CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
Urban Action School (UAS)
3 Weeks Advanced Course for Urban Policy Practitioners
15th November to 5th December, 2015
Venue: Institute for Public Enterprise (IPE), Osmania University Campus, Near Tarnaka, Hyderabad, Telangana, India?
Closing date for applications: 6th September 2015 (midnight IST)
This is a call for applications for the advanced course panning several fundamental facets of the ‘Urban’. This course is designed essentially as a mid career training for the mid and senior level activists, policy advocates, lawyers, journalists, researchers, and all categories of urban policy practitioners. UAS is intended for the benefit of action researchers and social activists, with the objective of building the knowledge base of the participants and to complement action research and field based activism. This course is meant to be as a space for upgrade knowledge, to reflect upon, share and to equip the participants to acquire new skills to function in a better way in their day to day work. It is meant to make a difference to the person as well as to the organization/movement/company in which she/he works.
Note: Applications are invited from all over South Asia (Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bhutan, and Maldives), although the bulk of the participants will be from India.
Who can apply
Open to all: Social workers, political activists, people working with community organizations, social movements, trade unions, urban local bodies, media persons, government officials, research students, elected peoples’ representatives working and dealing with the ‘Urban issues are eligible to apply for this course. Experienced professionals are preferred for this course as it is essentially designed to skill mid career professionals. A minimum of five years of experience will be preferred.
Course Content
Each year the course curriculum will be redesigned to reflect latest ideas, issues, and concerns. The intention is to make the course a credible and significant contribution to understanding of cities, citizens, and people-oriented sustainable planning with an attempt to deal with and find solutions to growing urban poverty, migration, alienation, exclusion, violence, and lack of regulation and planning, with specific focus on informality, livelihood and labour rights.
This year’s course will focus on Urbanization and the Informal Sector. The following themes will be discussed in the course.
- Urbanization, Sustainability and Informal Sector
- Growth and Development Models
- Migration
- Politics and Dynamics of Urban Space
- Caste and Class in the Urban context
- Marxism and Ambedkar thought
- Legal and Institutional Aspects pertaining to Urban Informal Livelihood and Entitlements
- International Practices and Experiences with respect to Labor
- Urban Poverty, development indicators and Measurement of Human Development Index
- Public Finance and Financial Inclusion
- Gender and Feminism
- Health Policy and Public Health
- Housing and Shelter
- Social Media and Community Radio
- Basic Statistics to Interpret Data
How will it be useful
The Urban Action School will bring together activists/ practitioners working on a range of issues relating to urban poverty, exclusion, livelihood, and urbanization from a wide range of disciplines. The UAS overtime will establish communities of practice in various disciplines by creating a forum for cross-sectoral learning and also facilitate cross pollination of ideas and experiences between different activists/ practitioners. It will provide an opportunity for a critical take-aways based on this years focus area i.e., Urbanization and the Informal Sector are
- In-depth understanding of the ‘Urbanization Phenomenon’ and associated concerns of sustainability
- Working knowledge of labor legislation and legal framework, labor theories and practices
- Understanding poverty and its measurement
- Understanding financial architecture and inclusion
- Space politics of urbanization and informality
- Understanding vulnerabilities and risks, Disaster Management and Mitigation
- Cross cutting with gender, caste, class and the cosmopolitan urban culture
- Exposure to social media and community radio
- Basic skilling of statistical analysis and decision making
Methodology Adopted
The course will employ multiple methods of teaching over and above the regular classroom pedagogy. Methods such as field visits, group discussions, message boards, refresher modules, video conferencing etc. will be used. There will be simultaneous translation facility to bridge the language gap. This time English and any two languages based on number of students who prefer a particular alternate language will be made available so that language need not be a barrier for applying to this course.
Research Grants
Participants in the UAS course will have the opportunity of submitting project proposals during the course period along with other participants or on their own, for 3 sub-grants to carry out dream projects they wish to work on for a year. The amounts will be announced at the beginning of each course.
Resource persons
Professors, subject experts and practioners from across the globe are participating to create an enriched exposure concerning urban issues. Below are some of the key resource persons:
- Prabhat Patnaik: Jawaharlal Nehru University
- Bouaventura da Sousa Santos: University of Coimbra, Centre for Social Studies, Portugal
- Marta Harnekar: Writer/ Sociologist, Chile
- Amrita Chacchi: Institute of Social Sciences, Netherlands
- T Jayaraman: Tata Institute of Social Sciences
- Amitabh Kundu: Jawaharlal Nehru University
- Lorena Zarate: Habitat International Coalition, Mexico
- Seeta Prabhu: Tata Institute of Social Sciences
- Ravi Srivastava: Jawaharlal Nehru University
- Prasad Shetty: School for Environment and Architecture
- K Madhav Rao: IAS, Former Chief Secretary Andhra Pradesh, India
- M. Laxmaiah: Centre for Dalit Studies
- Amit Sengupta: Peoples Health Movement
- Anant Maringanti: Hyderabad Urban Labs
- Gautam Bhan: Indian Institute of Human Settlements
- Indu Prakash Singh: ActionAid India
- K R Venugopal: IAS, Former Secretary to the Prime Minister, Govt. of India
- Zillah Eisenstein: University of Ithaca
- Amar Nayak: ActionAid India
- Faculty of IPE: Osmania University
Resource persons from outside the country and some guest lecturers will make their presentations and take questions via video uplink. Detailed course content will be sent to the selected participants later.
A “Certificate of Participation” will be awarded to all participants upon completion of the course.
Host organizations
Main organizers: Citizens Rights Collective (CiRiC), i.e., ActionAid India’s Urban Poverty Knowledge Activist Hub, and South Institute for Public Policy and Action (SIPPA), a newly established policy institute based in Hyderabad, in collaboration with Institute of Public Enterprise IPE, an autonomous institution based in the Osmania University campus, Hyderabad.
Selection Process
The host organizations will constitute a group of panelists to go through the applications and choose 30 participants. Selection will be broadly based on representation from different regions and sectors of practice. Care will be taken to see that there is adequate diversity, based on caste, gender and minorities. The selection panel and the host organizations will make the final decision regarding the selection.
Logistics
Travel to and from the course venue, boarding and lodging as well as course materials will be taken care of by the host organizations. Travel for those within 12 hours by rail will be booked by train AC III tier. For those farther away, air travel will be arranged. Overhead costs pertaining to the course related activities such as field visits, stationery, reading materials etc. will be borne by the hosts. This is made possible with a grant from the European commission.
PLEASE NOTE: The course is strictly residential. Participants are expected to stay at the venue even if they are from Hyderabad or nearby. Those who are not sure of being able to stay at the venue are advised not to apply. All participants are expected to stay through the entire course and not leave halfway unless there are compelling reasons like a sudden family emergency. Applicants must remember that leaving midway without sufficiently valid reason is likely to affect the prospects of others from their organization who might apply for other courses at UAS in the future. These restrictions are designed to ensure equity and inclusiveness across all participants.
How to Apply
You may access the website http://www.ciric.in/opportunities/urban-action-school and download the application form there.
Fill the application form and email it to the following email id: urbanschool@ciric.in such that it reaches us before midnight IST latest by 6th September 2015. You can also print the application form and send it by post or courier to the below mentioned address. Please make sure it reaches before the last date.
To,
Anju Reshma Manikoth
The Course Coordinator
Urban Action School
# 21, Gruhalaxmi Colony,
Karkhana, Secunderabad,
Telangana,
INDIA - 500015
Ph: +91-40-40149631/ +91-40- 65445410
PLEASE APPLY EARLY!
Closing date for applications is 6th September 2015 (midnight IST) |