Savyasaachi – författare

This volume attempts to show the emerging contours oftransformative action in social movements across South Asia. It argues that these contours have been shaped by contestations over questions of equity, justice and well-being on the one hand, and the nature and scope of new and classical social movements on the other. This is manifest in divers

This book attempts a representation of society in contemporary India through an ethnography woven around long-standing intractable conflicts — of displacement and rehabilitation, patriarchy, insurgency and counter-insurgency operations, and climate change. Each chapter in this volume offers a critical transformative narrative in response to these conflicts. It asks how social justice and equality is to be constructed and provides a fresh perspective.It is argued that social movements can no longer be concerned only with itemizing a checklist of demands; it is now necessary to be free of the hegemony of current frames, categories, concepts and principles, and to rethink the ‘promise’. The volume maintains that this effort to step out of the ‘endless waiting’ for delivery of a ‘promised value’ draws out the labour of transformative action. A valuable contribution to understanding social movements in India, this work challenges the established discourses around grassroots politics, progressive policies and legislations as well as radical mass movements. The book will interest students and researchers of social movements, conflict and peace studies, sociology and social anthropology, political science and development studies. It will also be useful to those working in the areas of human rights, social exclusion and inclusive policies.

This volume attempts to show the emerging contours of ‘transformative action’ in social movements across South Asia. It argues that these contours have been shaped by contestations over questions of equity, justice and well-being on the one hand, and the nature and scope of new and classical social movements on the other. This is manifest in diverse modes through people’s struggles, protest and dissent. The authors examine a variety of themes that have determined the course of the politics of transformative struggles. They critique neoliberalism, ‘primitive’ accumulation, money, class inequalities, as well as aspects of capital–labour conflict. They highlight the contributions of movements by women, dalit and marginalized communities; peace movements; and environmental and agrarian struggles. The volume also appraises the role of internet in grassroots mobilizations and that of civil society networks in the making of participatory democracy. It further argues that the predicaments of cultural, ethnic, national, regional, and linguistic identities are not divorced from capital–labour conflicts. The book will serve as essential reading for students and scholars of sociology, social movements, politics, gender and feminist studies, labour studies, and the informed general reader.

This book explores the connection between architecture and history, presenting a rich variety of examples from different cultures that have made human settlements, architecture, and cities. It demonstrates that histories of settlement pattern conserve natural and human sources, symbiotic livening with nature, animals, vegetation, communities that are on the move, and how the knowledge of materials and techniques of making are integral to architecture.The book discusses the social, ecological, textual, philosophical, material, and interpretative processes that reflect in the making of architecture and cities through history. It emphasises on how the traditions of making buildings and human habitat involve people of all social strata. It also argues that the histories of architecture cannot be of durable and fixed structures alone, but should also closely examine how buildings are extended, sustained, and the processes of their dissolution.This book will be important for students of architecture, urban design, and landscape architecture. It will also be a valuable resource for other disciplines including sociology, anthropology, history, environment and ecology, and cultural studies. Additionally, it would be helpful for engineers, administrators, decision makers, and economists involved in deciding growth priorities for cities to balance the dependence on technology with the concern for sustainable human habitat.