Career :

2009 (June) Associate Professor and Co-Chair, Urban Research and Policy Program, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science Campus, 560012 Bangalore
2006 (July) Assistant Professor, Dept. of Political Science University of Toronto Ph.D.  Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1985  M. S. Arch. S.  Master Science in Architectural Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge Massachusetts
1982   B.Arch. School of Planning and Architecture New Delhi

Conferences and Lectures:
2010 Paper presented at the international conference "Making Global Cities and the World Economic Crisis" University of Minnesota and Beijing University Shenzhen, Shenzhen China January
2009 “Thinking City Politics ‘Ground up” at the symposium "The Undisciplined City" at the City Centre for Policy Research New Delhi December
2009 ‘Cities from the Ground up: Embedded Urbanism in Land, Economy, and Politics’ Lecture series of the SPURS Program, Dept of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT, February
2009 “Occupancy Urbanism: unexpected contestations to Indian Mega Globalization” in the lecture series, “State, Space, and Citizenship: Indian Cities in the Global Era?” Center for South Asian Studies January
2008 Invited Presentation ‘Holding Spaces in Contested City Terrains’ at an international workshop on Globalizing Cities in the South at the Institute of Global Cities, University of Minnesota May 14th -17th
2007 August Paper presentation in panel on mini publics: ‘Remaking Politics: Mini-Publics to Globalize Indian Metros?’ & Poster presentation ‘The Persistence of Politics: Conflictual Urbanism in the Global South’ at American Political Scientist Association (APSA) Chicago.
2007 April Paper Presentation ‘Geographies of New Capitalism in Metro India’ paper presented at the Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers San Francisco
2006 December ‘Politics of Land Titling – insights from the new economy in Metro India’ presentation at the international workshop ‘Social and economic impacts of land titling in urban and peri-urban areas’ Oxfordshire England
2006 December ‘Politics of Occupancy’ paper presented at a national workshop ‘Metrolog(ue)’ by SARAI and CRIT, Bombay
2006 November ‘Claiming the City: Beyond Social Movements’ Lecture at a lecture series ‘Claiming Political Space’ by the Dept. of Geography and the Institute for Global Studies at the University of Minnesota
2006 October ‘Urbanism via De-facto Materiality’: Paper presented at the International conference: ‘Accumulation, Dispossession and Transformation in Mega Cities of the New Global Order’ University of Bombay
2005 Comments on research papers on Delhi and Bangalore in an advisory meeting of the IDS research project, “Rights, Representation, and the Poor: Latin America and India”, 21 to 22 July 2005, at Bellagio Conference Centre, Bellagio Italy.
2005 ‘E-politics in a Globalising Bangalore' (including video documentary) and member of panel in Plenary 3: ICT4D and the Critique of Development in 'Incommunicado 05: From Info-Development to Info-Politics' (www.incommunicado.com) Institute of Network Cultures (University of Amsterdam), together with Waag Society and the Delhi based new media centre Sarai organized. Amsterdam July
2004 ‘Innovating Neighborhoods: Ethnographers and Anthropologists in a New War?’ Presentation in DOORs of Perception 05 Delhi March
2004 "Non-conforming, Illegal, Un-planned, copy culture, Innovation: The multi-headed hydra of East Delhi” in Contested Commons/Trespassing Publics: A Conference on Inequalities, Conflicts and Intellectual Property 6th - 8th January 2005 in New Delhi, India. Sarai/CSDS /Alternative Law Forum
2004 'Flexible' collaborations in building Radical theory’ in Networks And Collaborations Alternative Law Forum Bangalore, November
2004 ‘The Vernacular and the Global in Emerging Urbanisms’ in Emerging Urbanism: A Comparative Workshop SPA-Sarai, CSDS New Delhi. 27-28 October
2004 ‘Global – Local Contest in Small Town Regions in Coastal South India’ paper presented at the Second Cities in a Global World at Cornell University May 7-8
2004 ‘Neighborhood as Factory: The evolution of politicized societies in East Delhi’ as part of lecture series ‘Urban Cultures & Politics, the Delhi series’ at Sarai, Centre for the Studies of Developing Societies Delhi
2003 ‘Chronic poverty in Contested Settings: Case of Bangalore’ Presentation on Chronic Poverty in Bangalore at the first Chronic Poverty conference at the Chronic Poverty Centre at the University of Manchester, UK
