CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2016
| Author | Kaliyanda, Kaveri Medappa |
|---|---|
| Title | Gendered Cityscape: Neoliberal Urban Restructuring and the Everyday Lives of Street Based Workers in Bangalore, India |
| Summary | In this thesis, I study the transformation of Bangalore, India through the everyday experiences of certain street based workers – sex workers, street vendors and pourakarmikas. Using interviews and participant observation methods, I learn and make known the meanings that the respondents, a majority of whom are women, make, of their changing experiences in a city which is increasingly becoming a space of exclusion and dispossession through processes of ‘development’ and neoliberalization. By using gender as an analytical category, I argue that a process of feminization is being deliberately devised against these communities who perform reproductive labour for the city. I show how it is on this purposeful devalorization of the communities’ performing reproductive labour, that the so called productive economy builds its edifice. Violence emerges as another means of devaluing not only their work but also their intersecting identities embodied by belonging to a certain class, caste and gender. I argue that certain civil society groups working together with state apparatuses use violence to “other” these communities thereby working to exclude and marginalize them. However, the need for violence against these communities is also suggestive of the contestation and defiance demonstrated by those who are dominated, against the systems and structures that work in marginalizing them. By highlighting the constructedness of seemingly natural hierarchies, this thesis hopes to contribute to feminist scholarship and praxis by unraveling the connections which keep functional, structures of exploitation in neoliberal cities. This analysis can contribute to feminist urban studies literature and can be utilized by activist groups in the city and outside, not only in working towards achieving more equitable cities but also in becoming more aware of the pervasiveness of gender relations in our everyday lives at multiple levels. |
| Supervisor | Sara Meger |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2016/kaliyanda_kaveri.pdf |
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