Elena Knows

Lonely? Mean? Hostile? Cities get a bad rap. But why? Romit Chowdhury has lived in cities worldwide; from Kolkata to Rotterdam. He tells Alexis and Rosie about the wonder of urban “enchantment” found in a stranger’s smile, our changing ideas of the “urban”, and why anonymity is not always in fact the enemy of civility and friendship in the city.

Plus: how did “walking the city” emerge as a revolutionary research method? And why is Romit so fascinated with public transport – from exploring auto-rickshaw drivers’ masculinity in Kolkata, to studying sexual violence on the busy trains of Tokyo.

Romit, Alexis and Rosie also share their tips for thinking differently about urban life – from Japanese film to novels that explode norms about bodies in the city.

Guest: Romit Chowdhury
Hosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu Truong
Executive Producer: Alice Bloch
Sound Engineer: David Crackles
Music: Joe Gardner
Artwork: Erin Aniker

Find more about Uncommon Sense at The Sociological Review.

Episode Resources

Romit, Rosie, Alexis and our producer Alice recommended

• Claudia Piñeiro’s novel “Elena Knows”
• N. K. Jemisin’s book “The City We Became”
• Shinya Tsukamoto’s filmography
• Teju Cole’s novel “Every Day is For the Thief”

From The Sociological Review

• “Karachi” – Shama Dossa
• “Whose City Now?” – Ray Forrest
• “Trash Talk: Unpicking the deadlock around urban waste and regeneration” – Francisco Calafate-Faria
• “Rising with the Rooster: How urban chickens are relaxing the pace of life” – Catherine Oliver

By Romit Chowdhury

• “Sexual assault on public transport: Crowds, nation, and violence in the urban commons”
• “The social life of transport infrastructures: Masculinities and everyday mobilities in Kolkata”
• “Density as urban affect: The enchantment of Tokyo’s crowds”

Further readings

• “Dangerous Liaisons – Women and Men: Risk and Reputation in Mumbai” – Shilpa Phadke
• “For Space” – Doreen Massey
• “The Metropolis and Mental Life” – Georg Simmel
• “The Arcades Project” – Walter Benjamin 
• “Delhi Crime” (TV series) – Richie Mehta
• “The Country and the City” – Raymond Williams
• “Why Women of Colour in Geography?” – Audrey Kobayashi
• “‘Delhi is a hopeful place for me!’: young middle-class women reclaiming the Indian city” – Syeda Jenifa Zahan
• “The Way They Blow the Horn: Caribbean Dollar Cabs and Subaltern Mobilities” – Asha Best
• “Black in Place: The Spatial Aesthetics of Race in a Post-Chocolate City” – Brandi Thompson Summers

Support our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-sense