Urban Research and Policy Programme

Faculty

• Prof. Carol Upadhya (Achor)
  
• Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay

The main objective of the Urban Research and Policy Programme (in the words of the URPP concept document) is ‘to effect a change in people's understanding of, and attitudes towards, urban processes and issues with a view to conceptualising and helping to create urban settlements that function well and are socially just, economically dynamic, culturally vibrant, ecologically sustainable and politically participative’.

The programme’s mandate is to engage in policy relevant interdisciplinary research on pressing urban issues; formulate new theoretical perspectives on the urban that draw on a grounded understanding of urban societies, structures and processes; provide a platform for exchange of ideas among different stakeholders, including government representatives, civil society organisations, activists, academics, and ordinary citizens; engage in advocacy and outreach; and serve as a think tank on urban problems.

Research currently underway in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh is focused on various facets of the urban – governance and poverty, ecology, land use and rights, settlements, and common property resources.

‘Urban Aspirations in Bangalore, South India’
This new research programme has been initiated by the Urban Research and Policy Programme (URPP). This programme is an international collaboration between the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity (MPIMMG, Goettingen, Germany) and the Urban Research and Policy Programme (URPP) of NIAS.

Openings

Seminars and workshops report

Under the programme, several workshops and consultations have been organised:

• Workshop on the Urban Commons
• STREETS: A Workshop
• Bangalore Urban Futures Workshop Report
• Round Table on Kasturirangan Committee Report on Urban Governance
• Urban Studies at NIAS: Report of a Consultation
• Dissemination Workshop on Governance, Development and Poverty in Bangalore - Focus on Urban Land and Commons

URPP Working Paper Series 

 This section will be updated shortly.

Ongoing and completed  projects

• ‘State of the City’ Report – Governance, Infrastructure, and Poverty
• Contested Governance of Wetlands in Bangalore’s Metro Area (in collaboration with ATREE)

Lecture series:  ‘The City in Question’

This section will be updated shortly.

Publications

 This section will be updated shortly.