Suchergebnisse

"This volume looks at the emerging forms of intimacies in contemporary India. Drawing on rigorous academic research and pop culture phenomenon, the volume: - Brings together themes of nationhood, motherhood, disability, masculinity, ethnicity, kinship and sexuality and attempts to understand them within a more complex web of issues related to space, social justice, marginality and communication - Focuses on the struggles for intimacy by the disabled, queer, dalit, and other subalterns, as well as people with non-human intimacies to propose an alternative theory of the politics of belonging - Explores the role of social and new media in understanding and negotiating intimacies and anxieties Comprehensive and thought provoking, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of political studies, sociology, sexuality and gender studies, women studies, cultural studies, and minority studies"--

Gender in the contemporary everyday life of the Darjeeling men is a ritual of reiterating the colonial hypermasculinity that ultimately reinforces the stereotyped notion that the Gorkha men are muscular men whose hegemonic masculinity makes them merely worthy of wars. This toxic masculinity is the major object of criticism by the ecofeminists who have shown how detrimental this hypermasculinity is for both women and ecology. This article, by revisiting the alternative textuality of everydayness as manifested in the select Lepcha folktales of the Hills, aims at uncovering an endogenous eco (alternative)masculinity that may act as a genderqueer model based on which the Gorkha men may learn to replace their colonial internalized 'ethic of daring' with the 'ethic of caring' in their everyday future. As an interpretation of the folktales by a 'non-indigenous ally,' a hybrid methodology has been used by combining various perspectives from the theories related to gender and sexuality, ethno-poetics, folkloristics, etc. The article begins by arguing that the scope of studying everyday life has to be expanded from merely focusing on the micro and the oblivious towards accommodating the hidden 'non-everyday' inclusive alternatives that are embedded in the everyday textuality of the folktales. Thereafter, it tries to assert how the politicization of the possible everyday based on an understanding of the history of mentality as revealed through the folktales, can initially, allow the Darjeeling men to recall 'the not yet-real,' but plausible, genderqueer male identities of yore. This might eventuallyencourage them to turn the everyday,contemporary space of a martial, Gorkha-hypermasculinity into a multivocal everydayness of alternatives in the near future,with the 'gentlemen warrior' evolving into eco-men who, along with aposthuman intimacy, arecompetent in nurturing the feminine and the ecology.

The city of Calcutta (now Kolkata) is home to a tiny community, namely, Baghdadi Jews from the Middle East. The Jewish community contributed extensively toward building and consolidating the rich socio-cultural heritage through the creation of social and cultural infrastructures like schools, hospitals, baby clinics, women and youth organizations. Breaking social taboos, they were stimulated by the attractions of Western education and took up modern professions. Their contributions were keenly appreciated both in pre- and post-independent India. Apart from their domiciled status, the Jews of Calcutta were not indifferent to the events affecting their brethren in the international arena, and in the process began to take keen interest in the fate of worldwide Jewry. This article traces the connection of the Baghdadi Jewish community of Calcutta with diaspora Jewry in the following areas, namely, the inter-war period, wartime contribution and the Zionist movement, and tries to explore the concept of diaspora with regard to the Calcutta Jews and how it affected their identity during the colonial and the post-colonial era.

Abstract: The globalized world is witnessing increasing dominance of the financialization of the economy and society. A rapidly changing association among finance capitalists, individuals, the economy, geography, and society, with financialization at the center of these relationships, has been observed recently. However, existing research on this subject is primarily concentrated on advanced capitalist economies of the Global North. As global finance is penetrating the Global South as well, there is a necessity to understand the features, nuances, and theoretical debates surrounding financialization in the context of countries from the Global South. A comprehensive review of the literature reveals that studies on financialization exhibit unsettled and inconclusive debates in relation to the genesis, characteristics, causes, and consequences of the phenomenon. In the case of India, it is particularly difficult to establish strong evidence on the financialization of the Indian economy since the macro-evidence of financialization is not robust in comparison to evidence from the developed capitalist economies in the Global North. However, some recent microstudies have cited traces of financialization in microfinance, manufacturing firms, and digital banking in India. This micro-evidence, despite being a sector-specific phenomenon, is crucial to the larger debate on financialization. This article argues that in cases of blurred features of financialization, macro-findings may not be completely reliable or even relevant. A better approach is to collate both macroand micro-data and contextualize the findings in specific contemporary socioeconomic structures.

