The making of inclusive and exclusive cities through the lens of social work

By Manish Jha

As part of Cluster of Cooperation (CLOC) Knowledge to Action, I collaborated with Dr Sylvia Garcia Delhaye and other colleagues at Haute école de travail social (HETS) Genève. During my mobility, I delivered lectures on Urban Poverty, Migration and Community Development, and made a visit to a few civil society organisations. I interacted with several research scholars and faculty colleagues and shared my thoughts and experiences on various socio-economic issues and the social work context in South Asia. The mobility opportunity came when we were about to initiate a research project. Hence, it provided me an opportunity to collaborate on the development of methodology and tools for our research project, “The making of inclusive and/or exclusive cities through the lens of social work and its participatory tools and approaches: What right to the City for the inhabitants and the communities of new neighbourhoods in Switzerland and India?”, supported by Leading House South Asia and Iran.

It was immensely beneficial in forging initial partnerships and establishing networks, which ultimately enabled us to start the research project. In due course, the research facilitated my understanding and analysis of city planning, urban resettlement, and integration challenges in new urban neighbourhoods in Geneva. Through this research, we could explore the making of inclusive and exclusive cities through the lens of social work and its participatory tools and approaches. We examined how the inhabitants and the communities of new neighbourhoods in Switzerland and India experience their right to the city, place, and space. One of the substantive outcomes was a research-based publication published by a peer-reviewed international journal.

Besides, Prof Swetha Rao Dhanaka (HETS-FR) invited me for a podcast on Environmental Social Work. The podcast aimed to talk about an ecological niche or a sub-category of social work, and also to rethink the principles and practices of the social professions in the light of ecology and climate change. In the podcast, we explored the close links between social justice and environmental inequalities, between relationships with others and with nature.

Apart from the research, teaching and related engagements, I had the opportunity to visit Le Corbusier’s villa during a film screening event on 30 September 2023. I had the chance to witness mountain pastures at L’Etivaz, meet with farmers, participate in cultural events, and get some sense of life in the Alps.