XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 15-21, 2018)

941

Urbanization, Commons and Communities: Reflections from South Asia

WG05 Famine and Society (host committee)

Language: English

Control over land and natural resources has recently become a subject of debate in South Asia, particularly in the context of rapid urbanization. The region is moving towards becoming cohorts of smart cities with malls, multiplexes and luxury apartments. All such developments however have taken place at the cost of community land. In fact numerous cases in different countries indicate that village common lands are a prime target of land takeovers that are justified in the name of economic growth, urbanization and industrialization. States like India are no exception to this syndrome and one witnesses drastic but silent transformation taking place in the rural areas of the region. The common lands, once an integral feature of almost every village is shrinking due to multiple reasons, prime being encroachment and illegal sale and in this, the villages near large cities are the worst hit. Such transformations have affected   mostly the economically marginal communities. While these developments have resulted in what Hardin would call “tragedy of the commons”, it urges   social scientists to engage and look at these issues   more critically and not treat them merely sites to understand rurality in isolation. Given the context, the session intends to looks at issues of land use dynamics in South Asia in the context of aggressive urbanization that are taking place and  the  shifts that are associated with it. It encourages papers that engages with issues like land rights, equity, justice and gender and  caste conflict associated with ‘common lands’ in  recent years.