Meeting Link: http://surl.li/jkomi
Abstract
This presentation aims to provide an empirical understanding of the reconfiguration of regional and local elites. Based on empirical research it deals with the question of social mobility and renegotiation of power relations in urban contexts. It shows that elite studies in the case of Rajasthan have been mostly rooted in rural contexts and thereby present a very ahistoric, static picture of elite structures. There exists a rich body of literature on changes in rural elites in Rajasthan, which remains stuck with merely the social background analysis of elites. I engage in the exploration of elite reconfiguration via Bourdieusian approach-based concept i.e. ‘field of power’. This paper aims to describe the processes of social change in the elite structures and how traditional political and business elites tend to reconfigure themselves in the changing social and political contexts of Bikaner city. The traditional system of feudal power organized around princely families has been challenged by the rise of new political elites from nonprincely backgrounds. Therefore, the elite strategies to reproduce their monopoly over a particular field have experienced a renewal. With the entry of new elites and intermediate caste groups into urban politics and business, Bikaner city’s elite structure has become highly competitive. This change has led city elites to adopt new practices of social closure and simultaneously reconfigure their relations with each other.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Suraj Beri is presently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology, Central University of Nagaland, Lumami. He completed his Ph.D. at Centre for the Study of Social Systems, School of Social Sciences, JNU in 2019. In his doctoral research, he conducted an empirical exploration of the elite structure in Bikaner city of the Rajasthan state. It examined the social and historical processes which shaped the nature and character of the contemporary economic, political, and socio-cultural elites in Bikaner. His area of academic interest includes analysis of social inequalities, class relations and reproduction of elite structures in urban contexts, mechanisms of social exclusion, caste in democratic politics and neoliberal order, social theory and modernity, social and cultural aspects of conflicts, change and mobilities. He was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin in 2014. He has published articles, reviews and research papers in several journals i.e. Transcience, Social Trends, Sociological Bulletin, Social Change, Contemporary South Asia and International Sociology. He has taught at Indraprastha College for Women, Janki Devi Memorial College, Lady Shri Ram College for Women and Maitreyi College.