The Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH), The Centre d’Études de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud (CEIAS), and the Centre d’études en sciences sociales sur les mondes africains, américains et asiatiques (CESSMA)

Collaborating a two days digital workshop

The Digitalization of Urban Governance in India:

Techniques, Ideas, Practices

Convenors Stéphanie Tawa Lama, CNRS-CSH and Khaliq Parkar, CESSMA, Université de Paris

on

11 & 12 October 2021

The various bodies of work on digitalization as transformation paint starkly contrasting pictures of the potential impact of digitalisation on urban life: while the literature on smart cities sketches a digitally enhanced urban utopia, surveillance studies warn us against the dystopian dimension of digital technologies. What this dichotomous vision strongly suggests is that digitalisation often has ambiguous effects. This two-day workshop aims to capture and document the ambiguousness inherent in the digitalisation of urban governance, by assessing its actual, observable impact on local democracy in the Indian context.

Programme:

Day One – Monday, 11 October 2021, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm (CEST) 1:30 pm -5:30 pm (IST)

Introduction – Khaliq Parkar, CESSMA, Université de Paris & Stéphanie Tawa Lama, CNRS-CSH

Session I (Verticality / Horizontality)

Discussant : Marie-Helene Zerah, IRD-CPR

– Global communication players and their role in urban governance in India:  an exploratory research  – Christine Ithurbide, CNRS-Passages

– The life and death of municipal bodies on social media  – Persis Taraporevala, King’s College

– Apps, Satellites & Portals: Civic Technologies of Governance in Bhubaneswar – Khaliq Parkar

Day Two – Tuesday, 12 October 2021, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm (CEST) 1:30 pm -5:30 pm (IST)

Session II (Representation / Participation)

Discussant : Aasim Khan, IIT-Delhi & CSH

– The Language of Smart Cities – Uttara Purandare, IIT-Bombay & Monash University

– Participation as surveillance in the low tech and high tech practices of the Aam Aadmi Party – Stephanie Tawa Lama

Session III (Politicization / Depoliticization)

Discussant: Loraine Kennedy, CNRS-CEIAS

– The Politics of Police and Discipline in the City: The Role of Digital Technologies in Urban Housing in Indian Small and Medium cities – Bhuvaneswari Raman, Jindal Global University and Eric Denis, CNRS- Géographie-cités lab

– Mapping the covid-19 containment zones in Indian cities: the public health crisis won’t be digitalized – Bertrand Lefebvre, EHESP-IFP

For registration, please fill this form by 1^st October. Please note that since the workshop has limited seats, we will confirm your registration if successful.

For more information contact:

tawalama[at]ehess[dot]fr

khaliq[dot]parkar[at]gmail[dot]com