24 February 2020: When Diseases Reinvent Urban Space

Samuel Benkimoun
Université Paris-1 and Centre for Science and Humanities (CSH)

Organised by
Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH)

Abstract:
The ongoing epidemic of Coronavirus showcases the absolute need to monitor properly the spatiality of diseases in terms of case distribution and environmental context. Such a spatial analysis is necessary to be able to apprehend the determinants of the disease’s spread. The disciplinary field of health geography aims to identify the spatial characteristics that influence the emergence of disease outbreak and make certain territories more vulnerable than others. Yet while geographical factors influence the spread of diseases, analysing this very diffusion of diseases also reveals significant information about a territory’s spatial dynamics.

This presentation will focus on the case of dengue fever—whose burden is globally estimated at 390 million infections per year according to WHO—in the city of Delhi. I will attempt to show how the case of dengue invites us to rethink urban space and question the notion of “cities” as complex and dynamic systems of flows with constantly changing boundaries. This is due to the fact that diseases are not confined to administrative perimeters but move where infected people go. Recently, dengue has also been brought into the public political debate, with the campaign by the Delhi government entitled “#10Hafte10Baje10Minute”. Delhi citizens were exhorted to get rid of mosquito breeding sites (i.e. the vectors of dengue transmission) by devoting 10 minutes each week to inspecting their own houses and surrounding areas. Such an objective of dengue eradication raises questions regarding the priority focus of public policy. At what scale should health policy be implemented, and on which geographical areas should it focus? This is particularly relevant given the frenetic urban growth that the city of Delhi experiences.

To support this analysis, we will rely on a very unique dataset provided by Facebook in the frame of its “Data for Good Project”. This data gives an accurate record of users’ mobility across all of Northern India. Combined with other data sources such as Census data, dengue cases records from sentinel hospitals, or satellite imagery on urban settlement, this data will allow us to conduct geospatial analysis at a suburban level and present various indicators and cartographies depicting a broader picture of Delhi’s urban context regarding the dengue issue.

Date: February 24, 2020
Time: 05:00 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Room (Ground Floor)
Centre for Science and Humanities (CSH),
2, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road,
New Delhi - 110 011

Note:
For registration, RSVP mentioning your full name to:
neeru.gohar@csh-delhi.com

Location:

20 January 2020: Future Seekers in Aspirational India

Dipankar Gupta

Organised by
Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH)

Abstract:
In this presentation, I would like to begin with some of the major socio-economic trends in urban and rural India in order to set the context for the current aspiration-driven churn in our country. It is necessary to appreciate how extensively the transformation of the rural economy has contributed to urban aspirations. Next, I should like to discuss in sequence the linkages between education, jobs and skills in contemporary India and what constraints young people encounter as they set out to meet their future. There is certainly a lot of promise in the air but there are also apprehensions which are real. At the same time, it should also be clear that earlier explanatory approaches that relied heavily on caste or traditional norms have little traction in understanding social processes that accost us now. Much of the data presented will be from secondary sources, such as the Agricultural Census, the National Census, MSME, the National Sample Survey, the National Census, Manpower Data, India Human Development Report. But through it all, it is actual field experiences that were inspirational points that alerted the speaker to look at macro data sources to understand the magnitude of the issues involved. It is the blending of first hand with secondary data that together will make for the bulk of my talk.

Date: January 20, 2020
Time: 05:00 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Room (Ground Floor)
Centre for Science and Humanities (CSH),
2, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road,
New Delhi - 110 011

Note:
For registration, RSVP mentioning your full name to be sent to: neeru.gohar@csh-delhi.com. More info: julien.levesque@csh-delhi.com
Due to security protocols, please pre-register over email and carry an ID proof to be granted access to the venue.

