This workshop, organized by the AJEI (Association des jeunes études indiennes) and the CESSMA (Centre d'étude en sciences sociales sur les mondes africains, américains et asiatiques), aims at investing the dynamics of competition and solidarity networks in contemporary South Asia's Labour Market.

Presentation

Hegemonic neo-liberal discourse assumes that free competition on all levels sparks a virtuous cycle of economic growth, which eventually trickles down to poor populations. Over the past three decades, the idea that restrictive labour laws hamper such competition has justified the deregulation of labour in the North and the un-regulation of labour in the South, notably in South Asia, where labour relations had already mainly been informal. Various sociologists have noted that intensified economic interactions and the rise of competition have made individuals more likely to activate their social networks to protect their individual interests. In this respect, to what extent do social networks shape relations in the diverse South Asian labour markets? How do new forms of social groupings reconfigure competition and solidarity relations? What forms of social interactions prevail, emerge and weaken in the market: chosen solidarity and inherited solidarity; inter-caste and intra-caste solidarity; class solidarity; corporate solidarity etc.?

Programme

• 9h00: Keynote speech by the organisers
• 9h30: Presentation by Jens Lerche (SOAS London) : "Labour markets of the Indian boom: deregulation, informalisation and entrenching patterns of social inequality"
• 10h30: Morning tea, coffee and snacks
• 10h45: Remi De Bercegol (CNRS - UMR 8586 PRODIG) : “Development on the urban fringe: the economic vitality of the furniture industry of Kartarpur.”
• Discussant : Philippe Cadène (Paris Diderot - UMR 245 CESSMA)
• 11h45: Xavier Hermand : (Paris Nanterre - UMR 7186 LESC) : “The artisans' communities in Jalalabad, castes in Muslim context or family cartels”
• Discussant : Pierre Lachaier (EHESS - EFEO)
• 12h45: Lebanese Lunch
• 14h: Presentation by Isabelle Guérin (IRD - UMR 245 CESSMA) : “Webs of debt. Unfree labour, financial exploitation and social integration in the age of financialisation” (written with G. Venkatasubramanian)
• 15h: Lola Salès (Paris Nanterre - UMR 7218 LAVUE) : “Who has the right to public space? Competition, social organization, identities and citizenship reshaping in the context of the Street vendors Act implementation in Mumbai”
• Discussant : Véronique Dupont (IRD - UMR 245 CESSMA)
• 16h: Afternoon tea, coffee and snacks
• 16h15: Odile Henry (Université Paris 8) & Mathieu Ferry (ENS Cachan) : ”The structuring of a social space of recruitment for elite engineering students: the case of IIT students”.
• Discussant: Isabelle Guérin (IRD - UMR 245 CESSMA)
• 17h15: Round table
• 18h: Goodbye cocktail

Scientific committee

• Isabelle Guérin IRD & CESSMA (Center for Social Sciences Studies on African, American and Asian worlds)
• Véronique Dupont, IRD (French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development) & CESSMA

Organizing committee

• Yves Marie Rault, Ph.D. candidate, Université Paris Diderot & CESSMA
• Floriane Bolazzi, Ph.D. candidate, Université Paris Diderot & CESSMA
• Arnaud Kaba, Ph.D. candidate, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales & LISST-CAS (Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Solidarités, Sociétés, Territoires, Centre d’Anthropologie Sociale)