in the 80s, the role of DFID > and the mid 90s Indian Population project of the world > bank and of course the emergence of a largish urban > NGO sector in the 80s and 90s, the plotting and > squatting stuff that began after the urban development > authorities were enacted in the mid 70s -- all this is > a differennt story altogether but as confusing and > exciting as the rest:)] > anant > > --- gauri bharat wrote: > > > Dear list members, > > My first posting to this forum, I'd like to add my > > two bits to this > > discussion on the slum. > > > > The 'moral' mention in the 1956 definition was > > probably a result of the > > nature of early scholarship/ way of thinking on the > > slums. Slums have been > > written about since the late 19 century (Jacob Riis, > > 1896) and in the US, > > were a product of a middle class outraged at the > > depravity they saw around > > them. The forays into the slum were tinted by a > > (often Christian) moral > > reform agenda, and the writings of the time > > reflected this. This attitude > > carried on for the next few decades, and as late as > > the 1960s, scholars like > > Oscar Lewis spoke of the slums as having a 'culture > > of poverty'. Basically, > > the slums were considered a pathologically deficient > > body, distinctly > > different and depraved in comparison to the main > > stream city. > > > > In the early 1970s, the works of people like John > > Turner (mentioned in an > > earlier reply) began to see the slums in more > > positive light, in terms of > > its potential for housing the poor. And this was > > followed in the late 1970s > > and 1980s by the the works of people like Janice > > Perlman who debunked the > > 'myth of marginality' among the urban poor, and > > Manuel Castells and the > > political economy of slum housing etc. > > > > These shifts in ways of thinking corresponded with > > shifts in policy - like > > the govt. agenda for instance. From subsidised > > housing provision in the > > 1960s, the govt position shifted to site and > > services schemes and in situ > > upgrading in the 1980s, and further to the whole > > sector reform in recent > > times. > > > > My point, in all this, is to suggest the the ways of > > seeing/ understanding > > the slum, and subsequently, of policy has undergone > > a change over the > > decades. What I've written above is sketchy, but > > indicative of some of the > > shifts that have taken place. I also hope this makes > > clear that the absence > > of the 'moral' aspect in later years is due to a > > more fundamental shift in > > the perception of slums. > > > > Roy and AlSayyad's Urban Informality (2004) offers a > > detailed discussion on > > the historiography of scholarship on slums, and > > cases and theoretical > > positions from different parts of the world today. > > > > Regards, > > Gauri Bharat > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Dipu: > > > > > > Was this shift at all precipitated by the > > Emergency? I am wondering what > > > role the Emergency played in this shift. > > Unfortunately, I cannot > > > substantiate this further, it's more of an open > > question. > > > > > > Curt > > > > > > ----- Original Message ---- > > > From: "sharan at sarai.net" > > > To: lalit batra > > > Cc: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > > Sent: Friday, March 7, 2008 11:40:51 PM > > > Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] Urbanstudygroup Digest, > > Vol 49, Issue 2 > > > > > > Dear Lalit, Zainab and List Members, > > > Do notice the disappearance of the 'moral' aspect > > in the latter > > > definition. > > > Here's my hypothesis: in the period of upto about > > 1970s slum improvement > > > was closely tied to the idea of moral reform of > > the inhabitants of the > > > slums; since then the focus has been mostly on the > > physical infrastructure > > > or (il)legality - either by way of land-use, as in > > the case of squatters > > > or > > > in terms of 'illegitimate' access to such things > > as water and electricity. > > > This aspect - the (il)legality of built structures > > - was not entirely > > > absent in the earlier phase, but seems to have > > been clearly subordinate to > > > the moral question. > > > > > > I have been trying to understand the nature of > > this transformation and its > > > implication and would apppreciate any comments on > > it. > > > > > > Cheers, > > > Dipu > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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…. > > > ___________________________________________________________ > Rise to the challenge for Sport Relief with Yahoo! For Good > > http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/ > > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > End of Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 16 > *********************************************** > -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-139728 Size: 42250 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080320/449e9a5f/attachment-0001.bin From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Thu Mar 20 11:28:58 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:58:58 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] scrap the sez act meet in AP In-Reply-To: <356418.52269.qm@web90501.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <612001.57631.qm@web23005.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Usha, I may not be able to post my notes on the reports from different districts that were presented at the conference until after next week. But there were detailed presentations from Nellore, Kakinada and Mehboobnagar. I do not know if anyone in the meeting was doing any rapporteuring. These presentations were all in Telugu and as is often the case in Hyderabad mostly impromptu. But I am sure APHRF has access to detailed documentation. You can check with Jeevan of APHRF. It will be great if there is someway of creating an internet portal for Andhra Pradesh with regular updation. I am sure there is data and there are people actively engaged with these issues on the ground, I am sure there are people who can help with web based support. But I dont know how to make the link between the two because there is an almost insurmountable gap between the two -- access languagewise, technologywise and physical mobility itself is simply not happening. I am not convinced that this is due to lack of resources. It is something else. But like I said, my reservations and questions about all this are for another post. Best Anant --- sannihita wrote: > Hi > Anant > This is Usha from Sannihita. Hope you remember me. > I have read the report, and thanks for the report, > because i could not attend the meet, though Jeevan > invited me to participate. I was not n town. 3 more > SEZs are going to be approved. one for AP IIC, and > the other two for private companies. the AP IIC ---------------- A place does not merely exist...it has to be invented in one's imagination . ___________________________________________________________ Rise to the challenge for Sport Relief with Yahoo! For Good http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/ From cheryl.deutsch at gmail.com Thu Mar 20 11:50:21 2008 From: cheryl.deutsch at gmail.com (Cheryl Deutsch) Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:50:21 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Street Vendors in Mumbai and elsewhere Message-ID: <189301e00803192320h734d1759i351aff2a867e44a9@mail.gmail.com> Dear Ravi and all, What follows is a pretty daunting list of useful articles. I have more, but this is what I'm easily able to send by email. Am also happy to help with any more specific questions or if you're looking to do fieldwork. I have been active with the National Hawker Federation, so I have contact with hawkers' unions in most parts of the country and am actively involved in the struggle going on in Mumbai right now. I would say the 5 most important issues facing hawkers in India today are: 1. Implementation of the National Policy on Urban Street Vendors, passed in 2004 2. Fighting corporatization and FDI in retail, as evidenced by the shock of attacks on Reliance Fresh stores happening across the country. 3. Fighting Jehawarlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission - in several parts of the country, implementation of the National Policy is being coopted with JNNURM funding... ultimately leading to "world class" "beautiful" stalls and zones for *some hawkers *without real rights for *all hawkers.* 4. National Food Safety Bill, which I think passed Parliament in the last year or two and requires hawkers to have the same hygienic standards as 5 star hotels. 5. Fighting for social security for the informal sector. A pathetic welfarist bill was introduced in the Raja Sabha in September, but there is a national effort to reject that in favor of comprehensive employment regulation and social security. My research and activism have focused on hawkers' organizing as a movement. In the context of the national struggle going on for social security for the informal sector, hawkers represent one of the larger, more organized, and perhaps more militant sectors within the informal economy. They also have a national policy for states to implement, which could be a model for other workers' groups' organizing efforts. Glad that street vendors are finally getting some coverage on the listserv :) I had been meaning to post something for a while. Cheryl *Mumbai context:* The best source of legal and other documents about Mumbai hawkers is the karmayog website at: http://www.karmayog.com/hawkers/hawkersindex.htm Also check out several articles in EPW: *Impact of Malls on Small Shops and Hawkers* A small sample survey of the impact of malls on small shops and hawkers in Mumbai points to a decline in sales of groceries, fruits and vegetables, processed foods, garments, shoes, electronic and electrical goods in these retail outlets, ultimately threatening 50 per cent of them with closure or a major decline in business. Only 14 per cent of the sample of small shops and hawkers has so far been able to respond to the competitive threat of the malls with the institution of fresh sales promotion initiatives. *--Anuradha Kalhan--* 02-06-2007 [SHOPPING MALLS: SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ISSUES] Issue : VOL 42 No. 22 June 02 - June 08, 2007*Street Hawkers and Public Space in Mumbai* Street hawking is generally considered as a "menace" or an "eyesore" that prevents the development of Mumbai as a world-class city. But this article explores the essential presence of hawkers in a city, which requires a critical understanding of the functioning of public space. The experiences of hawkers in Mumbai, as elsewhere in India, have taught them not to fear a regulatory state, but a predatory one, a state that constantly demands bribes and threatens demolition, against which a licence provides security. *--Jonathan Shapiro Anjaria--* 27-05-2006 [REVIEW OF LABOUR] Issue : VOL 41 No. 21 May 27 - June 02, 2006 *Street Vendors in Asia: A Review* This paper attempts to examine recent research done on street vendors in Asia with the aim of assessing the magnitude of street vending in different countries and the composition of the vendors. Further, it collates information on the extent of unionisation of the vendors and other organisations, such as non-government organisations (NGOs), self-help organisations (SHOs), advocacy groups, etc, that work for their welfare. *--Sharit K Bhowmik--* 28-05-2005 [REVIEW OF LABOUR] Issue : VOL 40 No. 22 and 23 May 28 - June 04, 2005 *National Policy for Street Vendors* Street vendors across several Indian cities have generally been regarded as nuisance value, their presence seen as inimical to urban development. However, the range of goods and services they provide renders them useful to other sections of the urban poor and thus they form an important segment of the informal economy. A draft national policy on street vendors argues that needs of this section are vital for urban planning purposes. Regulation of vendors and hawking zones and granting vendors a voice in civic administration need to become definitive elements of urban development policy. *--Sharit K Bhowmik--* 19-04-2003 [COMMENTARY] Issue : VOL 38 No. 16 April 19 - April 25, 2003 *Violence of Commodity Aesthetics* As increasing trends point to businesses and political parties targeting persons rather than masses, forms of patriarchal authority are softened and diffused, leading to a revision of the older distinctions that prevailed between public and private. At the same time, as relations between individuals are mediated more through markets and media, they also generate new kinds of rights and new capacities for imagination along with new ideas of belonging or inclusion that in turn, lead to novel ways of exercising citizenship rights and conceiving politics. This experience of inclusion in new circuits of communication and of sharing intellectual property across classes, such as seen with television, can help to politicise those sections previously marginalised. This paper, examines the implications of this argument in terms of recent debates over the rights of the hawker, or the 'pheriwala', in Mumbai. *--Arvind Rajagopal--*05-01-2002 [SPECIAL ARTICLE] Issue : VOL 37 No. 01 January 05 - January 11, 2002 *For the all-Indian context: *There was a special issue of Seminar, a magazine, a few years ago with many interesting articles about hawkers. http://thehindu.com/thehindu/fline/fl2415/stories/20070810510509600.htm *For some international context:* I sent one article earlier about Brazilian street vendors. Irene Tinker has a book called Street Food about food hawkers in Africa and Asia. Mitchell Duneier has a well-known ethnography of NYC "written material" street vendors called Sidewalk. Street Vendors in LA: http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~cupers/streetvending.html in Senegal: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/22/africa/AF-GEN-Senegal-Street-Violence.php A recent article from the Washington Post about NYC's public health crisis and how it is solving it - i.e. by recruiting hawkers. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/18/AR2008021802117.html I would also mention that street vendors have been part of the And here's one article about street vendors being labelled as "terrorists" in El Salvadore. *FMLN and Social Movement Unite Against Persecution of Organized Vendors, Privatization of Health Care * CISPES update June 20, 2007 * * The movement of organized informal market vendors has been gaining steam recently in El Salvador. Back on May 30, Salvadoran Security Minister Rene Figueroa, along with director of the National Civilian Police (PNC) Rodrigo Avila, announced they were issuing arrest warrants for leaders of the National Vendors' Movement, including Martin Montoya and Sandra Henriquez. Since then, the social movement has organized a campaign denouncing the political persecution against organized vendors and their allies. The campaign kicked off this past Tuesday when the social movement, including members of the National Vendors Movement, presented a resolution to the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly. The resolution explained the dire situation that the vendors are facing, detailing the most recent confiscations, attacks, and repression by the PNC, including a raid that led to riots in downtown San Salvador on May 12. A number of organized vendors were arrested then, and soon after arrest warrants were issued for the movement's leadership. Some of those arrested face trial under El Salvador's recently approved anti-terrorism law (go here for more information and to respond.) Social movement organizations also pushed the Legislative Assembly to create a special commission that would investigate the persecution and capture of the vendors, and have called for the PNC and the Attorney General to define the charges against those arrested. Additionally, the social movement called on the Legislative Assembly to publicly denounce the persecution and repression targeting activists and organizers, especially those within the vendors' movement. *FMLN and social movement protest against privatization of health* * * On June 16 the Salvadoran social movement once again took to the streets to protest the privatization of health care, reactivating the historic *marcha blanca* (white-clad marches) initiated in 2003. The activity was organized by the FMLN in coordination with health care organizations and new coalitions formed in the past year against the steps towards privatization taken by the Saca government. More than 20,000 people marched from downtown San Salvador to the neighborhood where many national hospitals are located. Two of the major hospitals, the maternity hospital and the general hospital Rosales, were damaged in the 2001 earthquakes, for which the government subsequently received more than $140 million in loans for reconstruction. The FMLN voted to approve those loans and has denounced the fact that they have yet to be allocated. The party demands that the funds either be returned or utilized to rebuild 7 national hospitals. ARENA has already presented a proposal for the "modernization" of health care, which most social organizations have denounced as a first step towards privatization. Some services such as maintenance and food supplies within the national hospitals have already been privatized. * * *Saca consolidates "civil dictatorship"* * * During the speech celebrating his third year as president Antonio Saca announced a plan for approving addition loans that would involve a new, unconstitutional tactic: establishing a so-called trust fund of $350 million, and doing so without a 2/3 majority of votes in the Legislative Assembly. In April the right-wing ARENA party failed to ram through a package of loans totaling more than $400 million, and thus this new tactic is the party's attempt to subvert the power of the FMLN, which has refused to approve any new loans. The "trust" that Saca is proposing would involve the selling of bonds with which the government would obtain the necessary $350 million. The bonds would be administered by the Multi-sector Investment Bank which would then pass it on to the government to supposedly spend on security and health. Saca's plan to create the "trust" without approval in the Legislative Assembly violates Article184 in the SalvadoranConstitution which states that all loans or public debt must be approved by a 2/3 majority in the Assembly. ARENA has been weak in defending the creation of the "trust", making serious contradictions by first denying that it would further public debt, then admitting that it would increase debt "for the benefit of the Salvadoran people." The FMLN strongly opposes the creation of the "trust" and has pledged to present an unconstitutionality bill to the Supreme Court of Justice, while publicly stating that Saca's attempt to take away the power of the Legislative Assembly is part of consolidating ARENA's "civil dictatorship." At the same time, the FMLN has denounced the increading rate of the Salvadoran external debt, demanding that if the government simply taxed the rich ( i.e. the ARENA leaders themselves), then El Salvador's revenue would double and make further loans unnecessary. *FMLN continues the battle for electoral reforms* While rumors continue to circulate about possible candidates for the 2009 Salvadoran legislative, municipal and presidential elections, the priority of the FMLN in the electoral process has been to push for legislative approval of three key reforms to the electoral system. The first reform relates to the national registry. Currently, ARENA has control over the voter registry, helping the right-wing perpetrate its fraudulent and illegitimate victories of the past. According to the FMLN, the registry must be updated and made accessible to all parties. The second reform is the implementation of the residential vote, a step that could also prevent ARENA from committing fraud (such as bringing people from Honduras and Nicaragua to vote, having people voting in more than one municipality, etc.) The third reform is to limit the power of the president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) given that he is an active member of ARENA. The Electoral Commission created by the Legislative Assembly has approved the implementation of the residential vote but changes to the TSE are pending. According to the FMLN's electoral calendar these reforms must be approved by September 2007; if not, the 2009 electoral process is destined to be corrupted by the same fraudulent tactics used in past years. Finally, this past weekend, the TSE announced another important reform: the separation of municiple and legislative elections (now scheduled for January 2009) from the presidential elections (scheduled for March 2009.) The FMLN disapproves of the separation as it would double the cost of the electoral process. Eugenio Chicas, magistrate for the FMLN in the TSE, declared that the move was "a desperate measure" by ARENA proving its fear of a possible FMLN victory in 2009. He also pointed out the irony of ARENA impeding the residential vote (for financial reasons) while favoring a huge budget increase that would result from separating the elections. On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 11:01 AM, wrote: > Send Urbanstudygroup mailing list submissions to > urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > urbanstudygroup-request at sarai.net > > You can reach the person managing the list at > urbanstudygroup-owner at sarai.net > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Urbanstudygroup digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Need information on street vendors in Mumbai (Ravi) > 2. Re: Need information on street vendors in Mumbai (anant m) > 3. CFP: Latin America and International Institutions and/or > Cities, LASA Congress, Rio de Janeiro, June 11-4, 2009 (outtes) > 4. Re: scrap the sez act meet in AP (sannihita) > 5. Re: slum discussion (anant m) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:23:40 -0500 > From: Ravi > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Need information on street vendors in Mumbai > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > Message-ID: > <5780e5350803181123t220efcd6q3f3d944176d4971 at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Hello everyone, > > Gaurav, Cheryl, and Prem had a very interesting discussion going on haats, > natural markets, and street vendors. I am some on who is researching on > urban politics in Mumbai and would be very interested to know more about > street vendors in Mumbai and in the international context. I (and I am > sure > a lot of others) will really appreciate if those who know more about > books, > articles, films or anything on this subject can post the information on > the > listserv. > > Thank you, > > Ravi > > On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 4:42 AM, Prem Chandavarkar > wrote: > > > Gita Dewan Verma's article "Hawking Hawkers" is available at > > > > http://plan.architexturez.org/site/mpisg/c/020212/index_html > > > > > > > > The National Policy on Urban Street Vendors is available at: > > > > http://nceus.gov.in/Street%20Vendors%20policy.pdf > > > > > > > > One organisation seeking to organise street vendors: > > > > http://www.nasvinet.org/about.htm > > > > > > > > Cheryl, > > > > If you have recommendations for any other useful links on this subject, > I > > am sure that many of us on the urban study group would be interested, > and it > > would be great if you could post this info. > > > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > Prem > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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/20080318/fcdb5c78/attachment-0001.html > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:58:57 +0000 (GMT) > From: anant m > Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] Need information on street vendors in Mumbai > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > Message-ID: <11433.53320.qm at web23005.mail.ird.