Location:

31 December 2019: Workshop on "Unthinking Urbanisation: How Urban and Messy is India’s Urbanisation?"

Partha Mukhopadhyay
Centre for Policy Research

Organised by
Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH)

Abstract:
Recently, India’s urbanisation has been characterised as “messy”. At various times, it has been described as unplanned and chaotic. In this context, this talk will primarily engage with two questions. First, it asks if Indian cities are urban — are they urban in all dimensions, economic, social, political, and spatial? Second — and without prejudice to the answer to the first question and stipulating that an urbanisation process is underway — it asks what does it mean to say that Indian urbanisation is messy, that it is a thoughtless, unplanned sprawl? Is there another way of looking at the urbanisation process? Drawing upon multiple qualitative, quantitative, and spatial data sources, this talk will argue first, that in many respects, Indian cities may not yet be urban. Further, the apparent messiness is the result of shortcomings in the public response to relatively normal and predictable individual actions. Consequently, we need to discuss how the public response can be improved rather than adopt punitive measures that penalise rational individual behaviour.

Date: December 31, 2019
Time: 03:45 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

Location:

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30 July 2019: Workshop on 'How Women Mobilise Women into Politics: Theory and Natural Experimental Evidence from Urban India'

Tanushree Goyal
Nuffield College, University of Oxford, UK

Organised by
Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH)

Abstract:
How does women’s political entry affect citizen’s political involvement? Building on qualitative interviews and extending elite mobilisation theories to account for who conducts grass-roots mobilisation, I argue that female politicians increase women’s numbers in party activist roles, and prospects of cheaply mobilising women provide a strategic incentive to do so. As a result, more women receive mobilising effort, such as door-to-door party contact, where women contest. Women’s entry in activist roles has downstream effects on the quality of mobilisation. When women enter into activist roles, where they were previously absent, they induce competition for these roles and in doing so raise the quality of activist pool. This affects the political involvement, that is, political knowledge and participation, of all citizens. I provide evidence for this argument using original survey data from a natural experiment in Delhi’s Municipal Council, where randomly chosen electoral seats are reserved for women. By outlining how representation affects the calculus of mobilisation, this paper connects the literature on women’s political entry with mobilisation and political involvement.

This paper is part of an ongoing dissertation book project, provisionally titled, 'The politics of representation: How female politicians make politics inclusive in India', that examines the consequences of women’s entry through quotas in Delhi’s civic body. Drawing on a natural experiment, extensive fieldwork, interviews, and original survey, combined with insights from a new electoral polling-station level panel dataset, this book proposes to offer new theoretical insights and an empirical account of women’s agency in shaping urban politics and governance in India.

Date: July 30, 2019
Time: 03:35 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

Location:

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28 May 2019: Workshop on 'Pollution in India in the Context of Urbanisation and Climate Change: Perspectives and Challenges'

Sagnik Dey
Centre for Atmospheric Science, IIT Delhi

Organised by
Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH)

Abstract:
Air pollution is the largest environmental health risk factor in India. To understand the health burden associated with ambient exposure to PM 2.5 (fine particulate matter) in India, we developed a satellite based PM 2.5 retrieval. The paper also maps urban expansion using settlement data for 60+ cities in India (that are under the smart city mission) and quantifies the change in the pollution that can be attributed to urbanisation. We found that more than 50% of India's population does not meet the Indian standard. The rising trend in PM 2.5 in India is regionally isolated and mostly governed by the increase during post-monsoon and winter season along with increase in urban expansion.

We further project PM 2.5 under climate change scenarios and observe that PM 2.5 exposure is projected to increase until 2050 under the RCP 4.5 scenario and until 2080 under the RCP 8.5 scenario. We project the burden attributable to ambient PM 2.5 exposure in India for future by combining RCP scenario with SSP scenarios. The epidemiological transition is unable to compensate fully the demographic transition. If India (and the world) can meet the RCP 4.5 scenario, 40,000 premature deaths can be avoided annually (relative to RCP 8.5 scenario) due to air pollution.

Date: May 28, 2019
Time: 03:45 P.M.

