Tuesday, December 15, 2009

TWO WEEK COUNTDOWN!

We are SO excited!

WE ARE GOING TO MUMBAI!!!!!

We have some contacts with local organizations that are interested in having us learn about their work!

We have a place to live!

Cecilia has a visa to India!

Vinisha has a NEW place to live for when we come back to NY! (No, this is not Mumbai related, but its something to celebrate!)

We are equally scared and excited to the chaos that we will encounter in Mumbai and the daily challenges that we will face!

There's no way *knock on wood* that this can go wrong!!! It's going to be the most awesome learning experience EVER!

And we found out that Vinisha will have to work very hard to keep Cecilia from eating Chaat from street vendors. JUST SAY NO!

For now, we're going to our respective homes for some MUCH needed r&r and family time!

GAH! WE'RE GOING TO MUMBAI!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

A meeting with Lisa Bjorkman

Lisa Bjorkman is a doctoral candidate at the New School for Social Research. She met with us last week to discuss our upcoming trip and to pass on some advice as a fellow academic who has studied India closely.

The meeting was highly informative and she gave us some new ways to look at issues surrounding slum redevelopment. We discussed the fact that in academic papers there is a lack of focus on the politics behind slum redevelopment and resident rights, and we are excited to see how this will play out in our interviews and meetings.

She suggested a number of organizations that we had heard of but hadn’t previously considered meeting with, such as: The Tata Institute for Social Research and the National Alliance of People’s Movements. We are interested in these organizations because they will add a diverse perspective to our discourse.

Lisa will coincidentally also be in Mumbai in January, and we’re excited to see her there!

Our tentative calendar for our trip

Click on the image below for a (slightly) larger view of our calendar.

Our letter of intent for our trip to India, to Sheela Patel at SPARC

Dear Ms. Patel,

We are current students at the Graduate Program for International Affairs at The New School. We are working with Michael Cohen on an independent research project, which will take us to Mumbai during the month of January (specifically from January 3 – 24, 2010).

Our interests are in exploring the voice that slum residents have within the Indian democracy, the organizations working on their behalf, and the impact of government initiatives. While in Mumbai we hope meet with different organizations: SPARC, PUKAR, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and the National Alliance of People’s Movements. During our final week we hope to attend the annual Cities Alliance meeting at which government representative will be present. During these three weeks we will gather information through interviews with members of the stated groups, and their stakeholders such as importantly the slum residents themselves.

We are in the process of surveying the current literature and are in constant conversation with Dr. Cohen and the India China Institute and other faculty currently researching related issues. Vinisha Bhatia just finished a paper focusing on the roles of slum dwellers, policy makers, and NGOs in sustainably addressing the issue of slums and urban migration. Her paper explores: securing tenure; addressing migration at its root by forming secondary cities; as well as looking at various urban redevelopment policies. She is arguing for using all three means as a way to effectively address slum proliferation. In the summer of 2010, Vinisha looks forward to participating in the Uganda International Field Program (IFP) of The New School in which she will take part in an internship with Cities Alliance. Cecilia Golombek is interested in pursuing questions of what makes a sustainable, inclusive and successful democracy. She looks forward to using this experience to learn about the slums of Mumbai and the Indian democracy first hand. In the summer of 2010 she hopes to elaborate on the questions of citizenship and participatory governments on the Nepal IFP.

Both Vinisha and Cecilia will take the data and information that they collect during this three-week trip in India to produce independent study papers in their spring 2010 semester. In conducting the research and interviews together we will be able to incorporate two different points of view while looking at the same data and contexts. This will give our papers and study a more in depth analysis of rights, the Indian democracy, and the current state of urban development in India. We hope to also create a lasting connection between SPARC and The New School in which our fellow and future students will be able to engage in further discussion on the issues surrounding the slums of Mumbai and urban development.

This study and trip will be a wonderful opportunity for us to expand our knowledge in the areas of rights, democracy, and urban development through primary resources. This experience and the papers that we will produce in the spring will allow us to approach the rest of our academic careers with more in depth understanding of the issues. With an opportunity such as this, we are excited to expand our understanding, change our outlooks, and create more enriching academic and professional careers.

Thank you very much and we look forward to meeting you in India!

WE BOUGHT OUR TICKETS!

We're really excited! We have our tickets to Mumbai!!!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Starting the literature review

In preparing for our trip, we have taken into our possession many of the documents from the Graduate Program in International Affairs at The New School's Resource Library on Mumbai and India (aka the boxes).

When we first starting talking about this project with our faculty mentor we were told about the Mumbai as the New Shanghai project. With our focus on the slums of Mumbai this was a very clear policy and project of the Government of Maharashtra (GoM) and the Mumbai Municipality to start researching.

More information on the project can be found here.

To understand the complexity of slum redevelopment we have begun the literature review process through looking at the boxes, talking with our faculty mentor (and we will be having more meetings with other faculty in the weeks to come), and also going through scholarly journals (works cited page for a paper that Vinisha recently wrote will be posted).

