Unauthorized Urbanism: Empire, Property, and the Ecological Present

press release: The vanishing of the urban commons is definitive of our ecological present. Such vanishing is facilitated by the logic of unauthorized urbanism, or the flexible making of private property via manipulations of the law and extractive violence. Drawing on ethnographic and archival research in Bangalore, India, this talk argues that the ecological present—too often framed in dystopic terms as the failure of planning in the global South—should be understood as rooted in projects of liberal empire, property, and difference. In Bangalore, well-serviced, “authorized” property has long been carved up for the economic and cultural elite, leaving Dalits, Muslims, and other laboring minorities to negotiate “unauthorized" settlement with dire outcomes, most notably evictions and flooding. Today, this logic is being repurposed by state and real estate actors to benefit the city’s global elite, suggesting an enduring afterlife for coloniality and exclusionary property-making. The talk discusses how activists entangle arguments against corruption, land grabbing, and caste discrimination, and concludes by reflecting on how political-ecological struggles are positioned both within and against liberalism. This lecture is Spring 2019's Treacy Lecture

The Yi-Fu Lecture Series features a wide variety of U.S. and international guest lecturers from all geographic disciplines. Lecturers at these Friday seminars also often speak at brown-bag lunches, one-on-one student sessions, and breakfast meetings with student interest groups as part of their visit. Doctoral students are invited to present their final research. The lecture series was initiated by Dr. Tuan and receives enthusiastic support as a department and campus tradition.

All lectures are presented on Friday at 3:30pm in Science Hall - Rm 180 unless otherwise noted. Alumni, friends and the public are always invited to attend.