Dhiren Swain

I am a PhD candidate in Urban Studies at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. I have done my M.A. in Political Science at the University of Hyderabad. My research interest includes urban land, the history of land tenures, informality, and city politics.

Currently, I am undertaking fieldwork in Odisha, India. In my on-going PhD project, I look at the “JAGA mission” by the Government of Odisha which is an in-situ slum development project. I examine the history and materiality of land in most of Odisha’s urban local bodies as these spaces are part of diverse land administration. Informal political spaces like the local committees, the so-called “political entrepreneurs” like touts, middle persons, local state are also part of my study.