Nihal Perera, PhD
Activist Researcher-educator; advocate for inclusivity
Emeritus Professor of urban development
founder and Director CapAsia (1998-2022)
Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Nihal Perera's main research interest is in the social production of space. His focus is on how ordinary people with no formal authority to produce space both transform found, provided, and imposed spaces and create their own to best support their life journeys.
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Highlighting how Asian cities have become databases for imported theories, and the need to contextualize understandings, Transforming Asian Cities calls for the study of Asian cities on their own terms, from the cities themselves, rather than from outside. Nihal’s first book Decolonizing Ceylon maps out how Ceylon (Sri Lanka from 1972) was produced from Colombo, the main colonial outpost, which did not evolve from the hinterland, and its postcolonial politics of space. Addressing a huge gap in the work of Lefebvre and Harvey, but critically building on their work, People's Spaces demonstrates that it is the users who bring the abstract spaces of the state and capital to life. It demonstrates how designed, planned, and imposed spaces are familiarized by the subjects, making these more supportive of their needs and wants, and create their own making the state and the market negotiate. Delving into post-development, the special issue of Bhumi demonstrates how postcolonial governments in Sri Lanka (as many others) have squandered national (economic) development opportunities and the potential of locally-grown (globally-contextualized) alternatives.
Perera’s other publications include Importing Urban Problems which created the need for urban planning in the 1920s; the establishment of contemporary planning (Planners’ City); Indigenizing and Feminizing the City by subjects; Contesting Modernities in Chandigarh; the attempt to Redevelop Dharavi and Wanathamulla created by the inhabitants; and the racist underpinnings of American urban planning.
The two-time Fulbright Scholar (China and Myanmar) was Senior Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore, Melting Pot Fellow at King Mongkut Institute (KMITL), Bangkok, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Alberta, and Graham Foundation Fellow. He received three Fulbright-Hays awards and was nominated for Fukuoka, Heiskell and Malone awards for international education. Besides the USA, Nihal has taught in China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
His main contribution to teaching and pedagogy is CapAsia, a reflective-learning immersive-semester in Asia in which the participants learn about communities, from community-members’ perspectives, doing collaborative work with local students and experts, and learn about their own selves through reflection.
... and only begun. His seeking out, engaging intelect and quiet conversation ... one of his tools. (Reviewer)
The newest initiative is: පාඨමාලාව: ශ්රී ලංකාවේ කාල අවකාශය
Recent News
Interview: Nihal Perera on the Social Production of Space
Book: People’s Spaces (Routledge 2016)
Neighborhood of Resilience and Hope: The Making and Remaking of Wanathamulla (with Nirmani Liyanage and Asanka Senadeera), chapter in Neighbourhoods and Neighbourliness in Urban South Asia: Subjectivities and Spatiality. eds. Sadan Jha and Dev Pathak. Routledge: 206-30, 2022.
Colombo: From Colonial Outpost to Indigenous Kleptocratic City, chapter in Routledge Handbook of Asian Cities, ed.: Richard Hu: 201-12. Routledge, 2023
Spatializing Nationalism and Religion: The Production of Sinhala-Buddhist Imagination and the Centrality of Anuradhapura, Space and Culture (With Sangapala): DOI: 10.1177/12063312231210152: 35-51, 2023
Course in Sinhala: පාඨමාලාව: ශ්රී ලංකාවේ කාල අවකාශය
forthComing
Beyond Gentrification: Explaining the Contemporary Transformation of Colombo (with Nirmani Liyanage), chapter in Post-Gentrification, eds.: Carolyn Cartier and Wing-Shing Tang. New York: Routledge (forthcoming), 2024
People's Spaces
People's Spaces investigates how ordinary people produce spaces for their daily activities and cultural practices within extant potential and limitations. At the base of social space is the conflict between provided/ imposed/ available spaces and the needs and wants of the users. The negotiation of the gap between the abstract perceptions of the provider and the local needs of the user (subject) produces people’s spaces. The conflict is evident in the constant pushing and pulling of the boundary between the provided and used space by the authorities and “people” who are not formally authorized to produce space. From the people's side, the processes range from coping and nibbling on abstract spaces to directly producing lived space such as self-established settlements and chowks. The authorities use from small fines to wholesale urban renewal to negotiate.
These together create social space.
Keynote
"Transforming Asian Cities: Urban and Planning Practices"
At the XV International Planning History Society (IPHS) Conference, Sao Paulo, Brazil, July 15, 2012
The keynote uses Asian experiences to understand and conceptualize urban and planning history. In so doing, it makes non-Western urban histories and spatial experiences visible and brings them to discussion and debate in urban and planning history discourses.