Can we conceive citizens without a city or a city without citizens? Each is the raison detre of the existence of other. They coexist or cease to exist. But such coexistence has never been frictionless or devoid of tension.
A long history of cities tells us that migration from the rural to urban space has been a process of liberation from anxiety born of insecurity as much as it has been a source of insecurity born of anxiety in an urban uncertainty. What the city does to citizens and vice versa was broadly discussed at the three-day 10th Thaap International Conference 2019 organised with the collaboration of the Institute of Art and Culture, Lahore, in Lahore. The precise theme of the conference was ‘Citizens & the City: Urban Dynamics in Pakistan & the Region’.
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Mr Nizamuddin drew attention to the segment of aging population that increasingly fail to find a safe corner in the urban space where individualism and nuclear family rule the roost. Professor Rehman touched the subject from sociological and cultural perspectives. He highlighted the near lack of social inclusion our cities suffered from in the absence of open to all public spaces. In the face of increased migration from the rural areas our cities, in his view, tended to look down upon the newcomers, which would create cultural conflicts preventing the needed social and cultural cohesion a harmonious urban life needs.1
Imperceptible consensus among the scholars was that power structure and hierarchical order did violence to the citizens, especially the marginalised and powerless who formed the bulk of residents. But the citizens also especially those ensconced in the power do violence to the city by interfering it is organic growth driven with the sole motive of making big profit as the land and the construction have become a great source of quick money.
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- 1. In the sessions that followed the opening the complex relationship that existed between citizens and the city was explored through well-researched papers from diverse perspectives. In eight sessions dedicated to papers’ presentation some of the thought-provoking researches and explorations were shared by Professor Jakilien Trroy (Australia), Ghiasudin Pir and Sahar Saqlain (Lahore), Dr Kashif Khan (Waziristan), Professor Simon Yinfudin (China), Dr Kanwal Khalid (Lahore), Khatau Mal (Tharparker), Sofia Wanchoo Mir (Lahore), Noman Ahmed (Karachi), Muhammad Waqas (Lahore), Dr Anwar Shaheen (Karachi) and Salman Basharat (Lahore).