Pub Date : 2023-10-19DOI: 10.1177/09731741231202185
Gayatri Nair
This article examines capital–labour relations within location-based gig work in India, with a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. The crisis of the pandemic exacerbated unemployment and created opportunities for platform services to expand, as consumers relied on digital platforms for their needs. This article assesses conditions across three gig services—food delivery, ride hailing and beauty work—based on interviews with 23 gig workers in the Delhi–National Capital Region in India and five organizers of gig worker collectives. The article discusses how workers’ incomes were cut even as they were exposed to higher risks to health and safety, and was accompanied by higher control exerted over their labour ostensibly for the safety of consumers. This control—both algorithmic and bodily—over workers derived its legitimacy from social hierarchies of caste and class between workers and consumers, and between workers and the platform. The article reveals a remarkable similarity in how workers fared across sectors, despite different classifications as essential or non-essential services. It establishes the significance of the pandemic to amplifying processes of labour commodification and labour control in gig work, ultimately contributing to antagonism between platforms and workers and to an emergent class politics of gig workers.
{"title":"The Political Economy of Gig Work in the Pandemic: Social Hierarchies and Labour Control of Indian Platform Workers","authors":"Gayatri Nair","doi":"10.1177/09731741231202185","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09731741231202185","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines capital–labour relations within location-based gig work in India, with a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. The crisis of the pandemic exacerbated unemployment and created opportunities for platform services to expand, as consumers relied on digital platforms for their needs. This article assesses conditions across three gig services—food delivery, ride hailing and beauty work—based on interviews with 23 gig workers in the Delhi–National Capital Region in India and five organizers of gig worker collectives. The article discusses how workers’ incomes were cut even as they were exposed to higher risks to health and safety, and was accompanied by higher control exerted over their labour ostensibly for the safety of consumers. This control—both algorithmic and bodily—over workers derived its legitimacy from social hierarchies of caste and class between workers and consumers, and between workers and the platform. The article reveals a remarkable similarity in how workers fared across sectors, despite different classifications as essential or non-essential services. It establishes the significance of the pandemic to amplifying processes of labour commodification and labour control in gig work, ultimately contributing to antagonism between platforms and workers and to an emergent class politics of gig workers.","PeriodicalId":44040,"journal":{"name":"Journal of South Asian Development","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135729905","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-14DOI: 10.1177/09731741231190384
Nawazuddin Ahmed, D. K. Nauriyal
This article examines the effects of parents’ educational backgrounds and career preferences on their children’s educational and employment opportunities in India’s various socio-religious groupings. Using information from India’s several National Sample Survey Rounds (2000–2012) and the Periodic Labour Force Survey Round 2018–2019, the article analyses co-resident father–son relationships. This study investigates the impact of a father’s occupational–educational status on the probability of their sons’ getting decent jobs. Additionally, the likelihood of completing a senior secondary and above level of education in relation to the educational backgrounds of the mother and father has been examined. For both occupational and educational attainments, this study uses the discrete choice model along with the logit equation. The findings indicate that the probability of getting jobs in the three mentioned occupations is restricted to sons whose fathers are already employed in similar occupations. In addition, there is a wide spectrum of inequity in access to jobs in these occupations among Socio religious communities. The father’s education has a significant impact on the possibility of receiving the senior secondary and above level of education. This study demonstrates a strong hierarchy across the father’s level of education, occupation, and socio-religious communities. This calls for conscious policy intervention to destabilize such a hierarchy. Communities must get a big push through their own resolve and timely and adequate interventions from the state and non-state actors.
