1,720,964 research outputs found
The Practice of Visual Ethnography: Examining Identity and Lived Experiences of Marginalised Communities
No full textThis book presents visual ethnography as a transformative approach to understanding, documenting, and representing the layered realities of marginalized communities and often-overlooked institutional contexts. It demonstrates how visual storytelling tools ranging from photography and video to infographics and spatial mapping can uncover the subtle social, cultural, and economic dynamics that traditional textual research tends to miss. Drawing on diverse case studies, the volume shows how visual narratives not only illuminate lived experiences but also foster collaboration and challenge dominant representations
Review of problem structuring methods and its application in understanding the housing needs of slum dwellers In India
Full text linkThis paper provides an extensive review of commonly used Problem Structuring Methods (PSMs) and studies their possible applications for understanding the challenges faced by slum dwellers living in informal settlements across cities in India. The study highlights the role of PSMs as a group of analytical methods for identifying the problems faced by poor and vulnerable populations and looks for possible solutions to increase their efficiency. Subsequently, the paper describes and compares commonly used PSMs such as Soft Systems Methodology, Strategic Options Development and Analysis, Strategic Choice Approach, Robustness Analysis, and Value-Focused Thinking. The paper finally draws attention to the nature of challenges involved in the application of PSMs for slum dwellers which is different from its typical application involving people in managerial positions across organizations who generally are domain experts in their fields
Why millions go unaccounted for in India’s invisible slum crisis
No full textAcross India’s bustling cities, a crisis of staggering proportions is unfolding, largely unseen and uncared for by those who don’t wish to notice. As India strides towards modernisation and globalisation, it is leaving behind millions of people living in slums for whom the promise of development has no meaning. The rapid growth of slums across India’s cities represents not just an urban planning challenge but a humanitarian crisis thwarting the nation’s social and economic progress
Assessment of Housing Mismatch: Learning from Slum Communities in Small Cities of India
No full textMultiple developmental approaches have been implemented by the Government of India (GoI) to improve the quality of housing and access to basic services for a large proportion of India’s urban population living in slums. However, these programs have not complemented the needs of slum communities mainly because they are designed based on perceived needs that are different from the actual needs of beneficiaries. This mismatch between government provision and what is actually needed, forces poor communities to take tough decisions and to rely on informal means to meet these needs. Taking the case study of four slum communities, two in a mid-sized city and one each in two small towns in the Indian state of Odisha, this dissertation uses a mixed-methods approach to understand how housing programs and policies could better reflect the needs of slum-dwellers. Such programs and policies could then address residents’ housing and basic services’ needs without disrespecting their basic rights, including the right to be treated with dignity. The study first assesses the mismatch between the services provided to slum-dwellers by housing programs and the actual housing needs of these communities. The dissertation offers an alternative approach that assesses the slum dwellers\u27 housing preferences by documenting and analyzing the decisions in prioritizing their basic needs to address the gap between the slum dwellers needs and government actions. Using theories of government failure and Right to the City, the dissertation establishes itself in the framework of subaltern studies highlighting the need to recognize the spaces of slums and patterns of urbanization in smaller cities of India. The dissertation uses Community Based Operations Research (CBOR) as a framework which accommodates multiple analytical methods to highlight the voices of vulnerable populations such as slum dwellers, and identify solutions to optimize their efficiency and social equity. The study uses critical and transformative epistemologies to understand the struggles of slum communities, and highlight their voices using methods in CBOR that focus on their narratives to provide avenues for understanding alternate explanations of existing problems. The findings of the dissertation aim to provide support to the greater need of including community voices and participation in the design and implementation of welfare policies for the urban poor through a bottom-up approach that provides importance to the voices of the slum communities
Slum-dwellers as experts: A problem structuring approach to understand housing challenges in slum communities of India
Full text linkHousing programs in India have rarely engaged with slum communities to understand slum-dwellers’ housing needs and preferences as the tools to systematically understand them are lacking. Consequently, the programs are often designed and implemented without the slum community’s participation. This paper demonstrates the usefulness of inviting slum residents to understand housing problems from their perspective by using in-depth interviews and focus group discussions in two slums of Odisha, India. We compare their priorities with the provisions of slum policies such as the Odisha Land Rights to Slum Dwellers Act 2017 to highlight that housing needs and challenges in slums are diverse, and preferences are often incremental that the current program has failed to recognize. We use problem structuring methods from decision sciences as our analytical framework that treats the slum residents as experts. Such an approach can potentially transform how we design housing programs and policies in the developing world
Andhra Pradesh must finalise a capital city by 2024. None of the current options work
Full text linkThe clock is ticking on naming Andhra Pradesh’s capital. While it’s Amaravati on paper, developments have been stalled since Jagan Mohan Reddy came to power in 2019
Clay and struggle : The Unlit Kilns of Uttam Nagar Kumhars
No full textIt was the month of August 2023 when we were in conversation with Anousha, a resident of old Delhi, who was passionate about exploring the unheard tales of culturally vibrant and historically rich vicinities of Delhi city. As we presented our ideas to the team, we explored various migrant communities that have not only mastered their art and craft but also captured several market hubs with their culturally embedded products. In a unanimous vigour, the vibrant streets of Uttam Nagar caught our eyes. Kumhar Gram (Potter colony) is an oasis of peace amidst the Capital’s hustle and bustle
Understanding housing preferences of slum dwellers in India: A community-based operations research approach
Full text linkA significant number of India’s urban population living in slums face large-scale challenges to access adequate housing and essential services. However, the solutions implemented by government agencies have been inadequate as they fail to understand the diversity of challenges and preferences of slum residents. While the traditional prescriptive approaches to study slum communities do not capture the uncertainties that riddle slums, we explore this domain of inquiry alternatively through theories of Community Operational Research (COR) and Community Based Operations Research (CBOR) that develop an understanding of housing problems from slum resident perspectives. In this paper, we study slum communities’ housing priorities by learning how they structure their concerns and identify specific solutions that could enable access to improved housing facilities. This is one of the first studies to apply Strategic Options Development & Analysis (SODA) and Value Focused Thinking (VFT) to engage with slum residents and generate in-depth insights into the lives of slum communities. Our findings from a slum in the Indian state of Odisha highlight the diverse challenges and needs of the community with regard to housing and basic infrastructure facilities from the slum-dwellers’ perspective, a voice often missing in slum policymaking. We believe that our findings could inform policymakers about most valued preferences of slum residents among many possible slum upgrading interventions. The study contributes to the extension of Operations Research tools and methodologies for meaningful engagement of vulnerable communities to develop interventions for improving social welfar
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