Urban Studies: An Exploration in Theory and Practices

What is the character of our cities? What are the attributes of inequalities and social exclusions in towns, metropolises and mega cities? How do urban structures and forms characteristic of pre capitalist cities of India reorganize itself as capitalist relations enter into these cities? What role do religion and ethnicity play in Indian cities today? How does space construct identities? Are these identities embedded and part of pre-capitalist structures? Or do they resonate the old in a new form? What forms of collective action takes place in cities? Why is it that cities have been a theatre of communal riots in India? How are these processes related to local governance institutions?