Heritage, Crafting Communities and Urban Transformation: Durga Puja Festival, Kolkata

This book explores how marginalized communities in the global South contribute to decision-making processes in policy realms, particularly in the context of access to infrastructure in informal settlements. It emphasizes the importance of empowering these communities and sheds light on human-infrastructure interactions in the informal neighborhoods of the global South.

Format: Hardback
Length: 164 pages
Publication date: 06 October 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This book emphasizes the critical importance of empowering marginalized communities to actively participate in decision-making processes within policy realms. It contributes to ongoing debates in the social sciences, particularly in the fields of infrastructure rights and citizenship. Moreover, it offers valuable insights into human-infrastructure interactions in the informal neighborhoods of the global South.

The book delves into the intricate web of caste, gender, class, and political identities and affiliations that shape access to infrastructure in informal settlements, particularly in urban areas with an added productive function. It explores the complex factors that contribute to inclusion and exclusion, particularly in the context of infrastructure provision.

This book is situated within the historic inner-city of Kumartuli, a religious idol-crafting community that is undergoing a transformative process due to various factors such as access to physical and social infrastructure, local governance policies, sociopolitical hierarchies, and complexities of informal tenure. By employing a spatial and material lens, the book documents, analyzes, and presents the networks and relations of the neighborhood.

The findings of this research contribute to our understanding of how traditional practices of the crafting community are adapting, appropriating, producing, and reshaping informal spaces in Kumartuli. The book is designed to appeal to academic audiences across the world engaged in research on creative industries, Kolkatas regeneration agenda, and cultural tourism. It will also be of interest to a wide range of disciplines, including Urban Studies, Development Studies, Architecture and Planning, and Culture and Tourism Studies.

Weight: 500g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032376479