Mining, Displacement, and Matriliny in Meghalaya: Gendered Transitions

Abstract

aggregation, multiplicity, and synchroneity across all categories of labour, employment, work, and livelihood even if perceived within a strictly market framework – are all covered in this book. Consequently, there is the issue of whether time is a commodity, and whether and how it can be valued as an economic resource and a material asset that is commodifiable and hence measurable, quantifiable, calculable. Another important aspect examined is that of violence. Violence is an integral part of capitalism, created and expedited by the state and its business interests and corporations via institutional and increasingly technological mechanisms. Violence is not only normalised and actualised, but also legitimised and often internalised both in the public and private domains. As the author asserts, ‘Having a monopoly on the use of physical violence is a defining feature of nation states’ (p. 183). Additionally emphasised and also deplored is that while multiple forms of violence perpetrated have been researched and analysed, the interlinkages to care and caring have been peripheralised in academic discourse as well as policymaking. Of particular interest is the rather inspiring identification of several forms of challenges to neoliberalism in several countries cutting across sectors and sub-sectors, both formal and informal. The forms of resistance and also solidarity include those, of course, of trade unions, feminist movements, struggles against racism, etc., and additionally of affective relational resistances and even refusals. Kathleen Lynch’s book is based on strong and quite impeccable theorisation and conceptualisation, and contains dynamic intersectionality by consistently incorporating considerations of class, race, religion, age, and ethnicity. The result is a serious and enriching reconsideration of the concepts of ‘care’ and ‘caring’, as well as the methodological designs and structures currently in use, impacting thereby a re-thinking and re-formulation of policy designs and practices that are ostensibly aimed at protecting and promoting gender equality. An attentive reading of this book will increase sophistication of methodology and enhance its applicability and relevance in order to capture the ‘harms’ and injustice being perpetrated by the neo-liberal paradigm where especially women have to bear the burden of increasing financial austerity and the continuous reductionist character of an already weak welfare state.