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Papers by Leela Fernandes

Research paper thumbnail of 3. Transnational Economies of Representation and the Labor of the Traveling Subaltern

New York University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Development Policy of a Communist Government: West Bengal Since 1977. By Ross Mallick. Cambridge South Asian Studies 54. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. xiv, 236 pp. $59.95 (cloth). - Indian Communism: Opposition, Collaboration and Institutionalization. By Ross Mallick. Delhi: Oxford...

The Journal of Asian Studies, Nov 1, 1996

... The Left Front could not be credited with successful implementation of any program. ... to be... more ... The Left Front could not be credited with successful implementation of any program. ... to be the bureaucratic line."7 Though Dr. Sarkar's thesis/book on West Bengal land reform is the ... experience in the field, have been discounted despite their access to material far exceeding that ...

Research paper thumbnail of India's new middle class: democratic politics in an era of economic reform

Choice Reviews Online, May 1, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Postcolonial Improvisations on Orientalism: A Hindu Epic Goes Prime Time

Research paper thumbnail of Transnational feminism in the United States : knowledge, ethics, and power

New York University Press eBooks, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of 1. Introduction

New York University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Transnational Feminism in the United States: Knowledge, Ethics, Power

Research paper thumbnail of 7. Afterword

New York University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of 1. Conceptualizing the Post- Liberalization State

New York University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2020

<p>This essay presents the theoretical framework for understanding state power in the conte... more <p>This essay presents the theoretical framework for understanding state power in the context of policies of economic liberalization that are associated with the paradigm of neoliberalism. It specifically develops a conceptualization of the post-liberalization state that moves beyond assumptions that the neoliberal state is one that has necessarily weakened or retreated. The post-liberalization state is defined by shifting boundaries between state, market, and civil society that are contingent on the political, social, and economic circumstances within nations while also being shaped by transnational processes. These boundaries are shaped as much by historical continuities with older formations such as the developmental state and the racial state as they are with new modes of power. Through this focus on the state, the essay seeks to disrupt the conflation between neoliberalism and processes of privatization and the dominance of market rationalities. An understanding of the post-liberalization period in the twenty-first century requires analyses that also foreground questions of how conceptions of "publicness" are reconstituted and deployed, how states shape economic policy and contribute to the reproduction of inequality, and how political and social consent to structures of exclusion are produced and disrupted by social movements.</p>

Research paper thumbnail of The gendered worlds of class and community in India: the politics of organized labor in the West Bengal jute mills

Research paper thumbnail of Producing Workers: The Politics of Gender, Class, and Culture in the Calcutta Jute Mills

Research paper thumbnail of 8. Toward a Feminist Analytic of the Post- Liberalization State

Feminists Rethink the Neoliberal State, 2018

This chapter presents an overview of the feminist analytic of the post-liberalization state as de... more This chapter presents an overview of the feminist analytic of the post-liberalization state as developed in this volume. It develops a feminist materialist approach that addresses the complexities and contradictions of the policies, ideologies, and practices associated with contemporary neoliberalism. This approach rests on an integrated analysis of discursive and nondiscursive practices and addresses the interconnections between inequalities such as gender, race, caste, sexuality, and class. From this materialist feminist perspective, the discursive regimes that shape policies of market liberalization often rest on a paradox. If a materialist feminist analysis necessitates that we pay attention to complex dynamics of race, sexuality, class, and national context, these discursive regimes are also invested in liberal narratives of women’s empowerment that invoke a homogeneous category of “woman.” This category thus becomes a key component of the developmental dimensions of market lib...

Research paper thumbnail of In the Name of the Public: The Middle Classes and the State in Liberalizing India

Papeles del CEIC: International Journal on Collective Identity Research, Mar 27, 2023

This article analyzes the political dynamics of middle class claims of representativeness of the ... more This article analyzes the political dynamics of middle class claims of representativeness of the public interest in contemporary India. Drawing on research in the post-liberalization period, the article examines the ways in which the &quot;publicness&quot; of the middle classes produces a distinctive relationship between this social group and state power. In the process, the middle classes both become a vehicle for the exercise of state power and are able to benefit from this relationship. Middle class claims on the public interest allow this social group to shape governmental responses and policies. This allows this social group to gain indirect access to state power and access to material resources. An analysis of the publicness of the middle classes is critical for an understanding of the nature of socioeconomic inequality. The article draws on a case study of urban governance and water resources in contemporary India and is based on qualitative research and fieldwork.