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Ravi, > one sociologist i can recommend without hesitation is > Asef Bayat. You should be able to find his articles > and book chapters from google scholar. look out > specifically for his work on the urban poor in Iran. > In contrast to the Latin American and central > american work which tends to be focused on focused on > the homes of the urban poor, Bayat's work focuses on > street life. My hunch is that his understanding of > what he calls the 'urban subaltern' strategies -- he > calls it the 'quiet encroachment of the ordinary' can > open up several possibilities for working on street > vendors in Mumbai. > best > anant > > > --- Ravi wrote: > > > Hello everyone, > > > > Gaurav, Cheryl, and Prem had a very interesting > > discussion going on haats, > > natural markets, and street vendors. I am some on > > who is researching on > > urban politics in Mumbai and would be very > > interested to know more about > > street vendors in Mumbai and in the international > > context. I (and I am sure > > a lot of others) will really appreciate if those who > > know more about books, > > articles, films or anything on this subject can post > > the information on the > > listserv. > > > > Thank you, > > > > Ravi > > > > On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 4:42 AM, Prem Chandavarkar > > > > wrote: > > > > > Gita Dewan Verma's article "Hawking Hawkers" is > > available at > > > > > > > > > http://plan.architexturez.org/site/mpisg/c/020212/index_html > > > > > > > > > > > > The National Policy on Urban Street Vendors is > > available at: > > > > > > http://nceus.gov.in/Street%20Vendors%20policy.pdf > > > > > > > > > > > > One organisation seeking to organise street > > vendors: > > > > > > http://www.nasvinet.org/about.htm > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Cheryl, > > > > > > If you have recommendations for any other useful > > links on this subject, I > > > am sure that many of us on the urban study group > > would be interested, and it > > > would be great if you could post this info. > > > > > > > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > > > Prem > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > 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 > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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…. > > > ___________________________________________________________ > Rise to the challenge for Sport Relief with Yahoo! For Good > > http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/ > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 04:13:18 -0300 > From: "outtes" > Subject: [Urbanstudy] CFP: Latin America and International > Institutions and/or Cities, LASA Congress, Rio de Janeiro, June > 11-4, > 2009 > To: "outtes" > Message-ID: > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Dear Colleagues, > > I would like to organize a panel for the next LASA-Latin American Studies > Association Congress to take place in Rio de Janeiro in June 11-14, 2009. My > own work would be on the Latin American participation in international urban > institutions such as the International Federation for Housing and Planning > and/or the IULA-International Union of Local Authorities (now GCLG-Global > Cities and Local Governments after IULA merged with other institutions to > become GCLG). In case I do not find enough candidates for a panel of this > kind I will propose a more conventional one on Latin American Cities. > > In short, the panel/s can be on > > Latin America and International Institutions and/or > > Latin American Cities > > The deadline for proposals is March 28 (we only have nine days) so please > send a title and/or idea to me as soon as possible in case you are > interested so that we put abstracts together and submitt the proposal/s. > > Thank you for your time and consideration, > > Joel Outtes > Rowan University > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: not available > Type: application/defanged-6993 > Size: 1770 bytes > Desc: not available > Url : > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080319/8af0b01e/attachment-0001.bin > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:03:56 -0700 (PDT) > From: sannihita > Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] scrap the sez act meet in AP > To: anant m > Cc: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > Message-ID: <356418.52269.qm at web90501.mail.mud.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Hi > Anant > This is Usha from Sannihita. Hope you remember me. I have read the > report, and thanks for the report, because i could not attend the meet, > though Jeevan invited me to participate. I was not n town. 3 more SEZs are > going to be approved. one for AP IIC, and the other two for private > companies. the AP IIC (Andhra Pradesh Industrial infrastructure Corporation) > which has a very corrupt back ground, and misuse of funds is been alloted > the areas of 2,500 acres. Out of this 500 acres are for Lord Swarajpal, of > Kaparo group, and the rest for MNCs. The second of the 3 is at Anantapur > Dist, village Kurakalapatnam, by Limitless properties company in 1000 acres > . The Third is of Gazwel Mandal Pragnapur village, by Vivo Bayoteck" in > 10.93 Hectars. these proposals will be examined (mostely ready madely > accepted) on 20th of this month. Means today. > > The news about resistence in the SEZs as far as my knowledge is concerned > is very less. People like me alos have not having much idea about what > happening with the people. There is no systematic study or approach to > understand, or assess the views of the people who are affected in these > areas. > I am dying to do one quick visit to the alloted areas. Looking for a > chance to explore the un touched issues, and underlying views of the people > in general and women and children in particular. > > There is a need to start with a team visiting to these places. I feel all > the land that is been grabbed in the name of the SEZs are really not an > industry but mostly likely will become a big real estate Danda, and leaving > the farmers men and women into the labour in the construction area. Becoming > a labour in your own land is what the issue primarily disturbs me. > Recently visited Shamshabad Airport, and happend to talk to some local > people of Mamidipally. I spoke very casualy to a person who s just sitting > in a chai kottu, when i asked him, what does he think about the much talked, > developed Airport. He said, "emavtundi, ma bhoomullo memu pani > kudurchukunnam. okappudu pedda rytula daggara pani chesi ma boomilo antho > intho pandichukunnam. ippudu peddolla daggara, kotta booswamula daggara, > oodugam chese kadikocche." ( means we have become land laborers in our own > farms, previously at least we were protecting our land and use to have some > thing of our own by working for the local land lords. But now we are forced > to accept the neo landlardism and work under ruthless policies, and in > human systems. > > If u go to the airport, near to the Air port on SEZ. There is a compound > wall and flags hanging to the poles of some company, reminds of the history > where we had 'nagara rajyams' claiming of the power over the land. Adding > to that the culture of the Gated communities which reminds us of the mandi > marbalam ( personnel of the kings). > > Most of these lands are fertile. The status of women's work, livelihood > of the people, education of the children, and the survival i think should > have already has affected. Now its reaching the danger level. > > The internal news is that there is going to be a shortage of food grains > and its going to be a worst state. > The so called Ngo run livelihood programmes can no where meet the needs > of the aam janata. > > In AP there is less talk about JNNURM. No body knows, and the website of > the ap gov, does not cover, or agive information on these issues. > There is a controversy over allotment of Indiramma padhakam. Andhra > jyothi have gave clear data to whom the houses were allotted. All these are > MLAs, and contractors. > > So thus there is a need to study the Indiramma pathakam, fact finding, > information collection etc., > > Then the JNNURM - information, and awareness to the public and a > discussion session, and study the status of SEZ - people affected, and > promises made. > > Finally i am willing to work with some one who wants to study these > areas, or i can initiate my slef if there is any support for the study cost. > > Regards > Usha Rani > Secreatry > Sannihita > > > --------------------------------- > Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage. > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: not available > Type: application/defanged-67964 > Size: 5440 bytes > Desc: not available > Url : > http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080319/c2a99473/attachment-0001.bin > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 5 > Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:31:10 +0000 (GMT) > From: anant m > Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] slum discussion > To: gauri bharat , urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > Message-ID: <434230.38635.qm at web23005.mail.ird.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Just to take this note from Gauri Bharath a little > further -- > two different directions are worth pursuing. > 1) the discursive terrain > 2) the state related discussion > I am not putting in any citations because this is a > rough and ready account. But I will be happy to follow > it up if anyone is interested. > > Discursively, the idea of the 'slum' in India came > through the colonial administration. The earliest > references of slums in India are to be found in the > context of the city/town improvement trusts/boards. > The first of these not surprisingly were in the two > big port cities -- Calcutta and Bombay. This > introduction of slums into colonial port cities > happened in the context of both a fear of > plague/cholera epidemics and also the need for > rationalizing the city. The moral dimension here was a > complicated one -- slums were places of vice - but > they also reflected badly on how the administrators > were discharging their own moral obligation. However, > in most instances the residents opposed slum > eradication efforts. (Often these places included > 'unplanned', 'congested' housing lots which were > unintelligible to the planner's (of > transportation,roads,sanitation etc.) gaze. In the > face of this resistance the colonial administration > began to recruit native elites to persuade the Hindoos > and Moslems respectively to give up their 'bad' living > arrangements. Archives of this kind of stuff are not > easy to come by because it will be mostly in the form > of city and town improvement trust documents, annual > reports etc. as well as diaries and reports of > engineers and medical doctors. This process of > spotting and removing slums which began in calcutta > and bombay gradually migrated to native ruled cities > by the first and second decades of the 20th century > and got reshaped by both people like patrick geddes > and mokshagundam visweswarayya. although neither of > these people have written much directly on slums, > initiatives that were launched under their guidance -- > City Improvement Board in Hyderabad for instance -- > record slums removal efforts at that time. > during the next two decades, there was a fair amount > of physical anthropology kind of work on whether or > not living in slums stunts bodily growth, reports of > census officers confused by the impossibility of > delimiting a family or a household in the enormous > diversity of dwellings has developed in India. > > But it was only in 1939 -- during the Bombay > development plan writing that the first serious > official pronouncements on slums in India become > visible. in that document, the planners effectively > say that slums are related to industry. so if we shift > industry out of the city, slums will automatically > move out with them and then they will be the > responsibility of the industry itself. the state does > not have to worry about it so much. > > the 1956 slum act retains the early definition of > slums and the moral fervor, developmental vision and > so on but two issues are important to note here. this > was the time when there was a tremendous mobility of > people into state capitals-- lingusitic reorganization > of states being only one of the contributory factors. > in many states the records of rights were being > revamped and resurveyes were being done as a result of > all of which there were many violent conflicts in > cities over landed property. some of these conflicts > were large enough to shape the political careers young > local leaders. the act was mainly an attempt to deal > with those conflicts through the notification > procedures. very very limited housing programs were > undertaken in some cities and these were quite diverse > -- from self help to hire purchase. > beginning late 50s, there has been an important shift > in the way slums are dealt with in India. now that > there are specific procedures and designated > authoritis to deal with them -- officials of housing, > district revenue and municipal authorities the slum > kept getting reproduced in a myriad ways simply > through governmental procedures. > in the years to follow two important dimensions were > added to this: 1) the envisioning of the urban > community development program as a corollary to the > rural community development program under the auspices > of the community development ministry 2) the tying of > these programs to international developmental aid. in > some ways what happened was a short circuit between > local officials and international discourse on urban > poverty from the UN etc. both of these were of course > subject to a lot of contingent factors which had to > do with political developments at different scales. > As a consequence, at this point any attempt to write a > n intelligible timeline of governmental attitude > towards slums is doomed to fail. each city and some > times even each municipal ward can present a > bewildering mass of facts. this is not to deny the > fact that turner's influence did not