"Urbanization from Within: A Theory of Urban Transition from 21st-Century India"
Speaker : Dr. Gregory F. Randolph
Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning, Georgia Institute of Technology (USA)
@ : gregory.randolph@gatech.edu
Chairperson : Dr. Chetan Choithani
Associate Professor, Inequality and Human Development Programme, NIAS
@ :cchoithani@nias.res.in
Date : 5th August 2026
Time : 9.30 AM
Venue : Lecture Hall
Abstract: Urbanization is generally narrated as a tale of mass rural–urban migration. A new book by Gregory Randolph, Urbanization from Within: A Theory of Urban Transition from 21st-Century India (Oxford University Press), challenges that conventional wisdom. It argues that twenty-first-century urban transitions are also defined by another process, urbanization from within, in which villages are becoming urban towns through internal population growth, densification, and accompanying social and economic change. Migration is still part of this phenomenon, but rather than the migrant’s destination, it is the migrant’s origin that is urbanizing. Circular flows of people—and the resources, experiences, and expectations they carry and transmit to their hometowns—interact with other local and global forces to facilitate this new form of urbanization. On the one hand, these emerging towns lie at the intersection of demographic intensity and economic marginality, reflecting the uneven development processes of the twenty-first century. On the other hand, they represent incremental improvements in living standards and are subtly reshaping social structures, raising progressive possibilities. Whether places urbanizing from within foster human and economic development depends on policymakers and planners understanding the conditions of their emergence and acting to address their limitations and needs. The book relies on various sources of evidence: qualitative research in the Indian state of Bihar, analysis of geospatial data and large-scale surveys, econometric modeling, and an integration of scholarship from urban studies, geography, planning, economics, sociology, and history. Fundamental mechanisms underlying urbanization from within make it likely to unfold in other parts of the urbanizing Global South, heightening its importance for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners.
About the speaker: Gregory F. Randolph is an Assistant Professor in the School of City and Regional Planning at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research examines the challenges to inclusive urban development posed by 21st-century dynamics of spatial inequality, with a focus on labor markets, human mobility, and technological transitions. Dr. Randolph's research has been supported by a range of foundations, universities, and government institutions: the International Development Research Centre (Government of Canada), London School of Economics, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, U.S. Departments of Education and State, USC Lusk Center, Solidarity Center, and German Marshall Fund. He has been awarded the Fulbright-Hays and Fulbright-Nehru research fellowships. In addition to his academic research, Dr. Randolph works with both governmental and non-profit institutions in their efforts to create inclusive urban economies. More than a decade ago, he co-founded the Just Jobs Network, a non-profit institute based in New Delhi that advises governments across the Global South on labor and employment policies. He is a Senior Research Fellow at Kindred Futures, an Atlanta-based organization working to build collective wealth in Black communities in the American South. Dr. Randolph holds a Ph.D. in urban planning and development from the University of Southern California. He speaks Hindi and Bahasa Indonesia.