From sollybenj at yahoo.co.in Tue Jun 1 19:43:25 2010 From: sollybenj at yahoo.co.in (solomon benjamin) Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2010 19:43:25 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Public Lecture (URPP, NIAS) by Prof.Wing-Shing Tang, Hong Kong Baptist Univ., on Monday, 7 June, 2010 at 6.00 pm at Lecture Hall, NIAS Message-ID: <11612.72018.qm@web8801.mail.in.yahoo.com> Dear friends, We invite you all to a lecture presentation by Prof Wing Shing Tang, and to hopefully what can be an engaged discussion that follows. As you can see, the issue being discussed is particularly topical in the context of several Indian cities, but also in the way both critical discourse and the media based reporting is framed. Solly The Urban Research and Policy Programme National Institute of Advanced Studies presents Public Lecture (as part of the lecture series ‘The City in Question’):   on  ‘The Hong Kong Section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hongkong Express Rail Link: Another Mega project under Post-Fordism, or What?’   by   Prof. Wing-Shing Tang Department of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University   Date:               Monday, June 7, 2010 Time:               6.00 p.m. (5.30 tea) Venue:             Lecture Hall, National Institute of Advanced Studies IISc Campus, Bangalore   Abstract: Mega projects (flagship projects, iconic architectures, large-scale urban development projects, etc.) are conspicuous throughout cities around the world nowadays. This trend has usually been explained as the local, material manifestation of global restructuring under post-Fordism (flexible accumulation, post-industrialisation, etc.). Although there are abundant sophisticated versions to address details of local articulation, explanation of this kind assumes that mega projects everywhere are of the identical logic, be they in Indian and Chinese cities, or their European and North American counterparts.  Accordingly, urban redevelopment in Indian or Chinese cities can be explained without paying heed to their historical dynamics. I contend that this explanation hides more than elaborates the underlying processes, the production of space in particular. This is to be achieved by focusing on a mega project proposed in Hong Kong – the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hongkong Express Rail Link. By going through the detail of the debates about this project, I proclaim instead the importance of Chinese state building, mediated by land development, in explaining the concerned mega project.   About the Speaker: Wing-Shing Tang is currently Professor in the Department of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University. His research interests focus on urban land development and planning, particularly in cities in East Asia. These research topics are approached in a way to unsettle the conventional, more Euro-centric traditions.     For further details, please contact Dr. Carol Upadhya: carol.upadhya at gmail.com     K S Rama Krishna-- N.I.A.S., I.I.Sc Campus Bangalore 560012 Ph:   2218 5000 Fax: 2218 5028 Email: niasoff at gmail.com -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cugambetta at yahoo.com Tue Jun 1 23:21:50 2010 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2010 10:51:50 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Janaki Nair lecture "Museumising the Cityscape of Mysore", Bangalore, June 2, 2010 Message-ID: <257621.10463.qm@web57409.mail.re1.yahoo.com> Somberikatte @1 Shanthiroad presents RE-LOOK: Lectures on Indian Art "MUSEUMISING THE CITYSCAPE OF MYSORE" a lecture by JANAKI NAIR Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, New Delhi Wednesday 02 June 2010, 6.30 pm @ 1 Shanthiroad Studio/ Gallery 1 Shanthiroad, Shanthinagar, Bangalore “Museumising the Cityscape of Mysore” Once the uncertainties of Wodeyar "rule" were laid to rest in 1881, the way was paved for the fashioning of Mysore as a Royal Capital. Much of Mysore's royal landscape was conceived and built in the first four decades of the 20th century, though it successfully acquired a depth of historical distance at the same time. This talk will discuss some of the key moments in the museumisation of Mysore city in the 20th century. Janaki Nair is Professor of History at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. She has done research and writing primarily on the social, cultural and political history of Mysore/Karnataka, with strong interest in the fields of women's and urban studies, questions of law and state, and visual cultures and practices. Her books include Women and law in Colonial India (1996), Miners and Millhands: Work Culture and Politics in princely Mysore, (1998) and The Promise of the Metropolis: Bangalore's Twentieth Century (2005). A collection of essays entitled Mysore Modern is forthcoming. * This is the third lecture in the Series - Re-Look: Lectures on Indian Art. From vishal at cis-india.org Mon Jun 14 13:43:42 2010 From: vishal at cis-india.org (Vishal Makhija) Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:43:42 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] =?utf-8?q?Survey_=3A_Digital_Natives_with_a_Cause=3F?