matter -- but > what needs to be done is to map out how why turner > mattered at a certain point of time and exactly > through what administrative channels did his ideas get > transformed and materialized in different cities. I > have not seen much work on this really, except a > recent article which talks about how there is a wide > gap between international policy discourse and its > implementation in thailand. > [the entry of British ODA in the 80s, the role of DFID > and the mid 90s Indian Population project of the world > bank and of course the emergence of a largish urban > NGO sector in the 80s and 90s, the plotting and > squatting stuff that began after the urban development > authorities were enacted in the mid 70s -- all this is > a differennt story altogether but as confusing and > exciting as the rest:)] > anant > > --- gauri bharat wrote: > > > Dear list members, > > My first posting to this forum, I'd like to add my > > two bits to this > > discussion on the slum. > > > > The 'moral' mention in the 1956 definition was > > probably a result of the > > nature of early scholarship/ way of thinking on the > > slums. Slums have been > > written about since the late 19 century (Jacob Riis, > > 1896) and in the US, > > were a product of a middle class outraged at the > > depravity they saw around > > them. The forays into the slum were tinted by a > > (often Christian) moral > > reform agenda, and the writings of the time > > reflected this. This attitude > > carried on for the next few decades, and as late as > > the 1960s, scholars like > > Oscar Lewis spoke of the slums as having a 'culture > > of poverty'. Basically, > > the slums were considered a pathologically deficient > > body, distinctly > > different and depraved in comparison to the main > > stream city. > > > > In the early 1970s, the works of people like John > > Turner (mentioned in an > > earlier reply) began to see the slums in more > > positive light, in terms of > > its potential for housing the poor. And this was > > followed in the late 1970s > > and 1980s by the the works of people like Janice > > Perlman who debunked the > > 'myth of marginality' among the urban poor, and > > Manuel Castells and the > > political economy of slum housing etc. > > > > These shifts in ways of thinking corresponded with > > shifts in policy - like > > the govt. agenda for instance. From subsidised > > housing provision in the > > 1960s, the govt position shifted to site and > > services schemes and in situ > > upgrading in the 1980s, and further to the whole > > sector reform in recent > > times. > > > > My point, in all this, is to suggest the the ways of > > seeing/ understanding > > the slum, and subsequently, of policy has undergone > > a change over the > > decades. What I've written above is sketchy, but > > indicative of some of the > > shifts that have taken place. I also hope this makes > > clear that the absence > > of the 'moral' aspect in later years is due to a > > more fundamental shift in > > the perception of slums. > > > > Roy and AlSayyad's Urban Informality (2004) offers a > > detailed discussion on > > the historiography of scholarship on slums, and > > cases and theoretical > > positions from different parts of the world today. > > > > Regards, > > Gauri Bharat > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Dipu: > > > > > > Was this shift at all precipitated by the > > Emergency? I am wondering what > > > role the Emergency played in this shift. > > Unfortunately, I cannot > > > substantiate this further, it's more of an open > > question. > > > > > > Curt > > > > > > ----- Original Message ---- > > > From: "sharan at sarai.net" > > > To: lalit batra > > > Cc: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > > > Sent: Friday, March 7, 2008 11:40:51 PM > > > Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] Urbanstudygroup Digest, > > Vol 49, Issue 2 > > > > > > Dear Lalit, Zainab and List Members, > > > Do notice the disappearance of the 'moral' aspect > > in the latter > > > definition. > > > Here's my hypothesis: in the period of upto about > > 1970s slum improvement > > > was closely tied to the idea of moral reform of > > the inhabitants of the > > > slums; since then the focus has been mostly on the > > physical infrastructure > > > or (il)legality - either by way of land-use, as in > > the case of squatters > > > or > > > in terms of 'illegitimate' access to such things > > as water and electricity. > > > This aspect - the (il)legality of built structures > > - was not entirely > > > absent in the earlier phase, but seems to have > > been clearly subordinate to > > > the moral question. > > > > > > I have been trying to understand the nature of > > this transformation and its > > > implication and would apppreciate any comments on > > it. > > > > > > Cheers, > > > Dipu > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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…. > > > ___________________________________________________________ > Rise to the challenge for Sport Relief with Yahoo! For Good > > http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/ > > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > End of Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 16 > *********************************************** > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080320/63817bd5/attachment-0001.html From karenc at mids.ac.in Thu Mar 20 12:23:10 2008 From: karenc at mids.ac.in (Karen) Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 12:23:10 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] pedestrian access project Chennai Message-ID: <00a801c88a57$0f1dd3e0$4600a8c0@MIDSPC19> Dear friends, A propos the discussions on hawkers and streets, I'd like to share with you a project that we are into (actually just beginning) here in Chennai. We call it "The Walking Classes Strike." It is, to begin with, an assessment of pedestrian facilities on a sample of the city's streets, involving sections of the pedestrian community -- school and college students, informal sector workers, disabled and elderly people -- as investigators. The longer-term aim is to build up a voice, an organised demand, maybe a platform, of pedestrians in the city, hopefully through some direct action as well as ongoing lobbying and advocacy. An important part of this project is to explore how pedestrian facilities can co-exist with spaces for street vendors on the city pavements. Can the two sets of rights be seen in a collaborative or mutually supporting way? We want to ensure that our demands for expanding pavement space does not feed into discourses that support evictions of street dwellers and hawkers. We are looking at the national hawkers policy and the Nasvi documents, and will talk to street vendors here, but if anybody has any inputs that will help in this, please send or indicate. Thanks Karen Coelho -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080320/54a7c6f2/attachment.html From makarand at ccs.in Thu Mar 20 15:15:29 2008 From: makarand at ccs.in (Makarand Bakore) Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:15:29 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] 27March[d] Panel discussion on 'Unrecognised schools - Help or hurt the Poor?' Message-ID: <81b861310803200245s12ec281bmb199a3a04da79790@mail.gmail.com> Dear friends, We are pleased to invite you to a discussion on 'Unrecognised schools - Help or hurt the Poor?' on 27 March 2008 from 3 pm to 6 pm at the Constitution Club, Rafi Marg, New Delhi. In February 2008 the Delhi High Court ordered all private unrecognised schools to either seek recognition or close down. As per one estimate, there are 10,000 such schools in the capital catering to about 6 lakh children between the age group of 2 to 18 years. The judgement will have a significant impact on school education in Delhi. But will it be positive or negative? How should the government go about executing the order the Court? What are its possible fall outs? There are no straight-forward answers to these questions. The following distinguished panellist will help us understand some of these issues: - Mr. Ashok Agarwal, Adv. (Social Jurist) - Mr. R. M. Sinha, Adv. (Counsel for unrecognised schools) - Mr. R.C. Jain (President, Delhi State Public Schools Management Association) - Mr. Vijendra Kumar Gupta (President, Delhi Abhivavak Mahasangh) - Mr. T.K. Mathew (Chief Executive, Deepalaya) - Mr. Shailendra Sharma (Head Programs, Pratham Delhi Education Initiative) Registration is open and we look forward to your participation in this program. Warm Regards, Makarand Bakore Centre for Civil Society K-36, Hauz Khas Enclave, New Delhi 110016 Ph: 011- 26537456 / 26521882 www.ccs.in From gaurav at schmizz.net Thu Mar 20 17:06:58 2008 From: gaurav at schmizz.net (Gaurav Bhushan) Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:06:58 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Haats in India Message-ID: <8f821bcf0803200436o3787b9efm2111b7d494b9e1f2@mail.gmail.com> Hi Everyone, I recently read an article by Mrs. Jaya Jaitley, who conceptualized and established the Dilli Haat, an urban crafts market. She described that the need was to bring the craftspeople directly to urban areas to market their products, and also help them understand the demand of these urban costumers. So, it all started as an informal, impermanent haat on the lines of the traditional village markets in India which was held every Saturday near the Hanuman Mandir in Connaught Place, New Delhi. This was back in 1985! The problem with this system, however, was that the travel and transport costs for the craftsmen were too high. This led her to propose the Dilli Haat, a permanent market for impermanent craftsmen! I am sure a lot of us feel it was an excellent concept... The Haat evolved from an impermanent market to permanent place to meet the needs of the buyers and sellers in a different, urban, environment. You may read about her experience with the Dilli Haat here http://www.craftrevival.org/Voicedetails.asp?Code=109 The Dilli Haat completed 10 successful years in March 2004. And, we see a number of urban haats have propped up across the Nation. Shilparamam in Hyderabad, Swabhumi in Calcutta, the Bhopal Haat, Amdavad Haat, Bhuj Haat and three new Dilli Haats that have been proposed in Pitampura, Janakpuri and another one towards East Delhi, are all based on the same model. A lot of this can be attributed to Government Policies that are in favor of the Dilli Haat Model. In my recent visit to a fair at the Amdavad Haat, I realized the craftsmen eagerly look forward to an opportunity to participate in these Haats. There exists a network of craft clusters that communicate to these craftsmen, where they have an opportunity to participate. But not every haat is as successful. The craftspeople were not very pleased to be at the Amdavad Haat. Thanks Cheryl, for your suggestions. I found the material very interesting. But for my ongoing project I will try and focus on these urban Haats, and the problems and opportunities they pose. Regards, Gaurav Bhushan http://projecthaat.blogspot.com/ Information Design, National Institute of Design, India -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080320/8f51459d/attachment.html From aditi_surf at hotmail.com Thu Mar 20 17:48:09 2008 From: aditi_surf at hotmail.com (Aditi Mittal) Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:48:09 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 16 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear All, An apt time for me to have come across a discussion on slum settlements - someone I know lives in such a settlement that is now to be surrendered to builders who would like to redevelop the same. This lady and her family have been promised the be given back a share of the redeveloped property in accordance with the property they are now giving up. In the interim period (of one year) a sum of money will be given to them that will allow them to rent out alternate accomodation. I am wondering, what are the rights given by the government to slum settlers. Is there clarity on this? Do they have ownership / tenancy rights on the property they live in? What is the policy in Mumbai? Would appreciate some feedback. Thanks, Aditi > Message: 5> Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:31:10 +0000 (GMT)> From: anant m > Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] slum discussion> To: gauri bharat , urbanstudygroup at sarai.net> Message-ID: <434230.38635.qm at web23005.mail.ird.yahoo.com>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"> > Just to take this note from Gauri Bharath a little> further --> two different directions are worth pursuing. > 1) the discursive terrain> 2) the state related discussion > I am not putting in any citations because this is a> rough and ready account. But I will be happy to follow> it up if anyone is interested. > > Discursively, the idea of the 'slum' in India came> through the colonial administration. The earliest> references of slums in India are to be found in the> context of the city/town improvement trusts/boards.> The first of these not surprisingly were in the two> big port cities -- Calcutta and Bombay. This> introduction of slums into colonial port cities> happened in the context of both a fear of> plague/cholera epidemics and also the need for> rationalizing the city. The moral dimension here was a> complicated one -- slums were places of vice - but> they also reflected badly on how the administrators> were discharging their own moral obligation. However,> in most instances the residents opposed slum> eradication efforts. (Often these places included> 'unplanned', 'congested' housing lots which were> unintelligible to the planner's (of> transportation,roads,sanitation etc.) gaze. In the> face of this resistance the colonial administration> began to recruit native elites to persuade the Hindoos> and Moslems respectively to give up their 'bad' living> arrangements. Archives of this kind of stuff are not> easy to come by because it will be mostly in the form> of city and town improvement trust documents, annual> reports etc. as well as diaries and reports of> engineers and medical doctors. This process of> spotting and removing slums which began in calcutta> and bombay gradually migrated to native ruled cities> by the first and second decades of the 20th century> and got reshaped by both people like patrick geddes> and mokshagundam visweswarayya. although neither of> these people have written much directly on slums,> initiatives that were launched under their guidance --> City Improvement Board in Hyderabad for instance --> record slums removal efforts at that time. > during the next two decades, there was a fair amount> of physical anthropology kind of work on whether or> not living in slums stunts bodily growth, reports of> census officers confused by the impossibility of> delimiting a family or a household in the enormous> diversity of dwellings has developed in India. > > But it was only in 1939 -- during the Bombay> development plan writing that the first serious> official pronouncements on slums in India become> visible. in that document, the planners effectively> say that slums are related to industry. so if we shift> industry out of the city, slums will automatically> move out with them and then they will be the> responsibility of the industry itself. the state does> not have to worry about it so much. > > the 1956 slum act retains the early definition of> slums and the moral fervor, developmental vision and> so on but two issues are important to note here. this> was the time when there was a tremendous mobility of> people into state capitals-- lingusitic reorganization> of states being only one of the contributory factors.> in many states the records of rights were being> revamped and resurveyes were being done as a result of> all of which there were many violent conflicts in> cities over landed property. some of these conflicts> were large enough to shape the political careers young> local leaders. the act was mainly an attempt to deal> with those conflicts through the notification> procedures. very very limited housing programs were> undertaken in some cities and these were quite diverse> -- from self help to hire purchase. > beginning late 50s, there has been an important shift> in the way slums are dealt with in India. now that> there are specific procedures and designated> authoritis to deal with them -- officials of housing,> district revenue and municipal authorities the slum> kept getting reproduced in a myriad ways simply> through governmental procedures. > in the years to follow two important dimensions were> added to this: 1) the envisioning of the urban> community development program as a corollary to the> rural community development program under the auspices> of the community development ministry 2) the tying of> these programs to international developmental aid. in> some ways what happened was a short circuit between> local officials and international discourse on urban> poverty from the UN etc. both of these were of course> subject to a lot of contingent factors which had to > do with political developments at different scales. > As a consequence, at this point any attempt to write a> n intelligible timeline of governmental attitude> towards slums is doomed to fail. each city and some> times even each municipal ward can present a> bewildering mass of facts. this is not to deny the> fact that turner's influence did not matter -- but> what needs to be done is to map out how why turner> mattered at a certain point of time and exactly> through what administrative channels did his ideas get> transformed and materialized in different cities. I> have not seen much work on this really, except a> recent article which talks about how there is a wide> gap between international policy discourse and its> implementation in thailand. > [the entry of British ODA in the 80s, the role of DFID> and the mid 90s Indian Population project of the world> bank and of course the emergence of a largish urban> NGO sector in the 80s and 90s, the plotting and> squatting stuff that began after the urban development> authorities were enacted in the mid 70s -- all this is> a differennt story altogether but as confusing and> exciting as the rest:)]> anant > > --- gauri bharat wrote:> > > Dear list members,> > My first posting to this forum, I'd like to add my> > two bits to this> > discussion on the slum.> > > > The 'moral' mention in the 1956 definition was> > probably a result of the> > nature of early scholarship/ way of thinking on the> > slums. Slums have been> > written about since the late 19 century (Jacob Riis,> > 1896) and in the US,> > were a product of a middle class outraged at the> > depravity they saw around> > them. The forays into the slum were tinted by a> > (often Christian) moral> > reform agenda, and the writings of the time> > reflected this. This attitude> > carried on for the next few decades, and as late as> > the 1960s, scholars like> > Oscar Lewis spoke of the slums as having a 'culture> > of poverty'. Basically,> > the slums were considered a pathologically deficient> > body, distinctly> > different and depraved in comparison to the main> > stream city.> > > > In the early 1970s, the works of people like John> > Turner (mentioned in an> > earlier reply) began to see the slums in more> > positive light, in terms of> > its potential for housing the poor. And this was> > followed in the late 1970s> > and 1980s by the the works of people like Janice> > Perlman who debunked the> > 'myth of marginality' among the urban poor, and> > Manuel Castells and the> > political economy of slum housing etc.> > > > These shifts in ways of thinking corresponded with> > shifts in policy - like> > the govt. agenda for instance. From subsidised> > housing provision in the> > 1960s, the govt position shifted to site and> > services schemes and in situ> > upgrading in the 1980s, and further to the whole> > sector reform in recent> > times.> > > > My point, in all this, is to suggest the the ways of> > seeing/ understanding> > the slum, and subsequently, of policy has undergone> > a change over the> > decades. What I've written above is sketchy, but> > indicative of some of the> > shifts that have taken place. I also hope this makes> > clear that the absence> > of the 'moral' aspect in later years is due to a> > more fundamental shift in> > the perception of slums.> > > > Roy and AlSayyad's Urban Informality (2004) offers a> > detailed discussion on> > the historiography of scholarship on slums, and> > cases and theoretical> > positions from different parts of the world today.> > > > Regards,> > Gauri Bharat> > > > > > > > >> > >> > >> > > Dipu:> > >> > > Was this shift at all precipitated by the> > Emergency? I am wondering what> > > role the Emergency played in this shift.> > Unfortunately, I cannot> > > substantiate this further, it's more of an open> > question.> > >> > > Curt> > >> > > ----- Original Message ----> > > From: "sharan at sarai.net" > > > To: lalit batra > > > Cc: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net> > > Sent: Friday, March 7, 2008 11:40:51 PM> > > Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] Urbanstudygroup Digest,> > Vol 49, Issue 2> > >> > > Dear Lalit, Zainab and List Members,> > > Do notice the disappearance of the 'moral' aspect> > in the latter> > > definition.> > > Here's my hypothesis: in the period of upto about> > 1970s slum improvement> > > was closely tied to the idea of moral reform of> > the inhabitants of the> > > slums; since then the focus has been mostly on the> > physical infrastructure> > > or (il)legality - either by way of land-use, as in> > the case of squatters> > > or> > > in terms of 'illegitimate' access to such things> > as water and electricity.> > > This aspect - the (il)legality of built structures> > - was not entirely> > > absent in the earlier phase, but seems to have> > been clearly subordinate to> > > the moral question.> > >> > > I have been trying to understand the nature of> > this transformation and its> > > implication and would apppreciate any comments on> > it.> > >> > > Cheers,> > > Dipu> > >> > >> > > _______________________________________________> > 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….> > > ___________________________________________________________ > Rise to the challenge for Sport Relief with Yahoo! For Good > > http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/> > > > ------------------------------> > _______________________________________________> Urbanstudygroup mailing list> Urbanstudygroup at sarai.net> https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup> > > End of Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 16> *********************************************** _________________________________________________________________ Tried the new MSN Messenger? It’s cool! Download now. http://messenger.msn.com/Download/Default.aspx?mkt=en-in -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080320/63f91750/attachment-0001.html From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Thu Mar 20 20:52:15 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:22:15 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] bombay in 1903 Message-ID: <601420.22023.qm@web23013.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Here is a interesting extract on 'slums' from William Elroy Curtis who wrote for the Chicago tribune in 1903. It is from the second chapter of a book titled Modern India -- which is online at http://www.fullbooks.com/Modern-India1.html the book is worth a read anyways-- it is dedicated to lady curzon and has very many interesting details. I am posting this here because while quite a few interesting historical studies on cities and modernity in India focusing on slums/congestion/population etc. have come up in the last few years, most of them are cast in disciplinary languages that are not easily accessible to the laity. primary sources like the one below are fun to read for everyone. :) also a number of bloggers are out there now compiling all kinds of tidbits about bombay. you would have to google them. here we descend into unadulterated 'vice and wretchedness' --------------------------------------------------- Many enterprises usually left for the municipal authorities of a city to carry on cannot be undertaken by the government of India because of the laws of caste, religious customs and fanatical prejudices of the people. The Hindu allows no man to enter his home; the women of a Mohammedan household are kept in seclusion, the teachings of the priests are contrary to modern sanitary regulations, and if the municipal authorities should condemn a block of buildings and tear it down, or discover a nuisance and attempt to remove it, they might easily provoke a riot and perhaps a revolution. This has happened frequently. During the last plague a public tumult had to be quelled by soldiers at a large cost of life because of the efforts of the government to isolate and quarantine infected persons and houses. These peculiar conditions suggested in Bombay the advantage of a semi-public body called "The Improvement Trust," which was organized a few years ago by Lord Sandhurst, then governor. The original object was to clear out the slums and infected places after the last plague, to tear down blocks of rotten and filthy tenement-houses and erect new buildings on the ground; to widen the streets, to let air and light into moldering, festering sink holes of poverty, vice and wretchedness; to lay sewers and furnish a water supply, and to redeem and regenerate certain portions of the city that were a menace to the public health and morals. This work was intrusted to twelve eminent citizens, representing each of the races and all of the large interests in Bombay, who commanded the respect and enjoyed the confidence of the fanatical element of the people, and would be permitted to do many things and introduce innovations that would not be tolerated if suggested by foreigners, or the government. ---------------- A place does not merely exist...it has to be invented in one's imagination . ___________________________________________________________ Rise to the challenge for Sport Relief with Yahoo! For Good http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/ From conlon at u.washington.edu Thu Mar 20 21:41:04 2008 From: conlon at u.washington.edu (Frank Conlon) Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:11:04 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] bombay in 1903 In-Reply-To: <601420.22023.qm@web23013.mail.ird.yahoo.com> References: <601420.22023.qm@web23013.