Work in Contemporary South Asia

In our plenary we hope to draw on our ongoing research to suggest that a) in spite of the recent (and well-deserved) surge in South Asian urban studies it is crucial not to lose sight of changes in agrarian political economy and work relations; and b) ethnographic investigations remain of pivotal importance in generating fresh insights into ongoing transformations beyond familiar nostrums (such “neoliberalization”) that sometimes obscure more than they reveal.