EJUR: Forthcoming seminar presentations

 

Governmentality of territory in the making: Advertising the city yet to come and everyday practices of planning. By Dr Swetha Rao  

 Thursday 30th March 1.00-2.00 -  DPU, Room 101 We welcome you to a lunch seminar presentation Dr. Swetha Rao Dhananka, postdoctoral fellow with DPU and IIHS Bangalore, sponsored by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Below is a summary of her presentation: To understand the current transformations in the cities of the global south, scholars argue that there is a shift from the focus on improving populations through techniques of governmentality to the governmentality of territories to accelerate the leap into urban futures. In this seminar I seek to articulate the mechanisms of the latter type of governmentality by investigating the South Indian city of Bangalore as a case.  Swetha simultaneously examine the state’s efforts to project and advertise elite urban imaginary as a legitimisation to accelerate urbanisation and the remaking of planning through everyday information practices of local actors that pace peri-urbanisation by their own rationale. She will argue that differential temporalities and information asymmetry instantiates governmentality of territory that benefits those who take part in the everyday information practices and are skilled to make opportunistic from them. This research suggests that an inclusive character of the city yet to come remains elusive.  Also please notice another exciting seminar presentation planned for the third term:

 

Producing Urban Nature – From Green Belts to Green Infrastructure – Contrasting perspectives from Spain and South Africa. By Rebeca Dios Lema and Kerry Bobbins

 Wednesday 14th June 12.30-2.00 – DPU, Room 201This session contrasts different planning practices and imaginaries in the production of urban nature and features two presentations by Rebeca Dios and Kerry Bobbins based on their ongoing doctoral research.