# Urbanization and Environment

- Institution: IIT Kharagpur
- Department: Humanities and Social Sciences
- Teacher: Prof. Jenia Mukherjee
- Level: Graduate
- Language: English
- Subjects: Society and politics
- Source: [NPTEL](https://nptel.ac.in/courses/109105185)
- Licence: [CC BY-NC-SA](https://nptel.ac.in/faq) (Non-commercial use only.)
- Syllabus: [at the source](https://nptel.ac.in/courses/109105185)
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (sources give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the source's own words)

With more than 50% of the world population now residing in cities since 2008 (World Urbanization Prospects, 2007), we have reached ‘the urban moment’ with huge implications of planetary urbanization on the environment. Urbanization is not a new phenomenon; the ancient cities of the Indus Valley Civilization, Ancient Greece, Rome and Mesopotamia are strong evidences. However, with our entry to the era of the ‘Anthropocene’, rapid urbanization with its rate, scale and shifting geographies (with intense urbanization in the ‘global south’: Asia, Africa and Latin America) is upsetting the ecological balance complemented with rising inequity, displacement and loss of livelihoods affecting the urban poor.

What is the solution? Should urbanization be perceived as the key challenge and strategies must be devised to halt it, if not reverse it (as it is irreversible)? Can there be other innovative alternatives that do not perceive cities as consumptive spaces swallowing ecological resources and generating highest ecological footprints, but also as contributors to ecological sustainability?

While policy prescriptions laid out in the UN ‘Sustainable Urbanization’ framework or ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs) offer technocratic directions and guidelines, it is extremely important to empirically investigate the relationship cities and their wider environments to not only identify challenges but also map potentials and learn lessons towards the development of a robust resilient urban environmental matrix that will not only be technically sound and feasible but also informed by socio-economic and political realities and determinants. With lessons from emerging urban social sciences frameworks such as urban environmental history and urban political ecology and with the empirical focus on South Asia, the course will shed light on cities as complex socio-natural-technical assemblages, encompassing elaborate technical apparatus and intricate social arrangements evolved along…

## Lectures

1. [Lecture -01 : Setting the Context](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/ca74f9657aaf) (YouTube)
2. [Lecture-02 : The Anthropocene](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/6e51f5417248) (YouTube)
3. [Lecture-03 : The Nine Planetary Boundaries Framework](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/0c18e561f00e) (YouTube)
4. [Lecture-04 : The “Capitalocene”](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/349bbf09f51f) (YouTube)
5. [Lecture-05 : The “Urbanocene”](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/054db1d99442) (YouTube)
6. [Lecture-06 : COVID 19, Urban Informality and Environment: Context Global south](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/4a54150cc77b) (YouTube)
7. [Lecture-07 : "Sanitary Cities”: Urban, Environment and Modernity in the West](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/6840d17ad242) (YouTube)
8. [Lecture-08 : Networked Cities: “Path-dependent” Consequences](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/9311dd0ca2b0) (YouTube)
9. [Lecture-09 : From “Sanitary” to “Sustainable” Cities](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/40239a198940) (YouTube)
10. [Lecture-10 : How “sustainable”? Critical analysis of contemporary urban models](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/c61f71a4cbb4) (YouTube)
11. [Lecture-11 : Historical Pasts](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/ae8b24126b9e) (YouTube)
12. [Lecture-12 : Colonial Urbanization](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/c6cc1a8decf0) (YouTube)
13. [Lecture-13 : Limits and Legacies of “Colonial Urbanization”](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/2f64771817cc) (YouTube)
14. [Lecture-14 : The Post-independence Scenario: “Planned Cities” and Renewal Missions](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/91a5c2b950b9) (YouTube)
15. [Lecture-15 : Smart Cities](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/fb77f72d9532) (YouTube)
16. [Lecture-16 : Smart Cities”: Critique and Contestations](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/02b01d627095) (YouTube)
17. [Lecture-17 : “Fantasy Cities”? Understanding Limits of “Smart”, “Eco” and “Green” Doctrines Case Study 1: Dholera](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/ff956288a846) (YouTube)
18. [Lecture-18 : “Fantasy Cities”? Understanding Limits of “Smart”, “Eco” and “Green” Doctrines Case Study 2: Rajarhat](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/e833ea0c9679) (YouTube)
19. [Lecture-19 : “Fantasy Cities”? Understanding Limits of “Smart”, “Eco” and “Green” Doctrines Case Study 3: Lavasa](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/010908fed928) (YouTube)
20. [Lecture-20 : Urban Environmental History: The US Part I: Context and Themes](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/95d005bce75d) (YouTube)
21. [Lecture-21 : Urban Environmental History: The US Part II: More Thematic Variations and Global Influences](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/d3c344a4a8d6) (YouTube)
22. [Lecture-22 : Urban Environmental History: Europe Part I: Context and Themes](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/d4e297cc337b) (YouTube)
23. [Lecture-23 : Urban Environmental History: Europe Part II: Recent Advances](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/672a17e49431) (YouTube)
24. [Lecture-24 : Urban Environmental History: South Asia \[SAUEH\] Part I.A: The Prelude: Inception and the Initial Wave \[SAEH\]](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/b76f2a8a6a68) (YouTube)
25. [Lecture-25 : Urban Environmental History: South Asia \[SAUEH\] Part I.B: (More) Nuanced Narratives \[SAEH\]](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/415cfdf70dac) (YouTube)
26. [Lecture-26 : Urban Environmental History: South Asia \[SAUEH\] Part II: Trends and Trajectories](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/de46e2148cb9) (YouTube)
27. [Lecture-27 : Urban Environmental History: South Asia \[SAUEH\] Part II: Trends and Trajectories (Contd.)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/37b3b9e72610) (YouTube)
28. [Lecture-28 : Urban Political Ecology Part I: Emergence and Development](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/39dd86b3d166) (YouTube)
29. [Lecture-29 : Urban Political Ecology Part II: (More) Recent Advances](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/414e77ee78a2) (YouTube)
30. [Lecture-30 : Urban Political Ecology Part III: Internal Debates and New Political Possibilities](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/e3e2563fad67) (YouTube)
31. [Lecture-31 : Urban Political Ecology: The Indian Context Part I: Themes and Concepts](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/9b408f10ca83) (YouTube)
32. [Lecture-32 : Urban Political Ecology: The Indian Context Part II: (More) Recent Advances](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/435c75887a39) (YouTube)
33. [Lecture-33 : Historical Urban Political Ecology (HUPE): Blue Infrastructures of Kolkata](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/d4ce75e18339) (YouTube)
34. [Lecture-34 : Urban Environmentalisms](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/6eb3942edf9f) (YouTube)
35. [Lecture-35 : Urban Environmentalisms: Case Study 1: The Adi Ganga Bachao Andolan](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/72498cb13426) (YouTube)
36. [Lecture-36 : Urban Environmentalisms: Case Study 2: Protests to Protect the EKW](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/e5fda7abc06a) (YouTube)
37. [Lecture-37 : Translocal Learning for Water Justice: Peri-urban Pathways in India, Tanzania and Bolivia](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/95013374ff9c) (YouTube)
38. [Lecture-38 : Informing Urban Disaster Studies using Comparative Urban Environmentalism](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/4f1a66a02adb) (YouTube)
39. [Lecture-39 : Urban Environmental Heritage: Insights from Bengal’s Mini-Europe](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/ae4c29e73c4e) (YouTube)
40. [Lecture-40 : The Way Forward](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109105185/53217844eafb) (YouTube)