Research
Producing impactful and cutting-edge knowledge across 35 interconnected urban themes
About
IIHS Research is a leading interdisciplinary urban knowledge initiative for and in the Global South, focused on actionable knowledge and building grounded theory by bringing research and practice together for national development, social impact, and urban transformation.
Recognising that interdisciplinarity defines 21st-century knowledge paradigms and is necessary to engage with the complexity of urbanisation, IIHS undertakes research across several disciplinary clusters, interlinking multiple dimensions of urban transformation.
IIHS’ research draws on and contributes to 35 interconnected and cross-cutting knowledge themes, bringing together work from across its interdisciplinary Schools. IIHS is home to some of the world’s leading scholars, interdisciplinary researcher–practitioners, and a talented cohort of early-career researchers with education and training across 45+ disciplines from leading Indian and global universities.
With the anticipated rise in population by 300 million (a third of whom will be income poor) to over 70 million cities by 2050, IIHS asks the following questions:
- What are the knowledge(s) needed to ensure an efficient, equitable, and sustainable urban transformation?
- How does this research translate and circulate into and within urban policymaking and implementation in India?
- What are the gaps that stand in the way of producing and applying this knowledge, and how can these be addressed?
- How does this research contribute to international knowledge production?
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Key Focus Areas
Governance and Land
The Programme’s work on urban governance, law and land takes a political economy view of urban and metropolitan governance, decentralisation, law and urban institutions, and land and environmental governance.
The Programme focuses on urban and metropolitan governance, and decentralisation, urban institutions and stakeholders, as well as the political economy of urban land and planning, including planning and governance of mega-infrastructure projects, such as industrial corridors. It works on land acquisition, rehabilitation, resettlement, and land records modernisation. Its work also focuses on environmental governance and urban resource flows.
Employment and Livelihoods
The Programme’s work on employment and livelihoods focuses on decent work, quality of work, and employment-intensive growth, digital economy, industrial transitions, domestic and home-based work, maternal and childcare practices, and technology and work.
The research focuses on digital platforms and the informal urban economy. It works on social protection and employment guarantee programmes for all workers, as well as employment-intensive urban development pathways. Its work also focuses on improving the quality of informal work and workers’ welfare, including childcare for informal workers.
Urban Inequality
The Programme’s work on urban inequality and social identity spans multiple themes, including housing, health, education, food, water and sanitation, migration, and their intersections with economic, caste, gender, spatial, and climate justice.
The work focuses on housing, evictions, rights and citizenship, and social and economic exclusion, including health and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It works on migration, social identities, and climate adaptation. Its work also focuses on institutional capabilities and educational inequality.
Health
The Programme’s work on health focuses on urban and public health systems, informal work, and maternal and childcare practices; health-seeking behaviour of the urban poor, especially around non-communicable diseases; and climate change and health.
The Programme focuses on the design, functioning and governance of urban public health systems, and non-communicable disease care-seeking and treatment regimens. It works on informal work, maternal and childcare practices, nutritional security, as well as occupational health and well-being. Its work also focuses on climate change and health.
Housing
The Programme’s work on housing spans key themes ranging from policy and public programmes, rights and justice, affordable and rental housing, informal settlements and slum redevelopment, and the influence of urban planning on housing access.
The Programme’s work focuses on housing policy and affordable programme design across diverse types and segments, as well as housing rights and justice, and inclusive planning processes. It works on the development of inclusive rental housing markets. Its work also focuses on in-situ upgradation of informal settlements and slums.
Water and Sanitation
The Programme’s work on water and sanitation spans urban and rural water systems, and basic service delivery; sanitation, septage, and wastewater treatment; local, national, and global water policy and governance; and hygiene and behaviour change.
The Programme focuses on urban water and sanitation practices, policy, and governance in India, including blue infrastructure, and services such as groundwater and tank regulation, irrigation management, and water supply. It works on addressing the global water crisis and the economics of water, and basic services delivery to poor and informal settlements. Its work also focuses on urban WASH, hygiene promotion, and behavioural change.
Energy
The Programme’s work on energy focuses on the dynamics of clean energy transitions, from the local to the national scale. This work is anchored around SDG 7 (access to clean and affordable energy). It explores appropriate governance, institutional, financial, and regional development interventions that can accelerate climate-resilient development.
The Programme focuses on options and enabling conditions for climate-aligned energy system transitions across diverse policy imaginations, infrastructure configurations, and social equity outcomes. It works on the feasibility and effectiveness of just energy transitions and integration into development finance, as well as renewable energy dynamics across utility, city, regional, and national scales. Its work also focuses on green buildings, operational efficiency, and innovation.
Food Systems
The Programme’s work on food systems and agriculture spans food and nutrition security, ecological and water security, informal urban food economy, urban and peri-urban agriculture, agrarian change, and the role of small farmers and organic agriculture in enabling sustainability and economic viability.
The work focuses on informal and formal urban food economies, and inclusive development, including regulation and building infrastructure for food and nutrition security at the margins. It works on promoting sustainable food practices, urban and organic agriculture, particularly via nature-based solutions, as well as biodiversity-friendly urban food gardens. Its work also focuses on experiments with co-production pathways across the science–policy–practice–citizen interface.
- 50+ publications
- 1,200+citations
Ecosystems
The Programme’s work on ecosystems spans semi-wild to urban ecosystems and associated human settlements with an emphasis on policy relevant at local, regional, national, and global scales.
The Programme focuses on urban ecosystems and sustainable blue–green infrastructure, as well as quantifying and mapping ecosystem and watershed services. It works on biodiversity conservation and restoration of forest, grasslands and desert ecosystems, along with river, aquatic ecosystem, fish conservation, and invasive species management. The work has contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Cycles 6 and 7 (AR 6 and 7).
Climate Change
The Programme’s work on climate change spans climate science and policy, mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, climate resilience, climate finance and climate governance, from the local and national to the global scale.
The research focuses on climate-resilient development that brings together climate adaptation and mitigation with sustainable development and biodiversity conservation. It works on urban and infrastructure transition to accelerate the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement, as well as climate finance and other enabling conditions to accelerate the implementation of system transitions. Its work also focuses on land, water and ecosystems transition, and nature-based solutions to enable human well-being and ecosystem health, along with clean energy transitions to enable climate equity and justice.
The work has contributed to three Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Cycles (AR5, AR6 and AR7), including the ongoing IPCC Special Report on Cities and Climate Change, the negotiation of the Paris Climate Agreement and various climate COPs.
Disaster Risk and Resilience
The Programme’s work on disaster risk and resilience examines the full disaster cycle (response, recovery, rehabilitation, relocation, and vulnerability reduction) for key hazards, building urban resilience and resilient infrastructure, across local to global landscapes.
The research focuses on understanding the impact of post-disaster recovery, rehabilitation, resettlement and relocation processes, particularly on vulnerable populations. It works on understanding the long-term impact of disasters on livelihoods, human, and economic development. Its work also focuses on enabling urban multi-hazard resilience, and the planning, financing, and creation of resilient infrastructure systems, as well as enhancing risk governance to address systemic risk and vulnerability.
The work has contributed to the Sendai Agreement, six UNDRR Global Assessment Reports (GAR) on Disaster Risk Reduction, and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) report Global Infrastructure Resilience: Capturing the Resilience Dividend.
journals
IIHS Journals
Urbanisation
A peer-reviewed bi-annual journal anchored at IIHS and published by
Sage Publications India since 2016
The journal publishes comparative as well as collaborative interdisciplinary scholarship that illuminates the global urban condition, with a firm footprint in the Global South. The journal is indexed in databases such as EBSCO Discovery Service and EBSCO: Urban Studies Abstracts.
The IIHS Word Lab manages the production of the journal, anchoring the peer review process and providing editorial and outreach support for the journal.
Submissions are open all year round and are evaluated on a rolling basis. They also invite proposals for special issues.
Write to submission@urbanisationjournal.com.
Visit urbanisationjournal.com to submit your articles and know more about the journal.
Ecology, Economy and Society Journal–The INSEE Journal
An open-access, peer-reviewed, bi-annual journal published by the Indian Society for Ecological Economics (INSEE) since 2018
This SCOPUS-indexed journal features articles on topics related to ecology, economy and society, and socio-environmental issues from, across, and within the natural and social sciences, and promotes methodological pluralism and interdisciplinary research.
IIHS took over as the journal’s Secretariat in 2024, with the appointment of Indira Singh as the Managing Editor, and Jagdish Krishnaswamy as the Coordinating Editor, both from the IIHS School of Environment & Sustainability , with article processing and production support from the IIHS Word Lab.
Visit ecoinsee.org/journal/ojs to submit your articles and know more about the journal.
Editorial Board Affiliations
IIHS faculty are members of the Editorial Boards of leading international and domestic journals.
partners
Domestic Partners
IIHS collaborates with leading academic, research and development sector organisations for research, community engagement, and implementation support.
International partners
IIHS has built a portfolio of internationally funded, multi-year, multi-country research programmes. It also draws academics from leading global institutions to its flagship research conference and as visiting scholars and key resource persons.
International Labour Organization (ILO)
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat)
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
World Health Organization (WHO)
World Bank (WB)
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
International Finance Corporation (IFC)
Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI)
Green Climate Fund (GCF)
EVENTS
Research Week
An annual convening of urban scholars
Research Week is the annual flagship event of the IIHS Research Programme, bringing together scholars from India and around the world to share work and engage in debates and discussions around the urban. It includes the PhD Workshop and Urban ARC, the annual research conference.
Annual PhD Workshop
The PhD Workshop is a unique, interdisciplinary intervention for urban research, designed to support PhD candidates in developing their work through engagement with eminent scholars and practitioners from IIHS and leading global institutions.
Initiated in 2013, it has hosted participants from diverse disciplines, enabled engagement with emerging areas of urban research, and supported participants in theorising from both research and practice.
Urban ARC
Urban ARC is IIHS’ annual research conference. It offers a space to question and discuss new debates and issues in the urban, particularly those emerging from the Global South. Urban ARC provides an opportunity to both seasoned academics and practitioners, as well as young scholars across leading global and domestic universities, to meet and exchange ideas situated in the urban.
To learn more about past editions of the Conference, see the
conference proceedings.
Publics@IIHS
A platform for dialogue on contemporary urban knowledge and practice
IIHS hosts regular public talks under the banner Publics@IIHS, held online and at IIHS, Sadashivanagar. The series brings together scholars and practitioners to share new knowledge around the urban, with a particular focus on the Global South, featuring speakers from leading institutions.
Projects
Browse all projects associated with the School of Economic Development.
Publications
Access the School’s full publications through the Knowledge Gateway.
Programme Office
For any inquiries or further information, please reach out to practice@iihs.co.in