RurbanSpace: The social production of rurban space in Bengaluru

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Uwe Altrock; Professor Dr. Christoph Dittrich
• Subject Area: Human Geography ; City Planning, Spatial Planning, Transportation and Infrastructure Planning, Landscape Planning
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 548312187

Project B01 addresses the question of how rurban space is socially produced in the megacity of Bengaluru, southern India, under conditions of global urbanism (Lancione and Mc Farlane, 2021). We settle our research in the legacy of the Indian colonial city and its design, claiming that the specific interplay between the urban and the rural create complex and regionally-specific assemblages of rurbanity. We focus our work on the specific combination of collective and individual forms of place-making, building upon access to material resources, information, knowledge production and formal and informal regulations. We distinguish between planning as a formal process and the more informal processes of alternative, substitute place-making, which enable individuals and communities to shape their living environment in a more sustainable manner. The project concentrates on four research questions: (1) what are the characteristics of the physical rurban space identified under conditions of globalising rurbanisation, (2) which conditions, factors, agents and mechanisms determine the production of rurban social space, (3) how is the rurban space being negotiated, and (4) which conditions enable individuals, communities, and planning institutions to shape the rurban living environment in a more sustainable manner? Empirically, the project works in two small towns at the urban fringe of Bengaluru, each characterised by great dynamics of re-configuration. We concentrate on three contested topics of rurbanisation: residential areas (formal housing versus informal housing), the public space (top-down planning versus collective activities) and spaces of labour and reproduction (local versus non-local forms of production and reproduction). Building on approaches of social place-making as well as assemblage-theoretical and practice-theoretical ideas B01 uses a mixed methods approach of document and satellite image analysis, a quantitative household survey, qualitative interviews, mapping, and participatory tools to advance the understanding of how rurbanity is constituted. The files and transcripts will be exploited by data base analysis, content analysis, and mapping techniques.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 5903: Sustainable Rurbanity - Resources, Society, and Regulatory Systems
• International Connection: India
• Cooperation Partner: Professorin Dr. Seema Purushothaman