Prof. Sudhir Chella Rajan
ABSTRACT: Peri-urban areas are fuzzy, in-between spaces where cities blur into countryside, creating governance vacuums with multiple agencies having overlapping responsibilities but no clear authority. These transitional zones face distinct transport challenges as car-centric sprawl systematically excludes vast non-driving communities, creating "bypasses" that isolate large archipelagos of human settlements. An adaptive governance framework that emphasises equity and access can be structured around four principles: Engaging diverse stakeholders at different scales in collaborative decision-making systems beyond technocratic planning; Learning from both local knowledge and technical expertise through formal and informal institutions; Situating solutions other than automobility within the specific contexts of transitional spaces (irregular settlements, mixed land uses, varied infrastructure); and Acting through flexible, experimental approaches that build adaptive capacity through pilot projects and feedback rather than implementing fixed blueprints, while acknowledging that structural constraints often determine whether participatory approaches can actually succeed. Adaptive peri-urban transport solutions work at different scales. At the community level, there are initiatives such as bike couriers. At the landscape scale, there are grassroots-led food mobility networks and water taxis to serve eco-tourism. At the commuter-shed scale, para-transit and shared modes are integrated with sustainable land-use planning. Altogether, these solutions emphasise human needs (access) rather than simply accommodating vehicles or aiming to relieve congestion. ABOUT THE SPEAKER Sudhir Chella Rajan teaches in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Madras and serves as a visiting professor in Political Science and Policy Studies at Elon University. He previously served as Head of Department and founding Centre Coordinator of the Indo-German Centre for Sustainability. He holds an interdisciplinary doctorate in Environmental Science and Engineering from UCLA. His research spans political theory and environmental challenges, focusing on democratic innovation in addressing complex social-ecological problems including automobile pollution regulation, power sector reform, climate policy, transport equity, periurban landscape transformation, and corruption. His career spans government, research consultancies, NGOs, and academia. His latest book, A Social Theory of Corruption, was published by Harvard University Press in 2020.
