Walled Cities

Research Theme: Walled Cities in India

Walled Cities is a research project under the Urbanisation Policy Area Concentration (PAC) at the School of Public Policy & Governance, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad. This project was envisioned in the context of changing times and shifting socio-economic patterns, and as cities spread outside of their previously defined boundaries. While the 'old' areas act as a geographical and cultural pivot, 'new' areas accommodated contemporary urban development. However, over time, gradual degeneration of the older parts has taken place due to various planning, policy and political (mis)-maneuvers.

The aim of the project is to increase knowledge and explore the multi-dimensional attributes pertaining to the historic city spaces in various parts of the country. The project covers three walled cities in India: Delhi (Shahjahanabad), Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. The research program concentrates on the role of three types of actors: the state & political processes, community, markets and the interaction between them.

Accordingly, the objectives of the research program are:

To map and analyze the various demographic features and livelihood patterns of people in the walled city.
To assess social amenities of the walled city such as health clinics, public transport, waste management facilities, etc, and recommend policy solutions grounded in empirical evidence.
Evolve an institutional framework to address the specific structural constraints experienced by the walled cities.

Research Team:

Faculty/ Research Coordinator:

Dr Gayatri Nair

About School of Public Policy and Governance:

Established in the year 2013, the School of Public Policy and Governance (SPPG) has a mandate to create a cadre of public policy professionals who through their multi-disciplinary training respond to current challenges and incubate ideas to proactively meet future demands. The school provides interdisciplinary foundational training in Ethics and Policy, Economics (including econometrics), Law, Political Science, and Sociology. It encourages students to be reflexive in developing institutional designs that can transform public services.

With a firm grounding in these core courses, students are expected to choose and specialise in specific Policy Area Concentrations (henceforth PACs). Concentration areas offered for the 2018-20 batch include:

Regulation and Institutional Reform

Urbanisation

Social Conflict and Public Policy.

The archetypal SPPG graduate – whichever be her chosen policy concentration - is led through a combination of classroom and hands-on experiential learning methods. These skills equip students to develop models and frameworks for accountable governance and public policy that are grounded in values of a just society. In service of these goals, students are enabled:

Application of theoretical knowledge to concrete policy situations
Acquiring expertise in analytics and big data sets
Analysing and drafting policies and legislations
Learning the legal framework of policies and legislations
Exploring the intersection between ethics and policies
Developing institutional intervention for diverse social challenges
To acquire skills - written and oral - facilitating communication with diverse audiences

The students of SPPG are drawn from various fields including social science, law, engineering, and medicine amongst many other disciplinary backgrounds.

Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad

TISS Hyderabad strives to attain 'excellence' in higher education in social sciences with a firm eye on 'relevance' to the region, state, and nation.

Vision

To create an institution of excellence in knowledge building and sharing that explores fresh ground in defining social sciences and its relevance in strengthening people's knowledge, their right to education and ecologically sustainable livelihoods, in order to deepen democracy and citizenship.

Mission

The Hyderabad campus works towards its vision by:

Creating an institution of excellence in higher education in social sciences that offers a high quality learning environment for national and international students and scholars
Building new knowledge that is theoretically grounded, and demonstrating innovative programmes
Strengthening research and practice skills in planning, policy making and programme management at all levels of governance structures

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