The Everyday City
A 2.0 credit open course for students in either MA Development or Education
Instructors: Kiran Keswani & Muthatha Ramanathan
Rationale & Objective
In India, as in other parts of the world, some of the physical development of the city is influenced by the everyday practices of its people. The urban spaces are continually transformed by social, cultural, religious, political, economic and other practices. Currently, these practices intermingle with each other and with the streets of the city in a random manner. The formal plan finds it difficult to account for these everyday practices due to their changing nature and because they have not been sufficiently documented or analysed.
This course, firstly, draws attention to these informal spaces in the city – spaces which do not really feature in the formal plan of the city. It introduces students to techniques of observing, and recording the informal spaces of a city in order to begin to see and value what gets left out of planning, and also understand inequality in cities. Secondly, while we find that there is informality around us, we must also realise that our own actions may be contributing to this informality. In this course, we will therefore also reflect upon how we walk in the city and how it makes us who we are, and our city what it is. The course integrates perspectives in urban design and urban geography to reflect on two key questions:
- How do everyday practices influence the informality of urban space?
- How are we creating informality through our daily practices of walking in the city?
The Everyday City 