Date of Award

8-22-2025

Date Published

September 2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Sociology

Advisor(s)

Rebecca Schewe

Keywords

climate change;gender;Pakistan;South Asia;transport;urban built environment

Subject Categories

Social and Behavioral Sciences | Sociology

Abstract

This dissertation sets out to explore how the urban built environment- particularly public transport infrastructure- shapes class, gender and climate inequality in Islamabad, Pakistan. I tried to understand this issue by using mixed methods, primarily consisting of semi-structured in depth interviews, supplemented by ethnographic fieldwork and a brief consultation of english-language newspaper archives. I conducted 95 interviews in total, and clocked in around 80 hours moving around the city and engaging in a mobile ethnography. The first empirical question that I asked relates to the state and urban transportation planning. I wanted to understand what assumptions regarding class-based, gender-based and climate-based inequality, are embedded in the design and planning process of public transport in Islambad? The second empirical question focuses on the gendered experiences of commuting using public transport. I explored the embodied experienes of low-income women and khwajasira while using public transport every day? How do they cope with sexual harassment and what infrastructural fixes can be used to challenge the existing design of transport and the city at large? Lastly, I wanted to understand how everyday mobility intersects with climate change. So I looked into the ways that two particular effects of climate change in Islamabad- rising heat levels and erratic rainfall- shape the use of public transport? How is climate change shaping the mobility of low-income commuters and what additional costs are they bearing as a result? My findings suggests that big transport infrastructure, such as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), represents more than mobility in places such as Pakistan. The ‘development as infrastructure’ ideology propagated by the state has successfully manufactured consent among a big part of the population. Living in crowded urban centers, with no access to air-conditioning in extreme levels of heat, makes transport infrastructure such as the Metrobus look very appealing even if it comes with issues such as time poverty and a lack of first-and-last mile connectivity. It can fit into an orderly vision of the city and maintain its classed character. The city authorities are not interested in developing a holistic vision of the city by connecting the Metrobus to loosely regulated minibus taxis. Therefore, people resort to using the two-wheeler as it provides speed and door-to-door access with better mileage and is considerably cheaper than a car. Meanwhile, projects such as the Metrobus have been opposed by many civil society and environmental activists who argue that such infrastructure comes at the cost of displacing communities, increasing concrete cover, challenging the spatial configuration of cities and a burden on the exchequer. These ideological contestations reflect social structures such as gender and class, as lived and embodied in Pakistan. Most female and khwajasira respondents preferred the Metrobus to minibus taxis due to two main reasons. First, it had gender segregated sections and second, it had cameras. However, they still reported experiencing some form of harassment going to and from Metrobus stops as well. Therefore, my findings confirm research from other parts of South Asia which says that women prefer gender segregated modes of transport. Not only that, but feminist design interventions, such as physical barriers between the men’s and women’s section have the potential to provide a more comfortable experience. Access to public transport and affordable housing are also inextricably linked. Those who live away from city centers, are forced to pay higher fares and experience greater time poverty. Lastly, the two major effects of climate change that I studied are rising heat levels and unpredictable rainfall. Both these cause major challenges as the first and last mile journey becomes even more difficult in sweltering heat or pouring rain. Overall, zooming in on how urban design interacts with mobility helps to underscore the complex nature of everyday mobility, which is tied to social class, gender, the effects of climate change, the built environment, labor laws and growing urbanization in various ways. I frame my dissertation within the ‘right to the city’ framework, by Henri Lefebvre to show how inequality and mobility are linked and experienced in Islamabad. I elaborate on contributions from feminist geography to add a gendered analysis to the ‘right to the city’. Lastly, I lay out concerns raised by urban theorists from the Global South that emphasize context-specific research, especially in the urban realm. By combining these, I argue that urban planning and design, as an exercise, must borrow lessons from urban sociology to design better, people-centric cities.

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