Venue:
Centre for Science and Humanities (CSH),
2, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road,
New Delhi - 110 011

Note:
Please confirm participation to neeru.gohar@csh-delhi.com and carry valid photo ID

Location:

8 April 2019: Panel discussion on "Spatial Analysis of City Regions: Perspectives from France and India"

Speakers:
Eric Denis, Hadrien Commenges, Paul Chapron, Géographie-cites (Paris-Sorbonne)
Olivier Telle, Samuel Benkimoun, Rupali Pal, Centre de Sciences Humaines (CNRS-MAEE)
Milap Punia, Arvind, Nisha, Suvamoy Parmanik, Juhi Horo, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, JNU
Marie-Hélène Zérah and Shamindra Roy, Centre for Policy Research

Organised by
Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH)

Abstract:
The city exists in space and in the context of its region, yet we rarely analyse the city spatially. Many crises – climate change, inequalities, old and new epidemics – are concentrated in urban areas and solutions need to be found there. Locating these issues and understanding their interconnections is the first step to begin to understand and address them. The use of geospatial data is one entry point to this understanding. This panel will present a variety of research in two Indian and two French research institutes using such data to highlight the variety of questions that can be studied using such tools.

The issues addressed will include open source tools and geo-datasets for studying urban changes, emerging epidemics and climate change in urban areas, the synthesis of socio-economic and ecological transformations in peri-urban spaces and spatial relationships between governance and inequality.

Date: April 8, 2019
Time: 02:30 P.M.

Venue:
Centre for Science and Humanities (CSH),
2, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road,
New Delhi - 110 011

Note:
Please confirm participation to neeru.gohar@csh-delhi.com and carry valid photo ID

Location:

25 March 2019: What’s the beef with beef? The persistent health effects of cattle slaughter bans in India

Aparajita Dasgupta
Ashoka University

Organised by
Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH)

Abstract:
Using a triple differences-in-difference strategy along with an event study design, we show that cattle slaughter bans reduce the availability of beef for the poor. In the long-term we find that early life exposure to cow slaughter bans leads to lower levels of hemoglobin (Hb) for poor women in communities that traditionally eat beef, who are up to 10% more likely to be anaemic in their prime reproductive ages.

Date: March 25, 2019
Time: 05:00 A.M.

Venue:
Conference Room (Ground Floor)
Centre for Science and Humanities (CSH),
2, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road,
New Delhi - 110 011

Note:
For registration: RSVP mentioning your full name to be sent to: neeru.gohar@csh-delhi.com

Location:

26 February 2019: Workshop on "The Geography of Jobs: Explaining Employment Growth in India (2005-2013)"

Samuel Asher
The World Bank

Organised by
Centre for Policy Research and Centre for Science and Humanities (CSH)

Abstract:
The paper (written jointly with Rinku Murgai and Sutirtha Sinha Roy) provides new evidence on the micro-geography of job growth in India. Policymakers in India are concerned that there is insufficient new job creation to absorb the millions of people joining the labor force each year, yet there is little evidence on the conditions in which local economies across the country are adding jobs. In this talk use use data from a village- and town-level panel built around four waves of the Economic Census (1990-2013), with a particular focus on the most recent data. We begin by comparing job numbers in the Economic Census to concurrent rounds of the NSS, concluding that while they appear to measure employment differently, the Economic Census is a valuable tool for investigating the spatial factors that help to explain job growth. We document how much of the variation in employment growth is within states and districts, a phenomenon impossible to study without such spatially disaggregated data. This motivates our investigation into the many factors that explain the patterns of job growth across India: state policies, density/ urbanisation, natural advantage, and agglomeration economies. We then do a deeper analysis of two particularly important types of employment: female employment and jobs in large firms. We conclude with a discussion of next steps to make the transition from descriptive to causal work.

Date: February 26, 2019
Time: 03:45 P.M.

Venue:
Centre for Science and Humanities (CSH),
2, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road,
New Delhi - 110 011

Note:
Please confirm participation to neeru.gohar@csh-delhi.com and carry valid photo ID.

Location:

29 January 2019: Workshop on 'Urban Mobility and Dengue in Delhi and Bangkok: What Can We Learn from Online Data?'

Alexandre Cebeillac
University of Rouen (France) and the Centre for Social Science and Humanities (CSH), New Delhi

Abstract:
Emerging vector-borne diseases such as dengue intensify public health crises in the Asian mega cities of Bangkok (Thailand) and Delhi (India). The links between mosquitoes and the urban environment are well documented, but our understanding of human movement, as a key element of virus spreading, has yet to be fully explored as a research subject.

Given the paucity in adequate or available institutional data, our research first focused on field surveys, and then on the collection, comparison and critique of data collected from major Internet platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Google, Microsoft). Their potential varies from one geographical area to another, still they shed light on the organisation and structure of the studied cities. Moreover, they highlight intra-urban interactions and time frames.

However, such studies cannot be carried out without knowledge acquired from the field. Using the concept of activity space, we propose a method that uses Twitter data and field surveys to model the daily schedules of individuals, thus offering insights into mobility patterns. This is a first step in the development of an agent-based model of individual mobility.

Date: January 29, 2019
Time: 03:45 P.M.

Venue:
Centre for Science and Humanities (CSH),
2, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road,
New Delhi - 110 011

Note:
Please confirm participation to amit.arora@csh-delhi.com

Location:

26 June 2018: Workshop on Predicting 2019: How many census towns will there be?

Shamindra Nath Roy
Kanhu Charan Pradhan
Centre for Policy Research

Abstract:
India’s rural landscape is dotted with numerous villages where people do not work on the farm. The 2011 census highlighted the enormous growth of such areas, with new census towns (CTs) accounting for more than one third of the urban population growth during 2001-2011. The process of urban transformation in India is therefore not much about movement of people from rural to urban areas, rather it is about ‘morphing of places’ from rural to urban. Since the rural-urban identification process in India is ex-ante, using the past census data, this talk seeks to estimate the number of CTs that will be identified in 2019 for the 2021 census. It does so to ask whether the large increase in the number of CTs from 2001 to 2011 census was a one-off phenomenon or part of a longer process of rural-urban transformation. Since such prognosis requires a detailed review of the census methodology of determining CTs, it will also clarify certain challenges that arise during such identification. Along with this methodological review, this talk will present the regional distribution of CTs on the basis of last two censuses and the upcoming predictions; and offer insight on their spatial characteristics in relation to the larger cities and attempts to throw light on their economic characteristics in the broader context of rural-urban transformation. A better appreciation of this transformation is necessary to contextualise how well the policy framework is placed to manage and govern these areas, not only in the present but also in the future.

Date: June 26, 2018
Time: 03:45 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

Note:
This workshop is free and there is no registration required.

Location:

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27 March 2018: Workshop on "Sustainable Cities through Heritage Revival: Asian Case Studies"

Olga Chepelianskaia
Founder of UNICITI and Program Manager of Seher Intach

Abstract:
Indian cities face an unprecedented urbanization pressure (50% of India’s population will reside in cities by 2050, UN), which reflects in a rapid and uncontrolled built infrastructure development. Such development often takes place at the expense of natural eco-systems, human scale and cultural distinctiveness, which in turn significantly compromises sustainability, resilience, social cohesion, inclusiveness and economic opportunities. Climate change and extreme weather events further exacerbate negative effects of this unsustainable urbanization process and further deepen poverty and vulnerability in cities. In this context, achieving the SDGs and the New Urban Agenda targets imperatively comes to reviving and harnessing on cities’ unique natural and cultural assets. Yet, the potential of built heritage to address urban development challenges in India has hardly been explored and tapped into.

