Sunday Times 2
“Urban Inequalities: What do our cities offer us today?”
View(s):- 22nd Neelan Tiruchelvam Lecture
This year, the 22nd Neelan Tiruchelvam Memorial Lecture will feature Dr Gautam Bhan, the Associate Dean, School of Human Development, as well as Senior Lead, Academics and Research, School of Human Development at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Bangalore. He holds a PhD in City and Regional Planning, University of California, Berkeley.
Dr Gautam Bhan
At IIHS, Gautam teaches, researches, and writes on the politics of urban poverty and inequality, urban and planning theory, housing, identity, and social practice. He anchors IIHS’ work as a Centre for Excellence with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, as well as a knowledge partner to urban movements for housing rights. As part of the School of Human Development at IIHS, he also leads work on urban welfare regimes, social protection, and informal work. New projects include work on child health outcomes for the children of informal workers in domestic work and construction, as well as advocacy work on urban social protection regimes.
Gautam will discuss “On Urban Inequalities: What do our cities offer us today?” Cities offer both resources, opportunity and mobility as well as risk, insecurity and exclusion. Globally, deepening forms of urban inequalities indicate that we take a hard look at where this balance of risk and reward lies today. Drawing from cities across India and the global south, this talk reflects on the contemporary nature of urban inequality. It asks what it would take to re-centre social and material dignity in our collective urban imagination and suggests practices and interventions that could begin to get us there.
The lecture will be held at BMICH, Jasmine Hall on Sunday July 30, 2023, from 6.00 pm onwards. The lecture is free and open to all. For more details, email: ntt@neelan.org
The Neelan Tiruchelvam Memorial Lecture was initiated to celebrate the life and legacy of the lawyer, scholar, parliamentarian and peacemaker Neelan Tiruchelvam who was assassinated by a suicide bomber in 1999. Neelan is remembered today for his many roles, notably as a distinguished lawyer, constitutional scholar and a progressive and visionary parliamentarian.
Every year the NTT organizes the Neelan Tiruchelvam Memorial Lecture to reflect Neelan’s diverse interests and his commitment to create and maintain a space for discourse, dissent and debate.