Atmosphere of Collaboration

‘This is a story-rich, theoretically framed and very practical guide to air pollution politics in Delhi that points to exciting possibilities for new forms of environmental governance, grounded in extensive collaboration between people working on related sciences, technologies, urban planning, health, policy, education and the arts. The book describes an array of initiatives (many of them notably experimental and creative) to understand and deal with Delhi’s air. The book is also an invitation, calling readers into the collaborative challenges the authors describe.’ Kim Fortun, Professor of Anthropology, University of California-Irvine, USA and author of Advocacy after Bhopal: Environmentalism, Disaster, New Global Orders (2001) ‘Delhi experiences only about 50 days of clean air on an average every year. This reality (nightmare!) has spawned an entire universe — policy making, awareness generation, technology production, political mobilisation — that seeks to solve this problem. Interesting and important as this might be, there is another world that is perhaps even more interesting and important. Certainly very intriguing! This is the vast but hidden backstage of action, activity and negotiation that simultaneously animates this world of air and its pollution even as it is mobilised constantly. Atmosphere of Collaboration is a story of that backstage. Deeply interesting, insightful, provocative and essential reading if the haze has to be lifted!’ Pankaj Sekhsaria, Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, India and author of Instrumental Lives: An Intimate Biography of an Indian Laboratory (2019)