Okay, I just start over again on behalf of everyone gathered. I pay respect to the spirit of country here in Nam, where we are meeting, I acknowledged the past and present Colon nation, vo and Jerry Voyeu, as the sovereign people. Here the cultural knowledge holders who maintain and promote the nam, aboriginal law, customs and custodianship, responsibilities for country
and the people. That country continues to sustain generation after generation into the future. For all of us.
I recognize the important contribution that first nations, thinkers have made to sociology, including challenges to our dominant ways of thinking.
We thank all first nations, delegates and womb today for their contributions to knowledge in the discipline. So also thank you all for coming here today. we are having 2 very interesting and full sessions. Today, on the topic of infrastructure. In the context of sociology.
we are thinking that infrastructure, especially in urban sociology and in the context of social inequality and marginalization is a very important topic.
mostly, in this sessions we will talk about the complex relationships between informalized and formalized practices of infrastructure, production and structures that are lying behind this. And we are talking about also the complex relation between material and social realities, of social infrastructure and of material infrastructure.
So I think there's a lot of what we would call in the research project, the Pearl, and we are coming from hybridities so like different arrangements of like very extreme sides of how infrastructure is being seen.
This is being discussed a lot already in urban sociology, but also in other disciplines that are dealing with infrastructure as a topic. But I think there's still a lot to talk about, a lot to discuss about, and also a lot to conceptualize and to better understand how we can do research in this field, and how we can better understand findings in different parts of the world right?
And we are having contributions from very different parts of the world in this 2 sessions here today we will have examples from India, from Brazil, from Pakistan, from Australia, from Indonesia, and from Japan. So this is just to tease you a little bit. to stay with us for the next all together 4Â h.
and I will not to talk too much about what we are doing here. I just have a few practical things to know for all of you. We ask all contributors to send us extended abstracts before this conference, and those were circulated within the contributors. But maybe for those of you that are interested in the contributions. Today, you can always approach and ask the contributors to maybe send out their extended abstracts to understand a little bit more
on the research context of each of the presentations of today. On a more practical side, each presentation today will be of 15Â min afterwards. We will have 5Â min for immediate questions, for better understanding what has been has been presented.
and in the end of each of the 2 sessions we will have a combined discussion of a round table with the people sitting here, where you can ask questions that go more into detail and more into the discussion.
So that's it already from me, I would say. We are starting with the first presentation. That would be
so.
Okay.
how many which remain saying, if you
and then I would give you a sign on 2Â min before the few minutes out.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Hi, everyone. I'm Vishali. I work as a researcher at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements.
Okay?
the work that I'm presenting here today is on behalf of my team, Sudish, Nametra, Heri, Gulabani and Ananiya Pedi bola. This was done as part of Esr series. Funded research project, rethinking the off-grid city. The aim of the off-grid city resource project is to reframe infrastructure, planning, governance, and participation in various city contexts to better support the lives of the marginalized residents.
the site that you've selected for our study is award in Bangalore. The slide shows the map of the city. with the administrative boundaries of the ward.
we are basically selecting the word that was The selection of the ward was basically done using a methodology that was developed by our colleagues at Ihs, where they've used remote sensing data to take parameters such as the street with street morphology built up footprints and land cover to categorize neighborhoods in psychology, 1, 2, and 3, where one is the high income neighborhood and 3 is a low income neighborhood.
The word that we selected is a majority of neighborhood typology, 3 which refers to dense neighborhoods with small plot sizes, High Street densities, unplanned and unorganized. Street layouts, minimal vegetation, and high built of density, which are usually all characteristics of low-income neighborhoods.
Further, the word also has diverse social-economic characteristics in terms of caste, religion and language, and built form in terms of resettlement, housing, and incremental plotted development along with high intraward variation in terms of infrastructure access.
A Northern methodology! Before we move forward. The paper draws on 11 months of wheel work undertaken in 2,021 and 2,022
data was collected using qualitative methods, such as structured observations and semi-structured interviews with households, government officials, and local technicians. Along with a journaling exercise that that was conducted with the household. To understand the infrastructure provisioning story at the neighborhood level
we used a process-based approach across infrastructure grids of water, sewage, and lexity to understand the everyday practices of provisioning and repair
long-term engagement of the research team at the field side, allowed us to understand issues of repair and maintenance over a period of time, and also observe crisis situations which otherwise get overlooked in a short period of time
repair has visibly come to the forefront in recent academic and policy debates to the point that repair studies is now emerging as a novel focus of research.
The starting point is that the recognition is a recognition that in society disconnection and disassembly are just as important as connection and assembly.
Given the purposes of failure, repair practices is seen to be as a main way through which the very existence of artifacts is extended over time and space
without continual repair. There is no durability, only decay.
even under formalized conditions. Hybrid repairs remain under way as communities. Auto maintain the network, act as infrastructure themselves, or use multiple technologies and redirection, such as storage and pumping tools.
One in particular highlights repair as an assemblage of practices that prioritizes immediate responses, is deployed by multiple actors, and does not require expert knowledge and a sensibility that sees infrastructure in cyclic patterns of use and reuse.
because also uses the concept of patchwork. As a repair practice.
patchwork is enabled by workers embodied expertise and practical knowledge as a repair logic, adaptive and improvisational, and as a social material form related both to the materiality of infrastructure and to the relations that are embedded through it.
Patchwork is a repair practice, enabled by workers embodied forms of expertise and practical knowledge is what allows the leaks to be fixed, and service provisions to continue
patchwork highlights of repair does not necessarily entail a return to officially authorized orders in many cases, although it does as well, but it shows that how repair can also be a part of constant adaptation of infrastructure, and the many relations that exist through and within them, often challenging or exceeding officially sanctioned practices and rules.
Active negotiations in the context of infrastructure repair are also visible in the way communities are connected to social and political networks.
In Wabi's work it's shown how communities come together to collectively and as individuals solve their everyday problems using social, economic, political, and material tools and connections.
So we take forward from this literature and argue that repair as a practice allows infrastructure to be built incrementally across gridded and off-grid arrangements, and plays a significant role in actual provisioning. Over and beyond the laying of infrastructure grids through materials and networks.
So now we'll come to the first example through which we are. Putting our first argument, which is the water supply in the neighborhood which is made possible through multiple systems, including a city-level grid, or which supplies the cavity water. Probably water. In the city there is a localized grid that supplies Borewell water, as well as other off-grid systems, such as water atms and water tankers.
