Lecture 22: Contextualizing Cities (1980-2021)

This first paragraph is an introduction, welcoming to the course on urban planning. It outlines the learning objectives, which include understanding the planning narratives and interventions in cities globally and in India from the late 20th century onwards. Key topics mentioned that will be covered include the shift from modernism to neoliberalism, knowledge economies, transit developments, technology use, sustainability, and the Covid-19 health shifts.

This paragraph discusses the shift in urban planning from a physical, architect-driven approach to a more economic, private sector-driven model. It mentions industrial cities declining in the West, financial cities rising, and a power imbalance as industries grew in developing countries. It also notes growing awareness of climate change and green/eco city approaches.

This paragraph summarizes major Indian policy changes relevant to cities, including decentralization acts in the 1990s, and economic liberalization policies allowing foreign direct investment and public-private partnerships for urban infrastructure. It mentions how policies like URDPFI provided guidance on urban planning to integrate these changes.

This paragraph analyses Indian case studies of public-private transportation projects. It examines the Delhi Metro as a successful model, implemented through equal public-private partnership. It also mentions India's first privately owned metro in Gurgaon, noting private infrastructure sometimes lagged on public facilities.

This paragraph discusses strategies adopted in declining Western cities to spur growth, like transforming old industrial spaces or leveraging local universities. It examines the Research Triangle Park as a case where incentives promoted private companies to locate near universities, though notes poverty remains.

This paragraph compares India's performance on knowledge economy indices to OECD countries. It finds India's scores lag significantly, though mentions some Indian cities with growing tech and biotech hubs. It implies India's knowledge economy remains limited in reach.

This paragraph discusses the rise in importance of global financial cities that command influence over other cities in networks. It mentions cities like New York, London and Tokyo as top examples, with Mumbai and Delhi having growing clout. It implies financial cities concentrate power.

This paragraph analyses how smaller cities try to boost competitiveness, including forming urban agglomerations to increase scale or developing specialized economic clusters. Indian efforts to promote manufacturing clusters are noted. Implication is collaborative strategies can help smaller cities compete.

This paragraph discusses city branding through mega-events and the creative city concept as an urban strategy. It mentions Richard Florida's creative class theory. In India, initiatives like UNESCO's creative cities network are starting to formally recognize cultural resources.

This paragraph introduces transit-oriented development or TOD as an urban planning concept to promote sustainability and curb car-dependent sprawl. It notes many Indian cities have started adopting TOD principles of dense, mixed-use development clustered around transit hubs.

This paragraph discusses India's focus on large, integrated infrastructure investments like industrial corridors and metro rail networks for urban transformation. It implies a recommitment to public transit and clusters after earlier auto-centric policies.

This paragraph introduces new urbanism as an urban planning movement emphasizing walkability, density, mixed use, and investment in public transit and infrastructure. Indian metro system expansion and private sector involvement is highlighted.

This paragraph analyzes the eco-city concept which emerged from growing sustainability concerns. It found many experiments like China's Dongtan project faced feasibility issues in practice. India examples like green efforts in Bangalore are mentioned as more incremental.

This final paragraph discusses the rise of data-driven smart urbanism leveraging AI, sensors, big data and other emerging technologies to manage city operations. Indian smart cities program experiments are mentioned. Transition to thinking about post-pandemic health infrastructure is noted.