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Living Class in Urban India / Sara Dickey.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New Brunswick, NJ : Rutgers University Press, [2016]Copyright date: ©2016Description: 1 online resource (282 p.) : 8 photographsContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780813583914
  • 9780813583945
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 306.30954/82 23
LOC classification:
  • HN690.M325 D53 2016
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Notes On Transliteration And Pronunciation -- 1. Introduction: The Everyday Life Of Class -- 2. What Is Class In Madurai? -- 3. Four Residents, As I Know Them -- 4. Consumption And Apprehension: Class In The Everyday -- 5. Debt: The Material Consequences Of Moral Constructs -- 6. Performing The Middle -- 7. Marriage: Drama, Display, And The Reproduction Of Class -- 8. Food, Hunger, And The Binding Of Class Relations -- 9. Conclusions: Nuancing Class Boundaries -- Notes -- References -- Index -- About The Author
Summary: Many Americans still envision India as rigidly caste-bound, locked in traditions that inhibit social mobility. In reality, class mobility has long been an ideal, and today globalization is radically transforming how India's citizens perceive class. Living Class in Urban India examines a nation in flux, bombarded with media images of middle-class consumers, while navigating the currents of late capitalism and the surges of inequality they can produce. Anthropologist Sara Dickey puts a human face on the issue of class in India, introducing four people who live in the "second-tier" city of Madurai: an auto-rickshaw driver, a graphic designer, a teacher of high-status English, and a domestic worker. Drawing from over thirty years of fieldwork, she considers how class is determined by both subjective perceptions and objective conditions, documenting Madurai residents' palpable day-to-day experiences of class while also tracking their long-term impacts. By analyzing the intertwined symbolic and economic importance of phenomena like wedding ceremonies, religious practices, philanthropy, and loan arrangements, Dickey's study reveals the material consequences of local class identities. Simultaneously, this gracefully written book highlights the poignant drive for dignity in the face of moralizing class stereotypes. Through extensive interviews, Dickey scrutinizes the idioms and commonplaces used by residents to justify class inequality and, occasionally, to subvert it. Along the way, Living Class in Urban India reveals the myriad ways that class status is interpreted and performed, embedded in everything from cell phone usage to religious worship.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780813583945

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Notes On Transliteration And Pronunciation -- 1. Introduction: The Everyday Life Of Class -- 2. What Is Class In Madurai? -- 3. Four Residents, As I Know Them -- 4. Consumption And Apprehension: Class In The Everyday -- 5. Debt: The Material Consequences Of Moral Constructs -- 6. Performing The Middle -- 7. Marriage: Drama, Display, And The Reproduction Of Class -- 8. Food, Hunger, And The Binding Of Class Relations -- 9. Conclusions: Nuancing Class Boundaries -- Notes -- References -- Index -- About The Author

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Many Americans still envision India as rigidly caste-bound, locked in traditions that inhibit social mobility. In reality, class mobility has long been an ideal, and today globalization is radically transforming how India's citizens perceive class. Living Class in Urban India examines a nation in flux, bombarded with media images of middle-class consumers, while navigating the currents of late capitalism and the surges of inequality they can produce. Anthropologist Sara Dickey puts a human face on the issue of class in India, introducing four people who live in the "second-tier" city of Madurai: an auto-rickshaw driver, a graphic designer, a teacher of high-status English, and a domestic worker. Drawing from over thirty years of fieldwork, she considers how class is determined by both subjective perceptions and objective conditions, documenting Madurai residents' palpable day-to-day experiences of class while also tracking their long-term impacts. By analyzing the intertwined symbolic and economic importance of phenomena like wedding ceremonies, religious practices, philanthropy, and loan arrangements, Dickey's study reveals the material consequences of local class identities. Simultaneously, this gracefully written book highlights the poignant drive for dignity in the face of moralizing class stereotypes. Through extensive interviews, Dickey scrutinizes the idioms and commonplaces used by residents to justify class inequality and, occasionally, to subvert it. Along the way, Living Class in Urban India reveals the myriad ways that class status is interpreted and performed, embedded in everything from cell phone usage to religious worship.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 07. Jan 2021)