2003 ‘Real estate issues in the peri-urban areas in Bangalore’, Lecture series at the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy, Cambridge Massachusetts.
2003 Presentation at the Rural – Urban Symposium of the World Bank, Washington DC.
2002 Presentation on Bangalore as part of a Bangalore panel at the City One Sarai workshop held in Delhi
2001 "Poverty and Human Development Monitoring System" Workshop by the Planning Department, Government of Karnataka and the Institute of Social and Economic Change Bangalore
2000 Participant at the Salzburg Seminar session 378 "The Entrepreneurial City" at Salzburg Austria
2000 Panelist for the session on Housing, Infrastructure, Power supply in meeting to formulate an HDR for Tamil Nadu. State Planning Department Govt. of Tamil Nadu and the UNDP
1999 Lectures tour to the US: Dept. of Urban Studies, MIT, Cambridge Mass, Lincoln Institute for Land Policy, Cambridge Mass, Dept. of Urban and Regional Planning, University of California at Berkeley.
1999 Presentation of research findings from Bangalore in a workshop: `Urban Governance, Partnership, and Poverty' at the School of Public Policy, The University of Birmingham.
1999 Presentation of paper `Housing Transformation For Livelihood Generation’ in Transformation of Government Built Dwellings as Housing Supply National Institute of Urban Affairs, and the Centre for Architectural Research and Development Overseas (CARDO), University of Newcastle Upon Tyne
1999 `Sustainable Urban Development: The case of Bangalore' A consultation workshop for stakeholders organized by the Sustainable Development Research Institute, University of British Columbia, Tata Energy Research Institute, Institute of Social and Economic Change, and TIDE funded by the Canadian International Development Agency. Bangalore
1999 ` UNDP India Poverty Consultation Workshop for the World Development Report on poverty 2000/1' New Delhi. Discussant and Rapporteur for Session on the Urban Sector: `Opening up Urban Poverty Issues'
1998 Formulation of a National Urban Slum Policy -- Regional Expert Group Meeting organized by the Department for International Development, British High Commission, Ministry of Urban Affairs and Employment. Bombay. Inputs on issues of urban land management, tenure to stimulate neighborhood economies.
1998 Meeting on the 73rd. and 74th. Constitutional Amendments to decentralize governance. The Swiss Development Co-operation (SDC) Bangalore Presentation on the 74th. CA for urban local bodies: Their operational experiences
1997 `Managing Local Economic Development: Skill Development and Capacity Building for Municipal Governments’ a technical session in `Training strategies for capacity Building of Municipal Governments' a policy workshop by the Housing and Urban Development Corporation New Delhi
Presentation of case material and discussions on implications for training policy
1997 `Operational lessons and research agendas from EU funding for urban poverty' in a workshop: `Utilization of AID in Local Development' Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore
1996 Participation in `Manufacturing Cities' an International Symposium held at Harvard University. Presentation of my dissertation research by Prof. Lisa Peattie
1995 `Channelization of the River Yamuna: Destruction through Development?' Paper presented at a seminar on `Delhi's Water Problems & Alternatives' arranged by the Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage. India International Center New Delhi
1991 Co-author, and presented paper: ‘Community Participation: The Indian Experience' in the 3rd Habinet International Seminar on `Community Participation' held at Medellin, Colombia
1988 Paper presented at an international conference, ‘Income & Housing’ sponsored by Housing and Urban Development Corporation and Institute of Housing Studies Rotterdam, New Delhi
1987 Paper presented (with Prof. William Doebele) Land Policy and Urban Productivity in SIGUS (Special Interest Group for Urban Settlements) International Workshop: `Housing & Urban Development’, MIT Cambridge
1987 Neighborhood Factories Presentation (with Prof. William Doebele) in an international workshop on Urban Land Policy, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge
1985 International conference on High Density Urban Architecture, Kaula Lumpur, Malaysia sponsored by the Malaysian Institute of Architects, and the Aga Khan Program at MIT and Harvard
1984 Display Panel Monastic Settlements in Ladakh (with Pratap Patrose) for Environment Design Research Association (EDRA) Conference, San Diego
1984 Paper on Informal Housing Transformations in Urban India presented at the 'Built Form & Culture Conference’, Lawrence, Kansas

Selected Publications:

2008 ‘Milieux d’affaires, société civile & politiques anti-pauvres’ (Original in French) (Revitalizing the Indian city: The business community, civil society & anti-poor policies) in Agone 38 and 39 – Issue on ‘Cities and social resistance’ (http://atheles.org/agone/revueagone/agone38et39/)
2008 Benjamin S. 2008 ‘Occupancy Urbanism: Radicalizing Politics and Economy beyond Policy and Programs’ Int. Journal of Urban and Regional Research (IJURR) Vol. 32, Issue 3 September
2008 ‘Inclusive or Contested? Conceptualizing A Globalized Bangalore’ in Mahadevia D (edt) Inside the Transforming Urban Asia – Policies, Processes, and Public Action Concept, New Delhi
2008 with Bhuvaneswari, R., Rajan, P., & Manjunath ‘Fractured’ Terrain, Spaces left over, or Contested? - A Closer Look at the IT-dominated Territories in East and South Bangalore’ in Mahadevia (edt) ibid.
2008 ‘Transformative Urbanisms: Walter Benjamin strolls through Occupant Cites’ (Original in Catalan & Spanish) in CCCB POST IT Edited by: CCCB i Direcció de Comunicació de la Diputació de Barcelona Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona along with the Communication Direction of the Diputació de Barcelona Languages: catalan, spanish, english ISBN: 978-84-9803-275-8 Text at http://www.ciutatsocasionals.net/englishEXPOCOWEB/textos/textosprincipalcast/solomon.htm
2007 ‘Occupancy Urbanism: Ten Theses’ pg 538 in Sarai Reader 07: Frontiers New Delhi http://www.sarai.net/publications/readers/07-frontiers
2007 ‘Okkupativer Urbanisums: die Stadt der Nutzer’ (Original in German) (with Bhuvaneswari R.,) in Indischer Inselurbanismus ArchPlus 185 Berlin November 2007
2006 (with R. Bhuvaneswari) ‘Urban futures of poor groups in Chennai and Bangalore: How these are shaped by the relationship between Parastatal and Local Bodies’ Ch. 10 in Local Governance in India: Decentralization and Beyond by Niraja Jayal, Amit Prakash, Pradeep Sharma (edt.) Oxford University Press New Delhi
2005 "Un-planned, Illegal, Non-conforming": An emerging subversive of Touts, Pirates, and the Ghosts” in "Bare Act" Sarai Reader 05 February Sarai –CSDS

2004 ‘Urban land transformation for pro-poor economies’ Geoforum, Volume 35, Issue 2, March (pp. 177-187)
2003 From Income to urban contest in global settings: Chronic Poverty in Bangalore Ch. 6 in Chronic Poverty in India published by the Chronic Poverty Reseach Centre, University of Manchester and the Indian Institute of Public Administration. (also working paper #4 in the same series)
2003 Presentation at the Rural – Urban Symposium of the World Bank, Washington DC.
2002 Member of the Keynote panel and presentation at the inaugural symposium on Urban Poverty of the World Bank, Washington DC

2001 Politics by Stealth? in Insights Development Research (# 38 November) ID21 at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex
2000 (with Gururaja Budhya) The Politics of sustainable cities: The case of Bengare, Mangalore in Coastal India in Environment and Urbanization Volume 12, #2 October
2000 Governance, Economic Settings, And Poverty In Bangalore, India Environment and Urbanization Vol. 12 No. 1 April
1998 (With Bengani N.) `The Civic politics of industrial districts in Delhi’ Chapter 12 in Holmstrom M. & Cardenne P. (Ed's.) Decentralized Production in India: Industrial Districts, Flexible Specialization, and Employment' Sage New Delhi
1993 Urban productivity from the grassroots, article in a special issue of the Third World Planning Review on `Urban Productivity' Vol.15 no. 2, May
1992 With Krishnamurty A.K. `Community Development: The Indian Experience' in Proceedings of the Third HABINET International Seminar CEHAP, National University, Medellin, Colombia
1991 Jobs, land and urban development: The economic of success of small manufacturers in East Delhi, India. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge, Massachusetts
1989 `Understanding household productivity within the framework of urban structuring in Housing and Income' in Mulkh Raj and Nientied P. (eds.) Third World Urban Development Oxford University Press New Delhi
1985 With Hua Z. `Low-rise, High-density developmental possibilities for the Golden Triangle area in down town Kaula Lumpur' in Implications of high-rise high- density Development in Kaula Lumpur. Malaysian Institute of Architects (PAM), Kuala Lumpur
1985 `Informal Vs Formal Housing in Delhi, India’ in `Third World Housing' Architecture Review, London, August

