Synopses & Reviews
Poor people confront the state on an everyday basis all over the world. But how do they see the state? This book considers the Indian example where people's accounts, in particular in the countryside, are shaped by encounters staged at the local level, and are also informed by ideas circulated by the government and the broader development community. Drawing extensively on fieldwork conducted in eastern India, the authors review a series of key debates in development studies on participation, good governance, and the structuring of political society in South Asia.
Synopsis
How do poor people in India understand and make use of the state in their daily lives? The authors consider key debates in development studies on participation and good governance to answer these questions. They study the extent to which poorer people can engage the political process as citizens.
Synopsis
How do poor people in India understand and make use of the state in their daily lives? Drawing on their fieldwork and broad range of expertise, the authors of Seeing the State consider key debates in development studies on participation and good governance to answer these questions. Their work analyses the extent to which poorer people are able to engage the political process as citizens. The book will be of interest to students of anthropology, politics and development, as well as to those studying India more specifically.
About the Author
Stuart Corbridge is Professor of Geography at the London School of Economics and at the University of Miami. His recent publications include Reinventing India (with John Harriss, 2000).Glyn Williams is Lecturer in Geography at Keele University. He is the co-editor of a collection of essays on South Asia in a Globalising World (2002).Manoj Srivastava is a Research Associate in the Crisis State Programme, Development Studies Institute, London School of Economics.Rene Veron is Assistant Professor in Geography at the University of Guelph, Ontario. He is the author of Real Markets and Environmental Change in Kerala (1999).
Table of Contents
Part I. The State and the Poor: 1. Seeing the state; 2. Technologies of rule and the war on poverty; Part II. The Everyday State and Society: 3. Meeting the state; 4. Participation; 5. Governance; 6. Political society; Part III. The Poor and the State: 7. Protesting the state; 8. Postcolonialism, development studies and spaces of empowerment; 9. Postscript: development ethics and the ethics of critique.