1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910484939003321

Autore

Mukherjee Jenia

Titolo

Blue Infrastructures : Natural History, Political Ecology and Urban Development in Kolkata / / by Jenia Mukherjee

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Singapore : , : Springer Singapore : , : Imprint : Springer, , 2020

ISBN

981-15-3951-0

Edizione

[1st ed. 2020.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (256 pages)

Collana

Exploring Urban Change in South Asia, , 2367-0045

Disciplina

307.12160954

Soggetti

Sociology, Urban

Cities and towns—History

Urban geography

History of South Asia

Urban Studies/Sociology

Urban History

Urban Geography / Urbanism (inc. megacities, cities, towns)

Asia History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- The natural evolution of the urban -- Tamed Interventions -- Untamed practices -- Disrupted networks -- Transformed infrastructures -- Polemics of planning, development and environment -- Urban environmentalisms -- Beyond declensionism, towards the useful narrative.

Sommario/riassunto

This book focuses on Kolkata, formerly the colonial capital of and currently a major megacity in India, in terms of its extensive blue infrastructures, i.e., its rivers, canals and wetlands as an integrated composite whole. It unfolds ways in which this reclaimed urban space could determine, and in turn, could get determined by political fate, economic calculations and social livelihoods across changing political-economic imperatives and with large-scale implications on urban sustainability. Employing historical urban political ecology (HUPE) as the methodological framework by combining urban environmental history and urban political ecology, the book studies the changing urban environmental equations through several centuries, and its impact on



the city and its people. Weaving the past, present and posterity of deltaic Kolkata, the book demonstrates that it is in these ‘blue infrastructures’ that the anecdote of origin, the account of functioning and the apprehension of survival of the city is rooted. By emphasizing the ecology ‘of’ cities instead of ecology ‘in’ cities approach, the book exposes the limitations of contemporary ecological restructuring efforts regarding Indian cities. Further, it offers a blueprint for future innovative and empirical research focusing on other major cities. Accordingly, this topical and original book will be of interest to students and researchers of environmental humanities, political ecology and urban studies.