It's interesting to note that the water system in the neighborhood has not followed actually a linear timeline.
While the cavity pipeline was laid back in 1,975! It's only over a duration of time. When the cavity pipeline has got in standpost and other wall systems, that the actual service delivery has become possible in in 2,010.
So the supply cycles and repair cycles are overseen on a daily basis by local technicians and involvement, who are responsible for maintaining water supply by turning on and off the walls on the grid
technicians include official full-time employees of government parasitals responsible for infrastructure systems and supply as well as on contract semi-official employees and unofficial local technicians which then charge households to undertake, repair, and fixes from a case to case basis.
We argue that every day. We argue that everyday basis repair practices are made possible both by the technical knowledge and skills and the tostastic knowledge held by Waldman and the local technicians who are there.
So what you see on this slide is essentially a picture of the volt man who is carrying a key. To actually tune in the walls to ensure that water is supplied at the right pressure across the grid that exists.
it's also not just a laying of grid that's there, but the everyday practice of turning these walls that enable service delivery
further, the involvement also ensure that they regularly upgrade upscale and replace materials used in pipes and walls. Motors and stampposts in the original infrastructure grids to prevent breakage, anticipate theft, and prevent mixing of water supply with severage discharges as well as other pollutants, by drawing on the localized knowledge of the water grid.
So
also this knowledge is supplemented by the behavioral patterns in the neighborhood. So we know that what happens in the neighborhood is the wall man knows which household is requiring more water which household is wasting water, and then there is this, accordingly, tuning done by the involvement to ensure that the supply is maintained uniformly across the neighborhood
beyond involvement. There's also the households who continuously repaired the grid in terms of changing the materiality of certain components in the graded infrastructure that exist. So, for instance, the standpost in the neighborhood were transformed from a plastic stan post which were being put in by the State authorities to a steel stamp post, which in the households vocabulary was a sturdier form of infrastructure, and also allowed them the flexibility to pull out the standpoint when it was when it was not in use.
This localized asset knowledge is consolidated through experience over time, and is supercritical in shortening repair cycles and maintaining supply.
These practices of repair have evolved through combination of local skills, local materials and localized, often tacit knowledge, incrementally consolidated through experience.
They exist alongside, centralized and top-down infrastructure, plans and implementation implementation schedules, but go beyond them to anticipate and redress flaws and breaks in the original grid design and actual everyday supply constraints.
Yet, despite the critical role of fantastic knowledge and repair cycles, we rarely observe efforts towards valeration of these knowledge bases, and these practices
there is a significant gap in official and unofficial understanding of what constitutes repair practices and its significance, which highlights the lack of documentation of repair knowledge as well as the absence of knowledge, sharing platforms for repair workers and skill building.
The second set of examples that we would want to highlight are about mobilizing the pair practices through multiple networks that exist in the neighborhood. So in case of serious blocks, households activate their community and social networks where the leaders of these networks have relationships with public and private service delivery partner who are then called to unlock the serial blocks in case there is a blockage in the seabed system itself.
Payment to the service delivery partner is made by the leaders of these networks, who collect money from the households.
Often the leaders also make a discretionally a discretionary call in case a particular household is under financial stress and is unable to pay. For the service.
the field our fieldwork is also highlighted, that electricity supply in parts of the neighborhood are still affected by unresolved issues between different government departments, such as the Slum Development board, the Palestinians supplying power and the municipality.
As such the mobilization by households and community leaders often directed towards negotiating negotiating interdepartmental disagreements regarding billing presence and actions of electricity meters, an assessment of areas and rectification of electricity bills.
households experience these interdepartmental disagreements through periodic and often actually regular suspension of their electricity supply
the mobilization of social and political networks to address, repair, and reconnections of lexity supply systems. Often, therefore, address provisioning issues rather than system breakdown issues here.
So
sorry I'm an assistant. So we argue that social and political networks which we have also explored in our other paper, which we'll hear more about in the next session in terms of using the framework of assemblage, play an extremely critical role in streamlining repair cycles.
Given the complexity of these networks, it's often difficult to dedicate a financial outlay and formal processes for these practices within the official logics.
understanding these practices, have allowed us to think about governance challenges of systematizing tacit knowledge that exist and strengthening of local networks through urban local bodies where the focus is still largely on capital expenditure, and there is also significant level of trust deficit that exists between formal and informal networks.
what we are arguing, and in conclusion, to what we found out is that we suggest that there is a requirement for a change of length in the municipality where it's critical for urban local bodies to prioritize, repair, and think of repair as not incidental, but rather a systemic response that hold infrastructure lives together in cities.
recognizing repair practices and decentralizing fund for these practices would be one possible way of moving forward
potentially, it could be about changing budget light line items in a municipal budget which takes into account everyday repair practices and not just the big capital expenditure, repair practices. It could also be about recognizing few political and social networks along with what committees that exist. That exist at what level to further devolve funds, or it could be about sanctioning positions of field staff, who are residents of the same neighborhood as repair officials.
This could be useful in reducing the out-of-pocket expenditure of households who are spending a large amount of their meager income on repair.
To conclude, we proposed that an expansive budget untied funds and community involvement could go a long way towards achieving this. It is imperative that authorities focus on building these repair cycles along with the community and prioritize repair as a practice. Thank you.
Thank you for Akash Ali. Is there any immediate questions for better understanding things that stayed unclear that you would like to ask now.
okay.
and thank you again. And we would go to the next presentation.
Sara, can you hear us?
Sara Alidoust: Yes.
wonderful. If you start introducing yourself very quickly, and then just go into the presentation and share this screen for us.
Sara Alidoust: Yes, just let me share the screen.
Sara Alidoust: Can you see my screen.
Yes.
fantastic.
Sara Alidoust: just 1Â s. Sorry.
Sara Alidoust: So Good afternoon. Everyone My name is Dr. Sarah Alidus, and I'm joining from the University of Queensland, very pleased to be here
Sara Alidoust: and to share some of the findings of my recent research on health saving and opportunities for an infrastructure of care in unequal cities.
Sara Alidoust: Okay, so this research is actually part of a larger project that we are working on, which is about unaffordable housing
Sara Alidoust: in Australia, and particularly in the southeast Queensland region
Sara Alidoust: I'm linking to sharing economy which I'm gonna explain in a sec in the next slides and part of that house setting, which is the main focus of this presentation. And this presentation is also focused on a specific age group, which is older people, and how housing and how saving in particular, can provide an infrastructure of care for this age group.
