Speakers
April 14, 2009
Noon, 341 Eggers Hall
Waiting: Male Youth and the Politics of an
Indian Middle Class
Speaker:
Craig Jeffery, Associate Professor, Geography, University of Washington
Summary:
Global social and economic changes have pitched increasing numbers of people
into situations of chronic "waiting". People feel invested in certain hopes
for the future but lack the means to realize their dreams. This talk
examines the politics of waiting with reference to unemployed young men in
India. I point to the emergence of a distinctive youth masculinity built
around the idea of "timepass" and focused on the streetcorner as a site of
male display. I also show how waiting precipitates collective youth
political action and also narrower forms of politicking that reflect the
prerogatives of a youth middle class among the unemployed. Waiting emerges
not as a passive activity but as an active process of engaging in the world
replete with possibilities for cultural practice and political mobilization.
Sponsored by Gender and Globalization and the
South Asia Center
