7/23/2019 Research Proposal Abstract_Apoorv Garg

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A Research Proposal abstract

Enhancing a multi-layered cultural network through plural approaches

By: A poorv Garg and A para ji ta Dubey

There are multiple configurations for defining the word INDIAN with no single consensus.Moreover, the concept is further complicated while addressing the term Indian cities. We canprobably only try to understand the way in which cities in this subcontinent have evolved in itsspace and time. However, the existing urban are very different from their contemporaries andare derived only through time or space individually. Therefore, the markers which can bereferred for defining newer directions towards solving major issues relating to contemporaryurban agglomerations (i.e. exclusion, gentrification, cultural loss and many more) are verydifferent and need to be identified. These can certainly be instrumental in deriving frameworksfor apparently smart cities. Todays ever growing aspirations are often incapable of quotingthis process of evolution on the grass-root level and the flexible character it offers. These flexi-cities are far more resilient to the urban and non-urban pressures caused by various factors ascompared to their newer counterparts (newly developed areas). Furthermore, with the currentlayers of global change, the relevant context is ignored in the widely-accepted process of urbantransformation.

THE EXPERIMENT:In order to understand the tracers and speculate the alternate strategies towards solving theurban pressure, a city/neighbourhood can be understood during itsmaximum occupancy. Thisis the time when the city structure goes through short term quick ephemeral transformations toaccommodate the changes. Only after understanding and analysing these changes during thepeak pressure situation can derive the markers needed to speculate this potential for furtheraddition in basic frameworks for any city undergoing smart transformations. Out of the multiplepossibilities to understand the same, this experiment intervenes in Ujjain, M.P. as furtherdescribed below.Simhastha Kumbh Ujjain 2016is a recent upcoming event to understand such transformations

in Ujjain because of which the city goes through numerous domains of multiplicity, inclusivityand plural approaches. Here the city and its people become a part of the process andparticipate in the grand month-long event in various capacities voluntarily thereby,unconsciously grow to be a large collective. These collective acts as the birth place for a largeinterchange in terms of knowledge; inter-city and intra-city cultural exchange; resource sharingas well as capacity building.

The exercise is to explore this accommodative character of the locals of the city. Medium-scalecities are usually close-knit formations of established rigid cultural boundaries makingnegotiation with strangers limited. The experiment aims at blurring these boundaries towardsenhancing the permeability of the city fabric. The city can then be translated into variousclusters of simultaneous events in addition to the concentration being on Simhastha Kumbh

arena. The now-defined network of willing participants could help to understand thesenegotiations in the city through sharing of the existing tangible as well as intangible resources.The capacity building of these certain neighbourhoods makes them into smart communitiesthat allows them to participate in similar activities in the future also by being connected into alarger system thereby integrating culture in the development process.

The observations of this experiment will provide us relevant feedback and analysis towardsderiving the markers/ tracers that define the framework for inclusive multi-layered contemporarycommunities.