Jump to main content

Quicklinks

Summer School "Natural and Cultural Heritage in Delhi" (2016)

Report on the DAAD Summer School by Gideon Hartmann (participant)

After the first of three interdisciplinary and intercultural summer schools on the topic of Natural and Cultural Heritage as New Commons took place in August, Prof. Dr. Peter Dannenberg and Dr. Alexander Follmann led the second event of the overarching DAAD network Remapping the Global South in October 2016.
While the first summer school focused on urban green spaces with the use and future of Tempelhofer Feld in Berlin, this time the students' work concentrated on peri-urban urban development and its implications for local agriculture in the megacity of Delhi.

  • #

    Agriculture and new housing developments currently still share a great deal of land (A. Follmann).

  • #

    The spectrum of agricultural holdings ranges from traditional to state-of-the-art (A. Follmann).

  • #

    Those involved in collecting and organising the data (A. Follmann).

  • #

    The participants on the JNU campus and in front of the Taj Mahal in Agra (C. Greiner & A. Follmann)

Using the case study of Faridabad, a satellite city south of the megacity of Delhi, the participants explored the rapid transformation of a peri-urban space that is typical of many cities in the Global South. Formerly developed as an industrial city, Faridabad has long been associated with its dominant, polluting industry. Recently, however, this has changed in that Faridabad is increasingly important as a residential location for Delhi. The city is expected to grow from 1.4 million inhabitants in 2011 to up to 3.9 million by 2031. As a result, the peri-urban area in particular is characterized by an omnipresent transformation from a rural to an urban landscape. Far-reaching investments in large residential projects are rapidly driving this change and thus shaping the future of the city. The preservation of the natural and cultural heritage of the region is a challenge that makes it essential to discuss the extent to which socio-economic and socio-ecological practices and livelihoods can adapt to this abrupt development. The apparent extent and speed of this process in the field showed the participants the relevance of this discussion.

The 18 PhD and Master's students from the University of Cologne and Jawaharlal Nehru University worked in three research groups to document the dynamics around Faridabad with a focus on agriculture. Due to the interdisciplinary composition of the field of participants, it was possible to apply different methodological approaches, such as qualitative and quantitative interviews, participant observation, remote sensing with satellite images and water sampling. This mix of methods provided a broad picture of the actors and processes that drive the urbanization of peri-urban areas and will be recorded in the students' research or final theses.

The event program can be viewed here.
Information on the research results will follow shortly.

Contact and further information

Peter Dannenberg
E-mail: p.dannenberg@uni-koeln.de
Alexander Follmann
E-mail: a.follmann@uni-koeln.de