Interrogating Development Insights from the Margins

by Apffel-Marglin, Frederique; Kumar, Sanjay; Mishra, Arvind

• ISBN13: 9780198066415
• ISBN10: 0198066414
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-11-14
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This collection presents a new perspective on the role of culture in shaping the ambivalent attitude towards economic development of many marginalized people. The strength of this volume lies in how the essays provide examples from both within India and without, to illuminate old Dalit/Savarna and also Hindu/Muslim dynamics specific to India. The volume clearly defines how asymmetrical complementary relationships between Dalits and Savarnas are being replaced by short-term contractual labour relations that no longer involve long-term intergenerational reciprocal obligations. The essays draw attention to the non-modern, non-Western agents that have rendered invisible the dynamics of cyclicity, bio-cultural regeneration, and social and ecological reproduction (SER). What the volume achieves is an understanding of the specifics of Western modernism and modernism in India. Also, through specific examples in India, the US, and elsewhere, it clarifies some of the profound differences between modern, capitalist processes of marginalization as well as non-modern ones.

Author Biography

Frederique Apffel-Marglin is Professor Emerita, Department of Anthropology at Smith College, Northampton, MA, USA


Sanjay Kumar is Secretary, Deshkal Society, Delhi


Arvind Kumar Mishra is Assistant Professor, Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Table of Contents

List of Tables, Figures, and Box	p. ix
List of Abbreviations	p. xi
Acknowledgements	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Margin-Centre Dynamics	p. 9
Cultural Perspectives on Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: Situating Cultural Practices of the Marginal Communities In India	p. 17
Humiliation: The Politics and Cultural Psychology of the Limits of Human Degradation	p. 43
Pollution, Subsistence, Sustainability in USA Nationalism: The Symbolic Construction of 'Appalachia' as America's Trash' People	p. 62
Livelihoods and Cultural Codes: Pork and Pigs in Indian Culture	p. 83
Cultural Practices	p. 113
The Potential of Fair Trade for Bio-Cultural Regeneration of Marginalized Groups in the South: The Case of the Oro Verde Coffee Coop in Peru	p. 123
Representation, Resistance, and Identity: The Musahars of the Middle Gangetic Plain	p. 150
Seeking Begumpura: Radical Bhakti and Dalit Social Movements	p. 172
Qissa Mir-e-Alam: Experiences of Reinvigorating Sufiyana Qalam Tradition with Marginalized Musicians	p. 185
Questioning the Capability Approach	p. 209
Culture Matters in the Knowledge Economy	p. 217
How Can the Capability Approach be Used to Serve Marginalized Communities at the Grassroots Level?	p. 234
Language Disadvantage and Capability Deprivation of Tribal Mother Tongue Speakers	p. 262
From Imperialism to Globalization by Way of Development	p. 287
List of Contributors	p. 308
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