Samita Sen – författare

'Maids' have become an inseparable part of the daily lives of 'middle-class' urban households in India. Despite the fact that increasing numbers of poor women are joining this profession, very little has been written about them, especially the part-time domestic workers, each of whom services a number of households at a time. They are not accorded their rightful status as workers either by the employers, their own families, the Government or traditional trade unions. Isolated in the privacy of employers' homes, the problem of recognizing their work or organizing them is the same as for women isolated in their own homes. Another important reason is that most such women are rendered voiceless by their social location: unlettered; staying in 'illegal' settlements; migrants; working to survive; performing 'feminine' work both paid and unpaid, and both devalued. This book is therefore about making the unheard heard. It draws from personal narratives of part time women domestic workers residing in two slum-settlements of Kolkata, who speak about their work, lives, dreams and despair. By moving between the workplace and the homes of the workers, this book makes a departure from general accounts of labour and talks instead about labouring lives.

Samita Sen's history of labouring women in Calcutta in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries considers how social constructions of gender shaped their lives. Dr Sen demonstrates how - in contrast to the experience of their male counterparts - the long-term trends in the Indian economy devalued women's labour, establishing patterns of urban migration and changing gender equations within the family. She relates these trends to the spread of dowry, enforced widowhood and child marriage. The book provides insight into the lives of poor urban women who were often perceived as prostitutes or social pariahs. Even trade unions refused to address their problems and they remained on the margins of organized political protest. The study will make a signficant contribution to the understanding of the social and economic history of colonial India and to notions of gender construction.

Samita Sen's history of labouring women in Calcutta in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries considers how social constructions of gender shaped their lives. Dr Sen demonstrates how - in contrast to the experience of their male counterparts - the long-term trends in the Indian economy devalued women's labour, establishing patterns of urban migration and changing gender equations within the family. She relates these trends to the spread of dowry, enforced widowhood and child marriage. The book provides insight into the lives of poor urban women who were often perceived as prostitutes or social pariahs. Even trade unions refused to address their problems and they remained on the margins of organized political protest. The study will make a signficant contribution to the understanding of the social and economic history of colonial India and to notions of gender construction.

This volume looks at how accumulation in postcolonial capitalism blurs the boundaries of space, institutions, forms, financial regimes, labour processes, and economic segments on one hand, and creates zones and corridors on the other. It draws our attention to the peculiar but structurally necessary coexistence of both primitive and virtual modes of accumulation in the postcolony. From these two major inquiries it develops a new understanding of postcolonial capitalism. The case studies in this volume discuss the production of urban spaces of capital extraction, institutionalization of postcolonial finance capital, gendering of work forms, establishment of new forms of labour, formation of and changes in caste and racial identities and networks, and securitization—and thereby confirm that no study of contemporary capitalism is complete without thoroughly addressing the postcolonial condition.  By challenging the established dualities between citizenship-based civil society and welfare-based political society, exploring critically the question of colonial and postcolonial difference, and foregrounding the material processes of accumulation against the culturalism of postcolonial studies, this volume redefines postcolonial studies in South Asia and beyond. It is invaluable reading for students and scholars of South Asian studies, sociology, cultural and critical anthropology, critical and praxis studies, and political science.

This volume looks at how accumulation in postcolonial capitalism blurs the boundaries of space, institutions, forms, financial regimes, labour processes, and economic segments on one hand, and creates zones and corridors on the other. It draws our attention to the peculiar but structurally necessary coexistence of both primitive and virtual modes of accumulation in the postcolony. From these two major inquiries it develops a new understanding of postcolonial capitalism. The case studies in this volume discuss the production of urban spaces of capital extraction, institutionalization of postcolonial finance capital, gendering of work forms, establishment of new forms of labour, formation of and changes in caste and racial identities and networks, and securitization—and thereby confirm that no study of contemporary capitalism is complete without thoroughly addressing the postcolonial condition.  

