Past Event! Note: this event has already taken place.

IPE Visiting Professor Seminar

April 25, 2023 at 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM

Audience:Alumni, Anyone, Carleton Community, Current Students, Faculty, Prospective Students
Contact Email:peco@carleton.ca
Contact Phone:613-520-7414

Borders Of The Enclave? State Capacity, Territory And Private Government In India’s Steel Towns

How do the territorial borders of industrial and economic enclaves come to be established and how do they evolve? In the steel towns of postcolonial India, territorial boundaries were planted by state and princely fiat amid Adivasi tribal territories. Despite the ostensibly sharp limits delineated by the provision of high-quality urban infrastructure in the urban-industrial core in these company towns, contestations around jurisdiction have continued to trouble their edges. Examining contemporary discrepancies between the de jure and the de facto borders of contemporary steel towns, this paper outlines the methodological lessons and socio-spatial disparities they trace.  In particular, this paper shows the limitations of the state’s infrastructural power in these settings in the absence of local democracy. It also suggests some ways constructivist knowledge claims can help advance understanding of state capacity.

Online Event: Tuesday April 25 from 2:00pm – 3:30pm via Zoom Webinar. Once you register, a link to the zoom webinar will be e-mailed to you. If you already registered for the previously-scheduled event, the Zoom link will be sent to you automatically. Only register if you do not yet have a link for the event.

Ashima Sood is an Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Centre for Urbanism and Cultural Economics at Anant National University. In 2022, she was also Urban Studies Foundation International Fellow and Visiting Research Fellow at the Oxford Department of International Development.

Lying at the intersection of institutional economics and urban and development studies, Sood’s work combines qualitative and quantitative methods to examine privatized forms of urban governance and urban informality in India through a political economy lens. Her research has received recognition and/or funding from the India Foundation of the Arts, the Azim Premji University Foundation, the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, the Centre de Sciences Humaines and the Regional Studies Association. A co-edited volume entitled India’s Greenfield Urban Future: The Politics of Land, Planning and Infrastructure is forthcoming at Orient BlackSwan. She has served as International Corresponding Editor at Urban Studies, as part of the Editorial Board at the Journal of Urban Affairs, and as an editorial advisory group member with the Economic and Political Weekly’s Review of Urban Affairs. Her previous affiliations include the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Hyderabad, NALSAR University and the Indian School of Business. She earned her PhD in Economics from Cornell University.

As space is limited, please register below:

IPE Seminar: Ashima Sood

  • Please provide your affiliation details for the purposes of the conference. Ex. Carleton University, Institute of Political Economy, MA Student; or Canadian Union of Public Employees, Research Department, Senior Research Officer
  • Should you require disability-related accommodations to ensure your full participation in the conference, please let us know and we will follow up with you directly.