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Dear Friends: Thanks to Anant for this reference. I had not encountered that title and am delighted to imagine that a Chicago newspaper would despatch someone to India so early. (William Shirer--better known for his work in Europe just before and during World War II) was sent by the Chicago Daily News to send back despatches on Gandhi in the early 1930s. If you ever want to see evidence of the decline of content in modern American journalism, try to imagine a paper today having full page adverts on how Shirer would be starting his detailed reporting on Gandhi in coming issues!) One aspect of the Improvement Trust story that is sometimes overlooked is that it was modelled on the Glasgow Improvement Trust and was taken up as policy as a response to a perceived threat of an embargo on shipping from Bombay by European ports in the aftermath of the persistence of the plague which began in late 1896. Essentially the "slum clearance" aspect of the BIT was tied to other issues including political control, economic development and property development to pay the costs of the slum clearances. Several new roads were opened up--especially Sandhurst Road (now Sardar Vallabhai Patel Road) which cut across the island and was--it was claimed--intended to open up an avenue for fresh breezes--and to create a set of frontages that would be valuble and whose costs would support the scheme. It would, of course, also make military surveillance and control more viable. The fresh breezes were an artifact of the idea that plague and other disease was driven out by fresh air. Another new road was "Princess Street" cutting through the Kalbadevi neighborhood just north of Dhobi Talao. The BIT planned and built several estates of industrial chawls; and also planned reclamations as well as development of an upscale residential neighborhood, Gamdevi Estate--just south of Gowalia Tank on the northeast flank of Malabar Hill. As late as the 1960s, that neighborhood, with its arching trees and European style buildings could have been transplated from perhaps Washington,D.C. Laburnum Road and Alexandra Road were nice zones; Gandhji's ManiBhavan was there; and a plot at the east end was allotted to the Saraswat Cooperative Housing Society--the first housing cooperative in Asia. The little road at the west end, which is probably named now for some worthy of municipal politics was known as Owendun Road--a reduction of is original name Owen Dunn who was head of the BIT. An important (and today congested) roadlink was built from Sandhurst Road up to Kemps Corners, linkingto Peddar Road and Cumballa Hill. It was named Hughes Road (pronounced still Huge-ess) in honor of Walter Hughes, the head of the Port Trust who was the mover behind adaptationof the Glasgow model. The road today is named for Justice Patkar, but still retains "Hugh-ess". Many years ago I wrote a bit about the Improvement Trust in an obscure essay: "Industrialization and the Housing Problem in Bombay, 1850-1940", pp. 153-168 in Kenneth Ballhatchet and David Taylor, eds., Changing South Asia: Economy and Society (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; Hong Kong: Asian Research Service, 1984). More recently, two Sanjay Hazareesingh has written about this in his recent book _The Colonial City and the Challenge of Modernity: Urban Hegemonies and Civic Contestations in Bombay (1900-1925) and Prashant Kidambi, _The Making of an Indian Metropolis: Colonial Governance and Public Culture in Bombay, 1890-1920_ are both important recent studies on the Improvement Trust era. 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 From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Sat Mar 22 08:20:58 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 02:50:58 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] bombay in 1903 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <851719.89935.qm@web23004.mail.ird.yahoo.com> --- Frank Conlon wrote: > Dear Friends: > > Thanks to Anant for this reference. I had not > encountered that title and > am delighted to imagine that a Chicago newspaper > would despatch someone to > India so early. Dear Frank, On American correspondents in India -- I could be wrong about this but I would imagine that American public interest in India would have begun when the British decided to transplant American varieties of long staple cotton to India. As speculative commercial activities intensified in the US, knowledge of British colonial assets would become more and more important to Americans. I do not know if there is any study of American business in 19th century India. I know that the economics of maritime transportation definitely played a role in the export of ice from the US to India. And the street car in Bombay was an American holding. Wouldnt it be surprising if correspondents were not traveling in India to report back to American readers even before 1903. Is it possible that American newspapers did not have the confidence to finance a journey devoted to writing before Mark Twain....??!! > One aspect of the Improvement Trust story that is > sometimes overlooked is > that it was modelled on the Glasgow Improvement > Trust and was taken up as > policy as a response to a perceived threat of an > embargo on shipping from > Bombay by European ports in the aftermath of the > persistence of the plague > which began in late 1896. Thanks for highlighting the Glasgow connection. Tracking the travel of ideas from their birth in such 'local' circumstances in metropolitan centers through 19th century colonial circuits is so crucial to understanding how contemporary globalization works. It is absolutely fascinating how fears of plague and cholera played such a dramatic role in enabling so much of the late 19th century and early 20th century urban restructuring. Anant ---------------- A place does not merely exist...it has to be invented in one's imagination . __________________________________________________________ Sent from Yahoo! Mail. More Ways to Keep in Touch. http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Sat Mar 22 08:40:00 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 03:10:00 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] pedestrian access project Chennai In-Reply-To: <00a801c88a57$0f1dd3e0$4600a8c0@MIDSPC19> Message-ID: <24589.63727.qm@web23008.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Dear Karen, I dont know if this will be of any direct/immediate relevance to 'walking/hawking classes' in Chennai, but it may be useful to look at what the LA Bus Riders Union has been doing. http://www.busridersunion.org/engli/WhoWeAre/mission.htm The context is of course very different. LA Bus Riders Union came out of the failures of more traditional unionism as fordist regimes began to completely break down. Looking for new spaces of organization, local activists cobbled together Labor/Community Strategy center mainly working with immigrant workers. Bus Riders Union is a project of the strategy center. I made some notes about this project a few years ago from the perspective of urban politics. I will be happy to share with you - if I can find the file. But their website is quite comprehensive. http://www.busridersunion.org/engli/WhoWeAre/mission.htm anant --- Karen wrote: > Dear friends, > > A propos the discussions on hawkers and streets, I'd > like to share with you a project that we are into > (actually just beginning) here in Chennai. We call > it "The Walking Classes Strike." It is, to begin > with, an assessment of pedestrian facilities on a > sample of the city's streets, involving sections of > the pedestrian community -- school and college > students, informal sector workers, disabled and > elderly people -- as investigators. The longer-term > aim is to build up a voice, an organised demand, > maybe a platform, of pedestrians in the city, > hopefully through some direct action as well as > ongoing lobbying and advocacy. > > An important part of this project is to explore how > pedestrian facilities can co-exist with spaces for > street vendors on the city pavements. Can the two > sets of rights be seen in a collaborative or > mutually supporting way? We want to ensure that our > demands for expanding pavement space does not feed > into discourses that support evictions of street > dwellers and hawkers. We are looking at the > national hawkers policy and the Nasvi documents, and > will talk to street vendors here, but if anybody has > any inputs that will help in this, please send or > indicate. > > Thanks > > Karen Coelho> _______________________________________________ > 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 . ___________________________________________________________ Rise to the challenge for Sport Relief with Yahoo! For Good http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/ From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Sat Mar 22 10:38:43 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 05:08:43 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] slum dwellers' rights (was Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 16) In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <964820.10013.qm@web23006.mail.ird.yahoo.com> --- Aditi Mittal wrote: > I am wondering, what are the rights given by the > government to slum settlers. Is there clarity on > this? Do they have ownership / tenancy rights on the > property they live in? What is the policy in Mumbai? Hi Aditi, I am sure there are others on the list who know this much better than I do. There was some discussion on the slumdwellers' rights etc. on this list a couple of years ago when the NanglaMachi eviction happened in Delhi. It should be in the archives. If you search google news for the dates when that episode happened and then look through urban study archives for those dates you will find plenty of clues and references e.g. articles by Usha Ramanathan on displacement etc. But very briefly, residents of notified or otherwise given some sort of legal status by the state/local administration have some tenurial rights. These are not the same as clean titled property rights tho. It is a sort of provisional/usufruct right granted through a 'patta' document. Other than this, all slums residents develop social/customary rights locally through a mix of legal semilegal extra legal instruments which allow them to trade in property or otherwise participate in financial transactions like mortgages etc. (Government granted provisional rights usually do not permit trading.) If I am not mistaken Solly Benjamin documented a variety of these kinds of transactions/claims in Karnataka. Other than this, squatters and pavement dwellers in Indian cities have had some sort of protection through an extended interpretation of Article 21 -- right to life and liberty (extended to right to livelihood/work). This protection is of course really very lose and has mostly been undone in the last decade through adverse court judgements. Anant ---------------- A place does not merely exist...it has to be invented in one's imagination . ___________________________________________________________ Rise to the challenge for Sport Relief with Yahoo! For Good http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/ From geetanjoy at rediffmail.com Sat Mar 22 20:09:52 2008 From: geetanjoy at rediffmail.com (geetanjoy sahu) Date: 22 Mar 2008 14:39:52 -0000 Subject: [Urbanstudy] slum dwellers' rights (was Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 49, Issue 16) Message-ID: <20080322143952.28700.qmail@f4mail-235-242.rediffmail.com> Dear All, See this link http://www.hindu.com/pp/2008/03/22/stories/2008032250370100.htm which has come out in today's hindu newspaer in the Bangalore edition on Slum issue in Bangalore. Geetanjoy  