The SUBURBIN project questions both the scholarly representation and the measurement of the ongoing process of urban shift from rural to urban population. It seeks to counter a vision of urbanization as reduced to a process of agglomeration and a competition between global cities. The project’s hypothesis is that there exists a diversity of trajectories of urbanization, which it seeks to understand with a focus on India’s small towns. It aims at bringing these marginal small agglomerations to the forefront of the analysis of urbanization dynamics, which are more complex than what is often presented: beyond the ongoing growth of megacities, a double process of slowing down of residential migration and an increase in the number of small towns coexist.
The principal research questions are: (i) What are the characteristics of these small towns or "grey spaces", which are both recipients and motors of economic change? (ii) What are their contemporary economic dynamics? (iii) How does land get used and how is land ownership transferred? What are the growing non-agricultural uses of land? How are these changes spatially located? (iv) How is the distribution of public goods in emerging towns shaped, and what are the main explanatory factors behind the existing distribution?
The project proposes to combine quantitative and qualitative analyses. The quantitative dimension will enrich a geo-localized and rich database comprised of cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants into which existing statistical data will be fed (e-Geopolis programme). The qualitative dimension is based on fieldwork observation, using detailed case-studies regarding access to and distribution of land, socio-spatial distribution of basic services, and economic activities.
SUBURBIN is a joint project of IFP and CSH, under the responsibility of Eric Denis and Marie-Hélène Zérah. It brings together a team of scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds (economics, geography, urban studies and, anthropology).

Funding sources

- French National Agency for Research

Institutional partnerships

- Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi

- CPR : Center for Policy Research (New Delhi, India)

- Department of Geography, University of Burdwan

- IFP : Institut Français de Pondichéry (Pondicherry, India)

- SPA, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi

- Urban Research & Policy Program, National Institute of Advance Study, Bangalore

Related book :

Working Paper :