The paper discusses a nineteen-century Bangla text named Meye Parliament describing a dystopia in... more The paper discusses a nineteen-century Bangla text named Meye Parliament describing a dystopia in which women rule over men. The publication details are included in the pdf.
The book stands for recognition of the past ten years of enduring pioneering work of Sephis and a... more The book stands for recognition of the past ten years of enduring pioneering work of Sephis and also is an invitation to move this legacy into a further step. As Samita Sen puts it “in 2004, there was but a few electronic academic journals and Sephis E-Zine was a great novelty. Everyone wanted to write or speak to us. In 2014, the environment for publications is much more competitive and we should have another formulae.” This is our challenge for the next 10 years.
Although the challenge to the hegemonic status of the institution of marriage in India is grabbin... more Although the challenge to the hegemonic status of the institution of marriage in India is grabbing the limelight in popular media, it has received comparatively less attention in the social sciences. This path-breaking collection presents an analysis of marriage from historical, social, cultural, psychological and legal perspectives. Some of the essays argue that marriage continues to retain its prime overwhelming importance in reproducing the social order and its claim to be the only legitimate structure of the family rather than one among many. Nevertheless, changes wrought by globalisation, by information technology and by the increasing social visibility of queer life forms and practices have had considerable impact on the homogeneous imagination of the 'Indian family', with the traditional marriage system as its base. The essays in this collection look behind and beyond the institutional framework of marriage to critique the structures of our everyday lives and to explore new horizons and possibilities in the domain of the intimate. The collection is divided into four parts, moving from a historical perspective to present-day concerns: Part I - 'Historicising Mar-riage: Marriages Are Made in Scriptures'; Part II - 'Contextualizing Marriage: Class, Caste, Masculinity and Violence'; Part III - 'Repre-senting Marriage: Sex, Conjugality and Videotapes'; and, Part IV - 'Recasting Marriage: Singlehood, Coupledom and Intimate Others'.
Histories of feminism in the past three decades have focused on the debate between equal rights a... more Histories of feminism in the past three decades have focused on the debate between equal rights and separate spheres, but have been less attentive to the many strands of socialist feminisms, which sought to build bridges between the women's movement and other social movements for freedom, equality and justice. Dorothy Sue Cobble addresses this gap, exploring the lives and works of social democratic women activists in relation to the equal rights versus separate rights debate. Reflecting the “global turn”, Cobble explores many transnational connections. Picking up on these two themes – socialist feminism and global networks – I focus on the South Asian case.
The paper will focus on feminist debates, which have sought to address and substantially reformul... more The paper will focus on feminist debates, which have sought to address and substantially reformulate the question of reproduction as explicated by Marx in Capital. Beginning with Friedrich Engels' exploration of the relationship between family and state and Rosa Luxemburg’s attempt to address colonialism through the concept of ‘enlarged reproduction’, Marxist Feminist scholars have sought to explore how the reproduction of labour, as well as the labour of reproduction, may explain the dilemma of women’s work in contemporary (and prior) stages in capitalism. In recent years, the changing nature of work has given more impetus to earlier debates over unpaid housework of the 1980s. Thus, affective labour as a subset of immaterial labour and the new concept of care work seeks fresh insights into shifting frontiers of labour and commodification. Given that feminism opened up the category of ‘work’ most productively in the history of that category and that it continues to do so, how far are these new issues and debates relevant to us today? At present, labour studies is dominated by the question of the future of work, which appears to have great traction with earlier feminist concerns about rethinking value and visibility of labour. If there is not to be, as historians will assert with confidence, an end of work, are there already fundamental changes in the nature of work? How may the entry of more and more of the work of social reproduction into exchange relationships affect future landscapes of labour?
This essay introduces the Special Theme on regulation and domestic service in colonial societies.... more This essay introduces the Special Theme on regulation and domestic service in colonial societies. It provides a brief overview of the key themes of domestic service and regulation in the history of colonial states, and reflects upon the ways in which the colonial past is deployed in contemporary calls for the regulation of domestic work by the state, to secure the rights and protections of present-day workers as modern, free subjects. We note that, while much more work needs to done on this subject, current scholarship suggests that the status of the domestic worker and the extent of regulation in colonial contexts was historically unclear and often ambivalent. The three articles that constitute the Special Theme are then discussed in turn, to highlight the important insights, both empirical and theoretical, they offer to our deeper understanding of this complex history.
'Maids' have become an inseparable part of the daily lives of 'middle-class' urba... more '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. Available in OSO:
Despite a longstanding and vigorous women’s movement with many achievements, patriarchy remains d... more Despite a longstanding and vigorous women’s movement with many achievements, patriarchy remains deeply entrenched in India, influencing political and social institutions and determining opportunities available to women and men. To better understand the challenges facing the women’s movement, this paper explores two debates that have rocked the movement and Indian society more broadlyover the Uniform Civil Code and the proposed reservation for women of seats in legislative bodies.
This is the first of four readers for students of women's studies, particularly for Masters&#... more This is the first of four readers for students of women's studies, particularly for Masters' level courses in women's studies, and more generally across undergraduate and certificate courses as the concept of 'gender' has been introduced at all levels of curricula. The reader reflects many of the concerns that have come up in women's studies across two decades. This first volume focuses on some of the major economic and social debates in women's studies; and the second volume traces the trajectory of more recent theoretical shifts in the field.
