Cluster B: Rurban dwelling and its social-ecological outcomes

Project B01 addresses the question of how rurban space is socially produced in the megacity of Bengaluru, southern India, under conditions of global urbanism (Lancione and Mc Farlane, 2021). We settle our research in the legacy of the Indian colonial city and its design, claiming that the specific interplay between the urban and the rural create complex and regionally-specific assemblages of rurbanity. We focus our work on the specific combination of collective and individual forms of place-making, building upon access to material resources, information, knowledge production and formal and informal regulations. We distinguish between planning as a formal process and the more informal processes of alternative, substitute place-making, which enable individuals and communities to shape their living environment in a more sustainable manner. The project concentrates on four research questions: (1) what are the characteristics of the physical rurban space identified under conditions of globalising rurbanisation, (2) which conditions, factors, agents and mechanisms determine the production of rurban social space, (3) how is the rurban space being negotiated, and (4) which conditions enable individuals, communities, and planning institutions to shape the rurban living environment in a more sustainable manner? Empirically, the project works in two small towns at the urban fringe of Bengaluru, each characterised by great dynamics of re-configuration. We concentrate on three contested topics of rurbanisation: residential areas (formal housing versus informal housing), the public space (top-down planning versus collective activities) and spaces of labour and reproduction (local versus non-local forms of production and reproduction). Building on approaches of social place-making as well as assemblage-theoretical and practice-theoretical ideas B01 uses a mixed methods approach of document and satellite image analysis, a quantitative household survey, qualitative interviews, mapping, and participatory tools to advance the understanding of how rurbanity is constituted. The files and transcripts will be exploited by data base analysis, content analysis, and mapping techniques.

Project leaders:
Christoph Dittrich, Human Geography, University of Göttingen
Uwe Altrock, Urban Planning Theory, University of Kassel

International partners:
Seema Purushothaman, APU, Bengaluru, India

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By combining the perspectives of Economic Geography and Animal Husbandry in the Tropics and Subtropics, project B02 thrives for an in-depth understanding of spatial, temporal, quantitative, and qualitative dimensions and dynamics of flows of Food Waste and Food Loss (FWFL) within rurban food systems of Bengaluru, India. Based on insights gained in the DFG-funded Research Unit FOR2432, we argue that rurban spaces foster spatial proximity of diverse food system actors, thereby offering a high potential for the revalorisation of FWFL, which is actively and flexibly used as dairy cattle feed by rurban smallholder farmers. Starting from places of FWFL occurrence and transformation, such as street dumps and market squares, we will study the multiple and interlinked food system actors, such as food producers and processors, the retail sector, consumers, and regulatory institutions. This serves the qualitative as well as quantitative characterisation of sources and causes of FWFL, along with the spatial and formal or informal organisation and coordination of FWFL revalorisation within the rurban dairy sector. Moreover, the potential and limitations of FWFL feeding and its nutritional and economic value for smallholder cattle farms will be explored. We hypothesise that by facilitating the circularity of FLFW flows, rurban assemblages and multi-functionalities contribute to more sustainable resource use. Methodologically, our research involves a grid-based collection of various quantitative and qualitative data through observations and mapping, interviews with various types of farming households, firms, and other food system actors, and chemical analysis of FWFL samples. The expected results will provide critical insights into the social, environmental, and economic sustainability of rurban approaches towards FWFL revalorisation in circular food-feed systems.

Project leaders:
Amelie Bernzen, Economic Geography, University of Vechta
Eva Schlecht, Animal Husbandry in the Tropics and Subtropics, University of Kassel and University of Göttingen

International partners:
P.K. Malik and Anjumoni Mech, NIANP, Bengaluru, India
Sheetal Patil and Soubadra Devy, ATREE, Bengaluru, India

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The keeping of ruminant livestock, particularly cattle, sheep, and goats, is a quintessential component of rurban spaces and communities in the Global South, especially in West Africa. Through close collaboration between the disciplines of Animal Husbandry in the Tropics and Subtropics and Social and Cultural Anthropology, project B03 aims at identifying and analysing the processes through which livestock keeping contributes to the formation, support, and sustainability of rurban livelihoods and lifestyles in wider Accra, Ghana. Taking the four analytical perspectives of FOR5903, Endowments & Place, Institutions & Practices, Flows & Connectivity, and Livelihoods & Lifestyles as starting points, the project analyses the complementary processes through which a heterogeneous and fragmented rurbanity in West Africa provides a field of opportunity and experimentation for new forms of connectivity, particularly business generation, in the livestock sector. It looks at how new natural resources, social networks, labour (including skills) and capital open up an arena of negotiation for the reshaping of West Africa’s livestock sector, where constant creativity and adaptation, as well as re- and self-organisation, are the order of the day. To this end, the project proposes to comprehensively examine livestock keeping as a social-ecological system that provides an inroad to rurbanity in spatial and social terms, and evaluate its sustainability.

Project leaders:
Nikolaus Schareika, Cultural Anthropology, UGOE, Göttingen;
Eva Schlecht, Animal Husbandry in the Tropics and Subtropics, University of Kassel and University of Göttingen
Kaderi N. Bukari, Development Studies, University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and DITSL, Witzenhausen

International partners:
Sabina Appiah-Boateng, Development Studies, University of Cape Coast, Ghana

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Project B04 proposes to conceive of small towns in the Global South as parts of rurban assemblages which are characterised by the co-presence of urban and rural elements. Small towns have administrative and economic functions as rurban nodes in regional networks. They feature urban lifestyles in areas otherwise characterised by agricultural land use. They are significant places for the reproduction of socio-cultural identities in the context of ethnic and religious heterogeneity, of spatial and social connectivities, and of locally rooted political institutions in the context of postcolonial nation-states. The project uses the small town of Larteh in the Eastern Region of Ghana as a case study for exploring livelihood transformations since the 1960s, lifestyles, institutions of local governance, forms of self-organisation and connectivities on different scales. The town is part of a rurban assemblage that encompasses the contiguous urbanised area from Accra city to the boundaries of the Greater Accra Region and other small towns in the Akwapim hills. The project asks whether there are specifically rurban outcomes of place-specific endowments that can be observed in Larteh and whether we can identify typically rurban livelihoods, lifestyles, institutions and connectivities. We hypothesise that Larteh’s capacity to reproduce the ecological and social conditions of its rurban existence is based on the maintenance of relations between the local inhabitants and people who have moved away, and on the creation of ties with foreigners who have an interest in resources located in Larteh. We analyse how these links have emerged, how they contribute to ideas and practices of rurbanity, and assess what potentials for sustainability can be determined.

Project leader:
Katja Werthmann, African Studies, University of Leipzig

International partner:
Steve Tonah, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana

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