Research projects of the Senior Fellow Prof. Peter P. Mollinga
January 18, 2024 | 13:30 h - 14:30 h
We'd like to invite you to a presentation of the research projects of Senior Fellow Prof. Peter P. Mollinga!
Speaker: Prof. Peter P. Mollinga, Senior Fellow at ZEF Bonn since 1 Oct 2023
Join us via Zoom: https://uni-bonn.zoom-x.de/j/69063432070?pwd=OThhK3ZaN3RLbGs2SC9mbmtGNUNiQT09
Meeting-ID: 690 6343 2070
Code: 418670
Abstract:
Peter Mollinga will present the projects he is currently working on under the heading “Water, infrastructure and political rule”.
He is currently co-writing two project proposals focused on, respectively,
1) the performative dimensions of riverfront development in Indian cities [1]
2) the paradox of state-led large-scale infrastructure development in neoliberal ‘market’ times in two Indian States.[2]
What these two project initiatives have in common in terms of approach is an interest in state planning, governance and rule that includes its cultural-semiotic-performative dimension in a political economy framing (Sum and Jessop 2013) and is interdisciplinary, in the sense that state rule is not only about ‘strategics’ but also about ‘logistics’ (Mukerji 2010)
The linking process concept is ‘imagineering’; (urban) planning is the arena where its dynamics can be observed. In addition to these two projects designed with this specific thrust in mind, he is also part of a project bid on off-grid wastewater reuse led by TU Munich (result to be announced in February) and a longer-term writing project that is a re-study of the irrigation system (region) originally researched in 1991-92 for his PhD.
Methodologically his main interest is (qualitative) comparative analysis, which he pursued in recent years through an EU funded collaborative project on the impact of large-scale labour out-migration on rural change in seven countries (https://agrumig.iwmi.org/).
He hopes that some of this resonates with the interest of ZEF colleagues and looks forward to an exchange on research interests and approaches.
[1] Present working title: The imagineering of rivers in urban planning: Banks, fronts and the logistics of state rule in Varanasi, Lucknow and Ahmedabad (India)
[2] Present working title: /The resurgence of state-led large-scale infrastructure development under neoliberalism: water infrastructure in Gujarat and Telengana States, India.
Sum, N. L., & Jessop, B. (2013). Towards a cultural political economy: Putting culture in its place in political economy. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Mukerji, C. (2010). The territorial state as a figured world of power: Strategics, logistics, and impersonal rule, Sociological Theory, 28/(4), 402-424.
Prof. Peter P. Mollinga is a Senior Fellow at ZEF Bonn since 1 Oct 2023. He habilitated in Development Sociology. His methodological interest are qualitative comparative analysis and inter- and transdisciplinarity.