The paper discusses a nineteen-century Bangla text named Meye Parliament describing a dystopia in... more The paper discusses a nineteen-century Bangla text named Meye Parliament describing a dystopia in which women rule over men. The publication details are included in the pdf.
The book stands for recognition of the past ten years of enduring pioneering work of Sephis and a... more The book stands for recognition of the past ten years of enduring pioneering work of Sephis and also is an invitation to move this legacy into a further step. As Samita Sen puts it “in 2004, there was but a few electronic academic journals and Sephis E-Zine was a great novelty. Everyone wanted to write or speak to us. In 2014, the environment for publications is much more competitive and we should have another formulae.” This is our challenge for the next 10 years.
Although the challenge to the hegemonic status of the institution of marriage in India is grabbin... more Although the challenge to the hegemonic status of the institution of marriage in India is grabbing the limelight in popular media, it has received comparatively less attention in the social sciences. This path-breaking collection presents an analysis of marriage from historical, social, cultural, psychological and legal perspectives. Some of the essays argue that marriage continues to retain its prime overwhelming importance in reproducing the social order and its claim to be the only legitimate structure of the family rather than one among many. Nevertheless, changes wrought by globalisation, by information technology and by the increasing social visibility of queer life forms and practices have had considerable impact on the homogeneous imagination of the 'Indian family', with the traditional marriage system as its base. The essays in this collection look behind and beyond the institutional framework of marriage to critique the structures of our everyday lives and to explore new horizons and possibilities in the domain of the intimate. The collection is divided into four parts, moving from a historical perspective to present-day concerns: Part I - 'Historicising Mar-riage: Marriages Are Made in Scriptures'; Part II - 'Contextualizing Marriage: Class, Caste, Masculinity and Violence'; Part III - 'Repre-senting Marriage: Sex, Conjugality and Videotapes'; and, Part IV - 'Recasting Marriage: Singlehood, Coupledom and Intimate Others'.
Histories of feminism in the past three decades have focused on the debate between equal rights a... more Histories of feminism in the past three decades have focused on the debate between equal rights and separate spheres, but have been less attentive to the many strands of socialist feminisms, which sought to build bridges between the women's movement and other social movements for freedom, equality and justice. Dorothy Sue Cobble addresses this gap, exploring the lives and works of social democratic women activists in relation to the equal rights versus separate rights debate. Reflecting the “global turn”, Cobble explores many transnational connections. Picking up on these two themes – socialist feminism and global networks – I focus on the South Asian case.
The paper will focus on feminist debates, which have sought to address and substantially reformul... more The paper will focus on feminist debates, which have sought to address and substantially reformulate the question of reproduction as explicated by Marx in Capital. Beginning with Friedrich Engels' exploration of the relationship between family and state and Rosa Luxemburg’s attempt to address colonialism through the concept of ‘enlarged reproduction’, Marxist Feminist scholars have sought to explore how the reproduction of labour, as well as the labour of reproduction, may explain the dilemma of women’s work in contemporary (and prior) stages in capitalism. In recent years, the changing nature of work has given more impetus to earlier debates over unpaid housework of the 1980s. Thus, affective labour as a subset of immaterial labour and the new concept of care work seeks fresh insights into shifting frontiers of labour and commodification. Given that feminism opened up the category of ‘work’ most productively in the history of that category and that it continues to do so, how far are these new issues and debates relevant to us today? At present, labour studies is dominated by the question of the future of work, which appears to have great traction with earlier feminist concerns about rethinking value and visibility of labour. If there is not to be, as historians will assert with confidence, an end of work, are there already fundamental changes in the nature of work? How may the entry of more and more of the work of social reproduction into exchange relationships affect future landscapes of labour?
This essay introduces the Special Theme on regulation and domestic service in colonial societies.... more This essay introduces the Special Theme on regulation and domestic service in colonial societies. It provides a brief overview of the key themes of domestic service and regulation in the history of colonial states, and reflects upon the ways in which the colonial past is deployed in contemporary calls for the regulation of domestic work by the state, to secure the rights and protections of present-day workers as modern, free subjects. We note that, while much more work needs to done on this subject, current scholarship suggests that the status of the domestic worker and the extent of regulation in colonial contexts was historically unclear and often ambivalent. The three articles that constitute the Special Theme are then discussed in turn, to highlight the important insights, both empirical and theoretical, they offer to our deeper understanding of this complex history.
'Maids' have become an inseparable part of the daily lives of 'middle-class' urba... more '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. Available in OSO:
Despite a longstanding and vigorous women’s movement with many achievements, patriarchy remains d... more Despite a longstanding and vigorous women’s movement with many achievements, patriarchy remains deeply entrenched in India, influencing political and social institutions and determining opportunities available to women and men. To better understand the challenges facing the women’s movement, this paper explores two debates that have rocked the movement and Indian society more broadlyover the Uniform Civil Code and the proposed reservation for women of seats in legislative bodies.
This is the first of four readers for students of women's studies, particularly for Masters&#... more This is the first of four readers for students of women's studies, particularly for Masters' level courses in women's studies, and more generally across undergraduate and certificate courses as the concept of 'gender' has been introduced at all levels of curricula. The reader reflects many of the concerns that have come up in women's studies across two decades. This first volume focuses on some of the major economic and social debates in women's studies; and the second volume traces the trajectory of more recent theoretical shifts in the field.
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MONOGRAPHS/EDITED VOLUMES: by Samita Sen
Papers by Samita Sen