scholarly journals Socio-Political Imaginings of the Kolkata Maidan

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shreyasi Pal
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Political Imagination ◽  
Liberal State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Sports Clubs ◽  
Partition Of India ◽  
A Site ◽  
British Colonies

<p>The legacy of colonial spatial hegemony in Kolkata is investigated here with focus on the idea of <i>public </i>space particularly, the open <i>maidan</i>, defined by predominantly colonial buildings. This former centrepiece of British spatial expression of authority and pomp is appropriated by diverse uses but the edges can be read as a built record of the city’s tryst with colonial rule for 200 years. Evolving from a strictly Palladian palette to a more accommodating Imperial Indo-Saracenic, the continuity of colonial vocabulary is only rarely broken by modern buildings. Parallel situations in other British colonies e.g. the <i>padang</i> in Singapore, have undergone considerable redefinition and re-articulation, often consciously undermining the erstwhile hegemonic position. The paper would trace the ambivalent image of the <i>maidan</i> over the years, to uncover, albeit partially, the patterns to which the colonial, post-colonial and even the neo-liberal State limits itself in imagining this heterogeneous space. </p> <p> </p> <p>The evolving socio-political imagination of the <i>maidan</i> and in that the cityscape would be traced on the basis of how media has captured it at critical historical junctures, the samples varying across time and across media. <i>Maidan</i> as a backdrop of riots, rallies and atrocious human sufferings in the wake of the Partition of India would be captured from newspaper clippings and narratives. Post-independence nation coming to terms with modernization and subsequent characterization of the <i>maidan</i> as a site for civic unrest, a first of a kind public space for sports clubs, picnics, fairs- an embodiment of personal freedom- the urban other- would be understood from stills from Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy and the Calcutta Trilogy. The attempt here would be to look for broader patterns of postcolonial urbanism by specific focus on evolving socio-political re-imaginings of colonial urban public spaces.</p>

scholarly journals Socio-Political Imaginings of the Kolkata Maidan

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shreyasi Pal
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Political Imagination ◽  
Liberal State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Sports Clubs ◽  
Partition Of India ◽  
A Site ◽  
British Colonies

<p>The legacy of colonial spatial hegemony in Kolkata is investigated here with focus on the idea of <i>public </i>space particularly, the open <i>maidan</i>, defined by predominantly colonial buildings. This former centrepiece of British spatial expression of authority and pomp is appropriated by diverse uses but the edges can be read as a built record of the city’s tryst with colonial rule for 200 years. Evolving from a strictly Palladian palette to a more accommodating Imperial Indo-Saracenic, the continuity of colonial vocabulary is only rarely broken by modern buildings. Parallel situations in other British colonies e.g. the <i>padang</i> in Singapore, have undergone considerable redefinition and re-articulation, often consciously undermining the erstwhile hegemonic position. The paper would trace the ambivalent image of the <i>maidan</i> over the years, to uncover, albeit partially, the patterns to which the colonial, post-colonial and even the neo-liberal State limits itself in imagining this heterogeneous space. </p> <p> </p> <p>The evolving socio-political imagination of the <i>maidan</i> and in that the cityscape would be traced on the basis of how media has captured it at critical historical junctures, the samples varying across time and across media. <i>Maidan</i> as a backdrop of riots, rallies and atrocious human sufferings in the wake of the Partition of India would be captured from newspaper clippings and narratives. Post-independence nation coming to terms with modernization and subsequent characterization of the <i>maidan</i> as a site for civic unrest, a first of a kind public space for sports clubs, picnics, fairs- an embodiment of personal freedom- the urban other- would be understood from stills from Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy and the Calcutta Trilogy. The attempt here would be to look for broader patterns of postcolonial urbanism by specific focus on evolving socio-political re-imaginings of colonial urban public spaces.</p>

scholarly journals On the move in the (post)colonial metropolis: The Paris Metro in Francophone African and Afrodiasporic fiction

Urban Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004209802110539
Author(s):  
Anna-Leena Toivanen
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Literary Representations ◽  
Urban Experience ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Public ◽  
A Site

Literary texts convey the complexities of the urban experience in a tangible way. While there is a wide body of work on literary representations of Paris, the role of public transport as part of the (postcolonial) urban experience has not received much attention. This article sets out to analyse the meanings of the mobile public space comprising the Paris Metro in Francophone African and Afrodiasporic literary texts from the mid-20th century to the 2010s. The reading demonstrates how the texts represent the public space of the Metro as a symbol of modernity, a space of disappointment and alienation, an embodiment of social inequalities and as a site of convivial encounters and claims of agency. Through this analysis, the article highlights the role of literature in elucidating the intertwinement of mobility, public space and postcolonial urbanity.

