Dr. Helena Cermeno

since  2023

Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer I Department of Urban and Regional Sociology, Institute for Urban Development I FB.06-ASL. Faculty of Architecture - Urban Planning - Landscape Planning, University of Kassel

2023

Dr. Phil., University of Kassel, Germany I FB.06-ASL. Faculty of Architecture - Urban Planning - Landscape Planning, University of Kassel I Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Carsten Keller and Prof. Dr. Conrad Schetter

Researcher and Lecturer I Department of Urban and Regional Sociology, Institute for Urban Development I FB.06-ASL. Faculty of Architecture - Urban Planning - Landscape Planning, University of Kassel

Research Assistant | Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (BICC), Germany

2013 - 2016

Junior Researcher | Center for Development Research (ZEF) | Department of Political and Cultural Change | University of Bonn, Germany

M. Sc. 'Technology and Resources management in the tropics and subtropics' | Thesis: Climate Change Risk Perception and Adaptation Strategies in Central Vietnam: Interlinkages between Climate Change Risk Management and Spatial Planning in Danang and Quang Nam | Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Germany

2011 - 2013

Research Assistant | Center for Development Research (ZEF) | University of Bonn, Germany

Employee | Architect's Office Rosauer, Finkenweg 39a; 53773 Hennef-Uckerath, Germany

Architecture and Urban Planning (Licenciatura, Spain; eq. Dipl.-Ing. Germany) | Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM) | Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Spain. Thesis: Sustainable and affordable housing and infrastructure in Vadaj, Ahmedabad, India. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Arq. Juan Herreros

Bernhardt, F.; Bretfeld, N.; Buzwan-Morell, J.; Cermeño, H.; Doukas, S.; Güde, E.; Hörburger, C.; Keller.; Koch, F.  (2024).  StadtTeilen: Neue Praktiken gemeinschaftlicher Nutzung urbaner Räume.  Bielefeld: transcript. ISBN: 978-3-8394-6633-9. (Open Access)

John von Zydowitz, S. & Cermeño, H. (2024) Must Gandhi also Fall? Reassembling #BlackLivesMatter’s Translocal Activism and Urban Fallist Movements. In G. Bozoğlu, G. Campbell, L. Smith and C. Whitehead (Eds.) Routledge Handbook of Politics and Heritage, New York: Routledge, 292-308.

Cermeño, H., & Mielke, K.. (2023). Endangered urban commons: Lahore's violent heritage management and prospects for reconciliation. Urban Planning, 8(1), 83-98. doi. org/10.17645/up.v8i1.6054

Petrescu, D., Cermeño, H., Keller, C., Moujan, C., Belfield, A., Koch, F., Goff, D., Schalk, M., & Bernhardt, F.. (2022). Sharing and Space-Commoning Knowledge Through Urban Living Labs Across Different European Cities. Urban Planning, 7(3), 254-273. doi. org/10.17645/up.v7i3.5402

Cermeño, H., Bretfeld, N., & Bernhardt, F. (2022). Knowledge Practices Within and Beyond Sharing and Commoning Urban Initiatives. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, 4, Articles 767365. https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2022.767365

Cermeño, H. (2021). Looking at the city from below: How 'access' approach and 'city-scapes' contribute to the understanding of marginalization in Amritsar, India. In N. Kirmani (Ed.) Marginalization, Contestation and Change in South Asian Cities. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 56-84.

Bernhardt F.; Cermeño, H., Keller C. and Koch F. (2021). Netzwerke des Teilens in Quartieren unter Spannung: Typen und Logiken des Teilens in innerstädtischen Nachbarschaften. In Gesellschaft unter Spannung, 40th Congress of the German Sociological Association (GSA)

Mielke, K., & Cermeño, H. (2021). Mitigating Pro-Poor Housing Failures: Access Theory and the Politics of Urban Governance. Politics and Governance, 9(2), 439-450. https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v9i2.4113

Cermeño, H. (2021). Living and Planning on the Edge: Unraveling Conflict and Claim-Making in Peri-Urban Lahore, Pakistan. Urban Planning, 6(2), 189-201. https://doi.org/10.17645/up.v6i2.3858

CCermeño, H. and Baldewein T. (2021). Digitale-Konferenzen in der Stadtplanung: Fachtagungen im digitalen Raum als Chance für die Entwicklung inklusiver, kreativer und resilienter Lernformate. In RaumPlanung Volume 210, Issue 1, 66-72.

