Carbon Economies: Precarious Labour, Local Politics, and Inequality in the Eastern Indian Coal Belt

在印度东部的矿产地区，煤炭开采活动几十年来一直集中在土著社区居住的地区，造成了剥夺、流离失所和以土地和森林为基础的生活方式的侵蚀。我在一个受采矿影响的土著村庄进行了18个月的实地考察，我的博士研究考察了采矿工业化对不同村民群体（从非法卖煤的小贩到煤矿员工）的不同影响，以及它对整个社区的更广泛影响。通过深入了解被采矿作业吞没的人们的生活、生计和观点，该研究挑战了关于采掘工业主义和剥夺的影响和应对的普遍假设，并有助于与劳动、不平等和政治的理论接触。首先，与著名的剥夺批判理论不同，这篇论文表明，剥夺不仅仅是对农村社区的破坏，还会在农村社区内部产生社会经济分化，从而产生新的、更深层次的内部不平等。通过探索与采矿在当地出现的不同类型的正式和非正式工作相关的这些不平等现象，该研究有助于研究工作和不稳定性的文献。它说明了不同形式的非正规劳动如何在稳定性、自主性、工作节奏和性别动态方面为劳动者带来不同程度的不稳定性和意义，从而影响他们当前和长期的生计战略。其次，与农村（尤其是土著）社区抵制采矿和剥夺土地的普遍说法相反，研究表明，这些过程如何产生的不是抗议，而是参与碳开采经济。通过研究与采矿作业有关的地方形式的共同选择和庇护主义，该研究有助于我们理解剥夺政治和采掘工业主义。它阐明了政治领导人和潜在的活动家如何成为采掘项目和村民之间的中间人，以及这如何导致日常社会政治关系的转变，这种转变会抑制而不是促进集体行动的可能性。这些见解对能源和生态变化的辩论也至关重要。通过揭示当地与煤炭相关的劳动形式的范围，以及围绕采矿和剥夺的当地政治的复杂性，该研究说明了农村土著居民的生计如何几乎完全依赖化石燃料开采，以及他们的生存与不稳定、对环境有害的碳基经济联系在一起。论文的不同章节构成了我将在奖学金期间发表的三篇期刊文章的基础，这些文章分别做出了具体的理论贡献：对我们对采掘工业化和剥夺的日常政治的理解；不稳定的非正式劳动；以及不平等和不稳定的暂时性。这篇论文作为一个整体构成了我将向选定的出版商推销这本书的基础。除了文章的影响和稍后阶段的专著之外，该项目还包括其他几项面向影响的活动。首先，在选定的学术会议上发表演讲，这将在学术界传播研究。其次，我将与我在亚非学院的导师共同组织研讨会，研讨会将包括学者、活动家和民间社会组织，并就采掘工业主义、剥夺和政治等问题展开广泛的对话。第三，在面向公众的论坛上发表出版物，通过及时地就我们这个时代一些最关键的挑战（日益严重的不平等、碳和能源的未来以及环境变化）进行公开辩论，吸引普通受众。

In the mineral-bearing tracts of eastern India, coal mining activities have for decades been concentrated in areas inhabited by indigenous communities, and brought about dispossession, displacement, and the erosion of land- and forest-based ways of life. Based on 18 months of fieldwork in a mining-affected indigenous village, my doctoral research examines the variegated ways in which mining industrialisation has affected different groups of villagers - from illegal coal peddlers to colliery employees - and its wider impact on the community as a whole. By providing an insight into the lives, livelihoods, and perspectives of people engulfed by mining operations, the research challenges common assumptions on the effects of, and responses to, extractive industrialism and dispossession, and contributes to theoretical engagements with labour, inequality, and politics.First, at variance with prominent critical theories of dispossession, the thesis shows how rather than simply the destruction of rural communities, dispossession can generate socioeconomic differentiation within them, creating new and deeper internal inequalities. By exploring these inequalities in relation to the different types of work, formal and informal, that have emerged locally as a result of mining, the research contributes to the literature on work and precarity. It illustrates how different forms of informal labour can carry different degrees of precarity and meanings for labourers - in terms of stability, autonomy, work rhythms, and gender dynamics - that inflect their present and longer-term livelihood strategies.Second, contrary to the prevalent narrative of resistance to mining and dispossession by rural - and especially indigenous - communities, the research shows how such processes can produce not protest but participation in the economy of carbon extraction. By examining local forms of co-option and clientelism in connection with mining operations, the research contributes to our understanding of the politics of dispossession and extractive industrialism. It illuminates how political leaders and potential activists can become brokers between extractive projects and villagers, and how this can lead to shifts in everyday sociopolitical relations that act to curb rather than foster possibilities of collective action. These insights are also crucial for debates on energy resources and ecological change. By casting light on the range of local coal-related forms of labour, and the intricacies of local politics around mining and dispossession, the research illustrates how rural indigenous livelihoods can become almost exclusively dependent on fossil fuel extraction, and their very survival bound up with precarious, environmentally-detrimental carbon-based economies.Different chapters of the thesis form the basis for the three journal articles I will produce during the fellowship, which make specific respective theoretical contributions: to our understanding of the everyday politics of extractive industrialisation and dispossession; of precarious, informal labour; and of the temporality of inequality and precarity. The thesis as a whole forms the basis for the book proposal I will pitch to selected publishers. In addition to the impact of the articles and - at a later stage - the monograph, the project includes several other impact-oriented activities. First, presentations in selected academic conferences, which will disseminate the research within academia. Second, the workshop I will co-organise with my mentor at SOAS, which will include both scholars and activist and civil society organisations, and generate broad conversations on issues around extractive industrialism, dispossession, and politics. And third, publications in public-facing forums that will engage general audiences by tapping into timely public debates on some of the most pivotal challenges of our time: growing inequalities, carbon and energy futures, and environmental change.