Sara Alidoust: So a bit of context about this research and this project.
Sara Alidoust: we?
Sara Alidoust: I have this paper and this research, informed by a renewed and recent
Sara Alidoust: understanding, got infrastructure as a plan of each pattern, as a social-technical tool that can organize and structure a social life that can particularly be focused on infrastructure for possibilities of care.
Sara Alidoust: In this research we believe that housing can be considered, and it should be conceptualized as an infrastructure of care
Sara Alidoust: because it can organize our everyday life. It shapes care, practices, and relationships and capacities. It can support the exchange of care at different skills. For example, the care for children, for older people, practices of housekeeping, and also self care. And all of these are happening in house and housing has got that capacity to provide opportunities for care at different scales.
Sara Alidoust: and I care, focused on the standing of housing is centered around the world of housing that can enable people to participate in different source of caring practices for themselves and for others, and also to be able to address their own needs and basic needs practical work.
Sara Alidoust: What do we mean by care? We're refer to to which is actually care is an activity that includes everything that we do in order to maintain, to continue
Sara Alidoust: repay of
Sara Alidoust: erez agmoni, so that we live in it as well as possible. And what do we mean by that board? It is including our bodies, ourselves, our environment, 250,
Sara Alidoust: all of which we seek to either be in a complex, live, sustaining web.
Sara Alidoust: So that was a bit of context about this research.
Sara Alidoust: a bit more about housing capability, especially in Australia, for those of you that are not from Australia. So we are dealing with this issue on mobile housing in Australia, in regions and cities in Australia. And this is not new. We have been dealing with that before the pandemic just after the time we have this exaggerated initial. And it's about housing, especially for impacting one of the groups of.
Sara Alidoust: So one in the 6 of whom this people in Australia are 8, 55 years and over.
Sara Alidoust: and in the spot of that. Older people are largely ignored and overlooked in different homelessness the research and the study and practices in Australia.
Sara Alidoust: a bit more context. When older people are compared with all Australians, almost 2% of them that are receiving age pension are in the bottom income.
Sara Alidoust: And, importantly, many people who experience homelessness at an older age are actually people that are coming from stable employment housing and life. And they are just
Sara Alidoust: erez agmoni experiencing this housing, stress and homelessness at an older age, which is a really big challenge. So we have this lack of understanding of housing choices for older people. We have this issue of 150
Sara Alidoust: mit. Ctl, and what are different options for? people? Lack of events. They want them about housing opportunities for them, as well as the interrelated issues of finance, social support, and care for this age group 250.
Sara Alidoust: we also have this
Sara Alidoust: concept of sharing the economy in our cities, which is growing very rapidly, so we might have the different terms of terminologies, such as sharing the colony, peer-to-peer economy, collaborative economy. So these are all used interchangeably, and they are all based on 3 key concepts of considerable consumer interaction
Sara Alidoust: and temporarily access our physical goods. And what does it mean is that in a sharing economy can singulars can grant each other
Sara Alidoust: temporary access to physical foods and assets? That that's what actually under utilize. These can be a room in a house or your whole house. When you're away. It can be your car, your your
Sara Alidoust: What is house sitting which is the main focus of this research? It is a part of this growing range of housing. house sharing or shame economy in our cities.
Sara Alidoust: and how sitting is actually enabled through so many different online platforms that are working to connect 2 different groups of people.
Sara Alidoust: So what group is a house owners, people that own a house, and they're looking for people that can come and stay their house when they are away on holiday on your business travel so they need people to stay in their house to look at their their pets, their garden, their mail, and things like that. And, on the other hand, we have house seekers that are people that are looking for opportunities for house sitting.
Sara Alidoust: And I want you to read the media. The general understanding of this house Sitter group is that these are the people that not traveling, they love that better, going to different region, places and spaces and experiences they've been office on. That's one part of passengers and larger part of house centers that we don't hear a lot about, or actually houseless people that have no permanent housing.
Sara Alidoust: They have no permanent address. These are people that are not able to afford housing in the private market. And these are people that are how to be permanent basis in practice, moving from one house to another. And this is how they have, they can provide themselves. So the main purpose of this research is on how this house sitting is actually working at an infrastructure of care for people, for all their people, and especially for these
Sara Alidoust: homeless people. It's no permanent address or housing.
Sara Alidoust: So this research, was a qualitative one. There was almost no.
Sara Alidoust: And research about this house sitting practices, and in the context of planning and housing and the impact on different vulnerable groups. So we needed to have this allocated research to get a better and deeper understanding of what's going on. And what are these people are performing these house, you know, status.
Sara Alidoust: So we did some instructed interviews with 20 older half sitters on the age 50 years. I know where. They must have been housing in this for at least one year and So we did interviews with them for about 1Â h, using on modes such as Zoom and Scott have phone
Sara Alidoust: erez agmoni. So everything about the proof of our house centers. The moment more women than men actually participate in the research which wasn't a surprise. and so majority of people were born in Australia, most of them, except for one. We're speaking in English as the first language, one
Sara Alidoust: mit Ctl, and and they're range in age from 50 to 80 years. But the majority of 60% of them were from the 61 to seventies. Age group 150
Sara Alidoust: and So they were
Sara Alidoust: doing, casting for for very short. There is not enough of that. I've been doing help City for like 10 years and a half of the participants, like 10 of them, have been South housing as a full top
Sara Alidoust: the the practice. And so they were kind of having no permit, I just no permanent housing, I mean just moving from one house to the other, another, and another ho for doing that for travel and experiences in different places, and having the access to
Sara Alidoust: the free accommodation during their travel and having the the budget travel
Sara Alidoust: so why they were doing house sitting. So the main issue the people refer to as their first monthly, and the reason to start house saving was financial issues, such as unemployment, unstable housing, low income job. There are some key issues that they started housing.
Sara Alidoust: The another key issue was the broken or ended relationship. It was mainly the case for women, and that were lived with no saving, and and especially older people. and we have.
Sara Alidoust: and the only agreement had no kind of
Sara Alidoust: a superannuation, so no kind of shelters. So they had to start housing to provide each other for themselves, and there were a few of them that were doing that for free accommodation, for travel, and they get some of them better doing that because they wanted to be in contact with
Sara Alidoust: pets with our nature, and so on. So I got some calls from some people here. I'm reading one of them, I to give some context. So one of the participants said, how something is pretty essential. Where would we live or they want? So we did rent for a while, but money is a big issue, because I'm not earning enough yet to be paying
Sara Alidoust: so definitely. House sitting is a forced choice. It just happens to be a really good solution to the situation that we happen to be in?
Sara Alidoust: So
Sara Alidoust: what are the loans and impacts of house sitting on our small population group? so we can't say how, sitting with a temporary relief from financial distress.
Sara Alidoust: it provided rent-free accommodation for people and release from mental stress. While some of them were waiting for some support, such as social housing and other social support. It was an opportunity for how superstructive experiences they not being at home and having that feeling of being at home, although for a short time on a temporary basis.
Sara Alidoust: it could lead to less financial burden on how and increase their capacity for care, related expenditure, for example, spending their money on healthy activities, healthy, fresh food, social participation in different activities and so on.
Sara Alidoust: But, on the other hand, How city was found as a still-regulated practice?
Sara Alidoust: it's lacked a transparent and well-defined method in place to go into the relationship between the 2 bodies. How significant!
Sara Alidoust: And it
Sara Alidoust: mit Ctl, and, for example, there was no requirement for house owners to provide health and safety, evaluation and checks for their property. They didn't need to have minima to the standard record with their productive, and they were going to list their property for housing in 250,
Sara Alidoust: and policies and rights of repair and dispute management between the 2 parties was very big. Some of the websites provided some guidelines to actually guard the relationship between the 2 guidance. But it was just a guidelines. They had no power.
Sara Alidoust: and it actually led to a power balance between the 2 parties, house seekers and homeholders.
Sara Alidoust: we had on one half
Sara Alidoust: home. There is that ultimate control of the property, but, on the other hand, we have house centers, especially those with no permanent housing that have this great dependency on housing contexts.
Sara Alidoust: at house sitting. Obviously on secure housing, it is temporary. It is short-term, and it is
Sara Alidoust: posing that big barrier to have engagement with local community develop that sense of which can be a big issue. For example, we had examples of other people that were house sitting in
Sara Alidoust: in the region of Australian Australia when there was a bush bar, and in Victoria, in the State of Victoria, and people had no no knowledge and also no contact with the local community. So they didn't know where is the evacuation center what they need to do when there is a message, and it's what's causing the biggest stress for them, and especially considering their older age.
Sara Alidoust: so short 10. You are feeling of housing insecurity, but a big issue in the house, setting practices people by saying that they had. They had to move from one house to another. All this living in the luggage, no access to a relatively stable location for care, that location for care being
Sara Alidoust: their house and their community being facilities around them, health care services around them, health and healthy fresh food and alternates, and so on, and things all
Sara Alidoust: increase their level of stress. and have something also afforded all their houses. There is little power in relation to the physical
Sara Alidoust: characteristics and features of their house. The design of their house, which is really important when you are aging the living in a place that can enable you to be able to live independently, with having no say in the physical characteristics of their living environment. It can be really having negative impacts on the health as well in the older people.
Sara Alidoust: So in a nutshell we can say some key findings that this research can be We have this growing integration of sharing economy.
Sara Alidoust: and especially house sitting and house sharing in cities, and this can be both promising and challenging. So how city can contribute to diversifying the affordable housing supply by increasing choices that are valuable to older people. This can be a temporary release of housing, a stress and financial birthday.
Sara Alidoust: and a deal is, I can perform at an infrastructure here, within this context of our vastly inevitable income support and inefficient housing system here in Australia.
Sara Alidoust: and how sitting
Sara Alidoust: mit Ctl and has the potential to create opportunities for hope, opportunities to foster a sense of being at home for house sitters, particularly with those that have no parental housing, but also on a temporary basis and with multiple challenges. One
Sara Alidoust: and finally, housing had that interplay between the relief from financial stress alongside that increase the stress that was caused by housing, mobility and rate, regulation and power in banners 250,
Sara Alidoust: and
Sara Alidoust: for having a caring housing more than a house seeking model. We need to carry the governance and policy which is transparent about the and some of each buddies. And we need to conceptualize how to think within a longer context and focus more on the need and function of housing as an infrastructure of care for all the people.
Sara Alidoust: So I've got more about this research which is published in a publication individual, not of housing policy. I've provided the link. you would like to learn more about this research, and I would like to thank you very much for this time, and happy to answer any questions or receive any comments. Thank you very much.
Sara Alidoust: I really wish I was able to be there in person. Sorry that I had to attend this conference remotely.
Still, thank you very much for the very interesting presentation. Once again the chance any immediate questions right now, or shall we wait till the end?
There's one I'm just giving the microphone with that tool.
Okay, thank you very much for the very interesting presentation. my question is about round road you said you have interviewed those house sitters. But how about land, road and house owners. Do you interview them, or what? What is? What are their reactions to your project? Thank you.
Sara Alidoust: And thanks for the question. Unfortunately, no, it was a small part of the study to actually start and knowing more about how see? There's definitely we need to know about the perspectives and issues and challenges of the other part that we just allow those. unfortunately, we haven't interviewed them, and they have no information from their side yet.
Thank you, Sara, and there's another question here.
Hi, Sarah! Thanks for the presentation. Very interesting. You mentioned that there was not a lot of regulation on how the house sitters and owners were sort of choosing the property, etc. But I was curious to know how were they communicating, and whether there was any third party involvement in the process.
Sara Alidoust: There's so many different ways. So like there's somehow seekers that have their own Facebook page
Sara Alidoust: erez agmoni and a lot of them just get new house saving jobs at through board of mountains, through friends, so that you kind of refer to other people through their friends or family or relatives, 150.
Sara Alidoust: There are also some online platforms, you know, like one of the very famous ones, is the trusted house sit there, and some similar ones. So there are 2 or 3 very big ones that that you can actually be a meant there.
Sara Alidoust: the other kind of kind of sections for both kind of house owners to share their property. And then there is a section for house sitters to share their profile, they can be ranked, reviewed by different house owners. And these platforms actually link the to kind of parties to each other. Some of them provide some guidelines about how to manage the relationship, to make sure to make everything clear before starting the housing.
Sara Alidoust: The things that we need to check with each other and make clients before starting housing. But they said, these are just like a guidelines, a small book that provided by the by the websites, and nothing more than that.
Thank you, Sara, I would say. The rest of the discussion we keep for the end of the session. Now my question would be, is Rodrigo here now in the online room.
you see.
So maybe, Chanel, would you continue then?
the last one in the big infrastructure? Yeah.
I won't just take in the.
And then I do this.
The
all right. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Chanel Khalik, and I'm a Phd. Candidate in sociology at
Syracuse University in the Us. and I'm very happy to be here looking forward to everybody's feedback and engaging with everyone's work. So To start off with. I just want to talk about why I chose to focus on public transport and public transport infrastructure particularly. And why I think it's sociologically relevant.
So public transport. Please.
Sorry
a vital role in transporting workers across space. And so it's crucial for economic growth. And at the same time it helps in reducing carbon footprint.
But despite this, we know that not everyone has equal access to mobility and space, and these promises of public transport are not shared equally
And then I also talk about mobility, which is a broad term. But for my work I refer to Cresco's understanding of mobility, which basically refers to physical movement and what that represents to people and how they experience it.
So overall, I think this project is relevant. in the context of the American Academy where I'm based, but also generally, if we talk about urban sociology in the global north, we see that there is a lot of focus on spatial isolation of poverty, particularly racialized poverty.
so I think that understanding how spatial inequality operates in cities of the global South provides us with the the chance to broaden the scope of urban sociology as a field.
So my research asks how the built environment, particularly public transport infrastructure shapes, class gender and environmental inequality in urban Pakistan. I'm originally from Pakistan. And my field site is actually my hometown.
so just a bit of context for those of you are not too familiar. so Islamabad is the capital city of Pakistan, and it's been considered one of the most ambitious urban development projects of the twentieth century as a planned capital city and in the years after the country's independence, in 1,947.
The then President.
Who was a military dictator, Focused on infrastructural development as the only means to develop Pakistan into a modern state. So in this way. class, ethnic, regional,
inequality and questions of power were ignored, and a technocratic understanding of the state was forwarded. So, although the city was built in 1,960 the country's colonial roots kind of dominate the imaginary of the rulers and the way it was built. So it was built as a twin city
to the city of Raabal Pindi which was an older city, and the idea was that it was built as a city for bureaucrats, so that they could be housed separately from the larger population which would be housed in Rabbi.
And so the 2 cities have subsequently developed in a parallel fashion next to each other, instead of moving towards integration.
and there were limited routes of public transport envision from the inception of Islamabad, especially the ones that would connect the 2 cities.
And the reason I'm giving this context is that large parts of Ravel Pindi provide a cheap. low-skilled labor to the city of
Islamabad, and public transport is the primary means of transporting these workers in a so to Islam. But in the morning, and then back to Raoul 20 in the evenings. So the current Public transport landscape of both cities consists of informal and formal modes of transport.
So these include, 12 seater, Suzuki's, which you can see the the picture on top with the colorful orange
sort of metal, a grill. Then then the 30 seats are many buses.
and then the Pakistan Metrobus system started in 2,015, which now consists of 4 roots and the first one that was started was known as a red line is basically a Brt line that runs between Islam and by and Router Wendy.
And then we? There are ching cheese, which are basically quad bikes with a 3 seater bench attached, and then auto rickshaws, which are like a motorized 3 dealers which are considered more informal types of public transport, and those only run within Raoul Pinti, and they're not authorized to come to a Sal. But
and then, since 16 private ride sharing apps have also made their way into the city with the Kareem, followed by Uber. And now there's in-drive, and there's also by Kia, which is essentially a ride sharing, but on a motorbike.
So
Before trying to understand why? understand the way public transport infrastructure has been designed and planned. You know, it's it's important to understand how the Pakistani stayed as a post-colonial state. struggling to develop a Democratic governance envisions its cities overall. So.
Mahji, that there's work has talked about how The Pakistani state has been wedded to the concept of high-powered infrastructure led development from the beginning of its inception. In fact, you know it would be correct to say that the seeds for this kind of agenda were made by the British colonizers. And even though author is talking about Dams in his work, he, he! He! Causes this a status, hydraulic, imaginary.
which basically assumes that a technocratic and modernist understanding or approach is what will lead the country to progress.
and he warns to critically examine these State imaginaries of big development which are imbued with patriotism as he argues that they are central to the continuity of uneven
development and strengthen the control of traditional elites.
Aripassin has also written about public transport in Karachi's
context, and argues that government and planning organs have always envisioned Karachi as a world class city. in inverted commas. However, what this means is, you know, something that's not made clear. But there are underlying narratives of big infrastructure and modern development. that emulates the global north. And you know, he argues, that the vision should be one of a pedestrian and commuter friendly city, since the majority of the population consists of these people and not car owners.
Similarly, there's some work from India. So Madh Badami talks about how public transport infrastructure in India.
and how the expansion of roads, flyovers, and you know Brt's etc., are seen as a as a proof of the Government's commitment to development and modernization.
And Despite the fact that the number of motor vehicles is increasing, along with rapid urbanization. In South Asia a large part of the population cannot afford to buy a private vehicle, and most are even struggling to pay the fair for public transport.
So This means that an expansion of road networks will only increase time, poverty, something that the marginalized already suffer from and will increase challenges to road safety.
And he Particularly highlights the case of Indian cities which have historically been accessible and walking friendly. but the increased use and prioritizing of motor vehicles has affected this feature of cities. And so he argues that it's more of a matter of restoration rather than building.
And then Rashmi Savannah's work also talks about how development-oriented thinking dominates post-colonial South Asia at large, and she has. Her work is on the Delhi metro and she highlights. How beautification narratives you know, sort of dominate the middle class and elite visions of the city.
and this means that, you know, conservation of space is opposed, and the focus is not really on functionality for the existing population, but instead to attract the middle class. Touristic gaze. and big, sparkling infrastructure is usually hostile to local street vendors, such as cobblers, barbers, roadside food stalls, and the vision of dutification that many in policy making circles have is to rid
public space of the presence of these people.
however, these actually these roadside vendors. also offer what Jane Jacobs has called the eyes on the street.
Okay, so sorry.
so my first research question is about the way the State envisions, the planning of public transport infrastructure. And so for this I've conducted 23 semi-structured interviews with a government and city officials, academics, urban planners, transport engineers and activists.
And what what I find is that the State continues to see
transport planning largely as a technocratic enterprise. This means that top-down planning approaches have continued to dominate this process.
and a large part of this is because Pakistan has not had democratically elected governments for most of its history. So, in the absence of a representative government, military dictatorships have relied on technocrats and bureaucrats to govern. And so the transport sector has been no different.
and also since planning continues to be seen as an engineering phenomenon by the State, there is ministerial input that's taken from social scientists to understand the effects of such Mega projects on inequality. In fact, most of these projects
to not even engage with any stakeholders and are simply built to plan for electoral victories in elections. and the design of such major projects also must also fit into. You know the idea of modernity. For example, the towering, elevated structures of the metro bus, etc.,
public transport that is brought in by the State by claiming that it is state of the art, is usually designed by paying minimum attention to inclusivity concerns.
As a result of this the target user is seen, as a you know, largely as a working-class mail who needs to commute for work. So first, this implies that public transport is a means for economic growth, and its primary role is that of transporting workers so
that they can contribute to the economy. So This implies that mobility for leisure is completely absent from State concerns. and secondly, this also excludes women. people with disabilities and children who are less likely to be considered as part of the labor force
and in terms of class, this planning also limits itself to
designing for working-class people, which
means that public transport largely in people's minds, continues to be seen as something undesirable. So, therefore, even with the slightest economic mobility, people tend to switch to private vehicles.
my second research question is about the experiences with public transport to g gendered and class differences. So for this I conducted 45 interviews with regular users of public transport, including people from a variety of occupations, age, groups, and
neighborhoods and genders, so access to mobility remains a bigger challenge for women as compared to men. this is one of the major findings. this affects what kind of employment they can take where they can study what parts of the city they can access. Almost every woman interviewed said they had experienced sexual harassment of some kind when using public transport or walking to commute additionally, all female participants except one said that they avoid commuting at night, and only do so if they're accompanied by someone.
Meanwhile, both men and women struggle with time poverty. This is because they are limited options for public transport, and the demand for exceeds the supply. As a result, many people have to change various modes, making their work day even longer, and this has a detrimental impact on the carbon footprint
since everyone tries to use private mode of transport if they can, since it is faster. Women who have children and other care, giving responsibilities, suffer even more because they have to drop off their children on the way to work, etc.
Last mile. Connectivity also remains a major challenge. wagons are mostly stopping on main roads and most part of the city
do not have designated sidewalks. This means that people have to walk on the road which makes them vulnerable to accidents, theft, and harassment.
Meanwhile, even Metrobus stations do not provide proper pathways leading anywhere, no proper shade cover or parking stations, and the expectation is that once people are off the bus, it is their responsibility to walk or drive, regardless of weather conditions and safety issues.
Almost no one uses mass public transport, such as Wagon Suzuki's
for leisure due to the way the routes are designed, and pretty much every participant has had to rely on private vehicle or a taxi for measure purposes.
My third question is about the experiences of environmental vulnerability.
So with the large proportion of the participants. There was limited recognition of climate change as a life altering concern, especially when using public transport. Most participant participants said that they expected discomfort or to weather conditions when using public transport. Some recognize that heat levels had increased exorbitantly compared to a decade ago, but they had limited options. Those who can afford to take a taxi cap on extremely hot days.
To avoid
do so, to avoid walking.
So my conclusion is still a work in progress, and I would
welcome any comments. A lack of sociological and ecological input in transport planning is causing infrastructure development to fail in accommodating all sectors of society, particularly marginalized
groups and development, is still seen as big infrastructure and world-class cities as an aesthetic that continues to maintain class-based segregation. Thank you.
Okay?
So thank you very much, Janelle. We are just checking out if Rodrigo is online now for the first presentation, because it is not.
then I would say that we are starting with disciplinary discussion.
He's not right.
Okay. Sarah is still with us, I guess. So would you mind coming to the front with me. well, you are checking the online questions, I guess. And I'm
walking along with the microphone
so we can start with questions.
Thank you for the presentations. I wanted to ask Chanel, and mostly
how? How is because the the population who are using the public infrastructure are mostly like there is a class.
I'm vividly there to be seen. I was wondering. It's not mostly about the context of your work, but the methodology. How is your experience
as a female researcher who comes from abroad
to study something that is connected to
mostly lower class people.
and how they respond
to you as a researcher who has the. There's a huge gap of surely like there is a perception of gap in in terms of income and class.
Yeah, thank you.
So yeah, this was one of the sort of concerns that I had going into the field as well, although Islamabad is my hometown. So I grew up there, so I was quite to some extent, like an insider in that sense. But obviously I haven't used public transport regularly myself. And so one of the ways in which I went about it was to get involved with community organizations and
sort of political grassroots, political organizations. So there's been one, this one which particularly works on, you know, women's issues. So I was involved with them. And so I would be engaged in their activities. And then, as a result of that, I met a lot of people, and so it was easier for me to then introduce my work. And first, after building a relationship. I did. I'd be honest. I did try to just go off the bus and try to like ask people randomly, but that didn't.
you know, give me good results, because obviously, it's also invasive
of somebody's time in space. And it's also because people are, you know, on their way to somewhere. So. I I think that going through community organizations was definitely more helpful, and there was more trust there.
Otherwise there were some obviously unpleasant experiences as well, which I then changed my methodology to deal with in a more ethical way.
Thank you any more questions.
thanks everyone for the presentations.
My questions to you as well. Chanel. I work in rail infrastructure, and I think this kind of gendered
and in balance around how it's done, and I work in Melbourne, and it's still happening here around how we kind of perceive
infrastructure and especially transport infrastructure.
I guess I'm just seeking your insight into so ways in which you know. And this goes beyond probably your research. So I'm putting it on the spot. I'll recognize that. But ways in which to to
make practical decisions to enable safer spaces for
uses
in as part of the transplant, because a lot of what you spoke about was, how yeah.
when you got off a bus. It wasn't safe for on the bus, or was it safe? And that kind of thing?
Yeah, I I mean, yeah, that's definitely something that I'm also trying to sort of, you know, get to hopefully, in terms of like what's applicable and the policies severe of things as well.
I think that like just sometimes having the physical infrastructure design for marginalized groups is definitely Step one, and I'm not too familiar with Melan. This is my first time here. But like, for example, just, you know, basic in in the context of my research is basics, things like having more lighting. having more you know, female stack around
things like that is sort of like a step one, but I think like for a larger sort of changing a larger understanding around it definitely, like a movement building around like safe spaces and sort of having more conversations about. You know
how to make public space inclusive and sort of just engaging partialized groups in that. So for I know that
I'm not exactly sure but I know in India, for example, there's this night safe walk that happens at night in certain cities with
like where lots of women join, and so sort of that those kind of, I think social initiatives also help and just
changing the conversation. So yeah.
I think so. But I'm sure everyone else can like add in.
Thank you.
Sarah. Can she hear? Not? Yes.
put it on the screen.
Hello, Sarah, this is marriage from Turkey. I would like to ask 2 questions, and although I'm not very familiar with your line of research. I wondered. The time, length, the time period of those house sitting.
What could be the range? It can be, for example, daily also. But also could it involve any taking care of, although those house sitters are elderly themselves mostly, as far as I understood. Can it also involve taking care of children or elderly in the houses. My day one
got to stay. Thank you.
Sara Alidoust: Thanks. Excuse me. Thanks for the question in terms of the timeline. It could be as your top
Sara Alidoust: 2, 3 days to as long as 3 years. So
Sara Alidoust: house sitters that we're doing house sitting The one that had no permanent housing
Sara Alidoust: they usually by doing like a longer term, for example, a few months, or
Sara Alidoust: up to 1, 2 years. And
Sara Alidoust: and
Sara Alidoust: in response to the second question.
Sara Alidoust: I know how sitting doesn't include looking after people in the house. And so people house owners. Actually, they leave the house with no one other than the pets. So it's the rule of how success to look after the pick the house they got, and then they maintain the and watering the garden, and especially looking after the pets. That's What is happening
Sara Alidoust: In most cases.
I think any more questions.
I've got a question for Sarah. I find it really interesting around how citizen.
older age, home? older 55 plus people that just more a question did they consider themselves to to be homeless, because in my experience, even people in homeless and services didn't. But I wonder
that perception and
wouldn't maybe change how they interact with
their environment and services, but also how they perceive yet this kind of care element that you were speaking about.
Sara Alidoust: very good question, which? Which was our question at the beginning of the research as well. based on this, a small poly to study that we have done, we can say, no, these people don't consider themselves as house less people or homeless people.
Sara Alidoust: a lot of them actually started house sitting as a temporary relief to kind of save some money and to be able to rent or pay deposit for housing. And they did ended up doing that for a long time like over 10 years that they weren't able to get back to the private market because the market was getting worse and worse
Sara Alidoust: and more unaffordable. and yes, and as a result of that, these people we didn't find them to be in contact with, like lots of
Sara Alidoust: housing support services or home providers, you know, and a few of them maybe 2 or 3 of them. They're waiting for social housing. They're in the waiting list. So they use this house city as a kind of temporary shelter until they receive the support. But a lot of them even rent in contact with the housing provider is actually a business support.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, all of you, for your presentations. I have a question for Rosalie. I was struck by the point where you made about how the whole repair system is dependent on this tarted knowledge, as we call it.
And at the same time you problem, I asked, how this is not codifiable.
and I just wanted to ask the stupid question, Is this a problem? I mean it? Does this knowledge gets lost? Is it not transmitted anyway? And because the way you present it, disrepair system and maintenance of infrastructure does work, and therefore the question is, does need to be codified, centralized, etc. Or is it
so, Khan? Thank you for the question. Currently. most of the ways in which fantastic knowledge is actually moved from generation to generation is because of the world man. So the world man who's there currently before him. It was his father. And that's how the knowledge translates, and because they'll stay in the neighborhood, they're residents of the neighborhood. They could relate more with the households were there, and therefore they understand the problem much more deeply
in terms of the codification of the knowledge it exists at very, very superficial level in terms of, for example, the scheduling of when particular walls have to be turned on, that the calendar is given to them by the municipality, but they don't follow that calendar because they understand that it's much more than what the calendar allows them to do.
At the same time, because of this, a lot of expenditure comes to the household because they have to pay the wolfman every month â‚¹30, which is a huge cost for low income households in the neighborhood, and therefore, at some point we want the municipality to recognize that there is static knowledge that's there and incorporate it, not even in terms of just. You know the particulars
of that information, but that there has to be spaces which could be opened up for this task, acknowledged to be to be put in into the system. So just from that reference to the saying that it's interesting to have the static knowledge recognized for the municipality and taken some efforts in terms of even laying out, for example, open line items in municipality budget, saying, Not just prepare for like replacing pipeline, but budget for repair works in the neighborhood, and that could just encompass all the processes that we have to
mentioned it. Okay.
thank you any more questions.
My question is for the first presentation. Can you clarify what you mean by off-grade and local grid.
And what were the reasons for the choices that people made to either be on upgrade or local with
So the neighborhood that we have? There is a there's a range of infrastructure that's available in terms of the central grid that exist which is the main water pipeline installed by the water Pan stable body that's there in Bangalore, called Bwssb, which is the central grid that exist apart from the central to it. There are local grids in the neighborhood which refers to the bore where local grid that's the ground water extraction system.
So the bold well is being planted in the neighborhood, and then there are local grids within the neighborhood through which water is supplied.
Beyond these there are other off-grid arrangements in terms of water tankers and water atms. What radiums are. Essentially a machine which is being installed with a bowl. Well, is being duck, and then you insert a coin, and then you get like 5 liters of water from that water ATM. So what we mean by rigid and off-grid arrangements is a grid is a centralized system where there's a grid across the city, and an off-grid are more in place of
arrangements which are made to access what are in terms of the choice.
If there's a range of factors on which the choice depends, and you'll definitely hear more about it in an assembly's paper. But it depends on the price point of a lot of these re systems that exist. It's also dependent on the availability, and some part of it is also dependent on the choice and the preference of the household.
So a lot of households mentioned that they would prefer having a bold well water connection, because they trust the water quality more. But as others will like, we trust, cavity water pipeline. That's the main water pipeline mode. So it depends on a multiple range of factors on what the households want to use.
Also they go between system to system. So there's some who access the coverage to infrastructure for drinking purposes, whereas the other infrastructure for other non drinking purposes. So that's also a combination that helps us make.
Thank you more questions
running around a lot.
Thank you. I just had a question for you as well. I was wondering
when you did your your research in the area, the question of repair, what's this? What's that? Mostly like
common goal or common needs that bring these people together? Or was there more like a sort of communal bond between them, sort of like? Does this repair work, or
facilitated by the communal bonds.
I mean, was there sort of a connection already there? Or it was just like
something happen. And we come together because the government doesn't care, and we have to do it ourselves. So let's do it together. And then each of us can go out in our way. So that's that's one question.
So so the answer to that is actually both. there are households who come forward in terms of the disruption.
And then there's disruption that engage either a private service provider or reach out in their own to their own ways, and then get the system repaired. But there are also systems where the community comes together and then reach out to the community leader and talk about activating the social and community network and then get a more systemic solution to the disruption that's there.
It also depends largely on what kind of disruption is there to, for example, in coverage, particularly if there's a disruption at a very at at at the household level, where the toilet is blocked. Then it's a more private repair cycle that you will activate, where, as if it's a more network where you need to get an entire community, you also need to access your administrative or bureaucrats with their in system, then it will be the community networks and the social and critical networks that would get activated.
Thank you
any more questions.
Ok, I do have a quest. Yup! I'll you go ahead.
Hi! My name is Monica, and I'm from Melbourne and my questions for Sarah. I was just wondering about 2 questions about people. How sitting do they ever incur any costs? Are there any costs? Because people might be on quite low incomes? I mean, I realize I don't have to pay rent as such. But are there any other bills or other costs they might have to pay? And then I was wondering, does this lack of having an address for some participants make it difficult to access services like centrelink, and so forth.
Sara Alidoust: and in terms of the first question cost. There's an hourly view of different house setting websites and platforms, and our interview there was no costly engaged.
Sara Alidoust: so people that are looking after the house, pet and garden, and in response to having a free
Sara Alidoust: housing free shelter for the accommodation and if they didn't to pay for anything. The the problem was that when there was the disagreement about something that happened to the house, for example, something that happened to the pit, and when there was an additional cost which is gonna pay for that. And then the lack of this transparent policy and regulation
Sara Alidoust: between these 2 bodies.
Sara Alidoust: it was a big issue. so there was no kind of an arrangement for addressing the dispute among them.
Sara Alidoust: but in terms of the second question.
Sara Alidoust: Oh, sorry. I forgot this question. I tried to take a note, but
sorry I was. I was just wondering about whether having a lack of a fixed address like, does that you know, preclude any issues like accessing services, you know I sent them and say, or other things.
Sara Alidoust: yes, thank you. Yes, that wasn't the main focus of our research, like, we didn't have a specific questions about that. But there was some comments from the participants, those that didn't have a permanent address that this had like negative impact on their access to the caring opportunities. These could be access to different social support services, cover and services.
Sara Alidoust: or even to like having your regular Gp to access to, you know, like they had to change to the Gp because they had to move from one place to another, place one city to another city.
Sara Alidoust: so it's definitely had negative impacts on the support that they could receive in so many different ways.
I think out, and
and I don't another questions. What he she just asked to you, sir.
is there any form of? Has there been any form of response from any major institutions with regards to these issues.
or they are just hidden in the background. How does it operate within the whole system?
Sara Alidoust: if you mean like
Sara Alidoust: government local councils like different agencies. We didn't find anything. No, there is no response from any any, any, any agency, anybody, any government, any policy decision, may care there. There's nothing about that. As I said, it's considered as a self regulated practice at the moment just based on the agreement between the household and home owners and kind of mediated by these
Sara Alidoust: online platforms. In some cases. but no like like. We know that, for example, for Airbnb, and lots of regulations that are now in place but like with the house, I think there is nothing at the moment, as far as we know.
Sara Alidoust: and mainly our research was based in Australia. So our findings are based on Australian telephone information.
Thank you.
I wanted to ask the same question to all of you, actually, as you know. And I said that in the in the first remarks about the session. We were thinking a lot about the idea of how formalized and informalized practices of infrastructure production go hand in hand somehow, because often the discourses on like, Oh, yeah, this is informal. The other one is formal, and somehow everything has to be formalized to be good, especially in the context of the global South.
Now we know that it's has been seen very critical by many scholars in recent years. But, as we can see, and Sarah just said that as well. There's always like this interlink between formalized practices, as you said, like first Airbnb, for example, there are certain doors now that are applying that are set by the government, for example, one.
But still, like I mean, we as a private kind of company that is like offering the services then in the global South. We are having a lot of those self-supplying structures and infrastructure, but still, somehow, they are interrelated with with formalized, at least frameworks. So maybe to the 2 of you the same question, how do these 2 interlink and play together? One?
So we see you're right, like the interlinkages between the formal and the informal systems are quite strong. So, for instance, the story of the wolfman here in at our study site, the volume is officially not recognized by the municipality, but it's still taken confidence of by the municipal officials, and that's a very interesting position that the worldman is occupying, because
there. There is ability to move around and tune in the system a little bit, as per the understanding that that is deriving from the field, and is also
in some way of sitting with the top downs due to the practices that are there. So it it's it's good to see that those things still exist. but at the same time we feel that there's a requirement for supporting these kind of infrastructure in whatever way, so that it doesn't lead to this strong out of pocket expenditure for a lot of low income households. because, even though
the these systems are critical, and and there are other awkward arrangements which are completely informal in in the neighborhood, but it does lead to significant cost component for the households. So how do we then work around in terms of
enabling these practices, but at the same time supporting them. How much ever we can through the formal arrangements that are there?
Yeah, I think it just it like in my case. Also, like, when I was talking to a lot of the government officials, and about last month, connectivity particularly, they said that oh, well, you know there are like shares in this and that, like all those informal modes of transport which have not been given in industry status by the State. But then, at the same time, they just
they expect that, you know people will obviously use those for that last mile connectivity. I don't know. I think it just has to do with this sort of you know technocratic understanding of.
And then this reluctance to sort of acknowledge that
those informal modes, like, for example, in the the case of the wall, men like just that reluctance to acknowledge the knowledge, like the experience based knowledge that exists in communities. and to sort of to continue that like ecocratic top down grip of the state.
yeah.
thank you.
Okay. Are there any last questions.
I don't see any, so thank you very much. Again to all the 3 presenters.
and we are meeting again at 5 20 for the second round of our session. Thank you very much.