Sreelakshmi is interested in understanding the institutional linkages behind various urban experimentation efforts that have sprung up of late in Indian cities. Specifically, she examines Urban Living Labs (ULLs) and the various interventions they test out in active mobility, street re-ordering and other kinds of low-carbon mobility initiatives. Her current work builds off literatures in the Northern European context, given that ULLs are still nascent in India, but she hopes to formulate a deeper understanding of the infrastructure, technology and policy changes that emerge from these pilots. She is especially looking forward to learning the various ways in which ULLs act as both an experimental methodology to innovate for urban challenges, but also pioneered as solutions themselves. Therefore, she seeks to investigate the role of ULLs in the longer-term urban rejuvenation project in the face of trends like increasing automobility, demographic shifts and climate change.
Sreelakshmi is studying in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment at Concordia University under the supervision of Drs. Craig Townsend and Govind Gopakumar.
The working title of Sreelakshmi's thesis project is Urban experimentation as methodology and policy.
Contact Sreelakshmi at sreelakshmi.ramachandran AT mail.concordia.ca .