The making of inclusive and/or exclusive cities through the lens of social work and its participatory tools and approaches
The "right to the City" as defined by Henri Lefebvre in 1968, is at the heart of the debates on the contemporary construction of the city in India and Switzerland, which oscillate between the promotion of social mix policies perceived as inclusive (Geneva, LUP law) and the structural mechanisms of exclusion and reproduction of social inequalities (Jha & Kumar 2016).
To understand the current issues of territorial and urban development in India and Switzerland, this project, based on a research and teaching partnership, focuses on the points of view and practices of proximity actors (community social workers) and inhabitants/communities in the construction of `living together' within the new neighborhoods of Geneva and Mumbai cities. Indeed, these new neighborhoods crystallize the current tensions of territorial and urban development and offer an original space for investigation, allowing a genuine cross-analysis to understand the place and the influence of the different actors (citizens, professionals, and politicians) involved in the evolution and creation of today's city.
With reference to the SDGs, in particular, n°11 "Sustainable cities and communities" and taking into account the consideration since the COVID 19 pandemic of social work and its services as significant vectors of sustainable development (Garcia Delahaye & al. 2022), this research questions both the role of social work professionals and that of inhabitants/communities in urban development processes.
On the one hand, it wishes to understand how social workers involved in city redesign processes consider their own place (potentiality and limits) and that of the inhabitants in relation to the n°11 SDGs. On the other hand, it wants to understand the place desired, occupied and actually given to the inhabitants in the production of the city and in the project `living together'. It will pay attention to the approaches to citizen participation available, the perception of these tools/ approaches by the inhabitants (Arnstein 1969, Sen 1985) and their aspirations regarding `living together' in the new neighborhoods in Indian and Swiss cities.