A number of Asian cities have however demonstrated that such a joint approach unlocks the rich potential of heritage to bring wide economic, social and environmental benefits at both the national and the local level. SEHER INTACH initiated a series of related analytical case studies with the objective of identifying successful heritage integrating policies, institutional set ups and interventions. This talk presents selected Asian cities’ cases and highlights how these learnings could apply to the Indian context.

SEHER INTACH – Sustainable Cities through Heritage Revival – is an integrated urban initiative launched by INTACH in 2017 to respond to equally critical needs of preventing built heritage from demolition and of ensuring that urbanization is inclusive, human scale and environmentally sustainable in India.

Date: March 27, 2018
Time: 03:45 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

Note:
This workshop is free and there is no registration required.

Location:

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5 March 2018: Virus Geography in a City: from Structuralist to Complexity Theories - and back

Olivier Telle
Centre for Social Science and Humanities (CSH)

Abstract:
The last two decades have witnessed an increase in various infectious diseases (Ebola, dengue, chikungunya, Zika, etc. The aim of the talk is to present social sciences paradigms, concepts, methods and tools that enable to analyze this emergence, and to illustrate the usefulness of these methods for the specific case of dengue epidemics that regularly affect asian urban areas. This illustration will summarize 10 years of research conducted on dengue geography at urban scales in two different Asian agglomerations: Delhi and Ventiane.

Date: March 5, 2018
Time: 03:30 P.M.

Venue:
Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH)
2, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Road,
New Delhi 110011

Note:
Please note that this is an internal seminar with a limited number of seats. RSVP mentioning your full name to be sent at the latest on Saturday 2 December, to: sneha.kapoor@csh-delhi.com

Location:

9 February 2018: Workshop on "New opportunities in controlling vector-borne diseases: Big data, new insecticides and governance in urban India"

Organised by:
Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and The Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities (CSH)

Abstract:
Mosquito-borne diseases rising in Asia is a critical issue: severe dengue is for an example a leading cause of serious illness and death among children in some Asian and Latin American countries. In India, CNRS and CPR collaborate with National Institute of Malaria Research (ICMR), South Municipal Corporation of Delhi and Institut Pasteur on a Public Health project which looks for short and long-term solutions to slow epidemics of vector-borne diseases. This project aims to test on-site innovative tools to control the Aedes Aegipty mosquito - the main vector for dengue, chikungunya and Zika viruses and to rely on big data mining to better locate where intervention should be realized in cities. At long term we aimed to understand the structural factors involved in vector-borne diseases emergence, such as urbanisation, increased international/regional/urban mobility and unequal governance of diseases. This collaborative project, involving geographers, mathematicians, entomologists and viologists, is a strong example of collaborative and trans-disciplinary research between academics and public health planners.

Through this project, the second objective of this workshop is to present the Geospatial tools developed between CPR and CNRS, that gather innovative data at large scale on the Indian environment (mobility, climatic, socio-economical data). This Geographic Information System has the ambition to serve an extended community of researchers and health planners in India and abroad.

Date: February 9, 2018
Time: 05:30 P.M.

Venue:
Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities,
2 Adbul Kalam Road,
New Delhi–110016 (INDIA)

Note:
Due to embassy requirements, reservation mentioning your full name has to be sent at: telle.olivier@gmail.com.

Location:

27-28 March 2017: Workshop on Labour Migration and Social Change in South Asia

Organised by:
Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and
French Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities (CSH) supported by Tata Trusts’ SHRAMIC initiative

Program

Abstract:
Though the movement of people in pursuit of work is not new, labour migration appears to be a growing phenomenon in the South Asian region. Empirical studies and papers analysing government data have shown that migration is not a simple movement from village to city in this region, but involves multiple streams and patterns including short-term, iterative, permanent and return migration across short and long distances. This workshop explores aspects that link human mobility and social transformation in sending and receiving communities, especially in the context of labour migration.