Dark Portrayal of Gender: A Post-colonial Feminist Reflection of Bapsi Sidhwa’s The Pakistani Bride and The Ice-candy Man

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 81-88
Author(s):  
Sayan Mukherjee
Keyword(s):  
Postcolonial Literature ◽  
Local Culture ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Postcolonial Feminism ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Economic Parameters ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
British Colonies

The portrayals of women by fiction writers of Indian sub-continent can be seen in the context of postcolonial feminism. Sidhwa’s novels may be a part of postcolonial fiction, which is fiction produced mostly in the former British colonies. As Bill Ashcroft suggests in The Empire Writes Back, the literatures produced in these areas are mostly a reaction against the negative portrayals of the local culture by the literatures produced in these areas are mostly a reaction against the negative portrayals of the local culture by the colonizers. About the role of postcolonial literature with respect to feminism, Ashcroft writes, “Literature offers one of the most important ways in which these new perceptions are expressed and it is in their writings and through other arts such as paintings sculpture, music, and dance that today realities experienced by the colonized peoples have been most powerfully encoded and so profoundly influential.” Indian sub-continent fiction is the continuation and extension of the fiction produced under the colonial rulers in undivided India. As such it has inherited all the pros and cons of the fiction in India before the end of colonial rule in Indo-Pak. Feminism has been one part of this larger body of literature. Sidhwa has portrayed the lives of Pakistani women in dark shades under the imposing role of religious, social, and economic parameters. These roles presented in The Pakistani Bride and The Ice-Candy Man are partly traditional and partly modern – the realities women face.

Subversive Mobilities

Transfers ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikkel Thelle
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Public Action ◽  
History Of ◽  
Urban Conflict

The article approaches mobility through a cultural history of urban conflict. Using a case of “The Copenhagen Trouble,“ a series of riots in the Danish capital around 1900, a space of subversive mobilities is delineated. These turn-of-the-century riots points to a new pattern of mobile gathering, the swarm; to a new aspect of public action, the staging; and to new ways of configuring public space. These different components indicate an urban assemblage of subversion, and a new characterization of the “throwntogetherness“ of the modern public.

An Example to Us All: Child Development and Identity Construction in Early 20th-Century Playgrounds

10.1068/a3237 ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 599-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A Gagen
Keyword(s):  
Child Development ◽  
Public Space ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Development Theory ◽  
Gender Identities ◽  
Construction Of Identity ◽  
A Site ◽  
Us Cities

At the turn of the 20th century, children's play came under new and heightened scrutiny by urban reformers. As conditions in US cities threatened traditional notions of order, reformers sought new ways to direct urban-social development. In this paper I explore playground reform as an institutional response that aimed to produce and promote ideal gender identities in children. Supervised summer playgrounds were established across the United States as a means of drawing children off the street and into a corrective environment. Drawing from literature published by the Playground Association of America and a case study of playground management in Cambridge, MA, I explore playground training as a means of constructing gender identities in and through public space. Playground reformers asserted, drawing from child development theory, that the child's body was a conduit through which ‘inner’ identity surfaced. The child's body became a site through which gender identities could be both monitored and produced, compelling reformers to locate playgrounds in public, visible settings. Reformers' conviction that exposing girls to public vision threatened their development motivated a series of spatial restrictions. Whereas boys were unambiguously displayed to public audiences, girls' playgrounds were organised to accommodate this fear. Playground reformers' shrewd spatial tactics exemplify the ways in which institutional authorities conceive of and deploy space toward the construction of identity.

