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）市中心非正式社区的社会空间转型，与联合国教科文组织非物质文化遗产提名的杜尔加普贾偶像制作实践有关。它研究了偶像制作作为一种文化实践是如何被社区的建筑形式和基础设施所塑造的。它追踪了当地政府提出的一个失败的重建计划、最近的文化政策和日益增长的旅游压力是如何从内部触发空间重构过程的。研究结果突出表明，历史上种姓同质的社区正慢慢被偶像制作作坊的商业集群所取代，这些作坊因更广泛的关系地理位置和不断增长的消费者需求而形成不同的形状。与此同时，这种非正式环境中的社会空间基础设施系统接近崩溃点。在奖学金期间，一段时间的实地工作将使我更加关注社区不稳定的供水和卫生设施。在此期间计划的活动将使我能够向广泛的受众展示偶像制作社区的参与性和人种学证据，从而对政策决策产生直接影响。我将为学术界和更广泛的读者撰写一本专著、两篇期刊文章和一系列网络出版物。我将在加尔各答举行审议研讨会，与研究参与者、社区成员和其他利益攸关方接触。研讨会将重点关注种姓、阶级、性别、年龄和任期等多重准入障碍，并讨论在covid - 19后的情况下可以采取哪些措施来解决这一问题。我的博士和奖学金实地考察的综合发现将有助于围绕社会科学中基础设施权利和公民身份的持续辩论，此外还将揭示全球南方非正式社区中人类与基础设施的相互作用。我的出版物提出了关于城市内部创意社区边缘化和缺乏代表性的问题，将与从事南亚城市实施、重建或重新想象的学者、政策制定者和实践者相关。

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.