This workshop has been conceived as a platform for young researchers, scholars and practitioners to share their work and receive feedback from experienced and knowledgeable experts. The 15-odd papers being presented have been selected from over 70 entries in response to a call for papers in December 2016 and represent the work of young researchers across the South Asia region.

Date: March 27-28, 2017
Time: 09:30 A.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall,
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

Location:

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26 July 2016: Workshop on Geographies of care and intimacy: Early insights from oral histories of informal sector migrants in Delhi and Hyderabad

Vinay Gidwani, Priti Ramamurthy, Sunil Kumar and Lokesh

Abstract:
A key insight of recent social science scholarship on India is the paucity of reliable formal sector employment, compelling a very large portion of India’s workforce to find uncertain livelihoods in an assortment of rural and urban informal sector work, the latter consisting of construction, street vending, petty retail, transportation, waste picking, sex work, and domestic service labor to name but a few venues. This vast population has been variously characterized as a “wasteland of the dispossessed” (Sanyal 2007), a state of “wageless life” (Denning 2010), a “surplus population” (Smith 2011), a “precariat” (Standing 2011), and a “floating reserve army” (Breman 2013). Possibly because the employment challenge that confronts countries like India with its vast youth demographic is so humbling, the existing scholarship in fields like labor studies, urban geography, rural sociology, and feminist studies has been resolutely economistic. With few exceptions, it has had little to say on the experiences, life-making activities and desires of the men and women, who toil in India’s cities even as they remain enmeshed with ongoing lives in their villages. While there is every reason to be perturbed by the looming employment challenge that confronts nations like India what is conspicuously scarce in this litany of gloom are humanizing accounts that plumb how denizens of the informal economy experience and narrate their life-worlds: their longings, desires, and indignities; their practices of care and violence; their loneliness, friendships, and found intimacies; and their conflicted attitudes to love, marriage, kinship, sex, and patriarchy.

In this seminar, we will present preliminary insights on the intimate lives of first- and second- generation rural-to-urban migrants in Delhi and Hyderabad, based on the first phase of ongoing oral historical research. Our research strives to bring humanistic insights to existing political economy scholarship on migration and employment; while it is not policy-oriented, we hope it can indirectly inform policy initiatives on informal sector work and urbanization.


Date: July 26, 2016
Time: 03:45 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

Location:

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12 November 2014: State Spatial Rescaling in India Subnational States and the Politics of Economic Restructuring

Loraine Kennedy
Centre for South Asian Studies, Paris and Centre for Social Science and Humanities, New Delhi

Abstract:
State re-scaling is the central concept mobilized in Loraine Kennedy’s new book to interpret the political processes that are producing new economic spaces in India. In the quarter century since economic reforms were introduced, the Indian economy has experienced strong growth accompanied by extensive sectoral and spatial restructuring. The book argues that in this reformed institutional context, where both state spaces and economic geographies are being rescaled, subnational states play an increasingly critical role in coordinating socioeconomic activities.

The core thesis is that the reform process has profoundly reconfigured the Indian state’s rapport with its territory at all spatial scales, and these processes of state spatial rescaling are crucial for comprehending emerging patterns of economic governance and growth. It demonstrates that the outcomes of India’s new policy regime are not only the product of impersonal market forces, but that they are also the result of endogenous political strategies, acting in conjunction with the territorial reorganisation of economic activities at various scales, ranging from local to global. Extensive empirical case material, primarily from field-based research, is used to support the book’s theoretical assertions.

Loraine Kennedy will present the book’s main arguments and elaborate on several case studies that form the empirical basis of her thesis, including the implementation of the SEZ policy in Haryana, the use of spatial engineering instruments in Andhra Pradesh and industrial estate development in Tamil Nadu.

Date: November 12, 2014
Time: 05:00 P.M.

Venue:
CSH library,
2 Aurangzeb Road,
New Delhi – 110011

Location: