[Reader-list] On (Pakistani) Preacarity

[Awadhendra Sharan]

Hi Monica,

Adding to Rehan's:

For most people in the 'third world' precariousness has historically 
been the defining character of existence, in colonial and post-colonial 
times.  The question then is not whether there is a greater uncertainty 
now and whether there has been a breakdown of a presumed consensus, but 
whether we now witness a new set of interactions between the forms/ 
strategies of negotiating uncertainty. 

If one extends Partha Chatterjee's argument that modernity and democracy 
have often been in conflict in most of the world, one may suggest that 
welfare for most parts of the world was indeed about maintaining 
uncertainties and yet providing for welfare goods - say electricity to 
illegal settlements. It is this political arrangement that is now in 
question, ironically through the search for greater certainty and 
formalisation (from the left and the right).

Dipu

rehan ansari wrote:

>Hi Monica, all,
>
>When did "we" become (Western) European?
>
>The only (Western) Europeans we know are in Islamabad,
>as donors and journalists, these days defining,
>refining, finding and funding "devolution," (our
>social and democratic norm).
>
>best,
>
>Rehan
>
>
>--- Monica Narula <monica at sarai.net> wrote:
>
>  
>
>>With the crumbling of social democratic guarantees
>>of the post-WW2 
>>consensus in western europe, a new social landscape
>>is emerging and 
>>finding its own conceptual self articulation. This
>>condition of the 
>>present has been termed precariousness/precarity. We
>>are the 
>>'precariat' :-)!
>>
>>Below are some links:
>>http://republicart.net/disc/precariat/index.htm
>>
>>http://www.euromayday.org/lang_eng.html
>>
>>
>>    
>>
>http://www.metamute.com/look/issue.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=1&NrIssue=29
>  
>
>>best
>>M
>>-- 
>>Monica Narula [Raqs Media Collective]
>>Sarai-CSDS
>>29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054
>>www.raqsmediacollective.net
>>www.sarai.net
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>>
>
>
>
>		
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