Funded Research: (Coordinating a private research group in Bangalore)
2004-06 Advisor to Action Aid India on removal of chronic poverty and improving livelihoods in the Kolkata Urban Services Program (KUSP), Kolkata (Calcutta)
2003-2005 Principal researcher for the Bangalore case: ‘Landing the IT: The Emerging Political Economy of Bangalore’s peripheral land’ for ‘Inclusive Mega Cities in Globalising Asia’ IDPAD research project coordinated by the Centre for Development Alternatives, Ahmedabad
2003-05 Visiting faculty to the Sarai /CSDS for review of independent and student fellowships and methodology workshops on researching urban economy and politics.
2004 Background paper on urban poverty and disparity for the Karnataka Human Development Report (KHDR-II) Planning Department, Government of Karnataka. Sponsored by the UNDP’s HDR division
2004 “Women in the Informal Economy in Bangalore” for the IIST, ILO seminar on ‘Decent Employment for Women in India’
2004 Principal researcher for ‘Bhoomi in Bangalore Rural’; A program for digitization of 20 million land records in Karnataka, South India, as part of a research project on E-Governance Initiatives under the ICT4D project, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore
2003-2004 Senior economic advisor to the SCE – Creocean (India) Pvt. Ltd on the Metropolitan Spatial Data Infrastructure Project (MSDI) for the proposed Comprehensive Development Plan for the Bangalore metropolitan area. Responsible to co-ordinate and lead research studies on Bangalore’s economies (IT, Garments, Silk) and their links to infrastructure, regulations, and forms of governance
1997- 2004 Principal Investigator for a project: 'Urban Governance, Civic society, and Local Economic Development' in coastal south India in Mangalore and Udupi funded by the National Foundation for India. The project focuses on urban governance, promotes ward level decision-making process interfaced the elected wing of Municipal Government.
1997 – 2004 Visiting faculty for the National Law School, India University, Bangalore for the course: Law and Development: Conceptualizing city politics, land, and Economy
2002-2003 Principal researcher for the Bangalore case on urban chronic poverty as part of an international research project on Chronic Poverty for the Chronic poverty research centre at the University of Manchester UK.
2002–2003 Sector leader Economic and Livelihood Development for the Kolkata (Calcutta) Urban Services Program, Design phase (KUSP) funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), British High Commission. Economic strategy focuses on partnerships with the elected wing of 41 urban local bodies in the Kolkata metro area and participatory economic mapping.
2000-2002 'Urban Governance, Partnership, and Poverty.' Principal researcher for the case of Bangalore. Commissioned by ESCOR, Department For International Development, British High Commission. A collaborative research in Asia, Africa, and Latin America with the Development Administration Group of the School of Public Policy, University of Birmingham UK.
1998-2000 `A comparative municipal structure and urban governance in three South Indian states and their impact on urban management and planning' (With Abhaya Kumar), Administrative Training Institute of the Government of Karnataka
1999 -2000 Consultant `Study of Bangalore's Machine Tool Industry Cluster' (with DELPHI Research Pvt. Ltd) for the UNIDO and Indian Machine Tool Association (IMTMA).
1999 The 74th. Ca From A Livelihood & Developmental Perspective,' Background paper for the UNDP on the 74th. Constitutional Amendment for the India Development Forum 2000 meeting.
1999-2000 `Study of the Silk Weaving Cluster at Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu for the Swiss Development Co-operation (SDC) Bangalore. Principal consultant to DELPHI Research Services Pvt. Ltd.
1999 Evaluation of the `Slum Networking' projects in Ahemdabad and Baroda. Assignment for the World Bank
1998-2000 `The impact of the 74th. Indian Constitutional Amendment mandating decentralization of urban management on the local economy in seven cities and towns in Karnataka'. Research sponsored by the National Foundation for India to The Development Research Foundation of Technology Informatics Development Endeavor (TIDE). Principal Researcher, and consultant to TIDE, Bangalore.
1999 Principal researcher and team leader for a project `Development Scheme for Basapura in South Bangalore: A proposal to limit land acquisition' for the Bangalore Development Authority..
1998 `Study of the Silk Reeling Cluster at Ramanagaram, Karnataka' for the Swiss Development Co-operation (SDC) Bangalore. Principal consultant to DELPHI Research Services Pvt. Ltd.
1998 `Re-framing Urban Poverty Questions', mimeo for the UNDP's India Development Forum meeting in Paris used in the UNDP paper `Diversity and Disparities in Human Development' UNDP 1999
1998-99 Training inputs of urban and land management to the Administrative Training Institute of the Government of Karnataka.
1998 Consultant and principal advisor to the Sri. Mayapur Master Plan office of the ISCON on a study of skill base in the Mayapur region of West Bengal for enterprise promotion.
1998 Member of an International Research Team sponsored by the: `A comparative Study of Aid to India from EU and selected EU donors and its relevance for Poverty Reduction'. Principal researcher for the urban component. Urban poverty programs in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Kerala. European Union

Individual Grants, Awards, and Positions:
2006-07   Connaught Startup grant University of Toronto
2004-05   Sarai Fellowship to develop a research program on Emerging Urbanism
2000        Fellow of the Salzburg Seminar
1999-2000 Grants by the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy for documentation of the evolution of an industrial cluster and the role of land development on employment generation
1986,87 Grant by the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy for documentation of land values and markets in a peripheral area of East Delhi
1985        Aga Khan travel grant to Kaula Lumpur, Malaysia to attend Workshop and Conference on High Density Urban Architecture
1985        Aga Khan travel grant to Ladakh to document High Altitude settlements.
1984        Grant from the Council for the Arts at MIT (with Pratap Patrose) for a multi-sensory presentation "A Sense of Place" on the Monastic environment in Ladakh.
1983     Inlaks scholar to MIT for excellence in academics