Kolkata — The Colonial City in Transition

Kolkata — The Colonial City in Transition

Author: Sumana Bandyopadhyay

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-12-20

Total Pages: 395

ISBN-13: 1000603717

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This book explores the spatial characteristics of the city of Kolkata in India in terms of the physical, economic, social, political, and environmental aspects of urban geography, and focuses upon the inherent processes that impact its transformation. It discusses different facets of urban geography and highlights the contemporary challenges of a major primate city in South Asia, which represents the conflicts between the traditional and the modern, the rich and the poor, the skyscrapers and the shanties. With its detailed empirical research and mapping exercises based on real-time remote sensing data, the book offers an understanding of a range of contemporary urban issues. It examines the spatial consequences of urban sprawl, land-use changes, ecological crisis, climate change, critical disasters, dynamics of the peri-urban interface, neighborhood restructuring, debates around heritage conservation, housing poverty, gray spaces, governance and the political landscape of the city. This book will be useful to students, teachers, and researchers of geography, especially human geography and urban geography, urban studies, urban development and planning, regional planning, social geography, governance, ecology, economics, and South Asian studies. It will also benefit urban planners, development professionals, and those interested in the study of the city of Kolkata and its transformations.


Calcutta in Colonial Transition

Calcutta in Colonial Transition

Author: Ranjit Sen

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2019-03-14

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 0429576110

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This book brings home the story of how three clustered villages grew into a primate city, in which a garrison town, a port city and the capital of an empire merged into one entity—Calcutta. This and its companion volume Birth of a Colonial City examine the geopolitical factors that were significant in securing Calcutta's position in the light of growing influence of the East India Company and subsequently the British Empire. A definitive history of Calcutta in its nascent years, this book discusses the challenges of city-planning, the de-industrialization at the hands of British imperialists, the catastrophic fall of the Union Bank, the advent of British capital, and the rise of the Bengali business enterprise in the colonial era. It also underlines how Calcutta facilitated the development of a political consciousness and the pivotal political and cultural role it played when the movement for independence took hold in the country. This volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of modern South Asian history, British Studies, city and area studies.


Indo-Pacific Smart Megacity System

Indo-Pacific Smart Megacity System

Author: T. M. Vinod Kumar

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2024-01-19

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 9819962188

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This book is an in-depth study of the Indo-Pacific region for effective interventions in the megacities system. First, based on several criteria, the region is identified as homogeneous country groupings of diversity, a multi-polar spatial system, and as program regions of QUAD and I2U2 for action programs and investment transcending many nations but mostly the ocean space of the Indo-Pacific, connecting all megacities sub-regions spatially and functionally. Then, the megacities with problems and prospects for economic integration are studied from the point of view of regional economics and international trade, and finally, the rural–urban interface with case studies of selected countries is presented. Prospects of systems of megacities and individual megacities for regional economies are designed. Existing interconnections through rail, air, and ocean of megacity systems, their capacity, performance, and potential are analyzed for emerging issues. International trade among the megacity systems/countries with emerging issues and barriers are presented. The mobility of money, goods, and services among the systems of megacities is analyzed. Rule-based diplomacy and other emerging options are discussed to sustain the above calls for a study of the Security of the Indo-Pacific region. Finally, the emerging architecture for megacity system governance is also presented. Out of 21 megacities in the Indo-Pacific, an in-depth study of a few in India and Japan in the Indo-Pacific region for effective economic interventions in the megacities system at the city level was studied. COVID-19 has affected most of the countries in the Indo-Pacific. With a contraction of GDP and a GDP growth rate negative, the number below the poverty level increased. Foreign Direct Investment is not forthcoming in any of these countries. Job creation becomes a priority in addition to public health concerns connected with COVID-19.


Urban Development Challenges, Risks and Resilience in Asian Mega Cities

Urban Development Challenges, Risks and Resilience in Asian Mega Cities

Author: R.B. Singh

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-10-16

Total Pages: 482

ISBN-13: 4431550437

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In this book, an interdisciplinary research group of faculty members, researchers, professionals, and planners contributed to an understanding of the dynamics and dimensions of emerging challenges and risks in megacities in the rapidly changing urban environments in Asia and examined emerging resilience themes from the point of view of sustainability and public policy. The world’s urban population in 2009 was approximately 3.4 billion and Asia’s urban population was about 1.72 billion. Between 2010 and 2020, 411 million people will be added to Asian cities (60 % of the growth in the world’s urban population). By 2020, of the world’s urban population of 4.2 billion, approximately 2.2 billion will be in Asia. China and India will contribute 31.3 % of the total world urban population by 2025. Developing Asia’s projected global share of CO2 emissions for energy consumption will increase from 30 % in 2006 to 43 % by 2030. City regions serve as magnets for people, enterprise, and culture, but with urbanisation , the worst form of visible poverty becomes prominent. The Asian region, with a slum population of an estimated 505.5 million people, remains host to over half of the world’s slum population . The book provides information on a comprehensive range of environmental threats faced by the inhabitants of megacities. It also offers a wide and multidisciplinary group of case studies from rapidly growing megacities (with populations of more than 5 million) from developed and developing countries of Asia.


Urbanisation in Bengal

Urbanisation in Bengal

Author: Pallavi Chakravarty

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-08-16

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 1040085830

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This volume presents a comprehensive study of the urbanization of Bengal from ancient to postcolonial times. It analyses the notion of urban space, examines the institutions which constitute the ‘urban’, and explores the crises brought about by the Partition. The book highlights the key features of urbanization in colonial Bengal––the print culture, institutions of Western education and Western medicine, and the census as a ‘modern form of knowledge’. It also looks at the refugee movement and discusses the contribution of Partition refugees in urbanizing Bengal. Rich in archival sources, this book will be indispensable for scholars and researchers of urban history, urban studies, Indian history, colonial history, postcolonial studies, partition studies, and South Asian history, particularly those interested in Bengal.


Theorising Urban Development From the Global South

Theorising Urban Development From the Global South

Author: Anjali Karol Mohan

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-10-25

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 3030824756

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This edited volume brings together debates from the Global South and Global East to explore alternatives to conventional planning in Southern cities. Embracing the evolving post-colonial theory, the volume offers ‘fragments’ of the urban that provide clues to the larger, often-repeated ontological question that continues to hold: Why and what does theory from the South mean? The chapters derive from and speak to the simultaneously homogenous and heterogeneous South. They focus on presenting the alternative realities of Southern cities as critical analytical lenses that can build up to the theorisation of the Southern urban with a potential to (re)understand the contemporary urban world. The contributions explore locally rooted knowledge systems, premised on social and cultural practices, as possible conduits to evolving planning methods. In doing so, the volume breaks apart the linear modernity that urban theory from the North relies on. Chapters [Chapter-1] and [Chapter-11] are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.


Sustainable Urbanism in Developing Countries

Sustainable Urbanism in Developing Countries

Author: Uday Chatterjee

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2022-04-19

Total Pages: 466

ISBN-13: 1000572374

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The mushrooming of illegal housing on the periphery of cities is one of the main consequences of rapid urbanisation associated with social and environmental problems in the developing countries. Sustainable Urbanism in Developing Countries discusses the linkage between urbanism and sustainability and how sustainable urbanism can be implemented to overcome the problems of housing and living conditions in urban areas. Through case studies from India, Indonesia, China, etc., using advanced GIS techniques, this book analyses several planning and design criteria to solve the physical, social, and economic problems of urbanisation and refers to urban planning as an effective measure to protect and promote the cultural characteristics of specific locations in these developing countries. FEATURES Investigates an interdisciplinary approach to urbanism, including urban ecology, ecosystem services, sustainable landscapes, and advanced geographical systems Analyses unique case studies of rapid urbanisation from a local to a national scale in countries such as India, Sri Lanka, China, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Indonesia and their global impact Examines the use of GIS and spatial statistics in analysing urban sprawl and the massive amount of data gathered by every operational activity of municipalities Focuses on the holistic perspective of sustainable urbanism and the harmony in the human–nature relationship to achieve sustainable development Covers a wide range of issues manifested in urban areas with economic, societal, and environmental implications contributed by leading scholars from the Global South