Belonging in Motion

Description

Belonging in Motion: Contested Social Boundaries in South Asia
Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka
2022, pp. xxviii+272

More and more people are seeking to mould the modalities of their belonging. They contest unjust and unequal hierarchies that are externally imposed such as when the state stipulates the hierarchical rank of every caste and ethnic group, and defines their derived rights and duties therefrom. Belonging also becomes an issue in situations of spatial and social mobility or when personal choices collide with group norms. This collection focuses on the dynamic interactions of community, inequality, and power in Nepal and India from the venture point of belonging—understood as an interplay of commonality, mutuality and attachments. It draws upon empirical cases while offering new conceptual tools for grasping the dynamic forces of belonging in contemporary world.
____________________________________________
Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka is Professor of Social Anthropology at the Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, Germany.