Architexturez South Asia
Not a member yet
6633 research outputs found
Sort by
Flux and continuity in monument-building traditions in south India
No full textPeninsular India has a rich history of monument-building traditions dating back to prehistoric periods. Beginning with the enigmatic ashmounds of the Neolithic, which were probably the earliest monumental constructions in the region, and the wide variety of megalithic monuments constructed subsequently, monument-building evolved into the erection of stupas and temples in later periods. There is evidence that stupas, and probably early temples too, were carrying forward commemorative traditions from the period of the megaliths. The first few centuries of the first millennium ce probably saw the construction of temples and stupas alongside megalith-building practices. While the megaliths were presumably erected by entire communities, the erection of stupas and temples were patronized by royalty—emperors as well as local rulers, administrators, and merchant guilds. The construction as well as maintenance of temples and the associated ritual activity entailed considerable expenses, which were met by channeling revenue from land donated for the upkeep of temples, attested to by epigraphical evidence. This paper examines temple-building activity as an expression of stable political power in a given region. With the aid of examples from the medieval period, from regions falling under the geographical limits of the present-day Karnataka State, I demonstrate how monument-building activity flourished when states were stable and declined with the weakening and collapse of these states. I also show how these activities were picked up subsequently, presumably by the same guilds of artisans under the patronage of subsequent states.</p
Brandism vs. Bazaarism: Mediating Divinity in Banaras
No full textIn 2002, India embarked on a plan to promote itself for investment, trade, and tourism with its “Incredible India” campaign, which brought together every possible government sector to market the nation. Now, after a huge influx of multinational products and shopping malls that feature them, global capitalism has transformed India’s commercial culture. “Brandism” has arrived. The bazaar, however, is a site of resistance and mediation to this process. It is an economic and moral system, where products and people are entangled in complex networks, creating, disciplining, and sacralizing various moods and modes of behavior. This is especially the case within the bazaars of the Pakka Mahal in Banaras - a center for religion, culture, and commerce for millennia. Based on nearly two decades of research in these bazaars, my chapter examines the logic and practice of what I call “Bazaarism,” with a focus on the role of reputation and trust in creating solidarities.</p
Conflicts, cooperation and experimentation: Analysing the politics of urban water through Accra’s heterogeneous water supply infrastructure
No full textIn this paper, we analyse the heterogeneity of water supply infrastructure in Accra, Ghana, to understand the politics of water in cities where infrastructural diversity has always been the norm. We do this by extending the use of heterogeneous infrastructure configurations as a heuristic device, shifting the focus and scale of urban political ecological analyses of infrastructural diversity from users and access to water distributions at city scale. To explain the impacts of three experiments in the distribution of water across the city, we analyse how changes in the technical and operational arrangements of Accra’s bulk water filling points reflect changes in the social relations of cooperation or conflict between the diversity of actors and infrastructure supplying water across the city. We find the uneven waterscape of the city is shaped by a plurality of actors whose practices are informed by a range of motives. These motives exceed profit-making, political legitimacy, patronage and petty corruption including also solidarity, religious beliefs and pragmatic choices. We show that distributions of water, risks and responsibilities among different actors involved in operating the water filling points are constantly contested with ambiguous and unforeseen outcomes foreclosing but also opening new possibilities for progressive experimentation. Documenting how relations between actors and technologies of water provisioning are dynamic, and open to incremental improvements towards progressive (re)distributions of water, our analysis at the city scale calls for further focus on how practices and policies of solidarity can be extended across heterogeneous provisioning systems.</p
‘Plastic Pollution’ and Plastics as Pollution in Mumbai, India
No full textIn the last decade, plastic pollution has emerged as a major global issue in public discourse. Nonetheless, there is little consensus on which aspects of plastics constitute the problem. In India, litter, unmanaged disposal, lack of biodegradation, wasteful resource use, threats to bodily integrity and the natural order, and national dishonour are all variously associated with ‘plastic pollution’. What exactly, then, does the term reference when used in various streams of public discourse, and what semantic transformations does this imply? Using India as a case study, I examine discourses about plastic pollution and tease out four prominent framings, or senses, of such pollution – as spatial displacement, as waste, as environmental pollution, and as symbolic pollution – and explore their mobilisation by stakeholders. I also make the case for greater attention to the aesthetic dimension as a heuristic framework in knowing and acting upon pollution.</p
Slum upgrading in the era of World-Class city construction: the case of Lagos, Nigeria
No full textThe paper examines the tensions that accompany slum upgrading in the era of world-class city construction. The focus is a slum upgrading project in Lagos, Nigeria. The paper observes the intertwining of modernist and neoliberal ideologies in world-class city construction and in slum upgrading projects. The entanglement centres on a number of shared interests; the prioritization of infrastructure and notions about urban space, participation and citizenship. As documented, the project and by extension world-class city construction fails to acknowledge the livelihoods of the poor and is undermined by protests. Historical legacies and systemic failings of governance present additional obstacles. The paper seeks to broaden the scope of world-class city research by acknowledging the local context, but at the same time recognizing the global links. Along these lines, the paper suggests that slum upgrading provides an opportunity to examine how the local is inserted into the global.</p
