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The social life of transport infrastructures: Masculinities and everyday mobilities in Kolkata

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  • Romit Chowdhury

Abstract

Through ethnographic contact with the working lives of male autorickshaw drivers in contemporary Kolkata, India, this article unravels the gendered politics of co-presence in shared movement systems in the city. In doing so, it makes a feminist intervention in the literature on urban infrastructures by revealing precisely how ideas of masculinity operate as an invisible structuring principle of everyday mobility. The discussion foregrounds conflict, cooperation and disappointment as the key experiential axes along which male transport workers inhabit infrastructural space in the city. It argues that urban infrastructures are experienced by working-class men as a reminder of their struggle to accomplish the norm of respectable breadwinner masculinity, even as they function as a terrain which allows other expressions of masculinity – such as risk-taking, mastery over space, camaraderie – to be enacted and affirmed. Using a micro-sociological approach to understanding interactions in the spaces of commuting, this article brings into view the interface between cultures of masculinity and the social life of transport infrastructures through which gendered spatial inequalities are lived in the city.

Suggested Citation

  • Romit Chowdhury, 2021. "The social life of transport infrastructures: Masculinities and everyday mobilities in Kolkata," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(1), pages 73-89, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:58:y:2021:i:1:p:73-89
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098019875420
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    1. Shaw, Annapurna, 2012. "Indian Cities: Oxford India Short Introductions," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198075363.
    2. Hillary Angelo & Christine Hentschel, 2015. "Interactions with infrastructure as windows into social worlds: A method for critical urban studies: Introduction," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2-3), pages 306-312, June.
    3. Linda Peake, 2016. "The Twenty-First-Century Quest for Feminism and the Global Urban," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 219-227, January.
    4. Pucher, John & Korattyswaropam, Nisha & Mittal, Neha & Ittyerah, Neenu, 2005. "Urban transport crisis in India," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 185-198, May.
    5. COLIN McFARLANE & JONATHAN RUTHERFORD, 2008. "Political Infrastructures: Governing and Experiencing the Fabric of the City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 363-374, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Roy, Sanghamitra & Bailey, Ajay & van Noorloos, Femke, 2024. "The everyday struggles of accessing public transport for women in the first- and last-mile stretches in Kolkata," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    2. Romit Chowdhury & Colin McFarlane, 2022. "The crowd and citylife: Materiality, negotiation and inclusivity at Tokyo’s train stations," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(7), pages 1353-1371, May.

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