COVID 19 AND MIGRANT WORKERS
DISCUSSION / PUBLIC EVENTS
Podcasts
a) Thinking in the epicenter
How should we think, rather than simply react-emotionally or ideologically-in the middle of crises? Using “mobility events” ranging from religious festivals to political rallies as an example, Ranabir Samaddar, the Distinguished Chair in Migration and Forced Migration Studies at the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, discusses with Biao Xiang how one must think out of the box to examine power relations in times of emergency in this latest MoLab video. (15 May 2021) …Read More
b) Remaking the public
What does “public” mean in “public health” and “public crisis”? There are publics imagined from above (e.g. “Herd immunity”), and publics constituted from below (e.g. the migrant solidarity movement). In this latest MoLab video, Ranabir Samaddar stresses the necessity of constant political reconstitution of the public in his discussion with Biao Xiang. (15 May 2021) …Read More
c) Thinking through shocks
The pandemic appears as different shocks because it brings together multiple contradictions. Shocks induced migrants’ shock mobilities, but, more importantly, migrants’ shock mobilities created widespread shocks across society. Shocks, Ranabir Samaddar emphasizes in his discussion with Biao Xiang, are important conditions for re-examining various foundational social relations. Hear more in this new MoLab installment. (15 May 2021) …Read More
d) The biopolitics from below
What kind of politics emerged in the context of the pandemic? The transformative dimension of power figures as a crucial aspect of politics in times of a crisis. In this latest MoLab installment, Ranabir Samaddar charts his concept of biopolitics from below in discussion with Biao Xiang. (15 May 2021) …Read More
e) The figure of migrants
Why did migrants suddenly gain visibility during the COVID-19 pandemic? What accounted for their invisibility in other times? Migrants are not usual subjects that can be brought in established liberal order-only, for instance, as subjects of rights protection or economic inclusion. The figure of migrants, Ranabir Samaddar argues in his discussion with Biao Xiang, demands radical rethinking about the liberal order. Hear more in this latest MoLab installment. (15 May 2021) …Read More
f) Trust and the Politics of Information
The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the crucial role of the circulation of information. In conversation with MoLab visiting fellow Jonathan Krämer, Ranabir Samaddar elaborates on the relation between the movement of information, trust and political responses to the crisis by contrasting localized politics in rural India during the pandemic with political action on the national level. Check out more in this new MoLab installment. (15 May 2021)…Read More
Webinars/ Audio Visual Materials
Public Lecture on "COVID 19 and Migrant Labour: Laws, Policies, Practices" , July 30, 2020
Speakers: Kalpana Kannabiran, Director, Council for Social Development, Hyderabad; Member, Calcutta Research Group &
Bharat Bhushan , Eminent journalist; Member, Calcutta Research Group
Moderator : Parivelan KM, Associate Professor, Tata Institute for Social Sciences, Mumbai; Member, Calcutta Research Group
- List of Participants
- Audio & Video Link
- Report
Public Lecture on "COVID 19: Redrawn Borders, Redefined Lives" , July 08, 2020
Speakers: Sandro Mezzadra, Associate Professor, University of Bologna &
Paula Banerjee, Professor, University of Calcutta; member, Calcutta Research Group
Moderator : Samata Biswas , Assistant Professor, The Sanskrit College and University; member, Calcutta Research Group
- List of Participants
Public Lecture on "COVID 19: Public Health Crisis and Sudden Visibility of Migrant Workers" , June 12, 2020
Speakers: Ranabir Samaddar, Distinguished Chair in Migration and Forced Migration Studies, Calcutta Research Group &
Samita Sen ,Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, University of Cambridge; member of Calcutta Research Group
Moderator : Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury, Vice-Chancellor, Rabindra Bharati University; member of Calcutta Research Group
- List of Participants
Short Video Clips on Borders of an Epidemic
Discussions on COVID 19
Both the book (Borders of an Epidemic) and the policy brief (Burdens of an Epidemic) by CRG has widely circulated and discussed among the academicians and media persons all over the world. The links of these discussions are given here.
- “In an interview, Ranabir Samaddar, the director of the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, speaks to The Wire about the factors behind the migrants’ desperation to reach home, the dynamics of the visibility and invisibility of migrant labour and the boundary making exercises in economy and governance that produce migrants.”…Read More
- “Very recently, Calcutta Research Group (CRG), under the editorship of Ranabir Samaddar, has brought out a collection of essays around the lives and politics of migrant workers in India, focusing on COVID-19 (Borders of an Epidemic: COVID-19and Migrant Workers). In a sense, the collection represents “The Present as History”… Read More