Urban Planning

The urban turn we are going through is increasing the importance of cities inour life. The sheer size, number and spatial convergence of activities puts cities as the engines of growth and makes them epicenters of cultural production. For the same reasons, they also become the sites of contestation. Some view cities and their growth as parasitic and anti-rural. Others think India no more mainly lives in villages, but in cities as well. An understanding of what forces shape urban life and development has become compulsory to cover cities. This course will offer an overview of urban development in India. It will focus on city planning, real estate markets, city laws and culture of cities. Issues of infrastructure investment, private partnership in city development and role of civil society in city affairs will be discussed. The rural-urban divide and urban poverty would be one of the key concerns of this course. A special section on the cultural and political landscape will explore mapping tools to gain new insights into city life. The course will draw on select writings on urban development and also include representations of city life in popular literature including films as its resource.