= Message-ID: Hello, Greetings from the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore. Founded in 2008, The Centre for Internet & Society [1] (CIS) is a Bangalore-based independent, non-profit, research organisation which is involved in research on the emerging field of the Internet and its relationship to the society. CIS brings together scholars, academics, students, programmers and scientists to engage in a large variety of Internet issues like governance, privacy and freedom of expression, etc. CIS works in the areas of histories of the Internet, digital natives, and a reader on the Wikipedia, enhancing higher education for the downtrodden, and accessibility for the disabled, openness, telecom and Internet governance. CIS runs different academic and research programmes and is receptive to new ideas and collaborations, projects and campaigns from the public. CIS, in collaboration with Hivos\' Knowledge Programme [2], launched a project, Digital Natives with a Cause? [3] in 2008. As younger generations growing up in emerging information societies learn to engage with their geo-political and socio-cultural environments, a form of technology-mediated identity, popularly dubbed as the Digital Native, has been the discussion of a growing public and intellectual debate. These digital natives are transforming the ways in which they understand themselves as well as the world around them while engaging with Internet and digital technologies. Young users of technology are moving towards a reconfiguration of the world, where questions of identity, political participation, social transformation, cultural production, education, and livelihood are being restructured. The Digital Natives Research Programme focuses on producing new knowledge frameworks, vocabularies and lexicons to understand, investigate and support these new citizens or netizens rather who shall be the agents of change in the future. After the initial research (click here for a free download [4]), CIS will gather responses from young users of technology to help us understand, document and support different practices aimed at social transformation and political participation more efficiently. We believe that the world we live in is changing rapidly and the rise of Internet technologies has a lot to do with it. As young users of technology (as opposed to young users who use technology) adopt, adapt and use these new technologised tools to interact with their environment, new ways of effecting change emerge. This survey is an attempt to capture some of the information which gives us an insight into who the people are using these technologies, the ways in which they use them and what their perceptions and experiences are. The survey will not take more than seven minutes of your precious time and it will help us get a better sense of the way things are. Please click here [5] to start the survey. We would also appreciate if you could share the link to the survey with your friends and relatives via your blog, tweets or other social networking pages. Your help would go a long way in enabling us to find out how the youth of today are shaping the society and influencing the political/social scenario around them. Please note that the data collected as part of the survey would be anonymous and not used for any commercial purposes. We would also acknowledge your help in preparing the final report. In case you need any further information or clarifications, please feel free to call us at +91 - 080 - 25350955 or write to us at nishant at cis-india.org [6] With best compliments, Vishal Links: ------ [1] http://www.cis-india.org/ [2] http://www.hivos.net/ [3] http://www.cis-india.org/research/dn/dnrep [4] http://www.cis-india.org/publications/cis/nishant/dnrep.pdf/view [5] http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dG9reUVvQ0w4d1ZER3lKOUtFanZMUnc6MA [6] mailto:nishant at cis-india.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From geetanjoy at rediffmail.com Tue Jun 15 12:30:54 2010 From: geetanjoy at rediffmail.com (Geetanjoy Sahu) Date: 15 Jun 2010 07:00:54 -0000 Subject: [Urbanstudy] =?utf-8?q?National_Green_Tribunal_Workshop_at_TISS?= Message-ID: <20100615070054.6806.qmail@f4mail-235-143.rediffmail.com> Dear All, The Government of India’s decision to set up a National Green Tribunal (NGT) is considered one of the long awaited requirements to deal with the flurry of environmental litigation across the country. The potential impact of an independent environmental court consisting of a judge and multidisciplinary expert members from different disciplines is considerable. Depending on its design, and given the overburden of environmental litigation on the existing judicial system, the setting up of an independent tribunal consisting of multidisciplinary expert people could be considerably positive. At the same time, if the selection and composition and functions of the tribunal are flawed and not democratic, the green tribunal could misuse its powers. There is also a larger question about whether the basic assumptions going into thinking about this proposed National Green Tribunal are defensible. The National Green Tribunal Bill has already been passed by the Parliament on 5th May, 201 0 without any public consultation. Although the bill has been passed, there is still a window for giving input as the rules are yet to be framed for the functioning of the green tribunal. In this connection, the School of Habitat Studies of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai in collaboration with The Access Initiative (TAI), New Delhi is organising a one day state level consultation workshop on 19th June (Saturday), 2010 to discuss on various aspects of the National Green Tribunal Bill and reflect upon the experiences of different environmental courts and other institutions dealing with environmental litigation. Those who are interested to participate in the workshop can confirm by 17th June 2010 by email to geetanjoy at tiss.edu. The programme schedule is attached. Thanks & Regards, Geetanjoy Sahu Assistant Professor School of Habitat Studies -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Workshop_Programme_Schedule.doc Type: application/msword Size: 37376 bytes Desc: not available URL: