Topic
Caste
About: Caste is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5681 publications have been published within this topic receiving 91330 citations. The topic is also known as: caste system.
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22 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored the institution of caste and its operation in a micro-level village setting of West Bengal, an Indian state, where state politics at grass roots level is vibrant with functioning local self-government and entrenched political parties.
Abstract: This paper explores the institution of caste and its operation in a micro-level village setting of West Bengal, an Indian state, where state politics at grass roots level is vibrant with functioning local self-government and entrenched political parties. This ethnographic study reveals that caste relations and caste identities have overarching dimensions in the day-to-day politics of the study villages. Though caste almost ceases to operate in relation to strict religious strictures, under economic compulsion the division of labour largely coincides with caste division. In the cultural–ideological field, the concept of caste-hierarchy seems to continue as an influencing factor, even in the operation of leftist politics.
22 citations
TL;DR: This article investigated the effect of electoral quotas on group-based discrimination and found that the effect is not persistent: it disappears with the end of the SC quota, consistent with a temporary change in the behavior of the dominant castes after a one-shot electoral quota.
22 citations
01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: Evidence of a 'collectivist' rather than an 'individualistic' approach to career decision-making is found in which the presence of 'nurse families' and community networks serve as important social and professional resources.
Abstract: This dissertation examines the careers and collective professional identity of nurses
working in India. It analyses the impact of gender, caste and class on the decision to enter
nursing, the types of career opportunities envisaged by nurses, accounts of nursing practice in
hospital settings and the professionalizing strategies debated by the profession's leaders to
achieve greater social and professional legitimacy for Indian nurses.
The backdrop to this study is the city of Bangalore, a quintessential example of an
increasingly globalized India, commonly referred to as the country's 'Silicon Valley'.
Bangalore is the site of numerous hospitals and medical facilities and has the largest
concentration of nursing educational institutions in the country. As modern, urban India is
increasingly characterized by the unravelling of traditional forms of social stratification, the
study examines social change within the profession of nursing and its repercussions for the
professional identity of nurses. The research draws upon literature from the sociology of
professions as a theoretical framework and examines the relevance of these theories to the
study setting so as to develop new understandings of nursing culture in a non-Western
context. The findings of the study include evidence of a 'collectivist' rather than an
'individualistic' approach to career decision-making in which the presence of 'nurse families'
and community networks serve as important social and professional resources. Given the
traditional associations with nursing and low status work, the study demonstrates how the
professional project of nursing is focused around achieving collective social mobility. The
dissertation discusses the importance of migration as a professional 'asset' and highlights
contemporary debates around further education and specialization as strategies to achieve
greater social and economic rewards for Indian nurses.
22 citations