[WORKSHOP] Political Work : Definitions, Boundaries and Implications - Thursday, April 21, 2022, 2pm-6pm - IFP

IFP is back with a new workshop on Thursday, April 21, from 2pm to 6pm, this time dedicated to political work, its definitions, boundaries and implications, especially under a subaltern and gender lens. Please find the abstract and the event's flyer down below :

Abstract : "Feminist research has broadened the narrow definition of work by arguing for the recognition of domestic work and care work, mainly performed by women, and in the first place by subaltern women. In contemporary societies, and in India in particular, women perform another form of unpaid and invisibilized work. The aim of this work is to ensure that the social state fulfils its basic functions, whether it be the provision of social transfers or basic rights. Social welfare and basic rights are hard to access and require a variety of actions and skills including documentation skills, gathering information on whom to approach, awareness of official processes involved in successfully obtaining such welfare, building and maintaining cordial relations with bureaucracy and officers in charge, employing political support in favor of one’s application when required, etc. We suggest calling this range of activities and repertoires of action “political work”.

This workshop aims to discuss this concept, its definition, boundaries and implications. How to define political work and how does it differs from other forms of work? Is political work different from “political engagement”- or political struggles and movements? How far is it different from other forms of paid and unpaid work (in terms of valorization and recognition, both paid and unpaid)? To what extent does the concept of political work condition the very existence of the social state, its accountability to poor citizens and democracy? Therefore, of what significance is women’s political work in terms of sustaining democracy and political representation in India?"

Time and Date : Thursday April 21, 2022 / 2pm - 6pm

Venue : French Institute of Pondicherry, 11 St Louis Street, White Town, 605 001 Puducherry