Patrick Heller

Urban Governance in Brazil, India and South Africa: Explaining Variation in Growth and Inclusion

In the age of globalization, megacities in the developing world have emerged as the most contested sites of the socio-spatial contradictions of capitalism. In contrast to deterministic accounts that have dominated the literature, Prof Heller combines insights from the developmental state and the urban governance literatures so show that political and institutional factors at the national and local level can shape divergent trajectories of urban transformation. Comparing the modal megacity in three democratic, highly unequal, globally integrated and rapidly transforming countries, Prof Heller focus on service delivery and slum-rehabilitation to show that there is significant variation in the capacity of cities to coordinate growth and inclusion. These varied outcomes are explained on the one hand by center-local state relations that configure the degree of city capacity and governance autonomy, and on the other hand by the degree to which the local state is embedded in civil society.

Patrick Heller is the Lyn Crost Professor of Social Sciences and professor of sociology and international and public affairs. He is the director of the development research program at Watson.

Heller’s main area of research is the comparative study of social inequality and democratic deepening. He is the author of “The Labor of Development: Workers in the Transformation of Capitalism in Kerala, India” (Cornell 1999) and co-author of “Social Democracy and the Global Periphery” (Cambridge 2006), “Bootstrapping Democracy: Transforming Local Governance and Civil Society in Brazil” (Stanford 2011) and, most recently, “Deliberation and Development: Rethinking the Role of Voice and Collective Action in Unequal Societies.” Heller has published articles on urbanization, comparative democracy, social movements, development policy, civil society, and state transformation. His most recent project, Cities of Delhi, conducted in collaboration with the Centre for Policy Research, explores the dynamics of governance and social exclusion in India’s capital.

Light refreshments will be served. This event is open to Columbia University affiliates with a valid university ID. Any questions on the events can be directed Diana Guo, dg3372@columbia.edu; Vinita Govindarajan, vg2588@columbia.edu; Mauricio Enrique Rada Orellana, mer2245@columbia.edu

The Lecture in Planning Series (LiPS) is co-organized by the MSUP Program and second-year PhD students in Urban Planning: Vinita Govindarajan, Diana Guo, and Mauricio Rada Orellana.