Anna Dewaele
PhD Student
Institutional affiliation(s): EHESS
Professional contact information
anna.dewaele[at]gmail.com
Dissertation director: Jean-Luc Racine
PhD program: EHESS - Territories, Societies, Development
Initial registration: 2010
Living in the Emerging City. Three Indian New Towns
This PhD thesis is focused on a comparison between three new towns located on the outskirts of large metropolitan centres in India: Gurgaon on the outskirts of Delhi, the political capital; Salt Lake (or Bidhannagar) on the outskirts of Calcutta, the historic capital; Navi Mumbai on the outskirts of Mumbai, the economic capital. While their initial foundation dates back to the 1970s and 1980s, and aimed at decongesting the city centres, the new towns underwent a second burst of development in conjunction with the liberalization of the Indian economy in the 1990s and have evolved into hubs and showcase examples of emerging India. They are hence referred to as “new new towns.” Within the context of analysing the new urban spaces of emerging India, this PhD thesis is more particularly focused on the question of the “citadinité” of the elites. My working hypothesis is that citadinité is the sign that these new new towns have been appropriated. It can be defined as that which is proper to city dwellers, as a result of living in a city, and as the appropriation of urban signs, vocabulary and practices. Citadinité not only offers a key to shed light on new new towns, but also contributes to the development and increased visibility of these urban entities. New new towns are referred to here as emerging since they reflect new urban modalities of economic development in India, on the one hand, and constitute a new model for urban development, on the other hand. In addition to studying the urban foundations’ transformation processes in contemporary India, this PhD thesis on citadinité as experienced by elites aims to impact the current understanding of existing new towns and the conception of new towns to come by putting their main addressees at the centre of the analysis.
Keywords
Urban Geography, Comparative Study, New Towns, Citadinité, Appropriation, Emerging City, Elites, Gurgaon, Salt Lake, Navi Mumbai, India
Teaching
2012-2013: Assistant Lecturer (EHESS), “Territory, Space, Society” Master’s Program and “Comparative Development Studies” Master’s Program
Publications
2015: “Chandigarh, an Indian City between Urban Heritage and Ideological Heritage” (In French) in Grive O. and Regnault M. (eds.) Crossing Heritages. Scales and Stakes of Development, Presses Universitaires de Lyon
2012: “Draw Me Your City Today and Tomorrow… Representations and Images of Chandigarh’s Young Citizens” (In French), in Carnets de géographes Issue 3 http://www.carnetsdegeographes.org/carnets_terrain/terrain_03_01_Dewaele.php
2009: “New Towns and Urban Utopias” (In French) in Le prisme à idées Issue 2
Selected presentations
2014:
- Becoming a Citizen. Issues of Urban Governance in Three Indian New Towns
PhD Student Symposium of the Centre for South Asian Studies (CEIAS), 7 May 2014, France
2013:
- The Building of an Urban Citizenship in Salt Lake. Development and Transformations of a Bengali New Town from a Medium-Sized Residential Settlement to “the IT Hub of West Bengal”
South Asia PhD Network Workshop, 26 and 27 September 2013, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- The Building of a Shared Identity and an Urban Citizenship into Indian New Towns under Globalization
International symposium on “Where is Home? Place, Belonging and Citizenships in the Asian Century,” 22 and 23 March 2013, Hong Kong Baptist University, China
- “Here We Are not Really in India” Foundation and Transformation of Gurgaon between Urban Projects and Appropriation (In French)
Symposium on “From the Dreamed Ideal to the Daily Use of New towns,” Centre of Comparative Ethnology and Sociology (LESC), 12 April 2013, Université Paris 10, France
2012:
- New Towns under Changes in Globalizing India
International symposium on “Cities under Changes,” Centre for Built Environment of Kolkata, 17-19 October 2012, India
2011:
- Informal Spaces in Motion in Chandigarh. Forced Displacements during the Foundation of an Emblematic New Town (In French)
Symposium on “Forced Displacement in Cities of the Global South”, 22 October 2011, Sorbonne University, France
- From New Towns to Globalizing New Towns in India. Production of the Global City, of its Shapes and its Practices (In French)
2nd International Conference of Young Urban Researchers, 11-14 October 2011, Lisbon University Institute, Portugal
- From the Open City to the City of Walls? Transformation of the Urban Limits in Chandigarh (In French)
11th International symposium of the network Border Regions in Transition (BRIT), 6-9 September 2011, University of Geneva and University of Grenoble, Switzerland and France
- Invention and Appropriation of the Concept of Leisure in an Emblematic Indian New Town. Evolution of Leisure in Chandigarh since its Foundation
The Sport and Leisure History Seminar Summer Conference, 21 and 22 July 2011, Institute of Historical Research of University of London, United Kingdom
- Urban Villages in Navi Mumbai. Perspectives from Architecture and Geography (In French)
PhD student Symposium of the Centre for South Asian Studies (CEIAS) 31 May 2011, France
2010:
- Questioning the Heritage of Chandigarh (In French)
Symposium on “Heritage. Issues of Identity and Development,” 19 October 2010, School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS), France
Last update: 11 July, 2016
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