Mobilities and Aspirations of Marginal Groups in Emerging Chinese and Indian Cities

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel Proposal Application

Abstract

Mobilities have remarkably characterized the dramatic social transformation in China and India. Against the background of global and regional flows of people, information, media and materials (Appadurai, 1996; Urry, 2000, 2007), the urban life of the average people has been greatly changed and re-configured. The mobile is intrinsically political, interweaving with the reproduction of power relations (Adey, 2006; Cresswell, 2010). It not only reconstructs physical, social, cultural, political and economic landscapes in emerging Chinese and Indian cities, but also re-shapes individuals’ accesses, imagination and endeavors for a good life. Some people carry out upward movement while others are strongly lagged behind (Ohnmacht et al., 2009). How do marginal groups resituate themselves in fast developing cities? How are their hope for the future and mundane practices influenced and reconstructed through everyday mobilities under the context of dramatic urban transformation and specific socio-spatial environments in China and India? This panel brings together papers on critical analyses of mobilities and aspirations of urban marginal groups in the two developing countries. It seeks to understand the changing power relations in urban spaces through the exploration of everyday aspirations, experiences and mobilities of marginal groups in dynamic Asian cities.

Area of Study

• Interarea-Border Crossing-Diaspora

Session Organizer

• Jingfu Chen, National University of Singapore

Chair

• Jingfu Chen, National University of Singapore

Individual Presentations

• Mobilities and Aspiration to a Good Life: Exploring Motorcycle Taxi Driving in Sanya, China - Jingfu Chen, National University of Singapore

• Who is a Migrant? Questioning Migrant’s Identity: A Study in an Industrial Setting - Saroj Kumar Dhal, Symbiosis International University, Pune, India

• Between Aspirations and Realities: Migrant Children in China’s Cities - Xiaorong Gu, National University of Singapore

• Closet Geographies, Mobilities and Sexualities: On men’s Non-Normative Sexual Practices in Delhi - Kiran Bhairannavar, University of Delhi

Discussant

• Junxi Qian, South China Normal University