Carswell Chambers De Neve - Environment and Planning C.pdf (420.38 kB)
Waiting for the state: gender, citizenship and everyday encounters with bureaucracy in India
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 14:51 authored by Grace CarswellGrace Carswell, Thomas Chambers, Geert De NeveGeert De NeveThis article focuses on practices and meanings of time and waiting experienced by poor, low-class Dalits and Muslims in their routine encounters with the state in India. Drawing on ethnographic research from Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, it presents experiences of waiting around queuing and applying for paperwork, cards, and welfare schemes, in order to examine the role of temporal processes in the production of citizenship and citizen agency. An analysis of various forms of waiting – ‘on the day’, ‘to and fro’, and ‘chronic’ waiting – reveals how temporal processes operate as mechanisms of power and control through which state actors and other mediators produce differentiated forms of citizenship and citizens. Temporal processes and their material outcomes, we argue, are shaped by class, caste and religion, while also drawing on – and reproducing – gendered identities and inequalities. However, rather than being ‘passive’ patients of the state, we show how ordinary people draw on money, patronage networks and various performative acts in an attempt to secure their rights as citizens of India.
Funding
The materiality of citizenship and state-society interaction: A study of peoples engagement with official documents, cards and paperwork in India; G1688; BRITISH ACADEMY; SG151257
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
Environment and Planning C: Politics and SpaceISSN
2399-6544Publisher
SAGE PublicationsExternal DOI
Issue
4Volume
37Page range
597-616Department affiliated with
- Geography Publications
Research groups affiliated with
- Sussex Centre for Migration Research Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2018-08-30First Open Access (FOA) Date
2018-08-30First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2018-08-29Usage metrics
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