Calcutta's hand-pulled rickshaws: cultural politics and place making in a globalizing city.(Report)(Author abstract): An article from: The Geographical Review
Book Details
Author(s)Shireen Hyrapiet, Alyson L. Greiner
PublisherAmerican Geographical Society
ISBN / ASINB00ABBQM1E
ISBN-13978B00ABBQM19
MarketplaceFrance 🇫🇷
Description
This digital document is an article from The Geographical Review, published by American Geographical Society on October 1, 2012. The length of the article is 7889 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
From the author: For more than a century, hand-pulled rickshaws have been a prominent part of Calcutta's cityscape. Under the veil of modernization, progress, and globalization, however, the government of West Bengal State declared that rickshaws cause traffic congestion and constitute an exploitative use of human labor. Yet, despite the government-imposed ban, rickshaws continue to ply the streets of central Calcutta. Based on interviews with rickshaw owners, operators, public officials, and local residents, we examine the cultural politics surrounding rickshaw pulling in Calcutta. This article shows that the rickshaw wallahs (pullers), who operate as part of the informal economy, provide an expansive range of services not limited to transportation. Indeed, the rickshaw wallahs form an integral part of Calcutta's social fabric, having made a place for themselves by facilitating social interaction and challenging hegemonic ideas and practices about who belongs where. Keywords: Calcutta, cultural politics, informal economy, Kolkata, place making, rickshaws.
Citation Details
Title: Calcutta's hand-pulled rickshaws: cultural politics and place making in a globalizing city.(Report)(Author abstract)
Author: Shireen Hyrapiet
Publication:The Geographical Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2012
Publisher: American Geographical Society
Volume: 102 Issue: 4 Page: 407(20)
Article Type: Author abstract, Report
Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning
From the author: For more than a century, hand-pulled rickshaws have been a prominent part of Calcutta's cityscape. Under the veil of modernization, progress, and globalization, however, the government of West Bengal State declared that rickshaws cause traffic congestion and constitute an exploitative use of human labor. Yet, despite the government-imposed ban, rickshaws continue to ply the streets of central Calcutta. Based on interviews with rickshaw owners, operators, public officials, and local residents, we examine the cultural politics surrounding rickshaw pulling in Calcutta. This article shows that the rickshaw wallahs (pullers), who operate as part of the informal economy, provide an expansive range of services not limited to transportation. Indeed, the rickshaw wallahs form an integral part of Calcutta's social fabric, having made a place for themselves by facilitating social interaction and challenging hegemonic ideas and practices about who belongs where. Keywords: Calcutta, cultural politics, informal economy, Kolkata, place making, rickshaws.
Citation Details
Title: Calcutta's hand-pulled rickshaws: cultural politics and place making in a globalizing city.(Report)(Author abstract)
Author: Shireen Hyrapiet
Publication:The Geographical Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2012
Publisher: American Geographical Society
Volume: 102 Issue: 4 Page: 407(20)
Article Type: Author abstract, Report
Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning
