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Housing and Society

Home/ Housing and Society
Course Type Course Code No. Of Credits
Discipline Core NSGA1DCU203 4

Course coordinator and team: Tanya Chaudhary

Course Details: 

    1. Summary Housing is an essential aspect of human civilisation, though its forms, materials and meanings are historically-geographically situated. The course takes a multi-dimensional approach to understand issues related to urban housing and its intersections with societal concerns, drawing in the main on the disciplines of architecture, urban planning, anthropology and geography. It is grounded in the experiences of the global south, and is situated at the intersection of policy, market and the relatively-autonomous actions of individuals and collectives. In its assessments, the course makes use of students’ situated experiences and observations of dwelling in the city.
  2. Objectives --
  • To introduce students to critical aspects of housing and its social contexts
  • To build understanding of urban policy, politics and associational lives through the prism of housing
  • To systematically locate students’ immediate experiences within wider urban processes   
  • Through field-based assessments, build capacity to undertake research individually and as part of teams

Overall structure: 

#

Module

Duration

1

Housing typologies

3 weeks

2

Neighbourhoods: social relations and change

2 weeks

3

The housing market: property and real estate

2 weeks

4

Housing policy and planning

2 weeks

5

Housing and the urban poor

3 weeks

The course is organised around five modules. After an introductory module that exposes students to the diversities of housing practices—especially in the global south—, the next three modules develop an understanding of the key elements of housing and its sociological, market and state interface.  The final module delves into the question of urban poverty and housing, looking at homelessness, slums, and renting.


 

Core readings

CRIT-Mumbai (2007), ‘Housing Typologies in Mumbai’, CRIT-Mumbai, available from https://          critmumbai.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/house-types-in-mumbai-final.pdf. 

Centre for Policy Research Internet resource on ‘Cities of Delhi’, available from https://www.cprindia.org/projects/cities-delhi 

‘City of Walls: A Discussion with Teresa Caldeira’, POLAR: 23(1): 122-137. Available from https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/pol.2000.23.1.122 

‘Exploring the concept of vernacular architecture’, DNA India, available from https://www.dnaindia.com/just-before-monday/report-exploring-the-concept-of-vernacular-architecture-2654645

Film: Urban Futures in the Indian Himalayas (2016)-short documentary on the changes in built environments, economy and aspirations in a small Himalayan town.

Arkaraprasertkul, Non (2013), ‘Traditionalism as a way of life: The sense of home in a Shanghai Alleyway’, Harvard Asia Quarterly, 15(3-4): 15-25.

Galonnier, Juliette (2014), ‘The enclave, the citadel and the ghetto: The threefold segregation of upper-class muslims in India’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427. 12203 

Kent, Alexander and TC Frohlich (2015), ‘The 9 most segregated cities in America’, Huffpost, Available from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-9-most-segregated-cities-in-america_n_55df53e9e4b0e7117ba92d7f 

Mceachern, Charmaine (1998), ‘Mapping the memories: politics, place and identity in the District Six Museum, Cape Town’, Social Identities, 4(3): 499-521.

Quarratulain Hyder, ‘The Housing Society’ (1963), novella

Film: District 9 (2009)—South African science fiction film that takes an alien-infused look at apartheid’s effects on majority neighborhoods.

Searle, Llerena (2016). Landscapes of Accumulation: Real Estate and the Neoliberal Imagination in Contemporary India. University of Chicago Press. Ch 1. 

Cowan, Thomas (2018), ‘The urban village, agrarian transformation and rentier capitalism in Gurgaon, India’, Antipode, 50(5): 1244-1266.

KP Singh (2015), Whatever the Odds: The Incredible Story behind DLF. Harper Collins. 

Ian M Cook (2015), ‘Link work: land and housing brokers in Mangaluru, India’, Journal of South Asian Development, 10(3): 292-317.

Film: Khosla ka Ghosla (2006)-film on a middle-class family’s conflict with real estate agents and mafia.

D’Souza, Renita (2019). Housing Poverty in Urban India: The Failures of Past and Current Strategies and the Need for a New Blueprint. ORF Occassional Paper. Available from https://www.orfonline.org/research/housing-poverty-in-urban-india-the-failures-of-past-and-current-strategies-and-the-need-for-a-new-blueprint-48665/ 

Yuen, Belinda et al (2005), ‘High-rise living in Singapore Public Housing’, Urban Studies, 43(3): 583-600.

Zhang, Zhao et al (2017), ‘A crisis of crisis management? Evaluating post-2010 housing restructuring in Nanjing, China’, Housing Policy Debate, 28(1):29-49.

Film: Mohan Joshi Haazir Ho! (1984)- film on an elderly couple’s interaction with the state and bureaucracy as they seek to improve their Mumbai tenement’s infrastructure.

Benjamin, Solomon (2007), ‘Occupancy urbanism: ten theses’, Sarai Reader 2007: 538-563.

Sheikh, Shahana and Subhadra Banda (2016). ‘Unpacking the “Unauthorized Colony”: Policy, Planning and Everyday Lives’, in S. Chakravarty and R Negi (Eds), Space, Planning and Everyday Contestations in Delhi. New Delhi: Springer (pp 137-161). 

Hindman, Michelle et al (2015),  Addressing Slum Redevelopment Issues in India. Dow Sustainability Fellowship. Available from http://sustainability.umich.edu/media/files/dow/Dow-Slum-Redevelopment-India.pdf

‘Too afraid to sleep: India’s homeless women suffer as cities expand’ (2018), Voice of America, available from https://www.voanews.com/south-central-asia/too-afraid-sleep-indias-homeless-women-suffer-cities-expand 

Naik, Mukta (2015), ‘Informal rental housing typologies and experiences of low-income migrant renters in Gurgaon, India’, Environment and Urbanization ASIA, 6(2): 154-175.

Flim: Cities of Sleep (2015)- documentary on the places and socialities involved in the act of sleeping for Delhi’s homeless.

Pedagogy: 

    1. Instructional design 

The course will be a combination of lectures, tutorials and field-based learning. The course will use an online platform (Google Classroom) that enables students to track the course’s  progress and their own contributions. The course will throughout look to draw on the students’ own relationships with the city via their experiences with their homes and neighborhoods through reflective exercises and assignments.

  1. Special needs (facilities, requirements in terms of software, studio, lab, clinic, library, classroom/others instructional space; any other – please specify)

No specific requirements

  1. Linkages with external agencies (e.g., with field-based organizations, hospital; any others)

Special lectures by academics and civil society advocates working on housing will be organised. Discussions with agencies such as the Housing and Land Rights Alliance, among others, are already going on with regards to a longer-engagement with the programme. 

Assessment structure (modes and frequency of assessments)

The course will have three types of assessment situations. 

  • Students will be assessed in assignments that cover elements of theory and field work observations as presentation using photo-voice and stories (Two assignments: 50%) 
  • Two in-class responses to specific modules and material related to these will be worth 20% of the grade
  • The final examination will be worth 30% of the grade

 

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