Violent Castes', 'Left Wing Extremists' and Mall Workers: Rethinking 'Emotional Labour' and 'Neo-liberalism' in the Context of New Labour

<strong>Centre for the Study of Social Systems</strong> <strong>School of Social Sciences </strong> <strong>CSSS Colloquium </strong> <strong>Prof. Sanjay Srivastava </strong> (Centre for the Study of Social Systems, JNU) a talk on <strong>Violent Castes', 'Left Wing Extremists' and Mall Workers: Rethinking 'Emotional Labour' and 'Neo-liberalism' in the Context of New Labour</strong> Date : <strong>August 6, 2015</strong> <strong>Abstract- </strong>This paper is a first attempt to organise recently gathered field-work material within an analytical framework. It will address material from three sites, one each in Dausa (Rajasthan), Ranchi (Jharkhand) and Delhi. Field-work in Dausa and Ranchi was conducted at government funded but privately-run 'skills development' centres that aim to train young men and women for employment as sales and hospitality professionals , whereas in Delhi I worked with a prominent 'Personality Development' company that began as a training centre for airline crew but has branched out into other areas. In this paper, I will outline the training provided by these companies, which is seen as an indispensable part of acquiring a 'cosmopolitan' personality, and one that is necessary for economic as well as social advancement. The presentation will explore ideas of transformation among state functionaries, trainers and young people in the context of traditional structures of family, gender norms, caste and 'tribal' identities, and the putative powers of corporatism vis a vis 'left wing extremism'. The discussion also seeks to interrogate certain ideas around 'emotional labour' and 'neo-liberalism' that have been widely discussed in recent social science literature. <strong>Bio-Data: </strong>Sanjay Srivastava is Professor of Sociology. His publications include Constructing Postcolonial India: National Character and the Doon School (1998), Asia: Cultural Politics in the Global Age (2001, co-authored), Sexual Sites, Seminal Attitudes. Sexualities, Masculinities and Culture in South Asia (2004, contributing editor), Passionate Modernity, Sexuality, Class and Consumption in India (2007), Sexuality Studies (2013, contributing editor), and Entangled Urbanism: Slum, Gated Community and Shopping Mall in Delhi and Gurgaon. Professor Srivastava is also co-editor of Contributions to Indian Sociology.