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Papers by Snehashish Bhattacharya
Review of Political Economy
Development and Change
The severe economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global working population can be inter... more The severe economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global working population can be interpreted as both a fallout from, and a violent assertion of, a larger crisis in the world of work. While this crisis has been attributed to the pre-existing conditions of widespread informality and precarity in the domain of remunerative work, the authors of this article dig deeper to read these conditions and the crisis tendencies as articulations of certain key contradictions that define the world of work in the present conjuncture of global capitalism. The article highlights three specific contradictions: that between capital and labour in the 'interior' space of capital; that between capital and its 'outside'; and those emerging from 'dispersion' of the circuit of capital to its 'outside'. The 'outside' is the economic space that exists within the capitalist social formation but represents the domain of unwaged work carried out in the processes of non-capitalist production and distribution, both within and outside the space of the household. The authors argue that the expanded reproduction of capital has sharpened this triad of contradictions in the present conjuncture in specific ways in the global South and the global North through continuous informalization of work, exclusion of masses of population from the 'interior' domain of capital, and insistent dispersion of the circuit of capital to its 'outside' through various forms of 'non-standard' labour processes and work arrangements. The article provides some illustrations of how these processes have registered and contributed to the crisis situation in the times of the pandemic. PANDEMIC, CRISIS AND CONDITIONS OF INFORMALITY The expression 'crisis' is often used in popular discourse and scholarly imaginations to describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the All authors have contributed equally to this work. We thank the editor of this Forum issue and the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions on various drafts of the article.
Opportunities and Challenges in Development, 2019
The original version of the book was inadvertently published with an incorrect abstract in the Ch... more The original version of the book was inadvertently published with an incorrect abstract in the Chapter "Informality and Disaster Vulnerability: A Preliminary Exploration". The book has now been updated with the changes.
Opportunities and Challenges in Development, 2019
In this paper we argue that the vulnerability that arises from structural conditions of productio... more In this paper we argue that the vulnerability that arises from structural conditions of production and employment in the informal economy may also exacerbate the conditions of disaster vulnerability if and when an extreme natural event occurs. We further argue that given the heterogeneity within the informal spaces of production and exchange, heterogeneity may also arise in disaster experiences of people operating in these spaces. More specifically, the risk of experiencing exposure to adverse disaster conditions is reduced for people that are advantaged in the social relations of production and employment. We illustrate these arguments with evidences from Indonesia, a country where the informal sector is a major presence in the economy and natural disasters are frequent occurrences. We draw upon the third and fourth waves of the Indonesian Family Life Survey datasets for our study. In the light of our findings, we argue that ‘normal’ or everyday conditions of economic and social lives of people engaged in informal work formatively affect, and may even determine, their incidental vulnerability to disaster shocks. We maintain that extreme natural events get actualized as disaster phenomena only in the presence of specific social and structural phenomena. We posit, furthermore, that control over productive resources as well as over labor processes may play a fundamentally important role towards reducing people's disaster vulnerability.
This report is circumscribed in its aims, limiting itself to a subset of all that could be writte... more This report is circumscribed in its aims, limiting itself to a subset of all that could be written about the status and situation of Scheduled Tribes in India today. An introduction in chapter 1 sets out demographics of the tribal population and the characteristics of their habitat, predominantly in mainland India. In chapter 2, it set out how the colonial State constructed and codified the ‘tribal’ and the ‘tribal area’, with a narrative of a civilising mission thinly disguising instrumental forays to support the security and economic needs of the Empire. The post-colonial State begins with an isolationist stance, but quickly reverts to the mode of the colonial State. In chapter 3, the use of the same categories of the ‘tribal’ and the ‘tribal area’—ostensibly for progressive policies and special dispensation—but increasingly such categories are used to further an integrationist agenda whereby their ‘modernisation’ and ‘development’ is closely shadowed b...
The COVID-19 Pandemic, India and the World, 2021
Review of Radical Political Economics, 2020
We take off from the recent critiques of precarity as an emerging global phenomenon to argue that... more We take off from the recent critiques of precarity as an emerging global phenomenon to argue that the processes of precarity in the Global North and the Global South need to be analytically distinguished to bring forth their specificities. We further argue that such an analysis challenges the idea of development as transition, as is prevalent in much of the literature. We focus on the informal economy in India to show that the notion of precarity conceptually involves three distinct aspects of production and labor processes—“non-capitalist” petty commodity production (PCP), subcontracted PCP, and informal wage-labor. We argue that these dimensions have their own particularities that have distinct implications for the process of capitalist development in India. We contend that reproduction of these informal spaces during a period of high economic growth unsettles the imaginary of development as transition.
The European Journal of Development Research, 2019
We identify a basic dualism within the informal manufacturing sector (IMS) in India between a 'tr... more We identify a basic dualism within the informal manufacturing sector (IMS) in India between a 'traditional'/non-capitalist segment, comprising family-based household enterprises that constitute the vast majority of the IMS, and a segment of 'modern'/ capitalist enterprises employing wage labour. We focus on the high-growth decade of 2000-2001 to 2010-2011 to analyse whether there has been a marked tendency of this 'traditional' segment to transform into a 'modern' segment. We construct a variable, the net accumulation fund, which indicates the ability of an enterprise to accumulate and grow, and explore its evolution, over time and across industries, for enterprises with different production structures and firm-level characteristics. We show that while, on one hand, the average 'traditional' enterprise has been able to economically reproduce itself rather than withering away, the dualism between the 'traditional'/non-capitalist and the 'modern'/capitalist segments has been reproduced and further reinforced during this period of high economic growth, raising questions about the process of economic transformation as envisaged in much of development literature. Keywords Informal sector • Dualism • Structural transformation • Manufacturing • India Résumé Nous identifions un dualisme fondamental dans le secteur manufacturier informel (SMI) en Inde entre un segment "traditionnel"/non capitaliste, comprenant des entreprises familiales, basées sur le foyer, qui constituent la grande majorité du SMI, et un segment "moderne"/d'entreprises capitalistes employant de la main d'oeuvre salariée. Nous nous concentrons sur la décennie à forte croissance de 2000-01 à
Review of Radical Political Economics, 2018
We identify a basic dualism between capitalist and noncapitalist spaces within the vast informal ... more We identify a basic dualism between capitalist and noncapitalist spaces within the vast informal sector in India, and show that this dualism has been reproduced and reinforced during the past decade of high economic growth. This calls into question the idea of capitalist transition that informs much of the discourse on economic development. We provide some preliminary arguments about the nature of this dualism and the process of reproduction of the noncapitalist economic space. JEL Classifications: O14, O17, J46
Oxford Scholarship Online, 2017
Rural economic structure is witnessing incremental changes as a response to public policy interve... more Rural economic structure is witnessing incremental changes as a response to public policy interventions. One of the aspects of this change is the increasing importance of households who own land but do not cultivate the land constraining the long-term growth in the economy. The chapter, firstly, presents evidences (from secondary sources as well as primary survey in nine villages in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh) on the importance of noncultivating households owning land. Secondly, reasons for these households not to sell land are also presented. This chapter suggests two conditions, which encourage the growth of noncultivating households: increasing land prices and rental income earned by these households.
Development and Sustainability, 2013
... I thank the following individuals for being my friends: Dibyojyoti Banerjee, Krishanu Banerje... more ... I thank the following individuals for being my friends: Dibyojyoti Banerjee, Krishanu Banerjee, Rituparno Bhattacharyya, Biplab Bose, Mukul Das, Shakuntala Das, Sayan Das, Amrita DasMohapatra, Mousumi Duttaray, Biswajit Hazra, Aniruddha Page 11. viii ...
Review of Political Economy
Development and Change
The severe economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global working population can be inter... more The severe economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global working population can be interpreted as both a fallout from, and a violent assertion of, a larger crisis in the world of work. While this crisis has been attributed to the pre-existing conditions of widespread informality and precarity in the domain of remunerative work, the authors of this article dig deeper to read these conditions and the crisis tendencies as articulations of certain key contradictions that define the world of work in the present conjuncture of global capitalism. The article highlights three specific contradictions: that between capital and labour in the 'interior' space of capital; that between capital and its 'outside'; and those emerging from 'dispersion' of the circuit of capital to its 'outside'. The 'outside' is the economic space that exists within the capitalist social formation but represents the domain of unwaged work carried out in the processes of non-capitalist production and distribution, both within and outside the space of the household. The authors argue that the expanded reproduction of capital has sharpened this triad of contradictions in the present conjuncture in specific ways in the global South and the global North through continuous informalization of work, exclusion of masses of population from the 'interior' domain of capital, and insistent dispersion of the circuit of capital to its 'outside' through various forms of 'non-standard' labour processes and work arrangements. The article provides some illustrations of how these processes have registered and contributed to the crisis situation in the times of the pandemic. PANDEMIC, CRISIS AND CONDITIONS OF INFORMALITY The expression 'crisis' is often used in popular discourse and scholarly imaginations to describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the All authors have contributed equally to this work. We thank the editor of this Forum issue and the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions on various drafts of the article.
Opportunities and Challenges in Development, 2019
The original version of the book was inadvertently published with an incorrect abstract in the Ch... more The original version of the book was inadvertently published with an incorrect abstract in the Chapter "Informality and Disaster Vulnerability: A Preliminary Exploration". The book has now been updated with the changes.
Opportunities and Challenges in Development, 2019
In this paper we argue that the vulnerability that arises from structural conditions of productio... more In this paper we argue that the vulnerability that arises from structural conditions of production and employment in the informal economy may also exacerbate the conditions of disaster vulnerability if and when an extreme natural event occurs. We further argue that given the heterogeneity within the informal spaces of production and exchange, heterogeneity may also arise in disaster experiences of people operating in these spaces. More specifically, the risk of experiencing exposure to adverse disaster conditions is reduced for people that are advantaged in the social relations of production and employment. We illustrate these arguments with evidences from Indonesia, a country where the informal sector is a major presence in the economy and natural disasters are frequent occurrences. We draw upon the third and fourth waves of the Indonesian Family Life Survey datasets for our study. In the light of our findings, we argue that ‘normal’ or everyday conditions of economic and social lives of people engaged in informal work formatively affect, and may even determine, their incidental vulnerability to disaster shocks. We maintain that extreme natural events get actualized as disaster phenomena only in the presence of specific social and structural phenomena. We posit, furthermore, that control over productive resources as well as over labor processes may play a fundamentally important role towards reducing people's disaster vulnerability.
