Programme du séminaire d'équipe : Politiques socio-économiques et recompositions territoriales en Asie du Sud (2012-2013)  

Program

• 23 novembre (salle 640, 10h - 12h)

Title: “Rivers into Real Estate: Contests over Urban Commons in Delhi, India”, Amita Baviskar (Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi, India / Chaire Inde contemporaine, Science-Po Paris)

Abstract: This paper argues that the shifting visibility of the river Yamuna in the social and ecological imagination of Delhi as a key element in its transformation.  It delineates how the riverbed has changed from being a neglected “non-place” to prized real estate for private and public corporations.  It argues that the transformation of an urban commons into a commodity is not only embedded in processes of political economy, but is also driven by aesthetic sensibilities that shape how ecological landscapes are valued.  However, the commodification of the riverbed must confront the fact that the Yamuna is an ecological entity with dynamics that can defy attempts at domestication.

Amita Baviskar is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi.  Her research focuses on the cultural politics of environment and development.  Her first book In the Belly of the River: Tribal Conflicts over Development in the Narmada Valley (Oxford University Press) discussed the struggle for survival by adivasis in central India against a large dam.  Her subsequent work further explores the themes of resource rights, subaltern resistance and cultural identity.  More recently, she has focused on urban environmental politics, especially bourgeois environmentalism and spatial restructuring in the context of economic liberalization in Delhi.  Her latest research examines changing food practices in western India in relation to the transformation of agrarian environments.

• Mardi 15 janvier (salle 662, 14h-17h)

Title:  “Interpreting the politics of India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act”, Rob Jenkins (Hunter College, City University of New York, USA)

Rob Jenkins is Professor of Political Science at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate  Center and Associate Director of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies (New York). He has published widely on Indian politics and political economy, movements for democratic accountability, governance reform in developing countries and the politics of international economic and security assistance. Major publications on India include Democratic Politics and Economic Reform in India (Cambridge University Press, 1999) and Regional Reflections: Comparing Politics Across India’s States (Oxford, 2004).

• Vendredi 8 février (salle 640, 10-12h) – Séance annulée

Titre : "Nous nous déplaçons d'île en île", Jules Naudet (Centre Maurice Halbwachs, EHESS, Paris, France)

Jules Naudet est sociologue, membre de l'Equipe de Recherche sur les Inégalités Sociales du Centre Maurice Halbwachs de l’EHESS. Il vient de publier : Entrer dans l'élite. Parcours de réussite en France, aux Etats-Unis et en Inde., Presses Universitaires de France, « Le Lien Social », Paris (2012). Il est actuellement post-doctorant dans le projet ANR (appel « Métamorphoses de sociétés. Inégalité, inégalités ») dont il présentera ici les premiers résultats à New Delhi.

• Vendredi 12 avril (salle 640, 10-12h)

Titre : « Nous nous déplaçons d'île en île »

Intervenant : Jules Naudet (Centre de Sciences Humaines, MAEE-CNRS, New Delhi)

Présentation de la séance :

Cette présentation propose d'analyser le rapport aux inégalités urbaines des habitants de quatre quartiers de l'élite de la métropole de Delhi, tous marqués par une très forte homogénéité sociale: Chhattarpur farms, Gurgaon DLF city, Noida 15-A et Sunder Nagar. L'enquête mobilisée consiste en 80 entretiens approfondis avec des résidents de ces quartiers. Ce travail s'inscrit dans le cadre d'une enquête comparative sur les quartiers des classes supérieures à Paris, São Paulo et Delhi.

• Vendredi 31 mai (salle 662, 10h-12h)

Salle 662 : attention séance double en anglais !

• Titre : "Why is Schooling so Low in India? Supply, Demand and Constraints"

Intervenant : Robert Jensen (UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, Directeur d’étude invité à l’EHESS)

Discutant : Jérôme Sgard (CERI, Science Po Paris)

Présentation :

Despite high rates of economic growth, education remains low in many developing countries. In particular, despite significant progress at the primary level, secondary school enrollment and completion rates remain low. There has long been an emphasis on the role of poverty, schooling costs, school access or school quality as determinants of schooling. However, much less attention has been paid to the role of schooling demand; if children and/or their parents do not perceive a benefit from enrolling in school, then enrolments will remain low. I will discuss results from three of my recent papers that emphasize the key role of demand-side factors in schooling decisions in India.

Robert Jensen is Professor of Public Policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. His research examines the microeconomics of international poverty and economic development, with a focus on gender, health, education, and fertility.

• Titre : "The (Difficult) Emergence of Municipalities: Decentralization and Small Town Governance in Uttar Pradesh"

Intervenant : Rémi de Bercegol (Post-doctorant, ANR SUBURBIN, CSH, New Delhi)

Présentation :

The presentation will summarize the major findings of my PhD thesis “The Emergence of Municipalities: An analysis of reorganization of government after decentralization on the governance of small towns in Uttar Pradesh”. The thesis analyzed the new political and technical arrangements in small town governance in the aftermath of decentralization reforms in India. By analyzing government reorganization in a double political and technical dimension, this research aims to better understand the institutional building of municipalities and the new modes of urban governance in the specific case of small towns in Uttar Pradesh. It will examine the incentives faced by local officials to ensure effective management of their towns. It will study the reorganization of powers and responsibilities between municipal institutions and traditional public actors in order to assess the impact of this transformation on access to municipal services within and between towns

Rémi de Bercegol received his PhD in urban planning from ENPC/UPMLV, Paris Est University, France. He was a visiting PhD-candidate at Centre de Sciences Humaines in Delhi between 2008 and 2012. Since November 2012, he joined back CSH as a post-doctoral researcher within the framework of the Suburbin project  funded by ANR (http://suburbin.hypotheses.org/).