Showing papers by "Jonathan Parry published in 2013"

Company and contract labour in a central Indian steel town

Abstract: This paper offers a descriptive analysis of the way in which the working world of contract labourers in a public-sector Indian steel plant is differentiated from that of its regular workforce. The two kinds of workers regard themselves as distinct kinds of people and are now best seen as distinct social classes. While the sociology of India has broadly accepted the manual/non-manual labour distinction as the crucial marker of the boundary between the working and the middle classes, what is suggested here is that that between naukri (secure employment) and kam (insecure wage labour) – which cuts right across that distinction and is broadly congruent with that between formal- and informal-sector employment – is a more important marker of difference. At work, the two kinds of workforce are sharply distinguished by the material rewards of their jobs and by their security and conditions of employment; outside it by differences in life-style and attitudes – a gap that has grown with the liberalization of the Indian economy. The composition of the work groups to which the two kinds of labour characteristically belong are sharply differentiated by gender, by regional ethnicity and by urban or rural residence. Interactions within the work group are again very different, while interactions between regular and contract workers are largely confined to the work itself. Outside it they are kept to a minimum, testifying to a shared sense that socially the two kinds of workforce are profoundly different.

The "embourgeoisement" of a “proletarian vanguard"?

Abstract: The last four decades have seen momentous changes in the Indian society, in terms of its structure, processes, and the dynamics of social institutions. Sociological study of stratification, identity, ethnicity, democratic processes, and urbanism and modernity, have been at the centre stage of academic engagement with this transition, and Indian sociologists have contributed significantly to this corpus of knowledge. This book brings together an Introduction and 11 essays, written by well-known experts and commentators on modern Indian society. They cover a wide range of thematic and topical issues, from class constitution of Indian cities to social hierarchies; from the state of scheduled tribes to religion and politics; and from violence of law to health care in India. Compiled in the honour of Professor Dipankar Gupta, whose four-decade-long contribution to Indian sociology has shaped the way the discipline has evolved, is learnt, taught, and practiced in India, this volume brings to fore the key concerns of his scholarship. Going beyond Dipankar Gupta's work, the essays build an overarching theoretical framework, developing the threads of sociological scholarship in these areas.