On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 anant m wrote : >--- Aditi Mittal wrote: > > I am wondering, what are the rights given by the > > government to slum settlers. Is there clarity on > > this? Do they have ownership / tenancy rights on the > > property they live in? What is the policy in Mumbai? >Hi Aditi, >I am sure there are others on the list who know this >much better than I do. There was some discussion on >the slumdwellers' rights etc. on this list a couple of >years ago when the NanglaMachi eviction happened in >Delhi. It should be in the archives. If you search >google news for the dates when that episode happened >and then look through urban study archives for those >dates you will find plenty of clues and references >e.g. articles by Usha Ramanathan on displacement etc. > >But very briefly, residents of notified or otherwise >given some sort of legal status by the state/local >administration have some tenurial rights. These are >not the same as clean titled property rights tho. It >is a sort of provisional/usufruct right granted >through a 'patta' document. Other than this, all slums >residents develop social/customary rights locally >through a mix of legal semilegal extra legal >instruments which allow them to trade in property or >otherwise participate in financial transactions like >mortgages etc. (Government granted provisional rights >usually do not permit trading.) > >If I am not mistaken Solly Benjamin documented a >variety of these kinds of transactions/claims in >Karnataka. > >Other than this, squatters and pavement dwellers in >Indian cities have had some sort of protection through >an extended interpretation of Article 21 -- right to >life and liberty (extended to right to >livelihood/work). This protection is of course really >very lose and has mostly been undone in the last >decade through adverse court judgements. >Anant > > >---------------- >A place does not merely exist...it has to be invented in one's imagination . > > > ___________________________________________________________ >Rise to the challenge for Sport Relief 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 From prem.cnt at gmail.com Sun Mar 23 11:39:00 2008 From: prem.cnt at gmail.com (Prem Chandavarkar) Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2008 11:39:00 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] slum discussion In-Reply-To: <434230.38635.qm@web23005.mail.ird.yahoo.com> References: <34e2292d0803082248j36d3e4d5r7c5c02f757f95dc0@mail.gmail.com> <434230.38635.qm@web23005.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <7e230b560803222309g6717aa2ei626abe716d6f786b@mail.gmail.com> One has to remember that urban planning, as a specialised discipline that manages urban issues, originated in health and sanitation acts in England in the 19th century. These legislative acts were responses to deal with the massive migration into cities during the industrial revolution, the chaotic living conditions that arose out of this migration, and the belief that these living conditions were breeding grounds for disease that could then endanger the whole city. This is mentioned in Geoffrey Broadbent's book "Emerging Concepts in Urban Space Design". Victorian morality then started to draw equivalence between physiological disease and "moral" disease, and saw slum-like conditions as also being breeding grounds for vice and crime. The slum was thus conceptualised as a degenerate environment, and the moral dimension was characterised by the expressed need to "clean" the city by eradicating slums. The problem was narrowly defined as one of spatial structure, rather than in broader terms of human conditions or human rights. This structure could then be defined and regulated through a system of building codes. The early health and sanitation acts were a set of codes that regulated setbacks, ventilation, drainage and permanance of building material. The preoccupation of urban planning became to define the regulatory rules through which the construction of the city would always be "healthy" - both physiologically and morally. Before this the notion or organising the city through a regulatory regime of building codes was practically unheard of. If it existed at all, it was only oriented toward the preservation of places that were considered special and symbolic; such as the rules in 9th/10th centuries on facade controls at the Piazza del Campo in Sienna, or later in the Renaissance (15th/16th cent) designs of public squares beginning with Brunelleschi's proposals for the Foundlings Hospital in Florence. In contrast, by the 20th century, urban planning was established as a specialist discipline that sought to conceptualise the entire city as a regulated order that should be proper, healthy and moral. Eventually building codes themselves became codified as moral law, and to build outside this regulatory regime was seen as deviant, illegal and immoral. So the existence of the slum itself was seen as immoral violation of law and order. The earlier moral dimension that saw the physical condition of slums breeding physiological and spiritual disease became overlaid by a moral judgmentalism that saw the slum as a deliberate choice of taking the easy option by ignoring the law. While these moral dimensions did come into the Indian perceptions of slums during the colonial times, after independence they have been complicated by the quest of a post-colonial country to achieve "modernity" - and this quest has become more complicated since India sought to globalise in the 1990's. Just after independence India had to grapple with a historical discontinuity where the previous two centuries of history could not be accepted as authentic. Modernity as a concept was distanced from the Indian imagination by the fact that there was no smooth movement from past to present to future. A development discourse set in, whose sense of history was in a state of suspension between a notion of a glorious cultural past and an anticipated technological modernity. This was further accentuated by an ambiguity in the concept of the city. Whenever the topic of Indian authenticity was raised, it was typically located in the village. Anthropology focused its gaze largely on the village. The city tended to get viewed only through narrow specialist lenses of disciplines such as urban planning, economics and political science, and urban studies was rarely viewed from a broader humanist perspective. Unlike the west, where the city could be viewed as the location of the avant garde and the cutting edge of cultural production, in India there was never any established theory of the city. The city as a concept remained in a state of suspension - a symbol of the modernity that was awaited. But in the 1990's, with the growth of new industries such as software and biotechnology, the city (particularly the metropolis) shed its ambiguity in the popular imagination by anchoring itself in global production. Modernity did not have to be awaited any more - it had arrived. For it could now be claimed that the Indian metropolis did not lag behind the rest of the world, and by being recognisably embedded in the global economy, it was thus anchored in modernity itself. Through the achievements of the metropolis, we could now claim that "India is shining". This led to a quest to globalise the visuality of the Indian city. In architecture, one saw a search for an instant globalism through cladding materials such as structural glazing and aluminium composite panels (popularly known by the acronym "ACP"). A concern for making the Indian city look efficient and modern was seen in a new drive with various efforts (many involving private sector participation) dedicated towards cleanliness, efficiency and better enforcement of master planning. This has also been fueled by a new wave of middle class activism, driven by local residents associations. With this a new perception of the slum began to get established - the slum as "backward", an obstacle to modernity, a drag on the historical momentum of the city. Rather than seeing the city as being unfair to slums, the slum is perceived as being unfair to the city. In recent times, this is another dimension of moral judgmentalism that has crept into the perception of slums. Many years ago (I think it was in the late 60s) the French film maker Louis Malle made a documentary series on India for French television. It caused great controversy in India, as it was seen as unfair and uncomplimentary, and if I remember correctly it was banned in India. What caused great discomfort was scenes such as the camera dwelling for a few minutes on vultures feeding on a dead buffalo in the middle of an urban garbage dump. In the first episode, Malle talks about how he came to India intent on making a documentary series that would capture the spirit of the country. But within a few days of arriving, he realised that he had set himself a task that was too complex to be possible. He therefore decided to adopt a more random strategy of just "following the camera", and analysing the consequences of doing so. But a discerning observation came when he trained his camera on beggars on a busy street in Bombay. As people passed by and noticed what he was shooting, they began to deliberately obstruct the camera by walking and pausing between the camera and the beggars. Malle did not attempt to shift the camera, and began to film this act of obstruction. One noticed that the people who did this were largely middle and upper class. Malle observed that they did not seem bothered by the fact that the beggars exist, but were bothered by the fact that "we were observing the beggars". The visibility of the beggars (to a global gaze) was more bothersome than the condition of the beggars. Now, when the global gaze is integrated into the Indian condition, this has caused a similar concern regarding the visibility of slums, and their perceived drag on the momentum of the city. Someone else on the list posted a link to an article that appeared in the Bangalore edition of The Hindu on 22nd March 08. The title of the article rejoiced that slums are set to disappear from the city "at last". The entire thrust of the article was a description (and tacit and immediate acceptance) of a scheme proposed by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike to replace slum houses with multi-storeyed dwellings. This mere fact (the construction of a proper spatial order that is modern) was seen as sufficient in itself. There was no real analysis to see whether slum dwellers would benefit in terms of lifestyle or livelihood, or whether the new dwellings were appropriate to the slum dwellers. The opinion of the slum dwellers themselves received no coverage. Previous projects in Mumbai were cited as precedents, with no analysis to see whether those projects were successful or not. So the rhetoric of globalisation (particularly the equivalence posited between globalisation and modernity) has become even more insidious and problematic then the rhetoric of nationalism that preceded it. If we seek a more egalitarian development model, it seems that the challenge is to recast the history of the Indian city in the popular imagination. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-80 Size: 9156 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080323/6d9f3794/attachment.bin From elkamath at yahoo.com Mon Mar 24 10:01:14 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2008 21:31:14 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: Investors warm to water as shortages mount Message-ID: <258252.69213.qm@web53608.mail.re2.yahoo.com> FYI Investors warm to water as shortages mount Wed Mar 19, 2008 1:14am GMT By Gerard Wynn LONDON (Reuters) - As liquidity is drained from credit and money markets and pours into oil and gold, another asset class that could offer long-term returns to the discerning investor is water. Water shortages are on the rise -- stemming from soaring demand, growing populations, rising living standards and changing diets. A lack of supply is compounded by pollution and climate change. Investors are mobilizing funds to buy the assets that control water and improve supplies, especially in developing countries such as China where urban populations are booming, further tightening supply. "Many of these cities have tripled in size in the last 10 years so there's just an unaddressed need, there's an enormous opportunity for investment," said Kimberly Tara, chief executive of commodities investor FourWinds Capital Management. FourWinds will this year start raising global funds initially of up to 3 billion euros ($4.68 billion) to invest in water, Tara said. Water shortage is already a serious problem in many regions of the world, as underlined in a December report from Zurich-based Sustainable Asset Management (SAM), which manages about 8.5 billion Swiss francs in assets. These include southern Spain, the Maghreb, the Middle East, Central Asia, Pakistan, southern India and northern China. In the Americas, the U.S. mid-west, Mexico and the Andes are the worst-hit areas. Eastern Australia is also badly affected. China is a particularly strong example. It has a fifth of the world's population but just 7 percent of the water. Most of the length of the country's five main rivers is unsafe for direct human contact, and the country will have to build 1,000 wastewater treatment plants between 2006 and 2010 to meet national pollution targets, Citigroup analysts say. But not everyone will benefit. While some Chinese cities are now investment hotspots, rural areas are being by-passed, underscoring a trend of under-funding in poorer regions and countries most vulnerable to shortages. Large equipment suppliers for sourcing water and treating waste will not operate in parts of the developing world, said Merrill Lynch analyst Robert Miller-Bakewell. "They're pretty selective about where they go. That means a lot of this need will not necessarily be addressed in the near-term," he said. "The technologies exist. You and I and the World Bank and everyone else can identify the need. The big problem all along is about who's going to pay for it all." Parts of Africa are especially dry -- both of clean water and cash -- at a time when prices are rising for the steel and concrete raw materials for treatment plants. A combination of unsafe water and poor sanitation kills about 1.8 million children annually, a Merrill report estimates. TREATMENT, NOT WATER The FourWinds Capital Management investment approach is to go after projects in water treatment and desalination and companies which make meters, pipes and pumps. Little money stands to be made from owning and charging customers for water itself, because governments subsidize this to ensure the vital asset is most under-priced when in greatest need. "It's very intuitive -- you (the government) must have the water, and so you'll pay anything to anyone who will get that water to you, but the water itself you have to control. So the price of the water is not the place to invest," said Tara. "We've been researching water for about two and a half years now, looking at different ways to invest," she added. A warming world is expected to play havoc with the world's rainfall patterns -- with less rain in heavier bursts -- and is likely to melt mountain glaciers on which hundreds of millions of people in Asia and South America depend. Some governments fret that the attention paid to fighting the causes of climate change, especially greenhouse gas emissions, has been at the expense of coping with the damage it is already wreaking, or that is around the corner. A collapse of the Indian summer monsoon from as early as next year is one of the world's most immediate, serious climate risks according to research posted by Britain's University of East Anglia last month. Drought is perhaps the most immediate of climate change threats, but even without global warming the aspirations of new middle-classes in Asia are a challenge. An average European uses 150-400 liters of water daily for their personal requirements, the SAM report said. Consumption in the United States is almost twice as high but in China, the figure is only 90 liters per day on average, while in many developing countries it is below the 50 liters a day "critical threshold" set by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). CLEANTECH Where there are customers who can afford them, new technologies may offer a profitable solution to excessive water extraction, for example by agriculture which is the biggest user by sector, mainly for irrigation. The production of one kg of beef requires 16,000 liters of water, according to www.waterfootprint.org, a Web site run by the Dutch University of Twente and the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education. That compares with 1,500 liters for a kg of grain. Like FourWinds Capital, agriculture firm Monsanto has been swotting up on climate change, said its head of technology strategy and development David Fischhoff. Along with other agriculture companies such as AGCO Corp, Monsanto's share price has risen recently on the back of spiraling grain prices and resulting higher farmer incomes, partly caused by droughts in Australia and south-east Europe. Over the past 12 months it has tasked its top 20 experts to digest how the latest climate science will affect the company. "Drought is our leading example of a problem to solve," Fischhoff said. The recent discovery of new genes and other scientific advances have aided the first deliberate biotech targeting of drought-tolerance with new crops now in the pipeline, he said. "The most advanced of these is now a drought-tolerant corn product ... commercializable within several years. We expect this to be the first generation of an ongoing stream." Monsanto is currently trading at nearly 39 times its forecast earnings for the year to August 2008: almost double the valuation for an emblem of growth in another sector, Google, according to data from Reuters Estimates. In industry, another major water user, innovation in water-recycling is exciting former dotcom entrepreneurs, in a trend mirroring Silicon Valley's recent enthusiasm for alternative energy to curb greenhouse gas emissions. British-based entrepreneur Daniel Ishag made money as founder of e-Spotting, which prospered from selling Web search links to advertisers: he now sees an opportunity to clean up on waste water. The key contribution of his new company Bluewater Bio, he says, is to keep alive and grow bacteria which munch their way through the waste that comes out of factories, homes and landfill sites, saving on chemicals and micro-organisms. He compared the state of water-processing technology to driving an antique car: "There are better pumps and pipes but the process is the same. It's about continued access to water, and not a lot of money is going into technology to do that." Cross posted from DEBATE 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/20080323/643e1988/attachment-0001.html From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Mon Mar 24 14:39:58 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 09:09:58 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] question for the list on peer reviewing Message-ID: <479079.51063.qm@web23007.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Dear all, it is not my intention at all to create hierarchies in the mailing list. If anyone feels that is a likely consequence of what I am suggesting, please do voice it. Having recently finished what I like to call my midlife excursion -- a PhD in geography, I am faced with a peculiar difficulty in research and writing. Happily enough, the problem has less to do with my midlife ness and more to do with a rather strange state of affairs akin to what Appadurai aptly described as the double apartheid of globalization.. But it plays out in a peculiar way with me. To cut to the chase, there are the usual divides between theory and empirics and theory and praxis or intellectual and academic (i find it quite useful to make that distinction) that many of us carp about from time to time. But what complicates this further is the divide between what counts as knowledge in professional journals and what is available to some of us as people who are simultaneously rooted in many different places. Take Prem's comment (Thanks Prem for that lovely summary. I will respond to it at some point in the near future) about theorizing the Indian city. The specificities of the city in India are so myriad and riveting in themselves. However, the moment, we begin to speak to theory in refereed journals within our disciplinary boundaries or even in the multidisciplinary journals, we end up talking in strange tongues that nobody except the initiated can make any sense of. At the end of the day it proves itself to be an extremely alienating experience even to the speaker/writer. I dont have any ready solutions for this. But I am wondering if this makes any sense to anyone else on this list perhaps we could start some conversations, share some of our writings for peer reviewing or share ideas on strategies to thrive or even think of how to create spaces for collaborations and mutual support in activist/organizing/professional work. As I said at the beginning, the idea is clearly not to create some kind of academic or even activist exclusions but to ask, now that we have been here for a while, can we do something more with this list or off the list?! anant ___________________________________________________________ Rise to the challenge for Sport Relief with Yahoo! For Good http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080324/084b9eb4/attachment.html From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Tue Mar 25 00:18:39 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:48:39 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] mumbai's development mafias Message-ID: <634740.59076.qm@web23014.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Dear All: The latest IJURR has a number of articles of interest to this list. The second one is bombay's development mafias! i have pasted the ToC in plain text. But if you go to the link you can read the abstracts. You will probably need library access to read the full articles. anant http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/ijur/32/1?ai=2jt&ui=iaji&af=H International Journal of Urban and Regional Research Volume 32, Issue 1, March 2008 Articles Forging Glocal Governance? Urban Infrastructures as Networked Financial Products MORAG I. TORRANCE pages 1–21 Mumbai's Development Mafias: Globalization, Organized Crime and Land Development LIZA WEINSTEIN pages 22–39 Uneven Development, Inter-scalar Tensions, and the Politics of Decentralization in South Korea BAE-GYOON PARK pages 40–59 Polish Regions in the Age of a Knowledge-based Economy PIOTR ZIENTARA pages 60–85 Symposium Plural Governance, Participation and Democracy in Cities JUSTIN BEAUMONT and WALTER NICHOLLS pages 87–94 Towards Radicalized Communicative Rationality: Resident Involvement and Urban Democracy in Rotterdam and Antwerp JUSTIN BEAUMONT and MAARTEN LOOPMANS pages 95–113 Citizen Participation in a Mediated Age: Neighbourhood Governance in The Netherlands JUSTUS UITERMARK and JAN WILLEM DUYVENDAK pages 114–134 Building a Vision for the Post-Apartheid City: What Role for Participation in Johannesburg's City Development Strategy? BARBARA LIPIETZ pages 135–163 Participatory Budgeting in Europe: Potentials and Challenges YVES SINTOMER, CARSTEN HERZBERG and ANJA RÖCKE pages 164–178 Debates and Developments Debate on Gentrification AbdouMaliq Simone Editor, Debates and Developments pages 179–179 Gentrification ‘Research’ and the Academic Nobility: A Different Class? CHRIS ALLEN pages 180–185 Comment on ‘The Eviction of Critical Perspectives from Gentrification Research’ LANCE FREEMAN pages 186–191 A Response to ‘The Eviction of Critical Perspectives from Gentrification Research’ KATE SHAW pages 192–194 On ‘The Eviction of Critical Perspectives’ NEIL SMITH pages 195–197 Relocating Gentrification: The Working Class, Science and the State in Recent Urban Research LOÏC WACQUANT pages 198–205 The Only Class in Town? Gentrification and the Middle-Class Colonization of the City and the Urban Imagination PAUL WATT pages 206–211 ‘A Literal Necessity to be Re-Placed’: A Rejoinder to the Gentrification Debate TOM SLATER pages 212–223 Book Reviews City Publics: The (Dis)enchantment of Urban Encounters - By Sophie Watson Tim Butler pages 225–226 Comparative Planning Cultures - Edited by Bishwapriya Sanyal Anirban Pal pages 227–228 Indian Industrial Clusters - Edited by Keshab Das Sarita Kamra pages 228–230 Deflecting Immigration: Networks, Markets, and Regulation in Los Angeles - By Ivan Light Edward J.W. Park pages 231–231 Labor Movement: How Migration Regulates Labor Markets - By Harald Bauder Adina Batnitzky pages 232–233 Shadow Cities; a Billion Squatters, a New Urban World - By Robert Neuwirth David Satterthwaite pages 233–235 Privileged Places: Race, Residence and the Structure of Opportunity - By Gregory D. Squires and Charis E. Kubrin Jennifer Darrah pages 235–237 The Frightened Land: Land, Landscape and Politics in South Africa in the Twentieth Century - By Jennfier Beningfield Yonn Dierwechter pages 237–238 Volume Index 2007 International Journal of Urban and Regional Research pages 239–245 IJURR Referees 2007 IJURR referees pages 247–249 Email Options __________________________________________________________ Sent from Yahoo! Mail. More Ways to Keep in Touch. http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080324/823243a0/attachment.html