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Seeking the Local State: Gender, Caste, and the Pursuit of Public Services in Post-Tsunami India

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  • Kruks-Wisner, Gabrielle

Abstract

Summary How do ordinary citizens access the state in the world's largest democracy? This paper examines a critical case from India, exploring the channels--formal and informal--through which residents of two tsunami-affected villages pursued public services following the 2004 disaster. External shocks, such as the proliferation of aid and NGOs, created moments in which individuals interacted differently with public agencies. Different village-level groups attempted to access state resources through distinct sets of intermediaries; marginalized groups (women and caste minorities) appeared most willing and likely to utilize formal government channels, while men from the locally dominant caste turned to informal, non-state channels.

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  • Kruks-Wisner, Gabrielle, 2011. "Seeking the Local State: Gender, Caste, and the Pursuit of Public Services in Post-Tsunami India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 1143-1154, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:39:y:2011:i:7:p:1143-1154
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    2. Novak Colwell, Julia M. & Axelrod, Mark & Salim, Shyam S. & Velvizhi, S., 2017. "A Gendered Analysis of Fisherfolk’s Livelihood Adaptation and Coping Responses in the Face of a Seasonal Fishing Ban in Tamil Nadu & Puducherry, India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 325-337.
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    5. Desai, Raj M. & Olofsgård, Anders, 2019. "Can the poor organize? Public goods and self-help groups in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 33-52.
    6. Eric Chu, 2016. "The political economy of urban climate adaptation and development planning in Surat, India," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(2), pages 281-298, March.
    7. Svetlana E. Martynova & Yuri Glebovich Dmitriev & Marina M. Gajfullina & Yulia A. Totskaya, 2017. "“Service” Municipal Administration as Part of the Development of Youth Entrepreneurship in Russia," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 133(3), pages 1151-1164, September.
    8. Gupta, Divya & Fischer, Harry & Shrestha, Suchita & Shoaib Ali, Syed & Chhatre, Ashwini & Devkota, Kamal & Fleischman, Forrest & Khatri, Dil B. & Rana, Pushpendra, 2021. "Dark and bright spots in the shadow of the pandemic: Rural livelihoods, social vulnerability, and local governance in India and Nepal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
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    10. Kathleen O’Reilly & Richa Dhanju & Elizabeth Louis, 2017. "Subjected to Sanitation: Caste Relations and Sanitation Adoption in Rural Tamil Nadu," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(11), pages 1915-1928, November.

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