{"title":"The Impact of Parents’ Educational and Occupational Footprints on Children: Evidence From India","authors":"Nawazuddin Ahmed, D. K. Nauriyal","doi":"10.1177/09731741231190384","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09731741231190384","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the effects of parents’ educational backgrounds and career preferences on their children’s educational and employment opportunities in India’s various socio-religious groupings. Using information from India’s several National Sample Survey Rounds (2000–2012) and the Periodic Labour Force Survey Round 2018–2019, the article analyses co-resident father–son relationships. This study investigates the impact of a father’s occupational–educational status on the probability of their sons’ getting decent jobs. Additionally, the likelihood of completing a senior secondary and above level of education in relation to the educational backgrounds of the mother and father has been examined. For both occupational and educational attainments, this study uses the discrete choice model along with the logit equation. The findings indicate that the probability of getting jobs in the three mentioned occupations is restricted to sons whose fathers are already employed in similar occupations. In addition, there is a wide spectrum of inequity in access to jobs in these occupations among Socio religious communities. The father’s education has a significant impact on the possibility of receiving the senior secondary and above level of education. This study demonstrates a strong hierarchy across the father’s level of education, occupation, and socio-religious communities. This calls for conscious policy intervention to destabilize such a hierarchy. Communities must get a big push through their own resolve and timely and adequate interventions from the state and non-state actors.","PeriodicalId":44040,"journal":{"name":"Journal of South Asian Development","volume":"130 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135803278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-13DOI: 10.1177/09731741231182754
Jamie Marie Sommer, Michael Restivo, John M. Shandra
Drawing on the ecologically unequal exchange theory, we assess whether palm oil exports from peripheral nations to India are related to increased forest loss in the peripheral nations in the context of petty and grand corruption, which has not been done before. We go on to build upon previous cross-national work by examining if petty and grand corruption interacts with the ecologically unequal exchange of palm exports from peripheral nations to India. We test this hypothesis using ordinary least squares regression for a sample of 78 peripheral nations and find that palm oil exports to India are related to more forest loss in peripheral nations with higher rather than lower levels of petty and grand corruption. We conclude by discussing the theoretical, methodological and policy implications that follow from our findings.
{"title":"Corruption and Palm Oil in a Cross-National Perspective: How India Contributes to Forest Loss in Peripheral Nations","authors":"Jamie Marie Sommer, Michael Restivo, John M. Shandra","doi":"10.1177/09731741231182754","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09731741231182754","url":null,"abstract":"Drawing on the ecologically unequal exchange theory, we assess whether palm oil exports from peripheral nations to India are related to increased forest loss in the peripheral nations in the context of petty and grand corruption, which has not been done before. We go on to build upon previous cross-national work by examining if petty and grand corruption interacts with the ecologically unequal exchange of palm exports from peripheral nations to India. We test this hypothesis using ordinary least squares regression for a sample of 78 peripheral nations and find that palm oil exports to India are related to more forest loss in peripheral nations with higher rather than lower levels of petty and grand corruption. We conclude by discussing the theoretical, methodological and policy implications that follow from our findings.","PeriodicalId":44040,"journal":{"name":"Journal of South Asian Development","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135783761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-29DOI: 10.1177/09731741231182759
G. De Neve, Kaveri Medappa, Rebecca Prentice
{"title":"India’s Gig Economy Workers at the Time of Covid-19: An Introduction","authors":"G. De Neve, Kaveri Medappa, Rebecca Prentice","doi":"10.1177/09731741231182759","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09731741231182759","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44040,"journal":{"name":"Journal of South Asian Development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43041669","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-24DOI: 10.1177/09731741231182877
Mohammad Sajjad Hussain
This article discusses protest efforts undertaken by platform-based food delivery workers during the first wave of the pandemic. Following the lockdown, food delivery platforms were categorized as ‘essential’ to ensure that their operations continued. Several changes were made during this time to hiring practices, platforms diversified into providing grocery services and incorporating safety protocols to enhance customer ‘confidence’ in their services. The article starts by showing how the pandemic helped to strengthen the platform’s position in the market on the backs of delivery partners’ who were reliant on platform work as a means of livelihood. Though publicly glorified as ‘superheroes’, their remunerations were slashed during the pandemic, triggering a series of strikes. Since June 2020, workers across several cities have resorted to protest the worsening conditions of work. It gives an ethnographic description of two strikes that took place in June and Sept 2020 in Hyderabad. It then compares these two strikes to discuss workers’ motivation or the lack of it to strike, the strike tactics used by them, as well as the responses of platform companies to the strike. I then focus on the structural and contingent factors which rendered worker’s bargaining power weaker, despite them being providers of ‘essential services’.
