IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/inddev/v18y2024i1p107-119.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Identities and the City: Socialities amongst Migrant Domestic Workers in Kolkata

Author

Listed:
  • Urbee Bhowmik

Abstract

Migrant subjectivities, experiences and agency have not received the attention needed within development studies discussions on migration, and gender remains to be mainstreamed within understandings of migration. This article attempts to contribute towards bridging these gaps by outlining the findings of a study that explored sociality amongst migrant domestic workers in Kolkata. It outlines experiences of living the migrant identity amongst women migrating from rural West Bengal to Kolkata as well as forms of sociality they engage in at the level of the everyday. Socialities with their employers at the site of paid domestic work allow them to lay claims to the city by drawing on identities based in the Partition of India, 1947. Drawing on the concepts of ‘beings’ from Amartya Sen’s capability approach and of the ‘right to the city’, originally formulated by Henri Lefebvre, the article captures two significant questions emerging from these socialities: those of identity and self, and relationship with the city. It further shows the interrelation between these two frameworks that becomes apparent in the context of what the above socialities imply for the women in the study.

Suggested Citation

  • Urbee Bhowmik, 2024. "Identities and the City: Socialities amongst Migrant Domestic Workers in Kolkata," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 18(1), pages 107-119, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:inddev:v:18:y:2024:i:1:p:107-119
    DOI: 10.1177/09737030241239486
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09737030241239486
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09737030241239486?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martha Nussbaum, 2003. "Capabilities As Fundamental Entitlements: Sen And Social Justice," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2-3), pages 33-59.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amrita Datta & S. Irudaya Rajan, 2024. "Internal Migration and Development in India," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 18(1), pages 7-19, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kinghorn, Philip, 2019. "Using deliberative methods to establish a sufficient state of capability well-being for use in decision-making in the contexts of public health and social care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    2. Günseli Berik, Haimanti Bhattacharya, Tejinder Pal Singh, Aashima Sinha, Jacqueline Strenio, Sharin Shajahan Naomi, Sameen Zafar, Sharon Talboys, 2023. "Capability Approach to Public-space Harassment of Women: Evidence from India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2023_05, University of Utah, Department of Economics.
    3. Antoinette Baujard & Muriel Gilardone, 2017. "Sen is not a capability theorist," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 1-19, January.
    4. Martin Binder & Tom Broekel, 2011. "Applying a Non-parametric Efficiency Analysis to Measure Conversion Efficiency in Great Britain," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 257-281.
    5. McGrath, F.L. & Carrasco, L.R. & Leimona, B., 2017. "How auctions to allocate payments for ecosystem services contracts impact social equity," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 44-55.
    6. Canton, César G., 2012. "Empowering People in the Business Frontline: The Ruggie’s Framework and the Capability Approach," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 23(2), pages 191-216.
    7. Roberta Sferrazzo & Renato Ruffini, 2021. "Are Liberated Companies a Concrete Application of Sen’s Capability Approach?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(2), pages 329-342, May.
    8. Ulriksen, Marianne S. & Plagerson, Sophie, 2014. "Social Protection: Rethinking Rights and Duties," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 755-765.
    9. Chiappero-Martinetti, Enrica & Moroni, Stefano, 2007. "An analytical framework for conceptualizing poverty and re-examining the capability approach," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 360-375, June.
    10. Sabina Alkire & Maria Emma Santos, 2010. "Acute Multidimensional Poverty: A New Index for Developing Countries," Human Development Research Papers (2009 to present) HDRP-2010-11, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    11. César González-Cantón & Sonia Boulos & Pablo Sánchez-Garrido, 2019. "Exploring the Link Between Human Rights, the Capability Approach and Corporate Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(4), pages 865-879, December.
    12. Charlier, Dorothée & Legendre, Bérangère, 2021. "Fuel poverty in industrialized countries: Definition, measures and policy implications a review," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    13. Maurer, Moritz, 2025. "Wild Experiments? Restricting Narratives in Research on Alternative Food and Agriculture Networks," OSF Preprints u2tyv, Center for Open Science.
    14. Di Tommaso, Maria Laura & Maccagnan, Anna & Mendolia, Silvia, 2018. "The Gender Gap in Attitudes and Test Scores: A New Construct of the Mathematical Capability," IZA Discussion Papers 11843, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Michael Pirson, 2019. "A Humanistic Perspective for Management Theory: Protecting Dignity and Promoting Well-Being," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 39-57, September.
    16. Joanna Coast & Richard Smith & Paula Lorgelly, 2008. "Should the capability approach be applied in Health Economics?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(6), pages 667-670, June.
    17. Lehmann, Ina & Martin, Adrian & Fisher, Janet A., 2018. "Why Should Ecosystem Services Be Governed to Support Poverty Alleviation? Philosophical Perspectives on Positions in the Empirical Literature," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 265-273.
    18. Sabina Alkire, Jose Manuel Roche, 2011. "Beyond Headcount: Measures that Reflect the Breadth and Components of Child Poverty," OPHI Working Papers 45, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    19. Anna Horodecka, 2015. "The Changing Face of Economics? Ethical Issues in Contemporary Economic Schools as a Consequence of Changes in the Concept of Human Nature," Annales. Ethics in Economic Life, University of Lodz, Faculty of Economics and Sociology, vol. 18(4), pages 55-71, December.
    20. Santos, María Emma, 2019. "Non-monetary indicators to monitor SDG targets 1.2 and 1.4: standards, availability, comparability and quality," Estudios Estadísticos 44452, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:inddev:v:18:y:2024:i:1:p:107-119. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.