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ID: 188188

Dhandha, Accumulation and the Making of Valuable Livelihoods in Contemporary Mumbai / Aggarwal, Aditi; Bedi, Tarini

BEDI, TARINI	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

In this paper, our main objective is to pay attention to social and material accumulations in a form of self-employed work practised by non-elites in the Indian city of Mumbai, which they call dhandha. Using ethnographic examples of two working-class, urban dhandhas—taxi-driving and vending—we suggest that thinking with the concept of dhandha and other conceptions of value and relationality that people associate with this kind of work helps us rethink and open up more abstract and universal conceptualisations of accumulation. We examine not just how much accumulation occurs but also who the various actors are in making accumulation possible; what gets accumulated and how; and why even burdensome accumulations are considered valuable and are intentionally pursued and embraced. As ethnographers who conducted our work in several of Mumbai’s many languages, we pay attention to the specific words and concepts used by our interlocutors to describe their work and their economic relations and argue that dhandha in Mumbai is not just work, it is also a way of making valuable lives and navigating the world.

Key Words

Mumbai ; Labour ; Pain ; Informal Economy ; Kinship ; Accumulation ;
Dhandha

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ID: 077349

Politics of the body in pain: reading the ethics of imagery / Dauphinée, Elizabeth

Dauphinée, Elizabeth	Journal Article
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2007.

Summary/Abstract

Images of the body in pain are the primary medium through which we come to know war, torture and other pain-producing activities. The Cartesian paradigm of subjectivity suggests that pain is an interior event that can only be imperfectly expressed through language or visuality. This creates a significant disjuncture between the body that experiences pain and the one who observes this body through the technologies of visual culture. The imperative to make pain visible is driven by the desire to access the pain of the other; but, in the context of the Cartesian subject, this access is simultaneously impossible. This article explores the ethics of using such imagery for projects that seek to resist or oppose war and torture, and suggests alternative ways of understanding and responding to bodies in pain

Key Words

Torture ; Ethics ; Subjectivity ; War on Terror ; Pain

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