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Friends,
The XIth National Conference of the Indian Association for Women's Studies
is to be held at Dona Paula, Goa, 3 - 6 May 2005, on the theme 'Sovereignty,
Citizenship, Gender'. Please check for details, which will soon be available
on the IAWS website www.iaws.org
Apart from the main plenary session on the conference theme, there would be
plenaries on South Asia and on Goa, and a panel on Women's Studies. There
are to be nine concurrent sub-themes. I am coordinating a subtheme:
Citizenship, Livelihoods, Work and Natural Resource Rights. If you, or
anyone you know, would like to participate in this subtheme, kindly contact
me immediately for other details.
Sumi Krishna [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sub-theme 2: Citizenship, Livelihoods, Work and Natural Resource Rights
The right to life can have no substance without the right to the
means of living with dignity. Deprivation of the means of living, or of
livelihood, is tantamount to denial of life. In India, the right to
livelihood has been an enforceable right under the Constitution since the
1985 judgement of the Supreme Court on the eviction of pavement dwellers
from the streets of Mumbai. The livelihood rights of poor and marginalised
peoples are inextricably linked to their right to living spaces, as also to
natural landscapes and resources. These rights are increasingly being
subverted by powerful sections of society in concert with global capital
and market forces. The resultant loss of livelihood resources and the
suppression of cultures are counter-pointed by a spectrum of people's
movements of resistance and 're-presentation'. Formerly fluid group
identities may be reconstructed with sharper boundaries which women are
expected to uphold. Yet, different groups of poor and marginalised women
have also responded to these diverse pressures in novel ways, and fought to
maintain their livelihoods, their work and their moral and cultural
environment.
The Sub-Theme on 'Citizenship, Livelihoods, Work and Natural
Resource Rights' seeks to understand what 'citizenship' means for poor women
who are denied the right to the means of living with dignity. It also seeks
to understand how historical shifts from community to individual rights have
impacted upon poor women's resource rights and livelihood options. The
thrust of the Sub-Theme would be to focus attention on livelihood, work and
natural resource rights as part of the politics of citizenship. Of especial
interest would be accounts that reflect upon the citizenship/livelihood
issue in relation to nomadic and migrant groups (including cross-border
migrants), fishing, coastal and hill-forest dwellers, artisans and
craftswomen in different regions in the country.
The Sub-Theme proposes to bring together innovative presentations from the ground, which would: a) explore the conceptual linkages between citizenship and women's livelihood, work and natural resource rights; b) establish connections between women's experience and responses in particular locations, on the one hand, and large-scale political and economic trends and processes, on the other; and c) attempt to extend conventional scholarship by experimenting with different ways of representing the complex inter-connections that make-up the whole of poor women's lives and livelihoods (drawing upon narrative, folklore etc.).
Contributions would primarily be in the form of text-papers.
Three sessions are envisaged: 1) A conventional paper presentation session;
2) A more informal poster presentation session where the audience may
interact with poster presenters of their choice in an open area; 3) A
chaired, round-up discussion session (without paper presentations) but with
lead discussants.
Co-ordinator Sumi Krishna 103, Farah Court 185, 5th Main Defence Colony Indira Nagar Bangalore 560038 Tel: 080-25200716; Mobile: (0) 9845545524 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Information on Paper Presentation
The guidelines for presenting papers for any of the sub themes are as follows:
The abstract should clearly contain the following: Title Name of the author/s Institutional affiliation (if any) Full address for correspondence (of one main author in case of multiple authors) Phone numbers (Residence and Office) e-mail ID
The abstract should be between 600-800 words.
The abstract is to be sent to the sub theme coordinator whose contact
information is available at the end of the sub theme write-up.
Abstracts should preferably be sent in electronically via e-mail. The e-mail
subject should be "Abstracts for IAWS Conference". The abstract should be in
.doc or .rtf format.
Paper presenters are also requested to send a hard copy to the sub theme
coordinator.
Abstracts should reach the sub theme coordinators on or before 1 March 05.
Intimation of acceptance of papers for presentation at sub theme sessions
will be in due course.
All participants whose papers are accepted for presentation should book
their tickets to Goa in time to ensure availability of train/flight tickets.
Travel Grants: The IAWS Conference is attempting to seek travel grants for
those participants who may require them. The Secretariat cannot, at this
point, promise travel support; however, depending on the funding situation,
it may be able to selectively fund students and activists.
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