By challenging the established dualities between citizenship-based civil society and welfare-based political society, exploring critically the question of colonial and postcolonial difference, and foregrounding the material processes of accumulation against the culturalism of postcolonial studies, this volume redefines postcolonial studies in South Asia and beyond. It is invaluable reading for students and scholars of South Asian studies, sociology, cultural and critical anthropology, critical and praxis studies, and political science. 

This volume looks at how accumulation in postcolonial capitalism blurs the boundaries of space, institutions, forms, financial regimes, labour processes, and economic segments on one hand, and creates zones and corridors on the other. It draws our attention to the peculiar but structurally necessary coexistence of both primitive and virtual modes of accumulation in the postcolony. From these two major inquiries it develops a new understanding of postcolonial capitalism. The case studies in this volume discuss the production of urban spaces of capital extraction, institutionalization of postcolonial finance capital, gendering of work forms, establishment of new forms of labour, formation of and changes in caste and racial identities and networks, and securitization—and thereby confirm that no study of contemporary capitalism is complete without thoroughly addressing the postcolonial condition.  By challenging the established dualities between citizenship-based civil society and welfare-based political society, exploring critically the question of colonial and postcolonial difference, and foregrounding the material processes of accumulation against the culturalism of postcolonial studies, this volume redefines postcolonial studies in South Asia and beyond. It is invaluable reading for students and scholars of South Asian studies, sociology, cultural and critical anthropology, critical and praxis studies, and political science.

Dieses Buch verfolgt einen marxistischen Ansatz mit dem Schwerpunkt auf der Klasse, um über Marx' Kapital im Kontext des Ostens nachzudenken. Es nimmt eine kritische Neubewertung einiger vertrauter Konzepte im Kapital vor und arbeitet Themen heraus, die an dessen Rand liegen. In verschiedenen Aufsätzen wird dieses Grenzgebiet erkundet, um neue Konzepte und Analysemethoden für Marx' Abhandlung im 21. Jahrhundert zu fördern. Damit stellt es einen Fortschritt in der Marxschen Theorie und Politik dar.Das Buch untersucht das Kapital von Marx aus der Perspektive und dem Blickwinkel des Ostens und konzentriert sich auf viele Themen, die an den „Grenzen“ des Kapitals liegen, das sich hauptsächlich mit der Entschlüsselung des entwickelten Kapitalismus befasst. Es werden neue Konzepte eingeführt und in Beziehung zu den von Marx vertretenen gesetzt, um unser Verständnis von Wirtschaft, Kapitalismus, Entwicklung und Politik zu verbessern. In dieser Hinsicht bietet das Buch eine Lesart des Kapitals, die sich von den herkömmlichen Überlegungen in der westlichen Welt unterscheidet.Der Umfang ist groß und deckt einen großen Teil des Gebiets von Marx' Kapital ab, wobei auch einige neue Themen im Zusammenhang mit dem Kapital behandelt werden. Der Inhalt gliedert sich in die folgenden Abschnitte: Rezeption des Kapitals im Osten; Wert, Ware, Mehrwert und Kapitalismus; Bevölkerung und Rente im Kapital; und Fragen jenseits des Kapitals.

This book pursues a Marxist approach with an emphasis on class to reflect on Marx’s Capital in the context of the East. It critically reassesses some of the familiar concepts in Capital and teases out issues that are at its periphery. In various essays, it explores this borderland to promote new concepts and modes of analysing Marx’s treatise in the twenty-first century. Accordingly, it represents an advance in Marxian theory and politics. Examining Marx’s Capital from the perspective and location of the East, the book focuses on many issues that are at the ‘borders’ of Capital, which is concerned principally on unpacking developed capitalism. New concepts are introduced and set in relation to those championed by Marx in order to advance our understanding of economy, capitalism, development and politics. In this regard, the book offers a reading of Capital that is distinct from conventional reflections on it in the Western world.The scope is vast, covering much of the territory in Marx's Capital, as well as addressing a few new issues connected to Capital. The content is divided into the following sections: Reception of Capital in the East; Value, Commodity, Surplus Value and Capitalism; Population and Rent in Capital; and Issues Beyond Capital.