Research paper thumbnail of IN THE NAME OF THE PUBLIC: THE MIDDLE CLASSES AND THE STATE IN LIBERALIZING INDIA

Papeles del CEUC: International Journal on Collective Identity, 2023

This article analyzes the political dynamics of middle class claims of representativeness of the ... more This article analyzes the political dynamics of middle class claims of representativeness of the public interest in contemporary India. Drawing on research in the post-liberalization period, the article examines the ways in which the "publicness" of the middle classes produces a distinctive relationship between this social group and state power. In the process, the middle classes both become a vehicle for the exercise of state power and are able to benefit from this relationship. Middle class claims on the public interest allow this social group to shape governmental responses and policies. This allows this social group to gain indirect access to state power and access to material resources. An analysis of the publicness of the middle classes is critical for an understanding of the nature of socioeconomic inequality. The article draws on a case study of urban governance and water resources in contemporary India and is based on qualitative research and fieldwork.

Research paper thumbnail of Contesting class: Gender, community, and the politics of labor in a Calcutta Jute Mill

Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 1994

Research paper thumbnail of 6. Race, Transnational Feminism, and Paradigms of Difference

Transnational Feminism in the United States, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of 2. U.S. State Practices and the Rhetoric of Human Rights

Transnational Feminism in the United States, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of 4. Regimes of Visibility and Transnational Feminist Knowledge

Transnational Feminism in the United States, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Transnational feminism in the United States: knowledge, ethics, power

Journal of Gender Studies, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of India’s Middle Classes in Contemporary India

Routledge Handbook of Contemporary India, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of 3. Transnational Economies of Representation and the Labor of the Traveling Subaltern

New York University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Development Policy of a Communist Government: West Bengal Since 1977. By Ross Mallick. Cambridge South Asian Studies 54. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. xiv, 236 pp. $59.95 (cloth). - Indian Communism: Opposition, Collaboration and Institutionalization. By Ross Mallick. Delhi: Oxford...

The Journal of Asian Studies, Nov 1, 1996

... The Left Front could not be credited with successful implementation of any program. ... to be... more ... The Left Front could not be credited with successful implementation of any program. ... to be the bureaucratic line.&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;7 Though Dr. Sarkar&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;s thesis/book on West Bengal land reform is the ... experience in the field, have been discounted despite their access to material far exceeding that ...

Research paper thumbnail of India's new middle class: democratic politics in an era of economic reform

Choice Reviews Online, May 1, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Postcolonial Improvisations on Orientalism: A Hindu Epic Goes Prime Time

Research paper thumbnail of Transnational feminism in the United States : knowledge, ethics, and power

New York University Press eBooks, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of 1. Introduction

New York University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Transnational Feminism in the United States: Knowledge, Ethics, Power

Research paper thumbnail of 7. Afterword

New York University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of 1. Conceptualizing the Post- Liberalization State

New York University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2020

<p>This essay presents the theoretical framework for understanding state power in the conte... more <p>This essay presents the theoretical framework for understanding state power in the context of policies of economic liberalization that are associated with the paradigm of neoliberalism. It specifically develops a conceptualization of the post-liberalization state that moves beyond assumptions that the neoliberal state is one that has necessarily weakened or retreated. The post-liberalization state is defined by shifting boundaries between state, market, and civil society that are contingent on the political, social, and economic circumstances within nations while also being shaped by transnational processes. These boundaries are shaped as much by historical continuities with older formations such as the developmental state and the racial state as they are with new modes of power. Through this focus on the state, the essay seeks to disrupt the conflation between neoliberalism and processes of privatization and the dominance of market rationalities. An understanding of the post-liberalization period in the twenty-first century requires analyses that also foreground questions of how conceptions of "publicness" are reconstituted and deployed, how states shape economic policy and contribute to the reproduction of inequality, and how political and social consent to structures of exclusion are produced and disrupted by social movements.</p>

Research paper thumbnail of The gendered worlds of class and community in India: the politics of organized labor in the West Bengal jute mills

Research paper thumbnail of Producing Workers: The Politics of Gender, Class, and Culture in the Calcutta Jute Mills

Research paper thumbnail of 8. Toward a Feminist Analytic of the Post- Liberalization State

Feminists Rethink the Neoliberal State, 2018

This chapter presents an overview of the feminist analytic of the post-liberalization state as de... more This chapter presents an overview of the feminist analytic of the post-liberalization state as developed in this volume. It develops a feminist materialist approach that addresses the complexities and contradictions of the policies, ideologies, and practices associated with contemporary neoliberalism. This approach rests on an integrated analysis of discursive and nondiscursive practices and addresses the interconnections between inequalities such as gender, race, caste, sexuality, and class. From this materialist feminist perspective, the discursive regimes that shape policies of market liberalization often rest on a paradox. If a materialist feminist analysis necessitates that we pay attention to complex dynamics of race, sexuality, class, and national context, these discursive regimes are also invested in liberal narratives of women’s empowerment that invoke a homogeneous category of “woman.” This category thus becomes a key component of the developmental dimensions of market lib...

