Infrastructural Precarity, Livelihoods and Politics: Case of an Inner-city Notified Slum in Kolkata, India [InfraPreP]

我的博士研究调查了加尔各答(印度)市中心一个非正式居民区的社会空间变化，与教科文组织提名的非物质文化遗产提名杜尔加·普贾的偶像制作实践有关。它考察了偶像制作作为一种文化做法是如何由该社区的建筑形式和基础设施塑造的，并已塑造了该社区的基础设施。它追溯了当地政府提出的失败的重新开发计划、最近的文化政策和不断上升的旅游压力是如何从内部引发空间重组的。调查结果突显出，历史悠久的种姓同质社区正在慢慢被偶像制作作坊的商业集群所取代，这些工作室受到更广泛的关系地理和日益增长的消费者需求的不同塑造。与此同时，这种非正式背景下的社会空间基础设施系统接近临界点。在团契期间，一段时间的实地工作将使我能够更加关注附近岌岌可危的水和卫生设施。这次联谊会期间计划的活动将使我能够向广泛的受众介绍偶像制作社区的参与性和人种学证据，以便对政策决策产生直接影响。我将为学术和更广泛的受众撰写一本专著、两篇期刊文章和一系列基于网络的出版物。我将在加尔各答举办一次审议研讨会，与研究参与者、社区成员和其他利益攸关方接触。讲习班将重点讨论种姓、阶级、性别、年龄和终身教职等多重障碍，并讨论可采取哪些措施来解决后CoVID情况下的问题。我的博士和研究员实地调查的综合结果将有助于正在进行的关于基础设施权利和社会科学公民身份的辩论，此外还将有助于揭示全球南方非正式社区中人与基础设施的互动。我的出版物提出了关于内陆城市创意社区被边缘化和缺乏代表性的问题，我的出版物将与学者以及参与南亚城市实施、重建或重新想象的政策制定者和从业者相关。

My doctoral research investigated the socio-spatial transformation of an inner-city informal neighbourhood in Kolkata (India), associated with the idol-crafting practice for UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage nominated Durga Puja. It examined how idol-crafting as a cultural practice is shaped by and has shaped the built form and infrastructure of the neighbourhood. It traced how a failed redevelopment plan proposed by the local government, recent cultural policies and mounting tourism pressures have triggered spatial restructuring processes from within. Findings highlight how the historic caste-homogenous neighbourhood is slowly being replaced by a commercial cluster of idol-crafting workshops, differentially shaped by wider relational geographies and growing consumer demands. At the same time, socio-spatial infrastructural systems within this informal setting approach breaking point. During the fellowship, a period of fieldwork will allow me to sharpen the focus on the precarious water and sanitation facilities in the neighbourhood. The planned activities during this fellowship will enable me to present participatory and ethnographic evidences of the idol-crafting community to a wide spectrum of audiences to have a direct impact on policy decisions. I will write a monograph, two journal articles and a series of web-based publications for academic and wider audiences. I will hold a deliberative workshop in Kolkata to engage with research participants, community members and other stakeholders. The workshop will focus on the multiple barriers to access, such as caste, class, gender, age and tenure, and discuss what measures can be taken to address this in a post-COVID scenario. Consolidated findings from my doctoral and fellowship fieldworks will contribute to ongoing debates around rights to infrastructure and citizenship in the social sciences, in addition to shedding light on human-infrastructure interactions in the informal neighbourhoods of the global South. Raising questions around the marginalisation and non-representation of creative communities in inner cities, my publications will be relevant to academics as well as policy-makers and practitioners engaged in the implementation, redevelopment or re-imagination of cities in South Asia.