BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//jEvents 2.0 for Joomla//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT UID:452f796c435d60d1f53e227dae96cf9e CATEGORIES:Lecture / Reading / Talk CREATED:20230325T122625 SUMMARY:A talk on "Disasters, Pro Tem Development and 'Hafta' Democracy" by Prof. Harish Naraindas DESCRIPTION:Department of School of Social Sciences invites Prof. Harish Naraindas, Cen tre for the Study of Social Systems (CSSS), Jawaharlal Nehru University to deliver a talk on "Disasters, Pro Tem Development and 'Hafta' Democracy".\n Abstract: \nPost-disaster reconstruction appears to be an exemplary versio n of ‘slum development’ that is compressed in terms of time and expanded by way of resources. The index of this is the slogan build back better. It im plies that communities affected by a disaster are a dilapidated lot a prior i, and disasters like the tsunami are a great cleansing: one that offers ai d agencies a clean slate and an opportunity to transform a blighted existen ce into a civilised one. Each of them arrives not only with a heraldic logo but with their own plans to build back better. The result is a plethora of architectural styles and ownership patterns leading to difference, hierarc hy and heart-burn between victims; a realigning of relations between victim s and non-victims, where the victims, in a climate of sudden and large infl ux of money and material goods, go from being victims to villains; and, fin ally, this sudden influx, by understandably addressing shelter under the si gn of disaster-proof build back better, often leaves the crucial – and expe nsive – infrastructure of power, water and sanitation to local governments, whose inability or unwillingness to address them transforms these reconstr uctions into a classic form of pro tem development, with the missing pieces of the puzzle, especially water and sewage, inexorably converting them int o veritable slums.\n Such pro tem development is ripe for the exercise of w hat I have christened as hafta democracy, where the victims are made to bea r the burden of living in unsanitary conditions by either paying exorbitant prices for the missing power and water, or by sourcing them illegally and paying ‘weekly protection money’ – hafta – to the slum lords and the police . The hafta in turn inserts them, as potential vote banks, into electoral c ycles, where they become, for the political class and electoral democracy, pro tem citizens in waiting, with the redemptive promise of a patta – ‘titl e deed’ – to property on the outskirts of the city. This tantalizing promis e, from an extractive and quotidian hafta to the redemptive patta, is the s oteriology of third world democracies, whose destitute urban spaces appear to be vast post-disaster relief camps, where the legal and the illegal blee d into each other.\n\nAbout the Speaker: \nHarish Naraindas is currently Pr ofessor of Sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Honorary Professor at the Alfred Deakin Institute, Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin Univ ersity. He was adjunct faculty at the University of Iowa (2004-19); visitin g professor at the department of sociology, University of Freiburg (2009); joint-appointments professor of the Cluster of Excellence, South Asia Insti tute (SAI), University of Heidelberg (2008-12); and DAAD visiting professor at the SAI, University of Heidelberg, in 2017. He works on the history and sociology of science and medicine and has published on a range of topics, including an epistemological history of tropical medicine, a comparative hi story of smallpox from the 18th-20th century, on the creolisation of contem porary Ayurveda, on spa medicine in Germany, on pregnancy and childbirth wi thin the context of competing medical epistemes, and recently on how anthro pology attempts to explain the non-human. He is currently working on AyurGe nomics and P4 medicine; past-life aetiologies and therapeutic trance in Ger man psychosomatic medicine; a multi-sited study of perinatal loss and berea vement in the Anglophone world; and a comparative study of alternative medi cine and well-being in India and Switzerland. Among his recent publications are a co-edited special issue of Anthropology and Medicine called ‘The fra gile medical: the slippery terrain between medicine, anthropology and socie ties’ (2017), and two co-edited books: Healing holidays: itinerant patients , therapeutic locales and the quest for health (London: Routledge, 2015), a nd Asymmetrical conversations: contestations, circumventions and the blurri ng of therapeutic boundaries (New York: Berghahn, 2014).\n \n X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

Department of School of Social Sciences invites Prof. Harish Nar aindas, Centre for the Study of Social Systems (CSSS), Jawaharlal Nehru Uni versity to deliver a talk on "Disasters, Pro Tem Development and 'Hafta' De mocracy".

Abstract:
Post-disaster reconstruction appears to be a n exemplary version of ‘slum development’ that is compressed in terms of ti me and expanded by way of resources. The index of this is the slogan build back better. It implies that communities affected by a disaster are a dilap idated lot a priori, and disasters like the tsunami are a great cleansing: one that offers aid agencies a clean slate and an opportunity to transform a blighted existence into a civilised one. Each of them arrives not only wi th a heraldic logo but with their own plans to build back better. The resul t is a plethora of architectural styles and ownership patterns leading to d ifference, hierarchy and heart-burn between victims; a realigning of relati ons between victims and non-victims, where the victims, in a climate of sud den and large influx of money and material goods, go from being victims to villains; and, finally, this sudden influx, by understandably addressing sh elter under the sign of disaster-proof build back better, often leaves the crucial – and expensive – infrastructure of power, water and sanitation to local governments, whose inability or unwillingness to address them transfo rms these reconstructions into a classic form of pro tem development, with the missing pieces of the puzzle, especially water and sewage, inexorably c onverting them into veritable slums.

Such pro tem development is ripe for the exercise of what I have christened as haft a democracy, where the victims are made to bear the burden of living in uns anitary conditions by either paying exorbitant prices for the missing power and water, or by sourcing them illegally and paying ‘weekly protection mon ey’ – hafta – to the slum lords and the police. The hafta in turn inserts t hem, as potential vote banks, into electoral cycles, where they become, for the political class and electoral democracy, pro tem citizens in waiting, with the redemptive promise of a patta – ‘title deed’ – to property on the outskirts of the city. This tantalizing promise, from an extractive and quo tidian hafta to the redemptive patta, is the soteriology of third world dem ocracies, whose destitute urban spaces appear to be vast post-disaster reli ef camps, where the legal and the illegal bleed into each other.

About the Speaker:
Harish Naraindas is currently Professor of Sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Honorary Professor at the Alfred Deaki n Institute, Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University. He was adjun ct faculty at the University of Iowa (2004-19); visiting professor at the d epartment of sociology, University of Freiburg (2009); joint-appointments p rofessor of the Cluster of Excellence, South Asia Institute (SAI), Universi ty of Heidelberg (2008-12); and DAAD visiting professor at the SAI, Univers ity of Heidelberg, in 2017. He works on the history and sociology of scienc e and medicine and has published on a range of topics, including an epistem ological history of tropical medicine, a comparative history of smallpox fr om the 18th-20th century, on the creolisation of contemporary Ayurveda, on spa medicine in Germany, on pregnancy and childbirth within the context of competing medical epistemes, and recently on how anthropology attempts to e xplain the non-human. He is currently working on AyurGenomics and P4 medici ne; past-life aetiologies and therapeutic trance in German psychosomatic me dicine; a multi-sited study of perinatal loss and bereavement in the Anglop hone world; and a comparative study of alternative medicine and well-being in India and Switzerland. Among his recent publications are a co-edited spe cial issue of Anthropology and Medicine called ‘The fragile medical: the sl ippery terrain between medicine, anthropology and societies’ (2017), and tw o co-edited books: Healing holidays: itinerant patients, therapeutic locale s and the quest for health (London: Routledge, 2015), and Asymmetrical conv ersations: contestations, circumventions and the blurring of therapeutic bo undaries (New York: Berghahn, 2014).

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