From Parts to a Whole? Exploring Changes in Funerary Practices at Çatalhöyük
No full textDEATH IS A UNIVERSAL AND PROFOUNDLY emotive human experience with social and economic implications that extend to communities as a whole. As such, the act of disposing of the dead is typically laden with deep meaning and significance. Archaeological investigations of funerary practices are thus important sources of information on the social contexts and worldviews of ancient societies. Changes in funerary practices are often thought to reflect organisational or cosmological transformations within a society (Carr 1995; Robb 2013). The focus of this volume is the role of cognition and consciousness in the accelerated sociocultural developments of the Neolithic Period in the Near East. In the introduction to this volume, Hodder identifies three commonly cited cognitive changes that can be measured against various archaeological datasets from Çatalhöyük. The funerary remains at Çatalhöyük are an obvious source of data for validating Hodder’s third measure of change: a shift from a fluid and fragmented conception of the body and of selfhood to a greater awareness of an integrated, bounded personal self.</p
Negotiating Informality– Ambiguity, Intermediation, and a Patchwork of Outcomes in Slums of Bengaluru
No full textIn developing countries, procedural ambiguity due to bureaucratic overlap and political discretion gives rise to divergence between law and practice. In this context of pervasive informality, it is important to consider how local negotiations produce disparate outcomes. We examine these local negotiations to explain how informal property rights are acquired and how markets operate in the slums of Bengaluru, India. Drawing on original interview and survey data, we describe how at least 18 types of property documents issued to urban slum residents can be ordered along a tenure continuum. Intermediaries are required to negotiate the opportunities that lie hidden within ambiguity. A first set of political intermediaries helps slum residents acquire property rights incrementally along this continuum. A second set of intermediaries helps facilitate informal housing transactions, keeping markets liquid across the tenure continuum. The mechanics of acquiring and transacting informal properties can differ across cities and countries, but, across contexts, intermediation helps negotiate informality.</p
Risk and the Dialectic of State Informality: Property Rights in Flood Prone Jakarta
No full textThis article examines the implications of perceptions of an emergent crisis of flood risk for property rights in Jakarta. Jakarta faces devastating future floods due to climate change and other anthropogenic impacts, and the city has experienced severe flood events in recent years. State actors have responded with an aggressive infrastructural agenda that has led to evictions of numerous low-income communities. This has spurred a series of court cases, in which plaintiffs have argued that the evictions violated Indonesian law and specifically violated legal protections of autochthonous land claims. Based on an analysis of court and policy documents and interviews with key actors, this article finds that Jakarta’s crisis of flood risk has intensified what we refer to as the dialectic of state informality and has brought this dynamic to the center of urban politics. This dialectic is defined by contestation between two deeply antagonistic frameworks of planning action. On one hand, state actors and institutions assert their right to unilaterally define what is legitimate and just, and indeed to violate their own laws and regulations where they see fit, as necessary to address societal risk. On the other, communities and advocates argue that this assertion of state power has led to the systematic delegitimation and stigmatization of communities that do not accord with state developmental visions. This critique paradoxically positions informalized communities as proponents of the reassertion of the rule of law in the practice of urban planning.</p
Perception of security risk in gated and non-gated communities in Lahore, Pakistan
No full textThis paper investigates the perception of security risk and causes of crimes in gated and non-gated communities in Lahore, Pakistan. Due to increasing rate of crimes in the city, the trend and demand of gated communities are rising. People living in non-gated communities have installed barriers and gates in through streets to prevent crimes. The data was collected by conducting face to face interviews with the residents of a gated and non-gated community in Lahore, concerned officials of police stations and Lahore Development Authority using structured questionnaires. Results of data analysis revealed that the residents with high-income experience fewer crimes than the residents with low/middle income, since they are more vulnerable to crimes. The perception of insecurity among the residents is directly proportional to the frequency of crimes in that community. Moreover, residents of gated community are more satisfied with the safety and security measures. Several through streets in each block of non-gated community are facilitating crimes. This shows that the layout plan of residential community also plays an important role in facilitating/reducing the crime. The number of reported crimes in the non-gated community is 25 times higher than the reported crimes in the gated community. Un-registered tenants are also found to be indulged in criminal activities in such communities. Recommendations are made to transform both types of communities and plan future neighbourhoods as more safer places for living.</p
Exploring inequalities in India through housing overcrowding
No full textThe influence of economic development on the resorption of inequality levels in India is an open debate. Inequality shapes both the Indian society as a whole and, spatially, the different regions of this subcontinent-wide country. In this article, emphasis is given to the conception and to the spatial analysis of an indicator named “Non-Crowded Housing” (abbr. NCH). The latter uses official census data, is easily computed and focuses on the absence of housing overcrowding. This indicator offers a good alternative to explore the standard of living gap in India in terms of housing usage and unveil specific sub-spaces and trajectories within the 2001–2011 period. Census data are complemented with field studies in order to shed new light on the geography and nature of housing and spatial inequalities linked to rapid urbanization. The case studies reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the NCH index, which is able to provide a comprehensive overview of the human well-being, focusing on housing conditions only, though being scale-dependent and sensitive to urbanization levels.</p