Land Commodification, Urbanisation and Social Change in Peri-Urban Villages, Lahore: (Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research)

This book is the study of socio-ecological change happening in peri-urban villages of Lahore due to urbanization and related processes such as the commodification of arable lands, speculation, role of the State. The other important highlight is of cash influx in agrarian spaces where people were not at the mercy of the market in entirety and had freedom which was coming from the subsistence they had and sustenance as a result of an ecology they were part of. There are a lot of studies on urbanization and a vast literature that connects urbanization with displacement, social injustice, food sovereignty, environmental problems, etc. However, my research adds to the fact that quality of life changes with the loss of intangibles in the name of development, which once lost, no money can ever compensate. Taking villages as microcosms of socio-ecological change helps in witnessing the larger picture of neo-liberal capitalist development and how state and economic policies downplay. Who pays the cost for the development and spaces and places are rendered 'underutilized'. It unravels the loopholes and provides a window to see where money-making policies are going wrong and the creation of an unequal world and aggressive class polarization is not natural but a chaos that has been created and desired for capitalism to function and grow. It is an empirical account documented over 8 years through the voices across class, gender, generation, ethnicity, and sects via ethnographic research (as a primary methodology).

Table of Contents:
What is Lost when Land becomes Cash?.- Military Frontiers and Neo-colonisation: Land, Power, and the Urbanisation of Lahore.- From Satellites to Sacrificial Zones: Rewriting ‘Development of Underdevelopment’ in Lahore’s Urban Frontier.- Walking the Peripheries: Ethnography as Self and Method.- Invisible Ruptures, Visible Withering: Life, Land, and Loss in Peri-Urban Lahore.- Giving Away More Than Land: Neoliberal Urbanisation and the Erosion of Community Life.- Beyond Repair - Cash Cannot Compensate for the Irreplaceable.

About the Author :
Huda Javaid is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Development Studies at the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan. With an MPhil in Environmental Science and Policy from the Lahore School of Economics and a PhD in Human Geography from Heidelberg University, Germany--as a DAAD scholar--Javaid's research is rooted in long-term ethnographic work in peri-urban Lahore. This work explores how land commodification and urban expansion, while introducing a cash influx that fuels speculative real estate, can have diverse impacts on local communities. Rather than focusing solely on the physical manifestations of change, the research aims to unpack the balance of losses and gains, questioning what constitutes progress or development, and for whom. It highlights the role of intangible assets in shaping quality of life and examines how these processes transform ecologies, livelihoods, and social structures. Javaid's academic interests center on the state-society-environment relationship and on amplifying the voices of communities navigating the often overlooked costs of development.