Lecture on urbanisation and ecocide, Nov 5
| Event Start Date: 5th November 2015 | Event End Date: 5th November 2015 | Event Venue: Azim Premji University, Bangalore |
Azim Premji University Colloquium Series presents a lecture on
“Metropolitan
Hubris: Should Ecocidal Urbanisation Proceed Unabated?”
Speaker: Aseem Shrivastava, Writer and Ecological Economist, New Delhi
Date: November 05 2015 (Thursday)
Time: 2.00 to 3.30 pm
Venue: 10th Floor Auditorium, Pixel A (Azim Premji University, Bangalore)
About the Lecture
It is every Indian Finance Minister’s dream to move most of India from the villages to the cities. This is an unspoken multi-partisan consensus that survives any changes in government. What if India succeeds in this goal? Might this ‘success’ also be the worst ecological failure? The orthodoxy in developmental thought has long held the view that industrialisation is an imperative which, in turn, compels societies to urbanise. However, this view is drawn from the empirical historical experience of the so-called ‘developed’ countries over the past few centuries. Can it be generalised to frame the prospects of countries regarded as ‘developing’? My talk will consider this and related questions, drawing fresh attention to the old, familiar debate between Gandhi and Ambedkar on the relations between town and country in India. To anticipate my conclusion, there is no real choice in India between town and country. The only sensible approach is a renegotiated relationship between the city and the village, which begins by acknowledging the dignity and ecological significance of rural life.
About the Speaker
Dr. Aseem Shrivastava is a Delhi-based writer and ecological economist. He is the author (with Ashish Kothari) of the book Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India (Penguin Viking, New Delhi, 2012). He has spoken and written extensively on ecological issues connected with development and globalisation.