Subaltern Studies, Postcolonial Theory and Communism

Mannathukkaren, Nissim

doi:10.4324/9781003195795-2

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Where I differ from Castells is in his reductive emphasis on the state’s welfare function as a design to ‘pacify the population’ and produce a ‘acquiescent’ labour force (Warde 2016, 4). Welfare is not just about pacification of labour (even when it might have such consequences); on the contrary, the state has also been forced to perform welfare functions because of intense democratic pressures from below (which vary from region to region) (see Mannathukkaren 2021). As we will see, collective consumption is a major means for gaining mobility and overcoming historic oppression for the lowest castes.…”

Section: The State and Collective Consumptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Kerala, a state in India, is a celebrated case in social sciences and development literature for its substantial successes in human development and the construction of a democratic welfare state 1 . The role of socialism/communism in this transformation has also been well studied (see Heller 1999; Mannathukkaren 2013, 2021). 2 It is an achievement for a ‘Third World’ society, with low levels of income, to match the human development standards of the Global North.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

‘Enjoying life’: Consumption, changing meanings, and social differentiation in Kerala, India

Mannathukkaren

2023

Mod. Asian Stud.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Kerala is a well-recognized ‘model’ of human development in the world. In this article, I look at a crucial aspect of this development, which is often approached in a positivist fashion of statistical aggregation alone: consumption. Instead, there is a need to study the meanings that surround it. I delineate the many forces, particularly the new material infrastructure, that have driven consumption in the last three decades, especially the last one. With increasing integration into global market forces through migration and investment, and cultural imaginations, I show that there is a tectonic change in consciousness about consumption, marked by fantasies, desires, and, contrarily, feelings of excess and ambivalence. I argue that the non-market sector has also played an important role in consumption. There is an increasing generalization of certain ideas about consumption as well as disenchantments across classes. But critically, I contend, there are caste, class, and gender disparities in consumption as well as differences in the meanings attributed to it. Thus, consumption is a socially meaningful, but discrepant, space. This article is based on fieldwork conducted in a town in central Kerala, supplemented with quantitative data.

show abstract

Section: The State and Collective Consumptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%