{"title":"Learning to Strike in the Gig Economy: Mobilization Efforts by Food Delivery Workers in Hyderabad, India","authors":"Mohammad Sajjad Hussain","doi":"10.1177/09731741231182877","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09731741231182877","url":null,"abstract":"This article discusses protest efforts undertaken by platform-based food delivery workers during the first wave of the pandemic. Following the lockdown, food delivery platforms were categorized as ‘essential’ to ensure that their operations continued. Several changes were made during this time to hiring practices, platforms diversified into providing grocery services and incorporating safety protocols to enhance customer ‘confidence’ in their services. The article starts by showing how the pandemic helped to strengthen the platform’s position in the market on the backs of delivery partners’ who were reliant on platform work as a means of livelihood. Though publicly glorified as ‘superheroes’, their remunerations were slashed during the pandemic, triggering a series of strikes. Since June 2020, workers across several cities have resorted to protest the worsening conditions of work. It gives an ethnographic description of two strikes that took place in June and Sept 2020 in Hyderabad. It then compares these two strikes to discuss workers’ motivation or the lack of it to strike, the strike tactics used by them, as well as the responses of platform companies to the strike. I then focus on the structural and contingent factors which rendered worker’s bargaining power weaker, despite them being providers of ‘essential services’.","PeriodicalId":44040,"journal":{"name":"Journal of South Asian Development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45621444","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-24DOI: 10.1177/09731741231191876
Rajorshi Ray, Jillet Sarah Sam
The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted gig work in urban areas across India. In this article, we investigate the nature of responses from gig workers at a time of no or partial work. The platform studies literature has documented the role of on-platform networks in the accrual of value and creation of the gig work opportunities. Taking a cue from the economic sociology literature, specifically social reproduction theory, we examine the role of off-platform networks in enabling work during the pandemic in India. We draw on ethnographic fieldwork among ride-hailing and food-delivery app workers conducted in Kanpur and Kolkata between April 2020 and July 2021. Our findings show that during the pandemic, platform workers turned to four kinds of networks for monetary and non-monetary support: household members, dispersed kinship ties, neighbourhood networks and work-related ties. We argue that despite the individual strategies visible on the surface, these personal networks served as an essential infrastructure to sustain platform-based service work. We use social reproduction theory to understand how off-platform networks were vital for reproducing the gig worker as well as for the generation of value for platforms.
{"title":"Off-platform Social Networks and Gig Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic in India","authors":"Rajorshi Ray, Jillet Sarah Sam","doi":"10.1177/09731741231191876","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09731741231191876","url":null,"abstract":"The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted gig work in urban areas across India. In this article, we investigate the nature of responses from gig workers at a time of no or partial work. The platform studies literature has documented the role of on-platform networks in the accrual of value and creation of the gig work opportunities. Taking a cue from the economic sociology literature, specifically social reproduction theory, we examine the role of off-platform networks in enabling work during the pandemic in India. We draw on ethnographic fieldwork among ride-hailing and food-delivery app workers conducted in Kanpur and Kolkata between April 2020 and July 2021. Our findings show that during the pandemic, platform workers turned to four kinds of networks for monetary and non-monetary support: household members, dispersed kinship ties, neighbourhood networks and work-related ties. We argue that despite the individual strategies visible on the surface, these personal networks served as an essential infrastructure to sustain platform-based service work. We use social reproduction theory to understand how off-platform networks were vital for reproducing the gig worker as well as for the generation of value for platforms.","PeriodicalId":44040,"journal":{"name":"Journal of South Asian Development","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41709715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-17DOI: 10.1177/09731741231182757
Rubaiya Murshed, Mohammad Riaz Uddin
When children are able to progress beyond their parents’ education level, that is, when there is upward intergenerational education mobility—they are more likely to have better opportunities and access than their parents in terms of jobs and income. For any nation, it is important to understand the trajectory of intergenerational education mobility and ask: Has it been increasing? In the case of Bangladesh, our study is the first to use nationally representative household survey data to explore the trend of intergenerational education mobility. We compute intergenerational education mobility separately for three different years—2005, 2010 and 2016, and find that intergenerational education mobility has, from 2005 to 2016, significantly decreased in terms of fathers’ education. This is surprising given that the expansion of education has been a target both policy-wise and action-wise—for Bangladesh over the last few decades. The finding in terms of mothers’ education—that intergenerational education mobility has significantly increased from 2005 to 2016—makes more sense given the focus on female education expansion in Bangladesh over the years. Moreover, our results indicate that daughters, in general, have been progressing better compared to sons in terms of intergenerational (father–child) education mobility and that children of fathers with higher education levels progressed better than children of fathers with lower education levels. We suggest policies accordingly and emphasize the need to investigate the reasons behind the father–child education immobility over time in Bangladesh.