Bernhardt F.; Cermeño, H., Keller C.and Koch F. (2020). Stadtmachen durch StadtTeilen: Types and logics of sharing in inner-city neighborhoods. In Forum Wohnen und Stadtentwicklung  (Journal of vhw - Bundesverband für Wohnen und Stadtentwicklung e.V.), 123-127.

Cermeño, H. (2019). Heritage of inclusion or exclusion? Contested claims and access to housing in Amritsar, India. In M. Ristic and Frank, S. (Eds.) Urban Heritage in Divided Cities. Abingdon, Oxon, New York, Routledge, 125-144. doi. org/10.4324/9780429460388-10

Cermeño, H. and Mielke, K. (2016). Cityscapes of Lahore: Reimagining the Urban. In THAAP Journal, Issue 2016, 110-139.

Barrera, A. and Cermeño, H. (2012). OPPTA Intervenciones para la emergencia - Emergency Interventions (OPPTA Context, winner projects). In: AV. Proyectos, Volume 53, 20-21.

Cermeño, H.; Jüssen, J.and Reynolds, C. (2012). The nexus of conflict and migration in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan Info, Issue 71, 16-18.

Álvarez, E.; Calatrava, B.; Cermeño, H.; García de Blas, M.A.; González, D.; Sastre, M.J. and Sevillano, E. (2010). Asentamientos Precarios en África ¿Existen Alternativas? Informe de la Fundación CEAR Habitáfrica, Pg. 49.

Fernández, B.; Morán T.; Barrera, A. and Cermeño H.; (2009). Entrevista con Yatin Pandya. In 'Arquitectos sin recursos' Revista del Consejo Superior de Colegios de arquitectura de España (CSCAE), 186(1), 42-45.

Garam Masala [Collective of Urbanists, Architects, and Planners] (2009) ‘HABITA-INHABIT INDIA’, Madrid: Mairea, Pg. 355 (ISBN - 52551988)

2022

“Silenced Urban Common Heritage: How Lahore’s Heritage Management hinders Peacebuilding"  |  Presentation held together with K. Mielke at the 17 Biennial Conference of the  European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA): “Transformation, Hope and the Commons” (hybrid), Belfast, United Kingdom I 26-29 July 2022

“Living and Planning on the Edge: Unravelling Conflict and Claim-making in Peri-urban Lahore”, GAA ‘Best article'  |  GERD ALBERS AWARDS 2021  |  Presentation of the awarded paper at the 57^th World Planning Congress of the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP): "Planning Unlocked: New Times, Better Places, Stronger Communities", Doha, Qatar (hybrid) I 28-29 October and 8-11 November, 2021.

"The role of the Amritsar Improvement Trust in Affordable Housing: Social Mix and Practices of Inclusion and Exclusion" | Presentation held at the IV ISA Forum of Sociology | Vista Alegre, Brazil (online) | RC43 Housing and Built Environment Session: The Role of Real Estate Developers in Affordable Housing - Boon or Bane I 23-27 February 2021.

2021

“Figurations of Social Innovation and Knowledge Sharing: An exploration of Urban Initiative Networks in Kassel, Stuttgart, and Berlin” |  Presentation held together with N. Bretfeld at the RC21 Conference: “Sensing the City / Place, People, Power” in Antwerp, Belgium (online) | Session: PS122 “BOTTOM-UP URBANISM: Growing Social Policy from the Grassroots Upward and Across Scales” I 14-16 July 2021.

