IIHS is pleased to announce the first edition of its Early Career Researcher (ECR) Workshop, which will take place in-person from 3–5 June 2026 at the IIHS Sadashivanagar campus in Bengaluru.
Building on the extensive experience of IIHS faculty, a decade of delivering PhD workshops, and IIHS’ annual research conference Urban ARC, this three-day workshop offers a dedicated learning space for urban scholars navigating the post-PhD professional life.
It is structured around plenary sessions and smaller group sessions organised along two tracks: a Pedagogy Track focused on interdisciplinary teaching-learning, and a Research/Applied Research Track focused on interdisciplinary research.
Researchers awarded their PhD from 2021 onwards are eligible to apply. PhD scholars who have submitted their dissertation may be considered in exceptional circumstances.
Candidates should submit an application along one of the two tracks — a teaching statement and/or draft syllabus (Pedagogy), or a research statement and/or grant proposal abstract (Research/Applied Research). Apply here.
The fee for the course is INR 5,000 + 18% GST.
For queries, write to research@iihs.ac.in. More information is available on the website.
In 2024, Urban Studies launched a pilot initiative to deliver a high-quality, first-of-a-kind podcast miniseries to explore the opportunities and challenges of podcasting for urban research. This has led to a successful release of the two-part series “Walking the City With..”. It deployed immersive podcasting methods and tested how to peer review podcast material, to take our readers (and listeners) beyond the paper, into the lives and experiences of our editors and authors. Now, it’s up to you!
While continuing journal-curated episodes, Urban Studies is offering a £10,000 grant to produce a new miniseries modelled on “Walking the City With..”, to be published on the Urban Studies Podcast by the journal, with the aspiration to continue innovating, by taking listeners to diverse urban settings, voices and theories. We are soliciting proposals from our readership by 30 March 2026.
What are we looking for?
A proposal to deliver a miniseries between 5 to 8 episodes of approximately 30 mins length each, produced by November 2026 in either single release or two-part release (like “Walking the City With…”), ideally by a group of urban researchers or an established urban research centre, able to feature diverse themes, voices and contexts from those we have already been tacking, submitted in the format below.
What are we offering?
A £10,000 grant; journal editorial and administrative support to peer review episodes and publish the podcast through the journal; guidance (if useful!) on recording and producing practices, tools and approaches; dissemination via journal channels; a chance to be part of a unique(ly peer-reviewed and visible) innovative approach to urban podcasting.
What do we need from you?
A proposal, no more than 2 pages long (A4, 12-pt font) of the miniseries content, timeline and approach; CVs of the main hosts, producers (2 pages max, including relevant socials, podcasting and media experience).
How will we evaluate?
Proposals will be assessed by the journal’s editorial team along with input from relevant subject-matter reviewers, and a grantee will be selected by 30 April 2026, with a view to a project start no later than 1 June 2026, with a maximum 8-month duration.
Proposals should be submitted, with the subject “Podcast Grant Proposal – (lead submitter surname)” to admin@urbanstudiesjournal.com
Queries are welcome to Prof Michele Acuto, Editor-in-Chief, at michele.acuto@urbanstudiesjournal.com
IIHS invites applications for Research Week 2026, which will be held online and in-person at IIHS, Sadashivnagar, Bengaluru from 12 -17 January, 2026. The IIHS Research Week holds the annual PhD Workshop and annual research conference, Urban ARC.
The PhD Workshop offers an enabling, cross-learning space for doctoral scholars in urban research and practice. Designed for candidates from a wide variety of disciplines, the Workshop brings together emerging researchers for in-depth exploration, personalised mentorship, and interdisciplinary dialogue on urban issues across the Global South. Interested applicants can apply here.
The tenth edition of Urban ARC explores ‘Contested Terrains: Space, Place and Scale.’ This year, we are asking what happens when we look at space, place, and scale not as fixed, but as alive, debated, and fought over – shaped by power, everyday practice, and imagination. Join us as we unpack how urban life is remade by politics, environment, technology, and questions of belonging and care. More details here.
The last date for submissions for both is 10 November, 2025. For queries, write to research@iihs.ac.in.
When we think about moving through a city, either commuting, running errands, or picking up groceries, we rarely stop to consider just how much of that movement is tied to care. Whether it’s taking your child to daycare, dropping off medicine for a grandparent, or checking in on a neighbour, these acts of care are everywhere in our daily routines.
Traditionally, transport research relies on origin-destination surveys or time-use diaries. These tools are useful, but they miss a lot of the complexity in care-related mobility. They often don’t capture the relational and emotional weight of caregiving, the diversity of tasks involved, or the ways gender, income, and access to digital tools shape how people move (or can’t move).
Our research focused on caregivers in Chile, a country where almost 90% of people live in urban areas. We surveyed residents in Santiago, Concepción, and other cities, asking about their caregiving tasks and how these changed from just before the pandemic to the early response phase. The aim? To go beyond basic trip counts and dig into the real lived experience of care mobility. While many people were adapting to remote work and limited travel, caregivers were often forced to continue moving—bringing groceries to parents, taking children to health appointments, or simply trying to juggle household tasks with paid work. We wanted to understand these challenges in more detail and highlight the factors that shaped them. Understanding how caregivers navigate cities means looking beyond destinations to consider whom they care for, the resources they have, and the social roles they are expected to play.
We found four distinct profiles of caregivers. On one end, there are high-income households where caregiving duties are shared fairly equally between partners. These folks had access to good internet, flexible jobs, and lived in areas with services nearby. Unsurprisingly, they reported lower stress and found it easier to work from home. On the other end of the spectrum were caregivers with fewer resources, often managing everything on their own. Many cared for young children or people with special needs, had lower incomes, lived in overcrowded housing, and lacked good internet connections. For them, stress levels were high, mobility was restricted, and balancing paid work from home felt nearly impossible.
The study also confirmed what many women already know from experience: caregiving remains a deeply gendered issue. Even after accounting for income, education, and other factors, women consistently reported more stress and greater difficulty navigating caregiving and remote work. This isn’t unique to Chile, since similar patterns have been found in the UK, France, and the Netherlands.
Digital exclusion also played a big role. Without reliable internet, remote work simply didn’t work. This added another layer of inequality, especially in low-income neighborhoods or smaller cities. In places like Washington state, faster internet access helped support remote work. In Chile, the opposite was true—those without connectivity were left behind.
All of this matters because urban policy should move beyond movement analyses from point A to point B. Mobility is relational. It’s about who you’re with, who you’re responsible for, and what options you have. And if cities are going to become more equitable, they need to recognize and support caregiving as a vital part of urban life.
So what can be done? We need better data that actually reflects the complexity of care. We need policies that reduce the burden on low-resource caregivers, like improving access to local services, investing in digital infrastructure, and making cities more walkable and connected.
Caregivers keep our cities running. It’s time transport and urban policy started running with them in mind.
