[Reader-list] [Fwdfyi: Transit Labour Kolkata Platform - Program 1-10 September 2011

[Patrice Riemens]

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Transit-labour investigates changing patterns of labour and mobility in
the whirlwind of Asian capitalist transformation. Mindful of the view of
Asia as the world's factory, this three year research project examines the
role of creativity, invention and knowledge production in the new economic
order being forged from the region's capitalist centres. Particular
attention is given to changing relations of culture and economy in this
transition and their entanglement with the production of new
subjectivities and modalities of labour.

The research focuses on the precariousness and mobility of creative labour
across three cities: Shanghai (2010), Kolkata (2011) and Sydney (2012).
Each of these cities is the site of a research platform that combines
online and offline methods to map conceptual and material linkages between
labour, mobility and subjectivity. Based on previous research conducted in
Beijing (http://orgnets.net), these platforms gather researchers from
across the world bringing them into collaborative relations with local
participants through workshops, field trips, symposia, exhibitions,
mailing lists, website documentation and the preparation of publications.

The project's interest is not merely in the transition of labour and
culture in each individual city. Recognizing that the regional scale has
become decisive in the world today, it places methodological emphasis on
processes of inter-referencing between the research sites. This website is
a principal research instrument for such inter-referencing. Fleeing the
self-referential universe of social networking, it provides an environment
for collaborative invention and the common production of knowledge. It is
at once an open archive of research activities and a means of organizing
them.

Creative labour refers not only to work in the creative and cultural
sectors: music and performing arts; film, television and radio; software
development and multimedia; writing, publishing and print media;
architecture, design and visual arts. It also encompasses the various
forms of service labour that feed into and enable work in these fields.
Transit-labour conducts research that tests the boundaries between these
forms of work. By tracing conceptual interconnections between the
conditions of creative labour in Shanghai, Kolkata and Sydney, the project
also aims to rethink how global regions are configured under current
economic and social circumstances.

At a time when market rights interfere with territorially-based forms of
citizenship, the effects of national creative enterprises are by no means
confined by national borders. The project explores how changing patterns
of economic, geographic and social flexibility (including labour
migrations) are generating new forms and practices of governance in the
Asian region (and how regionalism is redefined through such
transformations). The role of borders, both those that traverse political
spaces and those that define their edges, is crucial to understanding the
theoretical and practical linkages between labour, mobility and
subjectivity.

At the regional scale, it is possible to observe the emergence of
production regimes that exploit differences between labour conditions in
various territorial zones, leading to hierarchically organized regimes of
labour mobility and attempts to coordinate and manage these mobilities
through market, border and zoning technologies. The analysis of such
differentially organized systems of inclusion and mobility is also a part
of the project. Set against the rapid expansion of communication and
information technologies, the re-ordering of intellectual property and
conflicts in the production of knowledge, transit-labour probes these
transformations to discern future tendencies of social, economic and
political organization.



Transit Labour Kolkata Platform
http://transitlabour.asia/events/calform

Program

1-10 September 2011

31 August: Arrivals

1 September
10.00-13.00: Visit to Sector 5, walk around areas surrounding Wipro,
Cognizant and Tata Consultancy Services (accompanied by Ishita Dey)

15.30-17.30: Discussion at Calcutta Research Group office (Mainak
Biswas will show his film Sthaniyo Sangbad to the team. Barun De will
be the moderator.)

2 September
10.00-13.00: Visit to Rajarhat, enter via Sector 5, stop at key sites
for discussions with Suhit and Ishita (Pradip Kumar Bose will
accompany the team)

15.30-17.30: Discussion at CRG office (Nilotpal Datta and his co-
workers from the Rajarhat Jami Bachao Committee will be there for the
discussion.)

3 September
10.00-14.00: Visit to Bhangar, return via Rajarhat passing by Vedic
Village, stop at key sites for discussions. (Rajat Kanti Sur and
Agnibho Gangopadhyay will accompany the team)

15.30-17.30: Discussion at CRG office (Keya Dasgupta and members of
Nagarik Mancha will be the discussants)

4 September: Rest (river boat trip)

5 September
10.00-15.00: Visit to West End (Kolkata International Logistics City,
Kolkata West International City), return via port and visit e-waste
sites (Khidirpur and Chandni Chawk). (Samaresh Guchait and Ishita Dey
will accompany the team)

6 September: Transit Labour Workshop 9.30-5.30
Venue: Swabhumi Heritage Plaza

Transit Labour Kolkata Workshop
http://transitlabour.asia/events/workshop

9.30-10 a.m. – Registration and Tea

10-11.a.m. – Session I
(Chair: Brett Neilson)
Rajarhat: Configurations of Labour and Space
Short presentations by Ishita Dey, Suhit K Sen, Ranabir Sammadar

11-11.30 p.m. – Tea

11.30 a.m.-12.30 p.m. – Session II
Discussion on Rajarhat New Town

12.30-1.30 p.m. – Lunch

1.30-3.00 p.m. – Session III
(Chair:  Ned Rossiter)
Discussion on Other New Towns – Mumbai, Delhi, and Hyderabad
Initiated By Sharit Bhaumik, Mouleshri Vyas, Remesh Babu, and C.
Ramachandraiah

3 – 3.30 PM – Tea

3.30 – 4.30 PM - Session IV
(Chair: Sandro Mezzadra)
Comparative discussion involving the Chinese experience in the Transit
Labour project

4.30 – 5.30 PM – Session V
Film Screening

7 September: Round Table on Part Eight of Capital, Vol. 1 ‘So-Called
Primitive Accumulation’ (Chapters 26-33) 17.00-19.00
Venue: Conference Room, Pearl Hotel

Chair: Pradip Kumar Bose

Participants: Ranabir Samaddar, Sandro Mezzadra, Brett Neilson

40 minute presentation (each for 10 minutes), followed by 80 minutes
of discussion

Followed by conference opening dinner

8-10 September: 4th Critical Studies Conference – Development,
Logistics, Governance
Venue: Academy of Fine Arts





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