This report is circumscribed in its aims, limiting itself to a subset of all that could be writte... more This report is circumscribed in its aims, limiting itself to a subset of all that could be written about the status and situation of Scheduled Tribes in India today. An introduction in chapter 1 sets out demographics of the tribal population and the characteristics of their habitat, predominantly in mainland India. In chapter 2, it set out how the colonial State constructed and codified the ‘tribal’ and the ‘tribal area’, with a narrative of a civilising mission thinly disguising instrumental forays to support the security and economic needs of the Empire. The post-colonial State begins with an isolationist stance, but quickly reverts to the mode of the colonial State. In chapter 3, the use of the same categories of the ‘tribal’ and the ‘tribal area’—ostensibly for progressive policies and special dispensation—but increasingly such categories are used to further an integrationist agenda whereby their ‘modernisation’ and ‘development’ is closely shadowed b...
The COVID-19 Pandemic, India and the World, 2021
Review of Radical Political Economics, 2020
We take off from the recent critiques of precarity as an emerging global phenomenon to argue that... more We take off from the recent critiques of precarity as an emerging global phenomenon to argue that the processes of precarity in the Global North and the Global South need to be analytically distinguished to bring forth their specificities. We further argue that such an analysis challenges the idea of development as transition, as is prevalent in much of the literature. We focus on the informal economy in India to show that the notion of precarity conceptually involves three distinct aspects of production and labor processes—“non-capitalist” petty commodity production (PCP), subcontracted PCP, and informal wage-labor. We argue that these dimensions have their own particularities that have distinct implications for the process of capitalist development in India. We contend that reproduction of these informal spaces during a period of high economic growth unsettles the imaginary of development as transition.
The European Journal of Development Research, 2019
We identify a basic dualism within the informal manufacturing sector (IMS) in India between a 'tr... more We identify a basic dualism within the informal manufacturing sector (IMS) in India between a 'traditional'/non-capitalist segment, comprising family-based household enterprises that constitute the vast majority of the IMS, and a segment of 'modern'/ capitalist enterprises employing wage labour. We focus on the high-growth decade of 2000-2001 to 2010-2011 to analyse whether there has been a marked tendency of this 'traditional' segment to transform into a 'modern' segment. We construct a variable, the net accumulation fund, which indicates the ability of an enterprise to accumulate and grow, and explore its evolution, over time and across industries, for enterprises with different production structures and firm-level characteristics. We show that while, on one hand, the average 'traditional' enterprise has been able to economically reproduce itself rather than withering away, the dualism between the 'traditional'/non-capitalist and the 'modern'/capitalist segments has been reproduced and further reinforced during this period of high economic growth, raising questions about the process of economic transformation as envisaged in much of development literature. Keywords Informal sector • Dualism • Structural transformation • Manufacturing • India Résumé Nous identifions un dualisme fondamental dans le secteur manufacturier informel (SMI) en Inde entre un segment "traditionnel"/non capitaliste, comprenant des entreprises familiales, basées sur le foyer, qui constituent la grande majorité du SMI, et un segment "moderne"/d'entreprises capitalistes employant de la main d'oeuvre salariée. Nous nous concentrons sur la décennie à forte croissance de 2000-01 à
Review of Radical Political Economics, 2018
We identify a basic dualism between capitalist and noncapitalist spaces within the vast informal ... more We identify a basic dualism between capitalist and noncapitalist spaces within the vast informal sector in India, and show that this dualism has been reproduced and reinforced during the past decade of high economic growth. This calls into question the idea of capitalist transition that informs much of the discourse on economic development. We provide some preliminary arguments about the nature of this dualism and the process of reproduction of the noncapitalist economic space. JEL Classifications: O14, O17, J46
Oxford Scholarship Online, 2017
Rural economic structure is witnessing incremental changes as a response to public policy interve... more Rural economic structure is witnessing incremental changes as a response to public policy interventions. One of the aspects of this change is the increasing importance of households who own land but do not cultivate the land constraining the long-term growth in the economy. The chapter, firstly, presents evidences (from secondary sources as well as primary survey in nine villages in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh) on the importance of noncultivating households owning land. Secondly, reasons for these households not to sell land are also presented. This chapter suggests two conditions, which encourage the growth of noncultivating households: increasing land prices and rental income earned by these households.
Development and Sustainability, 2013
... I thank the following individuals for being my friends: Dibyojyoti Banerjee, Krishanu Banerje... more ... I thank the following individuals for being my friends: Dibyojyoti Banerjee, Krishanu Banerjee, Rituparno Bhattacharyya, Biplab Bose, Mukul Das, Shakuntala Das, Sayan Das, Amrita DasMohapatra, Mousumi Duttaray, Biswajit Hazra, Aniruddha Page 11. viii ...