Investigating interactions between passengers on the Metro and cultural organizations in Rotterdam

“These grants are for ideas that hold great promise (XS) and for large-scale grants (M, L). The SSH-XS grants are available for projects with a maximum budget of 50,000 euro to enable proposals for curiosity-driven, fundamental research in the research fields covered by the NWO Domain SSH.” 

Dr Chowdhury’s research proposal - “Befriending Strangers in a Divided City: Towards a Lyrical Urban Studies” will investigate interactions between passengers on the Metro and cultural organizations in Rotterdam to understand how the stranger is welcomed into the communities of the city. 

The study will produce a sociological taxonomy of social action (compassion, care, friendship, identification) that potentially bridges social polarization. The project will inaugurate a new way of doing and presenting urban research which it conceptualizes as ‘lyrical urban studies’. It will integrate ethnography with fictional techniques to take the findings of this research to a wider reading public. 

Previous research by Dr Chowdry includes his publication Cities of Men examining the gendered logics of cooperation and everyday morality through which masculinities take up space in cities. It followed the labour geographies of auto-rickshaw and taxi operators and their interactions with traffic police and commuters to argue that the gendered fabric of urban life needs to be understood as a product of situational forms of cooperation between different social groups. This research considered the role played by everyday morality and provisional support in upholding male privilege in the city.