| Course Type | Course Code | No. Of Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation Elective | SGA2EL411 | 4 |
Semester and Year Offered: Monsoon 2019
Course Coordinator and Team: Dr. Anna Zimmer
Email of course coordinator: anna[at]aud[dot]ac[dot]in
Pre-requisites:
Some space on land or terrace on the campus to practice urban agriculture with the students, required tools, seeds, watering facility.
Aim:
Urban Agriculture is a course that is relevant for students interested in exploring the interface between seemingly rural agricultural practices, and urban societies and space. The course aims at critically exploring urban agriculture in the Global South as well as Global North. After introducing students to the field, and to the situation of traditional urban agriculture in Delhi, the course debates household, societal, and city-level dimensions of urban agriculture through case studies from around the world. A final module brings the learnings to bear on recent developments in Delhi.
Course Outcomes:
Brief description of modules/ Main modules:
1.Introduction
| This module will familiarize students with the definitions of UA and its different types. It will also give a brief overview of the historical dimension of UA in India. |
2.The household level dimension: nutrition, income, and meaning
| This module addresses four core motivations for practicing urban agriculture: It starts with food security and income generation, and then focuses on food safety as well as meaning making. |
3.Societal impacts of Urban Agriculture | This unit will critically examine the benefits that the academic literature has identified in relation to the term “community”, or to larger societal concerns. |
4.The urban dimension: between planning and insurgent politics | This unit will explore how UA speaks to larger concerns of city making. It will discuss the planning perspective as well as critical perspectives on the right to the city. |
5.Shifting identities, political economy and politics: UA in Delhi
| This last unit will problematize recent developments of urban agriculture in Delhi. Finally, the module will explore if there are urban politics in Delhi that are framed through UA projects. |
6.Practicing Urban Agriculture
| During this module, students will build a small university organic vegetable garden, and tend it with support of the existing gardeners. The aim of this unit is to make learning an embodied experience, where students can practice action research. |
Assessment Details with weights:
Students will be assessed in continuous assessment mode on the basis of their engagement with the educational resources (combined: 20%), and through a reflection on the gardening project (15%). The mid semester assessment will require students to conduct interviews with Delhi’s emerging actors in the field of Urban Agriculture (30%); the end semester assessment will consist of a final examination (35%).
Indicative reading list:
