Uncivil City: Ecology, Equity and the Commons in Delhi by Amita Baviskar


Uncivil City: Ecology, Equity and the Commons in Delhi
Title : Uncivil City: Ecology, Equity and the Commons in Delhi
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 9353289416
ISBN-10 : 9789353289416
Format Type : ebook
Number of Pages : 300
Publication : Published March 9, 2020

As cities become habitat for most of humanity, the question of their ecological capacity to sustain lives worth living becomes ever more critical. Yet, when we listen to debates about city planning and governance, and observe urban environmental campaigns on the ground, we notice that they have little to do with ecology or justice. To examine this contradiction, Uncivil City: Ecology, Equity and the Commons in Delhi looks at two decades of environmental politics in Delhi--across homes and workplaces, ordinary streets and extraordinary spectacles, and the river and the Ridge. It argues that the terms of the discourse--what is an environmental issue, who is authorised to speak, and which modes of action count as legitimate--are partial, particularistic and perverse. 'Bourgeois environmentalists', who claim to speak in the public interest, for nature and society, have made the city what it is: unfair and unliveable. Only citizenship and civility will save the commons--air, water, space and trees--upon which cities depend for survival.


Uncivil City: Ecology, Equity and the Commons in Delhi Reviews


  • Varun Nayar

    "In an uncivil city, the commons can be a model and metaphor for creating a shared space of politics. To be open and accommodating to the needy and vulnerable, to the ant and the banyan tree. To stand fast against the bullying of bureaucrats and the encroachment of big business. To believe that the value of something grows when it is shared."

  • Aditi Choudhary

    An amazing study of the contradictions of the city of Delhi.