Research paper thumbnail of In the Name of the Public: The Middle Classes and the State in Liberalizing India

Papeles del CEIC: International Journal on Collective Identity Research, Mar 27, 2023

This article analyzes the political dynamics of middle class claims of representativeness of the ... more This article analyzes the political dynamics of middle class claims of representativeness of the public interest in contemporary India. Drawing on research in the post-liberalization period, the article examines the ways in which the &quot;publicness&quot; of the middle classes produces a distinctive relationship between this social group and state power. In the process, the middle classes both become a vehicle for the exercise of state power and are able to benefit from this relationship. Middle class claims on the public interest allow this social group to shape governmental responses and policies. This allows this social group to gain indirect access to state power and access to material resources. An analysis of the publicness of the middle classes is critical for an understanding of the nature of socioeconomic inequality. The article draws on a case study of urban governance and water resources in contemporary India and is based on qualitative research and fieldwork.

Research paper thumbnail of IN THE NAME OF THE PUBLIC: THE MIDDLE CLASSES AND THE STATE IN LIBERALIZING INDIA

Papeles del CEUC: International Journal on Collective Identity, 2023

This article analyzes the political dynamics of middle class claims of representativeness of the ... more This article analyzes the political dynamics of middle class claims of representativeness of the public interest in contemporary India. Drawing on research in the post-liberalization period, the article examines the ways in which the "publicness" of the middle classes produces a distinctive relationship between this social group and state power. In the process, the middle classes both become a vehicle for the exercise of state power and are able to benefit from this relationship. Middle class claims on the public interest allow this social group to shape governmental responses and policies. This allows this social group to gain indirect access to state power and access to material resources. An analysis of the publicness of the middle classes is critical for an understanding of the nature of socioeconomic inequality. The article draws on a case study of urban governance and water resources in contemporary India and is based on qualitative research and fieldwork.

Research paper thumbnail of Contesting class: Gender, community, and the politics of labor in a Calcutta Jute Mill

Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 1994

Research paper thumbnail of 6. Race, Transnational Feminism, and Paradigms of Difference

Transnational Feminism in the United States, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of 2. U.S. State Practices and the Rhetoric of Human Rights

Transnational Feminism in the United States, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of 4. Regimes of Visibility and Transnational Feminist Knowledge

Transnational Feminism in the United States, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Transnational feminism in the United States: knowledge, ethics, power

Journal of Gender Studies, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of India’s Middle Classes in Contemporary India

Routledge Handbook of Contemporary India, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Governing Water in India

University of Washington Press, 2022

Intensifying droughts and competing pressures on water resources foreground water scarcity as an ... more Intensifying droughts and competing pressures on water resources foreground water scarcity as an urgent concern of the global climate change crisis. In India, individual, industrial, and agricultural water demands exacerbate inequities of access and expose the failures of state governance to regulate use. State policies and institutions influenced by global models of reform produce and magnify socio-economic injustice in this "water bureaucracy."

Drawing on historical records, an analysis of post-liberalization developments, and fieldwork in the city of Chennai, Leela Fernandes traces the configuration of colonial historical legacies, developmental-state policies, and economic reforms that strain water resources and intensify inequality. While reforms of water governance promote privatization and decentralization, they strengthen the state centralized control over water through city-based development models. Understanding the political economy of water thus illuminates the consequent failures of the state within countries of the Global South.

Research paper thumbnail of Papel 277. Artículo Monográfico. En nombre de lo público: las clases medias y el estado en una India liberal

Este artículo analiza la dinámica política de las pretensiones de la clase media de representar e... more Este artículo analiza la dinámica política de las pretensiones de la clase media de representar el interés público en la India contemporánea. Basándose en investigaciones realizadas en el periodo posterior a la liberalización del país, el artículo examina las formas en que el «carácter público» de las clases medias produce una relación distintiva entre este grupo social y el poder estatal. En el proceso, las clases medias se convierten en un vehículo para el ejercicio del poder estatal y pueden beneficiarse de esa relación. Las reivindicaciones de las clases medias sobre el interés público permiten a este grupo social dar forma a las respuestas y políticas gubernamentales. Esto permite a este grupo social acceder indirectamente al poder estatal y a los recursos materiales. El análisis del carácter público de las clases medias es fundamental para comprender la naturaleza de la desigualdad socioeconómica. El artículo se basa en un estudio de caso sobre la gobernanza urbana y los recursos hídricos en la India contemporánea a través de investigación y trabajo de campo cualitativo.