This course offers a sociological reading of the key themes and perspectives in the classical and contemporary scholarship from the global and the South Asian context. Moving beyond a colonial and western imagination of the urban, this course examines urban processes in the non-west/third world/South Asian regions through its historical specificities. India's urban processes will be explored through a class, caste, gender, and sexuality perspective. It also brings under its purview the environmental issues, communal violence, displacement, patterns of migration, and the emergence of the middle class and the informal sector in contemporary India.
Course Date, Schedule and Duration: 12 January 2022; One lecture (2 h) per week, for 16 weeks; January–March 2022
Lecture Topics and Discussion:
The main topics of the lectures are as follows:
1. The Chicago School Tradition in urban sociology (Ernest Burgess, Robert Park, Louis Wirth, William Ogburn)
2. Key concepts and theories (Manuel Castells, David Harvey, Henry Lefebvre, Saskia Sassen)
3. The turn of new urban sociology
4. Colonialism, postcolonialism, decolonialism and urbanization in the third world
5. Indian urban experience and formation of Indian cities
6. Globalization, Indian cities, and the global women
7. The middle class in urban India
8. Popular culture and urban lifestyles
9. City, caste and communal assertions and violence
10. State, displacement, and urban politics
11. Changing patterns of migration and the rise of informal economy
12. Contemporary urban problems in India (water, housing, sanitation, and environmental perspectives)
13. Communities and marginalization in Indian cities (an intersectional perspective)
14. Urban planning: Key concerns
15. Urban policy and governance
16. Right to city and the new LGBTQ movements in India
Course Evaluation: One assignment and one examination
Course Readings:
1. Bhan, G. 2016. In the public’s interest: Evictions, citizenship, and inequality in contemporary Delhi. University of Georgia Press.
2. Castells, M. 2002. The Castells reader on cities and social theory. Edited by Ida Susser. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Limited, 2002. ISBN: 9780631219330.
3. Castells, M. 1976. 'Is there an Urban Sociology?' in C.G.Pickvance (ed.) Urban Sociology. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.
4. Gugler, J. 1996. World cities beyond the west. Issues, theory, and policy. New York: OUP.
5. Hansen, T. B. 2001. Urban violence in India. Identity, politics, 'Mumbai' and the postcolonial city. Delhi: Permanent Black.
6. Harvey, D. 1989 The Urban experience. Baltimore, John Hopkins Press
7. Jodhka, S., & Prakash, A. (eds). 2016. The Indian middle class. New Delhi: OUP.
8. Kundu, A. 2007. ‘Migration, employment status and poverty: An analysis across urban centres’, EPW.
9. Naidu, R. and J Kamalakar. 1988. 'Communal conflict in the Old City of Hyderabad'. Social Action, 38(4).
10. Naidu, Ratna. 2006. ‘Dilapidation and slum formation’, Chapter 9 in Urban Studies (ed. by Sujata Patel and Kushal Deb)
11. Nair, J. 2005. The Promise of the metropolis: Bangalore’s twentieth century, Delhi, Oxford
12. Narrian, A., & Bhan, G. (eds). 2006. Because I have a voice: Queer politics. New Delhi: Yoda Press.
13. Patel, S., and Deb, K. (eds). 2006. Urban Studies. Delhi: OUP.
14. Patel, S. and A Thorner. (eds). 1995. Bombay. Metaphor for Modern India. Delhi: OUP.
15. Pickvans, C.G. (ed). 1976. Urban Sociology. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.
16. Ramachandran, R. 1989. Urbanization and urban systems in India: Their origins under the impact of the British colonial policy. Stockholm: SAREC
17. Rao, M.S.A., Bhatt, C. and L.N. Kadekar. 1991. A Reader in Urban Sociology. New Delhi: Orient Longman.
18. Safa, Helen (ed). 1986. Towards the political economy of urbanization in the Third world countries, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
19.Sassen, Saskia. 2001. The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University.
20. Shaw, A. 1999. ‘Emerging patterns of urban growth in India’, EPW.
21. Sivaramakrishnan, K.C., A'Kundu and B. N. Singh. 2005. Handbook of Urbanization in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press
22. Upadhya, Carol. 2009. ‘India’s new middle class and the globalizing city: Software professionals in Bangalore, India’. The New Middle Classes.