Vinay Gidwani and Eric Sheppard – University of Minnesota – Global Spotlight Faculty Grants
Funded as Full Professors
Proposal Abstract: Rapid urbanization across Asia is undergoing a great transformation under the aegis of neoliberal, market-based policymaking emanating from the global North. Privatization of land and basic services is envisioned as capable of enhancing economic competitiveness, the prosperity of all urban residents and urban environmental sustainability, converting cities where much urban living is informal (e.9., land tenure, economic activities, access to amenities) into places where private ownership and formal markets dominate. A four-discipline three-country research team will undertake a relational comparison of two Asian cities experiencing this in distinctways: Bangalore (lndia) and Jakarta (lndonesia). Here, and elsewhere, formalization of urban life and economies is accompanied by ongoing, even expanded, informality. ln collaboration with local experts, these ‘living laboratories’will be studied to understand the processes driving this transformation, their impact on urban residents in formal and informal areas, and how residents negotiate these changes. Core and peri-urban areas will be studied, as urban spaces that are particularly affected by neoliberalization.
Utilizing a mixed methods research design (document analysis, surveys, interviews, focus group, participatory mapping), we will examine transformations how cities are undergoing neoliberalization, how articulations of distinct urban lifestyles are shifting, and how we should theorize and intervene in cities.
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