{"title":"Trends in Intergenerational Education Mobility in Bangladesh","authors":"Rubaiya Murshed, Mohammad Riaz Uddin","doi":"10.1177/09731741231182757","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09731741231182757","url":null,"abstract":"When children are able to progress beyond their parents’ education level, that is, when there is upward intergenerational education mobility—they are more likely to have better opportunities and access than their parents in terms of jobs and income. For any nation, it is important to understand the trajectory of intergenerational education mobility and ask: Has it been increasing? In the case of Bangladesh, our study is the first to use nationally representative household survey data to explore the trend of intergenerational education mobility. We compute intergenerational education mobility separately for three different years—2005, 2010 and 2016, and find that intergenerational education mobility has, from 2005 to 2016, significantly decreased in terms of fathers’ education. This is surprising given that the expansion of education has been a target both policy-wise and action-wise—for Bangladesh over the last few decades. The finding in terms of mothers’ education—that intergenerational education mobility has significantly increased from 2005 to 2016—makes more sense given the focus on female education expansion in Bangladesh over the years. Moreover, our results indicate that daughters, in general, have been progressing better compared to sons in terms of intergenerational (father–child) education mobility and that children of fathers with higher education levels progressed better than children of fathers with lower education levels. We suggest policies accordingly and emphasize the need to investigate the reasons behind the father–child education immobility over time in Bangladesh.","PeriodicalId":44040,"journal":{"name":"Journal of South Asian Development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48946418","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Sujata Patel, D. Parthasarathy and George Jose, Mumbai/Bombay: Majoritarian Neoliberalism, Informality, Resistance, and Wellbeing","authors":"Kaveri Medappa","doi":"10.1177/09731741231172273","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09731741231172273","url":null,"abstract":"Sujata Patel, D. Parthasarathy and George Jose, Mumbai/Bombay: Majoritarian Neoliberalism, Informality, Resistance, and Wellbeing (Routledge, 2022), 257 pp., £32.39. ISBN: 9781003293651.","PeriodicalId":44040,"journal":{"name":"Journal of South Asian Development","volume":"18 1","pages":"321 - 325"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65349325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-01DOI: 10.1177/09731741231174288
Vibha Joshi
Jelle J. P. Wouters (Ed.), Vernacular Politics in Northeast India: Democracy, Ethnicity, and Indigeneity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022), 413 pp. ₹1,795, ISBN: 978-0-19-286346-1 (Hardback).
{"title":"Book review: Jelle J. P. Wouters (Ed.), Vernacular Politics in Northeast India: Democracy, Ethnicity, and Indigeneity","authors":"Vibha Joshi","doi":"10.1177/09731741231174288","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09731741231174288","url":null,"abstract":"Jelle J. P. Wouters (Ed.), Vernacular Politics in Northeast India: Democracy, Ethnicity, and Indigeneity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022), 413 pp. ₹1,795, ISBN: 978-0-19-286346-1 (Hardback).","PeriodicalId":44040,"journal":{"name":"Journal of South Asian Development","volume":"18 1","pages":"329 - 333"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42899267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-01DOI: 10.1177/09731741231174286
Suchismita Chattopadhyay
Bhaswati Bhattacharya and Henrike Donner (Eds.), Globalising Everyday Consumption in India: History and Ethnography (London and New York: Routledge, 2020), 246 pp., ₹36.99, ISBN: 9781032024356 (Hardbound).
{"title":"Book review: Bhaswati Bhattacharya and Henrike Donner (Eds.), Globalising Everyday Consumption in India: History and Ethnography","authors":"Suchismita Chattopadhyay","doi":"10.1177/09731741231174286","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09731741231174286","url":null,"abstract":"Bhaswati Bhattacharya and Henrike Donner (Eds.), Globalising Everyday Consumption in India: History and Ethnography (London and New York: Routledge, 2020), 246 pp., ₹36.99, ISBN: 9781032024356 (Hardbound).","PeriodicalId":44040,"journal":{"name":"Journal of South Asian Development","volume":"18 1","pages":"326 - 329"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46158019","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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