Experiencing Space—Time: The Stretched Lifeworlds of Migrant Workers in India

Rogaly, Ben; Thieme, Susan (2012). Experiencing Space—Time: The Stretched Lifeworlds of Migrant Workers in India. Environment and planning. A, Economy and space, 44(9), pp. 2086-2100. Sage 10.1068/a44493

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In the relatively rare instances when the spatialities of temporary migrant work, workers' journeys, and labour-market negotiations have been the subject of scholarly attention, there has been little work that integrates time into the analysis. Building on a case study of low-paid and insecure migrant manual workers in the context of rapid economic growth in India, we examine both material and subjective dimensions of these workers' spatiotemporal experiences. What does it mean to live life stretched out, multiply-attached to places across national space? What kinds of place attachments emerge for people temporarily sojourning in, rather than moving to, new places to reside and work? Our analysis of the spatiotemporalities of migrant workers' experiences in India suggests that, over time, this group of workers use their own agency to seek to avoid the experience of humiliation and indignity in employment relations. Like David Harvey, we argue that money needs to be integrated into such analysis, along with space and time. The paper sheds light on processes of exclusion, inequality and differentiation, unequal power geometries, and social topographies that contrast with neoliberalist narratives of ‘Indian shining’.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Geographies of Sustainability
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Geographies of Sustainability > Unit Critical Sustainability Studies (CSS)

UniBE Contributor:

Thieme, Susan

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 330 Economics

ISSN:

0308-518X

Publisher:

Sage

Language:

English

Submitter:

Florian Dolder

Date Deposited:

14 Sep 2018 10:35

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:17

Publisher DOI:

10.1068/a44493

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.119289

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/119289

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