Contemporary Indian Urban Society

Book excerpt: Preface. 1. Introduction. A. Urbanizing villages - the Indian experience: 2. Palsaura: an urbanizing village. 3. Governance in rural Punjab: some irritants. 4. Seventy-Fourth Constitutional Amendment and political empowerment of women in Punjab: a study in urban governance. 5. Socio-cultural transformation in rural Punjab-some case studies. B. Urban poverty - theoretical and empirical stocktaking: 6. Issues and perspectives on urban poverty: the Indian experience. 7. Urban poverty in India: theoretical understanding the policy implications. 8. Managing urban poverty: a sociological viewpoint. 9. Youth in urban slums - a sociological study in Chandigarh. C. Cities and social fabric-emerging issues: 10. Cities and ethnic identities: a case of de-ethnicization or re-ethnicization? 11. Planning urban settlements for people: a social agenda. 12. Traditional and non-traditional basis of social organisation in an urban setting. D. Gender and urban societies: issues to ponder: 13. Feminisms and post feminism: can there be a unitary feminine image? 14. Empowering women through Panchayats-stories of success and struggle from India. 15. Comprehensive security in South Asia-the gender dimension. 16. Caught between the domestic and public spheres - woman as a pendulum. E. Conclusion: 17. Emerging urban social reality-towards conceptualization. “This book fills a significant void in the field of urban sociology by addressing to the multidimensional issues concerning urbanizing societies, both rural and urban, with a special focus upon the socio cultural transformation, in Indian context. The various chapters take up both theoretical and empirical analyses on the issues such as urban planning and development, urban governance, women and urbanization, urban overty and so on.â€