Notices
Call for Papers
Society and the State in Contemporary India:
Intersectional Approach to Class Analysis
All-India Seminar, 20-21 August 2009
(Jointly organised by Indian International Centre, New Delhi & Council for Social Development, New Delhi)
The last date for receiving abstracts is extended to: 30 May 2009
Even as neo-liberal globalisation has demonstrated the centrality of class in most societies the world over, there can be no gainsaying that class divisions and surplus extraction take on spatial and social dimensions. So class is not merely about class in the narrow sense of the term since class and other social relations remain interlocked. Class, then is a multidimensional phenomenon. In the Indian context, class needs to be viewed substantively in relation mainly to space, caste and gender. This, in turn, calls for intersectional analyses of overlapping social categories which could enable us to concretely link such forms of oppression that manifest as exploitation, discrimination, violence, marginalisation, etc. While analysts and social movements have focused on such social categories, there has been a shift away from class issues and the political economy dimension since around 1980s to issues concerning other social identities. Intersectional analysis has its origins in gender studies in the West since late 1960s that sought to understand experiences beyond gender alone. It has to do with how forms of oppression interrelate or intersect in multiple ways (reinforce, interact, shape, contrast, etc.) to create a system of oppression. Class analysis has faced neglect even within the intersectionality school.
Speaking of the class/social character of the State, from the angle of intersectionality, could we not as well speak of the Indian State not only as pro-corporates and pro-landlords but also as pro-men, pro-upper castes, pro-non-tribals, pro-Hindus, etc.? Of critical relevance is also the question of primacy of particular class/social forces within a social formation. Moreover, as against the instrumentalist understanding of the State, there is need to view the State as a ‘terrain’ amenable to pressures from contradictory social forces.
Intersectional analyses should involve not a mere listing of the categories involved but concrete analyses of the intersectionality of at least two social categories. We would encourage contributions focusing on politics of the oppressed classes and social groups for a ‘multidimensional transformation’ of society.
Tentatively, the seminar will have the following sessions, indicating the analytical focus on particular categories and not necessarily binary relations:
- Conceptualising society and/or the State in India through intersectional class analysis
- Understanding the intersectionality of class and caste/tribe/community
- The intersectionality of class and gender
- The intersectionality of class and space/national formations
- Intersectionality in the realm of culture
- Re-assessing social/political movements through intersectional analyses
Prof. Manoranjan Mohanty will deliver the key-note address to the seminar.
Please send abstracts of about 500 words to: Dr. Gilbert Sebastian, Associate Fellow, Council for Social Development, 53 Lodhi Estate, New Delhi – 110 003, e-mail: gilbertseb@gmail.com and gilbert_sebs@yahoo.co.in latest by 30 May 2009 and full papers (around 25 pages) by 31 July 2009. Publication of a selection of papers from the seminar is being planned.