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Unpicking Precarity: Informal Work in Eastern India's Coal Mining Tracts

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  • Itay Noy

Abstract

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, this article explores two widespread types of informal and precarious work in eastern India's coal mining tracts. It seeks to contribute to recent attempts to disaggregate the umbrella notion of precarity and the related concept of ‘classes of labour’ in the context of the global South. It does so by illuminating the more nuanced yet significant relative distinctions between different forms of precarious coal‐related work as perceived and experienced by labourers. The article illustrates how labourers evaluate such forms of work in relation to one another in terms of relative stability, autonomy, tempo and gender dynamics, which affect their livelihood decisions and activities. It thereby turns attention to differentiating dimensions of precarious work that are easily veiled in broad debates about precarity and ‘classes of labour’. Such dimensions are essential to probe — through comparative ethnographic study — to understand how people engage with different modalities of precarious work on the ground and how they configure their livelihood strategies in particular capitalist and social contexts.

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  • Itay Noy, 2023. "Unpicking Precarity: Informal Work in Eastern India's Coal Mining Tracts," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 54(1), pages 168-191, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:54:y:2023:i:1:p:168-191
    DOI: 10.1111/dech.12739
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Snehashish Bhattacharya & Surbhi Kesar, 2018. "Possibilities of Transformation: The Informal Sector in India," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 50(4), pages 727-735, December.
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    4. Amrita Chhachhi & Jan Breman & Marcel Linden, 2014. "Informalizing the Economy: The Return of the Social Question at a Global Level," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(5), pages 920-940, September.
    5. Parry, Jonathan, 2013. "Company and contract labour in a central Indian steel plant," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 52603, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
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