Description
Book SynopsisBombay Brokers collect thirty-six character profiles of men and women whose knowledge and laborwhich is often seen as morally suspectare essential for navigating everyday life in Bombay, one of the world's most complex, dynamic, and populous cities.
Trade Review“Lisa Björkman's collection
Bombay Brokers offers a brilliantly multivocal account of the many worlds of practical negotiation and embodied expertise that animate urban life in one of India's most dynamic, polarized cities. Just as important, it is a remarkable work of collaborative ethnography that forges a distinctive methodological strategy through which to illuminate the crises and contradictions of contemporary urbanism in Bombay and beyond.” -- Neil Brenner, Urban Theory Lab, University of Chicago
“This remarkable edited collection is a commendable contribution to the study of the links between mediation and intermediation, thus linking a venerable tradition of political anthropology with vivid portraits of the agency of brokers. It brings Bombay to life in ways that will surely inform the comparative study of fixers in other large cities caught in the flux of globalization.” -- Arjun Appadurai, Paulette Goddard Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University
"An unconventional introduction to India's biggest city and an invitation to the joys and challenges of ethnography." -- Andrew J. Nathan * Foreign Affairs *
“While [
Bombay Brokers] is nominally about the city of Mumbai, there is little doubt that it will resonate with anyone interested in the story of urban change and continuity all around the world. It is a distinctive contribution to the literature on cities and labour and one that is bound to inspire similar books in years to come.” -- Sneha Annavarapu * International Journal of Urban and Regional Research *
“[
Bombay Brokers] is a highly engaging read, as well as a rich and very valuable contribution to the literatures about Mumbai and the concept of brokerage.... The book provides food for thought for debates about the specificity of Southern urbanisms and enriches our conceptual vocabulary for thinking about cities.” -- Pablo Holwitt * Antipode *
“[
Bombay Brokers] is a book that, in its combination of sharp-eyed detail and endlessly multiplying perspectives, manages to create a simulacrum of the city itself in all its plurality and vitality. . . . The structure of the book makes it especially useful as a teaching resource.” -- Jonathan Spencer * Journal of Anthropological Research *
“
Bombay Brokers is an expert exploration of how life is fashioned in a harshly hierarchical city through the activities of individuals—creative, complex, tenacious individuals who accomplish survival, success or profit, sometimes space to build a community, by brokering deals and mediating conflicts between messy, overflowing institutions.” -- Tania Bhattacharyya * Journal of Asian Studies *
"
Bombay Brokers is ideal for teaching. One could easily assign a single chapter, thematic domain, or the whole. The book’s careful interventions on theories of value, politics, urban belonging, and place making will invigorate advanced students as well as professional anthropologists and urban planners, while individual chapters would be ideal for teaching introductory courses on cultural anthropology, urbanism, or South Asia. This imminently readable and teachable volume burgeons with insights and new research avenues for people thinking about and living in cities in South Asia and beyond." -- Andrew McDowell * City & Society *
"It should be read widely. An ambitious project like this is rarely produced, or even attempted, and rarely with this consistent level of craftsmanship and shared vision start to finish. The style and length of the chapters, short and lacking pretense and jargon, make it an ideal complement to more densely theoretical tracts in undergraduate and graduate courses on urban politics and development in South Asia and the global South. The book is also a model of collaborative inquiry." -- Patrick Inglis * Contemporary Sociology *
“Bombay Brokers deserves to be read and engaged with by scholars across anthropology, political science, history, and critical area studies. … [It] vividly captures the art of ethnographic writing and the ends to which it can be mobilized.”
-- Amogh Dhar Sharma * Pacific Affairs *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments viii
Introduction. Ethnography in the Global Interregnum / Lisa Björkman 1
Part I. Development / Rachel Sturman 47
1. Bunty: Singh Builder of Dreams / Lalitha Kamath 59
2. Imran: Housing Contractor / Tobias Baitsch 68
3. Dalpat: Manager of Services / Lisa Björkman 78
4. Mehmoodbhai: Toilet Operator / Prasad Khanolkar 87
5. Kaushal: Land Agglomerator / Llerena Guiu Searle 95
6. Janu: Sister-Supervisor of Migrant Construction Workers / Uday Chandra 101
Part II. Property. Lisa Björkman 109
7. Dr. K: Middle-Class Social Worker / Yaffa Truelove 121
8. Ashok Ravat: Shivaji Park's Sentinel / Lalit Vachani 128
9. Shazia: Proof Maker / Sangeeta Banerji 137
10. Nirmala: Kamathipura's Gatekeeper / Ratoola Kunda 145
11. Farhad: "Sue Maker" / Leilah Vevaina 154
Part III. Business / Tarini Bedi 163
12. Ramita: Surrogacy Agent / Daisy Deomampo 175
13. Muhammad: Revalorizer of E-Waste / Aneri Taskar 182
14. Deepak: Making Mumbai (in China) / Ka-Kin Cheuk 191
15. Lubaina: Framing "Development" / Lubaina Rangwala 199
16. Shankar: Delivering Authenticity / Ken Kuroda 208
17. Manal-Muna: Cooking Up Value / Tarini Bedi 216
18. Ramji: Business Energizer / Lisa Björkman 224
Part IV. Difference / Anjali Arondekar 233
19. Bhimsen Gaikwad: Singer of Justice / Shailaja Paik 243
20. Sultan: Image Manager / David J. Strohl 253
21. Raj: Carting Cosmopolitanism / Maura Finkelstein 262
22. Laxmi: Dealer in Emotion / R. Swaminathan 270
23. Dharamsey: Assembler of Tradition / Edward Simpson 278
24. Dalvi: Speaker of Cities / Gautam Pemmaraju 286
Part V. Publics / Lisa Björkman and Michael Collins 297
25. Shashi: Dot Connector / Rohan Shivkumar 307
26. Anil Prakash: Amplifier of Cinema-Industrial Connections / Kathryn Hardy 315
27. Gauravpant Mishra: Crowd Maker / Sarthak Bagchi 322
28. Srinivasan: Kingmaker / Simon Chauchard 329
29. Madhu: Door Opener / Bhushan Korgaonkar 337
30. Poornima: Designing Relations / Ajay Gandhi 347
Part VI. Truth / Lisa Björkman 355
31. Rajani Pandit: Detector of "Truths" / Srimati Basu 367
32. Afzal Taximan: Rumor Navigator / Sahana Udupa 378
33. Pawan: Prison Master / Atreyee Sen 384
34. Sujit: Master Communicator / Annelies Kusters 391
35. Chadda: Report Maker / Prasad Shetty & Rupali Gupte 401
36. Prakash: Data Entrepreneur / Amita Bhide 405
Conclusion. Other Places, Other Times / Lisa Mitchell 414
Glossary 425
About the Contributors 437
Index 441
