CPR-CSH Workshop on: Rent, Regulation and the Career of an Urban Village | Dr Sushmita Pati

NLS faculty member Dr Sushmita Pati speaks on ‘Rent, Regulation and the Career of an Urban Village’ on July 27, 2021.  Tune into the online session being organised by The Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH).

The session will be held via Zoom from 3:45 PM to 5:30 PM.

To register, please click here. The session will also be live-streamed on the CPR Facebook page.

About the Talk

In the world of finance capital, rent represents a ‘lack of risk’. Rent also represents strong ownership in the world of finance capital which effaces ownerships. This talk would draw from the larger question that the speaker is asking in her forthcoming manuscript titled ‘Properties of Rent’ – What is the role of rent in shaping our global cities? She delves into this through looking at Jat dominated urban villages of Delhi, which have evolved into an unregulated economy of rental properties, residential and commercial, organised and managed by a thick notion of community.

This talk focuses on the relationship of these urban villages with the state, which is largely mediated through the question of regulation. We have witnessed a gradually increasing attention of the state on these villages in the form of ‘regulation’, which is consistently resisted by the community. The speaker argues that regulation is not merely an impetus of a state’s project, but also that of capital. Villagers fear that the coming of the state, through its regulations, would also usher in capital, with its facelessness, which will not only loosen their economic hold, but also their own identity.

In case of any issues or queries regarding the event, please email at .

About the Speaker

Sushmita Pati is an Assistant Professor (Political Science) at National Law School of India University, Bangalore. Her book ‘Properties of Rent: Community, Capital and Politics in Globalising Delhi’ is coming out soon from Cambridge University Press.

About the Workshop Series

This is the hundred and thirty-eighth in a series of Urban Workshops planned by the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH), New Delhi and Centre for Policy Research (CPR). These workshops seek to provoke public discussion on issues relating to the development of the city and try to address all its facets including its administration, culture, economy, society and politics.

For further information, please contact: Rémi de Bercegol at , Olivier Telle of CSH at , Mukta Naik at or Marie-Hélène Zerah at . Find videos of previous workshops, here.