The COVID-19 pandemic has escalated processes of labour transition from industrial work to the informal economy, which have always characterized the life of the working poor. This paper explores this kind of reverse transition, that is, when the Lewisian dream of having an industrial job comes to an end, and workers are forced into a reverse migration. Specifically, the paper focuses on the post-industrial experiences of former Indian garment workers leaving the National Capital Region and moving back to Bihar. Emphasis is placed on workers' reasons for leaving the industry and their current employment and reproductive strategies. Findings are based on a sample of 50 former workers, identified in urban industrial hamlets and traced back to their place of origin. Respondents' experiences are analysed based on semi-quantitative questionnaires and life histories. Findings reveal that upon leaving the factory, workers find alternative informal employment through caste or social networks whilst using land as safety net. They suggest that farming and informal work are not alternative but rather complementary income and work strategies. By adopting a life-cycle approach to studying labour transitions across formal and informal employment domains, this analysis contributes to policy debates on decent work.

Purpose
This study aims to explore the antecedents related to luxury brand loyalty in the Indian Gen Z consumer segment. It obtains the connection between luxury brand attachment, luxury brand trust and luxury brand loyalty. The study also envisages how luxury brand trust plays a mediation role in strengthening the relationship between luxury brand attachment and luxury brand loyalty in the Indian Gen Z consumer segment.


Design/methodology/approach
The empirical investigation is based on the Indian Gen Z consumer segment. Data was acquired with the help of a structured questionnaire, following convenience and snowball sampling techniques. A total of 230 primary responses was used for the statistical analysis of the present research. The analysis was carried out with the help of SmartPLS software to validate a proposed model and corresponding hypotheses.


Findings
The research findings demonstrate that two major branding outcomes support luxury brand loyalty behavior in the Indian Gen Z consumer segment: luxury brand attachment and luxury brand trust. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) attributes and sustainability attributes, luxury product attributes, luxury brand attributes and social media attributes positively influence luxury brand attachment in the Indian Gen Z consumer segment. CSR attributes and sustainability attributes have negligible contribution toward positively influencing luxury brand trust towards the same. However, when luxury brand trust is combined with luxury brand attachment, then luxury brand trust plays a significant role in enhancing luxury brand loyalty among the Indian Gen Z consumer segment. Then, luxury brand attributes, product attributes and social media attribute positively impact luxury brand trust in the Indian Gen Z consumer segment. The study also identifies that luxury brand trust plays a significant mediation role in consolidating the relationship between attachment and loyalty.


Originality/value
The proposed model in the research is an integrated framework comprising maximum potential variables that can positively influence luxury brand loyalty in the Indian Gen Z consumer segment. The analysis in the research shows the mediation role of luxury brand trust between luxury brand attachment and luxury brand loyalty in the Indian Gen Z consumer segment. This study has also identified the vital role of luxury brands' CSR attributes and sustainability attributes to support luxury brand loyalty.

The COVID-19 pandemic has escalated processes of labour transition from industrial work to the informal economy, which have always characterized the life of the working poor. Exploring urban-to-rural labour transitions through a feminist political economy lens and adopting a life-cycle approach to labour and social reproduction, this paper analyses the post-industrial livelihoods and experiences of former Indian garment workers leaving the National Capital Region and moving back to Bihar. Emphasis is placed on workers' reasons for leaving the industry and their current employment and reproductive strategies. Findings are based on a sample of 50 former workers, identified in urban industrial hamlets and traced back to their place of origin. Respondents' experiences are analysed based on semi-quantitative questionnaires and life histories. Findings reveal that upon leaving the factory, workers find alternative informal employment through caste or social networks while using land as safety net. Farming and informal work are not alternative but rather complementary income and work strategies. By adopting a life-cycle approach to studying labour transitions across formal and informal employment domains, this analysis contributes to policy debates on decent work.