Call for Papers: Nirmal Kanti Majumdar( NKM) Memorial Lecture and Seminar

28th January 2019

Department of Political Science , Presidency University, Kolkata

‘Gender’ in Regimes of Contemporary Globalization

One may place the trend towards globalization in its contemporary form within the policy transformation that followed Structural Adjustment Programs in the so-called developing world, with a concomitant deregulation of the exchange rates and roll back of the state in powerful economies of the West. The contemporary processes of global economy marked by flexible production networks, financialization of natural resources, knowledge networks induced by technological developments among others, implicate and generate gendered subjects in specific ways. As an instance, the growing presence of technology and transnational actors in the agricultural sector of the developing countries has changed the patterns and components of farm production there, leading to increased food insecurity for women. Its reflection within the intra-household distribution of nutrients gives one a sense of the impact of global economic changes on women’s bodies and health (Bina Agarwal). Changing processes of production and the advent of a distinct service sector in urban India has also unleashed aspirational mobility. The new infrastructure of global modernity such as shopping malls, BPO offices and cafes have been studied as such spaces where the gendered selves re-fashion themselves in the wake of new realities (Sanjay Srivastava, Carol Upadhyay, Anouk De Koning). The nationalist and postcolonial ideals of ideal femininity and masculinity are being mediated by the value regimes and the logic of globalizing economy. On the other hand, the global condition has also opened possibilities for transnational solidarities through virtual networks, which also achieve an intersection of gender with other identities.

The one day seminar aims to examine the articulations of gender as a problematic in the economic processes of Global South in recent times along some of the following sub-themes:

a. Land, Development and Gender

b. Question of Ecology

c. Beauty and Self-Fashioning

d. Spaces of Mobility and Aspiration

e. Rethinking Intimacy

f. Burgeoning Service Economies

g. Cultures of Commodity

h. Technology and Labour

i. Ethics of Resistance and Community

We invite 500 words abstracts which deal with, but are not limited to the above mentioned concerns from researchers and early career academics, along with a CV on nkm.presidency@gmail.com by 10th November 2018 . Limited bursaries are available for outstation participants. Application for travel allowance and accommodation is to be made through email while sending the abstract. Selected applicants would be informed by end of November.

Abdus Samad Gayen
Head, Department of Political Science
Presidency University, Kolkata