“Tracing cognitive maps of everyday urbanism: City-scapes as imaginaries and enacted everyday practices” |  Presentation held at the III Midterm Conference: “Inequality and uncertainty: current challenges for cities” Research Network 37 (Urban Sociology) of the European Sociological Association (ESA) at the UNED & Universidad Carlos III, Madrid, Spain I 27-29 June 2018.

“Living on the Edge: Conflict and claims-making over resources in the peri-urban fringe of Lahore” |  Presentation held at the Young South Asia Scholars Meet (Y-SASM) Conference “Claims Making”, University of Zurich, Switzerland I 15-17 June 2018.

“Processes of inclusion and exclusion within the urban development and improvement of the Lahore’s Androon Shehr” | Presentation held at 10th Annual Seminar of the Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology (BGHS) “Inclusion and Exclusion - New Perspectives in History and Sociology”, Bielefeld, Germany I 5-7 July 2018.

"The Politics of Urban Heritage: Access to urban resources, distributive conflict and allocative (in)justice in Old Lahore" | Presentation held atthe Annual RC21 Conference: “Rethinking Urban Global Justice: An international academic conference for critical urban studies”, Leeds University, UK | Panel 70: Disputes in the Urban Territory, Groups of Interests, Distributive Conflict and Injustice in Cities Budgeting I 11-13 September 2017.

"Access assemblages: a comparative research of two mohallas under the Walled City of Lahore Improvement Project" | Presentation held atthe 5th International Crossroads Asia Conference: "Area Studies' Futures", Centre for Development research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany I 22-23 September 2016.

"Looking at the city from below: City-scapes of Amritsar, India" | Presentation held at the10th Annual LUMS HSS conference: "Urbanism, exclusion and change in South Asia", Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore, Pakistan I 04-06 March 2016.

"Lahore Cityscapes: Reimagining the urban" | Presentation held at the THAAP 6th International Conference 2015: "People’s history of Pakistan", THAAP (Trust for History Art & Architecture, Pakistan), Lahore, Pakistan I 06-08 November 2015.

2015

"Emergencia y desarrollo urbano en la región del Canal del Dique, San Cristóbal, Colombia" | Presentation held at the ADLAF Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutsche Lateinamerika-forschung, Nachwuchstagung, Cologne University, Germany I 17 May 2013.

"Urban Development in Borderlands" | Presentation held at  the “Asian Ecologies” International Conference, at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan | Panel Session VIII: Urban Ecologies I 06 April 2013.

ProSHARE -  Enhancing Diversity, Inclusion and Social Cohesion through Practices of Sharing in Housing and Public Space I JPI Urban Europe (Urban Migration)

Duration: 2021 – 2022
Website: https://jpi-urbaneurope.eu/project/proshare/
Contact: Prof. Dr. Carsten Keller, University of Kassel, Helena Cermeño, University of Kassel
E-mail: carsten.keller@uni-kassel.de, hcermeno@asl.uni-kassel.de
Budget: 307,444 Euros
Partners: Urban and Regional Sociology Research Unit, Institute for Urban Development, University of Kassel; University of Applied Sciences of Berlin (HTW Berlin); KTH School of Architecture, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm; Institute for Housing and Urban Research (IBF), Uppsala University; School of Architecture, University of Sheffield; Institute of Spatial Planning, Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien).

StadtTeilen - Öffentlicher Raum und Wohnen als neue Gemeingüter in sozial gemischten Nachbarschaften I Robert Bosch Stiftung

Duration: 2018 – 2023
Website: https://stadtteilen.org/
Budget: 418.139,00 Euros I Team
 

07/2023

Dr. Phil, University of Kassel I Grade: with highest honour (summa cum laude)

1. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Carsten Keller (University of Kassel)

2. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Conrad Schetter (BICC; University of Bonn)

Dissertation Title: “Access to the city: Unravelling urban governance practices, access to housing, services and resulting processes of social inclusion and exclusion in Amritsar and Lahore”

Abstract – Short Summary:

The research was focused on the Punjab province(s), on both sides of the India-Pakistan border, and specifically, on the contemporary cities of Amritsar and Lahore. For their vicinity, their common colonial past and shared socio-cultural context, Amritsar and Lahore, provide an exceptional setting for comparative empirical research on postcolonial urban governance and social transformations. Within this context, the research has sought to understand to what extent urban governance practices (from above and below) influence the ability of urban dwellers to benefit from housing and services in specific neighborhoods and, in so doing, to what extent these practices contribute to the (re)production of urban inequalities and socio-spatial in/exclusions.