Subalternity and Entrepreneurship

2007 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 251-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virgil Henry Storr ◽  
Bridget Butkevich
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Formal And Informal Institutions ◽  
Economic Culture ◽  
Black Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurs are cultural creatures and culture affects how they conceive their opportunities and how they determine and pursue their interests. Understanding entrepreneurship in any particular context thus requires attention to be paid to prevailing cultural beliefs as well as the formal and informal institutions that affect economic behaviour. This paper adopts the important but seldom used approach of focusing upon the tales of entrepreneurship prevalent in a given culture. The authors argue that to get a sense of the economic culture in a particular context, it is crucial to focus on what a culture's success and failure stories tell about how to get ahead. Arguably, this approach is particularly important if the goal is to understand entrepreneurship amongst subaltern/marginalized groups. Using fiction from the former Soviet bloc, where a one-dimensional form of entrepreneurship flourished even within the command economy, and literature from anglophone Africa and the British Caribbean where black entrepreneurship had to contend with brutal colonial rule and post-colonial corruption, this paper highlights how entrepreneurs were influenced by culture in these contexts, and explores the origins of these cultural factors.

Functional and Structural Characterization of Acquired Pan-Aminoglycoside Resistance 16S rRNA Methyltransferase NpmB1

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akito Kawai ◽  
Masahiro Suzuki ◽  
Kentaro Tsukamoto ◽  
Yusuke Minato ◽  
Yohei Doi
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
16S Rrna ◽  
Amino Acid Identity ◽  
Single Amino Acid ◽  
Aminoglycoside Resistance ◽  
E Coli ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Amino Acid Variant ◽  
A Site

Post-translational methylation of the A site of 16S rRNA at position A1408 leads to pan-aminoglycoside resistance encompassing both 4,5- and 4,6-disubstituted 2-deoxystreptamine (DOS) aminoglycosides. To date, NpmA is the only acquired enzyme with such function. Here, we present function and structure of NpmB1 whose sequence was identified in Escherichia coli genomes registered from the United Kingdom. NpmB1 possesses 40% amino acid identity with NpmA1 and confers resistance to all clinically relevant aminoglycosides including 4,5-DOS agents. Phylogenetic analysis of NpmB1 and NpmB2, its single amino acid variant, revealed that the encoding gene was likely acquired by E. coli from a soil bacterium. The structure of NpmB1 suggests that it requires a structural change of the β6/7 linker in order to bind to 16S rRNA. These findings establish NpmB1 and NpmB2 as the second group of acquired pan-aminoglycoside resistance 16S rRNA methyltransferases.

The community strike: From precarity to militant organizing

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 159-177
Author(s):  
Marcel Paret
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
The State ◽  
A Site ◽  
Collective Actor

How do insecure layers of the working class resist when they lack access to power and organization at the workplace? The community strike represents one possible approach. Whereas traditional workplace strikes target employers and exercise power by withholding labor, community strikes focus on the sphere of reproduction, target the state, and build power through moral appeals and disruptions of public space. Drawing on ethnography and interviews in the impoverished Black townships and informal settlements around Johannesburg, I illustrate this approach by examining widespread local protests in South Africa. Insecurely employed and unemployed residents implemented community strikes by demanding public services, barricading roads and destroying property, and boycotting activities such as work and school. Within these local revolts, community represented both a site of struggle and a collective actor. While community strikes enabled economically insecure groups to mobilize and make demands, they also confronted significant limits, including tensions between protesters and workers.

scholarly journals Highgate Cemetery Heterotopia: A Creative Counterpublic Space

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 470-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Clements
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Political Imagination ◽  
External Space ◽  
Memorial Representation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Creative Space ◽  
The Individual

Highgate Cemetery is nominally presented as a heterotopia, constructed, and theorized through the articulation of three “spaces.” First, it is configured as a public space which organizes the individual and the social, where the management of death creates a relationship between external space and its internal conceptualization. This reveals, enables, and disturbs the sociocultural and political imagination which helps order and disrupt thinking. Second, it is conceived as a creative space where cemetery texts emplace and materialize memory that mirrors the cultural capital of those interred, part of an urban aesthetic which articulates the distinction of the metropolitan elite. Last, it is a celebritized counterpublic space that expresses dissent, testimony to those who have actively imagined a better world, which is epitomized by the Marx Memorial. Representation of the cemetery is ambiguous as it is recuperated and framed by the living with the three different “spaces” offering heterotopic alliances.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document