Our Project: Slum Resident Voices in Indian Democracy

Through this project we will travel to the city of Mumbai during the winter break of the 2009-2010 school year, and study specific aspects of the lives of slum residents. We are interested in the voice that they have within the Indian democracy, the non-governmental organizations working on their behalf, and impact of government initiatives. While in Mumbai we will follow different NGOs for three weeks: SPARC, CRISIL, PUKAR, and PRAJA. Our final week will be dedicated to meeting with government agencies. During these four weeks we will gather our information through interviews with members of the stated groups, and their affiliates such as the slum residents themselves. We are in the process of surveying the current literature and beginning conversations with SPARC’s founder Sheela Patel, as well as creating contacts within CRISIL, PRAJA and the Mumbai Municipality. Our faculty mentor’s relationship with Cities Alliance will allow us to take part in an observational study tour of the slums of Mumbai being given by the Municipal government.

We are applying for the India China Institute Student Travel and Research Fellowship at The New School. Taking part in the fellowship to look at these issues surrounding the slums of Mumbai will further our academic careers. Vinisha Bahtia is currently writing a paper focusing on the roles of slum dwellers, policy makers, and NGOs in sustainably addressing the issue of slums and urban migration. Her paper explores: securing tenure; addressing migration at its root by forming secondary cities; as well as looking at various urban redevelopment policies. She is arguing for using all three means as a way to effectively address slum proliferation. In the summer of 2010, Vinisha looks forward to participating in the Uganda International Field Program (IFP) in which she will take part in an internship with Cities Alliance. Cecilia Golombek is interested in pursuing questions of what makes a sustainable, inclusive and successful democracy. She looks forward to using this experience to learn about the slums of Mumbai and the Indian democracy first hand. In the summer of 2010 she hopes to elaborate on the questions of citizenship and participatory governments on the Nepal IFP. Both Vinisha and Cecilia will take the data and information that they collect during this month-long trip, to produce a independent study paper in their spring 2010 semester. In working on the fellowship together we will be able to incorporate two different points of view while looking at the same data and contexts. This will give the paper and study a more in depth analysis of rights, Indian democracy, and the current state of urban development in India. We hope to also create a lasting connection between SPARC and The New School in which our fellow and future students will be able to engage in further discussion on the issues surrounding the slums of Mumbai and urban development.

This project will be a wonderful opportunity for us to expand our knowledge in the areas of rights, democracy, and urban development through first resources. This experience and the paper that we will produce in the spring semester will allow us to approach our summer IFPs with more in depth understanding of the issues. With an opportunity such as the one that we are proposing here, we are excited to expand our understanding, change our outlook, and create an even more enriching academic career at the New School.

Below are sample questions that we hope to use as a basis for our data collection. Questions will vary by interviewee and will change or be adapted based on further research and local situation.

Questions for SLUM RESIDENTS

- How long have you been living here?

- Did you build your home, or are you renting?

- Where did you move from? What necessitated your move here?

-Do you work? If yes, how far do you travel to work?

- Are you happy here? Are there changes that would make you happier?

- Are the NGOs that are working here advancing these changes that you wish to see?

- Do you feel like you have a role in influencing or making policy?

- What have you seen of government involvement here? Is it responding to your wishes?

- Do you vote?

Questions for NGOs

- What is the image of your optimal city?

- What is your role in urban planning and development?

- How has your work changed over time? In particular, with the move from a centralized to a decentralized government.

- Who are the stakeholders in your organization?

- How do you measure your success? What goals have been achieved and what are still in progress?

- How are successes replicated or adapted?

Questions for GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS

- What is the image of your optimal city?

- What is the role of the citizen and the role of the NGO in urban planning and development?

-Who are your stakeholders?

- How is your success measured? What goals have been achieved and what are still in progress?

- How are successes replicated or adapted?

It all started on the 2 train...

After a meeting about the International Field Program (IFP) both Vinisha and Cecilia were very excited to travel! The next free time that we had was winter break (the IFP takes place in the Summer of 2010). We had individually started thinking about research ideas that would take us to another country and gain some more field experience.

In a conversation that in the end led to our working together on this project, we initially by simply asking each other questions about the issue of poverty. The conversation grew in complexity and we realized that were talking about the same issues and were interested in the same topics. We had different areas of interest which we found broadened and deepened the questions that we were asking and the conversation that we were having.

Almost missing our stop on the 2 train, we realized with great jubilation that we had just come up with a thesis for a project! SLUM REDEVELOPMENT IN INDIA! We ran to Cecilia's to get our ideas down on paper. 4 hours and a few pots of tea later (which would make it around midnight - on a Friday) we had our plan!

Since then the plan and questions shifted and have been revised to become more substantial and focused. The final product, which was submitted as a grant proposal for the India China Institute at The New School's Student Travel and Research Fellowship, can be seen in the next post.

We've decided to start this blog to document our project and to begin a dialogue between each other, our friends, experts in the field, and others interested in the topics touched upon.