Although housing has often been studied from a “property rights” viewpoint, this approach falls short in capturing how urban residents actually access and utilize urban resources. I have proposed therefore an alternative approach, drawing upon Access Theory by Ribot and Peluso (2003, 2020), which defines access as the “ability” to derive benefits from things, including material objects, individuals, institutions, and symbols. An “access approach” enables thus to explore governance practices by which actors gain, control,maintain or transfer urban resources and the underlying power relations. Such a standpoint posits that “rights-based” mechanisms (based on the observation or ignorance of law and property rights) operate along other “structural” and “relational” mechanisms (such as different sources of capital or authority).

From a methodological standpoint, the research employed a “comparative case study” approach between Amritsar and Lahore, selecting “most similar” cases across the border and “contrasting" cases within each city. The integrated mixed-methods design, based on ethnographic case studies, adopted a “structurally situated phenomenology”, i.e., a form of research “from below, tracking practice and entering into the political phenomenology of action in the city through ethnographic fieldwork”.

The data analysis confirmed that solely relying on property rights (when accessible) often failed to guarantee consistent access to housing and services in both cities. The ability of urban dwellers to benefit from urban resources was primarily shaped by a combination of structural factors and relational mechanisms, tailored to each case’s contextual differences. For instance, in general, connections to politicians and urban development agencies could temporarily facilitate access to housing and services, albeit these relational mechanisms were often contingent on political interests. Persistent structural challenges, like unfavourable purchasing conditions, continued nonetheless to hinder benefits for low-income populations in urban development projects. Moreover, as captured in the local term “qabza,” illegal access control mechanisms, including tactics such as force and coercion, frequently shaped access. While both cities manifested often similar access mechanisms, Lahore stood out due to the significant and contentious involvement of the army in urban development and housing.

Overall, the examined cases illustrated how diverse dependencies influenced urban governance trajectories. Varied combinations of path, goal, and interdependencies resulted in a range of linear and non-linear governance paths, shaping modes of access. Path dependencies were evident for instance in the origins of specific settlements studied in Amritsar, rooted in the history of Partition and the subsequent land acquisition processes, also influenced by the securitization of the border amidst enduring tensions between India and Pakistan. Identified path dependencies were frequently reinforced by goal dependencies. Both cities faced difficulties for instance with their pro-poor housing initiatives, partly stemming from their developmental visions prioritizing property rights. However, when housing projects faced setbacks, alternative governance paths emerged from below, enabling marginalized urban dwellers to access resources.

The cases offered also comparative insights into heritage preservation’s relationship with urban governance and housing processes in Lahore and Amritsar. Common heritage between India and Pakistan faces endangerment due to selective heritagization processes: Lahore exhibits cultural and structural violence against the shared heritage, while Amritsar shows neglect of Muslim heritage in favor of nationalistic heritagization supporting Sikh history.

In summary, the findings contribute to discussions on South(east)ern urbanism, particularly in three areas: (i) rapid urban changes in postcolonial contexts and related concerns about social (in)justice; (ii) social in/exclusions from public policies, including “pro-poor” and "income-based social mix” housing initiatives, focusing on negotiations and cooperation among residents and urban actors; and (iii) contested heritage intersecting with contemporary housing issues. Findings in these categories extend beyond the two cities, resonating across South Asia and the Global South-East. They hold relevance in various geographical and postcolonial border city contexts, as well as across different disciplines such as urban sociology, conflict and development studies, and urban planning.