In constructing the urban as a set of interconnected actions, this book presents a less travelled route to understanding the city. It leads to a fresh perspective on several issues central to urban theory, including the uniqueness of a city alongside practices it shares with other urban places.
This book presents an innovative theoretical contribution to the field of urban studies, bridging the gap between western centric scholarship and perspectives from the global South. It offers conceptually rich insights, combining notions of cities as organisms, and references to postcolonial urban studies, with insights around aspirations, capabilities, agency, and social identity. It develops concepts, like the Proximity Principle, that help explain the experience of a city.
This conceptualization of the city as a process should interest all who are sensitive to cities, whether they study them in academia or simply develop close associations with specific urban places.
Foreword
Preface
Chapter 1: In the midst of the urban
Chapter 2: The making of urban action
Chapter 3: Spaces and the Proximity Principle
Chapter 4: Negotiations of urban politics
Chapter 5: The place of the city
Chapter 6: The happenings of urban suspense
Chapter 7: The making and unmaking of institutions
Chapter 8: A city is what a city does
Biography
Narendar Pani is Professor and Dean, School of Social Sciences, National Institute of Advanced Studies, India.
"The book is to be recommended to academics in urban studies and its related fields, urban practitioners and anyone else interested in understanding more about the urban experience, especially when it comes to the unique circumstances and context of everyday lived realities in cities of the global South." - Aleem Mahabir, Urban Studies Journal
