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In the run up to the DO DIN 2017, we are organizing a panel discussion titled Invisible Cities. We bring to you stories from many different kinds of cities that are held within the national capital of Delhi. Dr. Sushmita Pati, political scientist who spent years tracing the transformations of urban villages in Delhi and Dr. Diya Mehra who traced the transformations of neighborhoods through resident welfare associations. Both begin their investigations from the decade of the 50s when Delhi began to undergo dramatic changes as refugees from Pakistan began to settle down into distinct localities and farmers in dozens of villages within Delhi gave up their farmlands to Delhi Development Authority. In a little over half a century since then, regulatory and planning authorities made occasional attempts to come to terms with the spatial transformations of Delhi. Yet, the capillary processes of change through which money, power and people, and the macro and micro infrastructures and channels through which material resources of life - water, electricity and other services kept morphing in ways that have largely remained invisible to researchers and policymakers. In this panel discussion, Dr. Pati and Dr. Mehra will share stories of places to demonstrate how real and breathing cities actually work. The panel will also reflect on the methodological challenges and ethical questions that arise in the course of uncovering lifeworlds that have hitherto remained hidden. We hope to use this as a launching point to reflect on a singular question: what is at stake in making the visible the invisible. Why must we, if at all, pry open stories that have been hitherto private possibly for good reason.
4744
Invisible Cities
Thu Dec 14, 3:00 PM
Lamakaan
In the run up to the DO DIN 2017, we are organizing a panel discussion titled Invisible Cities. We bring to you stories from many different kinds of cities that are held within the national capital of Delhi. Dr. Sushmita Pati, political scientist who spent years tracing the transformations of urban villages in Delhi and Dr. Diya Mehra who traced the transformations of neighborhoods through resident welfare associations. Both begin their investigations from the decade of the 50s when Delhi began to undergo dramatic changes as refugees from Pakistan began to settle down into distinct localities and farmers in dozens of villages within Delhi gave up their farmlands to Delhi Development Authority. In a little over half a century since then, regulatory and planning authorities made occasional attempts to come to terms with the spatial transformations of Delhi. Yet, the capillary processes of change through which money, power and people, and the macro and micro infrastructures and channels through which material resources of life - water, electricity and other services kept morphing in ways that have largely remained invisible to researchers and policymakers. In this panel discussion, Dr. Pati and Dr. Mehra will share stories of places to demonstrate how real and breathing cities actually work. The panel will also reflect on the methodological challenges and ethical questions that arise in the course of uncovering lifeworlds that have hitherto remained hidden. We hope to use this as a launching point to reflect on a singular question: what is at stake in making the visible the invisible. Why must we, if at all, pry open stories that have been hitherto private possibly for good reason.