The Ethnic Community: Urban Form, Peace, Conflict, and Violence in Urban India

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dc.contributor.advisorBaum, Howell Sen_US
dc.contributor.authorAdrianvala, Zubinen_US
dc.contributor.departmentUrban Studies and Planningen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2017-06-22T06:16:13Z
dc.date.available2017-06-22T06:16:13Z
dc.date.issued2017en_US
dc.description.abstractWhat causes some cities to have higher levels of ethnic violence than others do? This research explores whether the urban form affects the level of ethnic violence in a city. Here, the term urban form refers to identifiable physical characteristics of a city: paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks. Contemporary understanding of the physical city, as a determinant of outcomes or even as a target in ethnic violence is very limited. Although ethnic conflict is a prominent global phenomenon, ethnic violence occurs in some narrow streets and crowded neighborhoods, but not others. In addition, social scientists have focused on the ethnicization of urban spaces, but its effect on levels of ethnic violence is largely unstudied. The central hypothesis is that cities where the urban form is “ethnicized” are more likely to experience violent ethnic conflict than cities where the urban form is largely shared, secular, or multi-ethnic. India is a rapidly urbanizing globalized country with much ethnic diversity, features typical of many post-colonial nations in the global Southeast. The study involved a simultaneous ethnographic, geographic, and spatial comparison of two Indian cities, Surat and Ahmedabad, and the Hindu-Muslim ethnic relations in those cities. Ahmedabad has experienced the most Hindu-Muslim violence of any Indian city (using number of violence-related deaths as a measure). In contrast, Surat has been peaceful. This disparity is especially interesting since Surat and Ahmedabad are part of the same Indian state with similar linguistic, political, and demographic features. These questions are addressed through an analysis of semi-structured interviews and cognitive mapping exercises. The study includes 66 respondents: 36 in Surat and 30 in Ahmedabad. The research concludes that the urban form is an important factor in ethnic conflict. This finding has several research and policy implications which include a shift in the way various practitioners operate in the urban context.en_US
dc.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.13016/M2858W
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/19451
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledUrban planningen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledPolitical scienceen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledPeace studiesen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledConflicten_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledEthnic violenceen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledIndiaen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledPeaceen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledUrban Formen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledUrban Planningen_US
dc.titleThe Ethnic Community: Urban Form, Peace, Conflict, and Violence in Urban Indiaen_US
dc.typeDissertationen_US

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