The differentiated impacts of urbanisation on lake communities in Bengaluru, India

Sen, Amrita and Nagendra, Harini (2020) The differentiated impacts of urbanisation on lake communities in Bengaluru, India. International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development. pp. 1-15.

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Abstract

This research assesses the differentiated impacts of urbanisation on communities of Bengaluru, who earlier inhabited agrarian and rural commons landscapes. Drawing on empirical observations from residents of peri-urban erstwhile villages of Bengaluru located next to lakes, we examine changes in their social-ecological practices, linked to the urban transformation of these landscapes. Urbanisation has transformed once-rural landscapes into fast growing urban areas at peripheries of Bengaluru. We show that impacts of urban transition are not homogenous or representative of uniform trends, but diverse, shaped by differing power relationships that manifest themselves within the Indian caste hierarchy. Urban transitions, while undoubtedly bringing about disconnects with the social-ecological landscape, have been disenfranchising in some aspects but emancipatory in other ways, liberating underprivileged castes from the worst practices of exploitation. We argue that urbanisation experiences vary, depending on the past and opens up prospects for challenging the received understanding of urbanisation, through individual experiences.

Item Type:	Article
Authors:	Sen, Amrita and Nagendra, Harini
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Assimilation, Bengaluru, Commons, Lakes, Socialecological, Systems, Urbanization
Subjects:	Natural Sciences > Life sciences; biology > Ecology
Divisions:	Azim Premji University > School of Development
Full Text Status:	Restricted
URI:	http://publications.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/id/eprint/2346
Publisher URL:	https://doi.org/10.1080/19463138.2020.1770260

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