Indian cities are made up of dense networks which often resist being streamlined and neatly organised through various modes of governance and master planning. In the light of this, recent literature on cities in the Global South has attempted to move beyond singular representations of urbanisation and recognise the multiple, emergent, and improvised relations between people, infrastructures, capital and the environment. With respect to these complexities, how can we reimagine the concept of sustainability that is sensitive to social and spatial vulnerabilities in the city?
To discuss this topic, we will be joined by Professor Anne Rademacher and Mr Jagan Shah.
Anne Rademacher is a Professor of Environmental Studies at New York University. Her research explores the political and cultural dimensions of sustainability in cities. Through ethnographic analyses of urban environmental change, Anne studies the contested social histories and ideologies of social belonging that develop in urban environments. Her lens is urban ecology – its scientific contours, its application across cultural and political contexts, and its interconnection with social change. Her books include Building Green: Environmental Architects and the Struggle for Sustainability in Mumbai (University of California Press 2017) and Ecologies of Urbanism in India: Metropolitan Civility and Sustainability (Hong Kong University and Columbia University Press 2013).
Jagan Shah Senior Infrastructure Adviser in the Department for International
Development of the UK Government, where he leads a programme to support the
PPP Cell of the Indian Ministry of Finance and is devising a new programme for
developing inclusive, investible and resilient cities. Prior to joining DFID in 2019, he
gathered over two decades of experience in bridging across various disciplines
related to the design, planning and policy for the built environment and cities. He has
been deeply involved in creating innovative urban plans, such as city development plans for 14 cities in Madhya Pradesh (2005-9), the Regional Plan 2021 for the National Capital Region, the Master Plan for Delhi (2006-7 and 2018-19), and the National Urban Policy framework (2018) and the policy and implementation of India’s Smart Cities Mission.
This event will be live-streamed to our YouTube channel here:
www.youtube.com/channel/UCOoksFYBCHqZWwVBU9qewZg
