Ayona Datta

Ayona Datta is a feminist geographer and Senior Lecturer in the School of Geography, University of Leeds. Her research focuses on the gendered processes of citizenship and belonging and the politics of urbanization across the global north and south. She tweets @AyonaDatta.

Smartness Inc.

The powers behind India’s first ‘smart city’ tell us that “land is not an issue”. But with the neoliberalisation of space comes a disturbing transformation of citizenship via data and real estate.

By Ayona Datta

/ 22 May 2015

City forgotten

Watch: Through the eyes of residents, local activists and civil society members, 'City Forgotten' tells the story of Malegaon’s fall from what was once the 'Manchester of India', to a town blighted by communal violence and in serious decline. (15 mins)

By Ayona Datta

/ 18 Sep 2013

City bypassed: the casualties of Mumbai's urban renewal

Watch: A short film exploring Mumbai's urban renewal as seen from Byculla, a multicultural inner-city neighbourhood symbolically and physically bypassed by road infastructure projects in Mumbai's race for global city status (13 mins).

By Ayona Datta

/ 6 Aug 2013

The myth of resettlement in Delhi

Since 2000, activist groups across India have sought to defend slum communities from dispossession in favour of 'participatory' resettlement on the urban periphery. The popularity of such reasoning has lead to the myth that squatters prefer resettlement to illegality, denying squatters a right to

By Ayona Datta

/ 21 May 2013