Jonathan Pattenden

A neoliberalisation of civil society? Self-help groups and the labouring class poor in rural South India

This paper notes the prominence of self-help groups (SHGs) within current anti-poverty policy in India, and analyses the impacts of government- and NGO-backed SHGs in rural North Karnataka. It argues that self-help groups represent a partial neoliberalisation of civil society in that they address poverty through low-cost methods that do not challenge the existing distribution of power and resources between the dominant class and the labouring class poor. It finds that intra-group savings and loans and external loans/subsidies can provide marginal economic and political gains for members of the dominant class and those members of the labouring classes whose insecure employment patterns currently provide above poverty line consumption levels, but provide neither material nor political gains for the labouring class poor. Target-oriented SHG catalysts are inattentive to how the social relations of production reproduce poverty and tend to overlook class relations and socio-economic and political differentiation within and outside of groups, which are subject to interference by dominant class local politicians and landowners.

Class dynamics of development: a methodological note

Abstract This article argues that class relations are constitutive of development processes and central to understanding inequality within and between countries. Class is conceived as arising out of exploitative social relations of production, but is formulated through and expressed by multiple determinations. The article illustrates and explains the diversity of forms of class relations, and the ways in which they interplay with other social relations of dominance and subordination, such as gender and ethnicity. This is part of a wider project to revitalise class analysis in the study of development problems and experiences.

Working at the margins of global production networks:local labour control regimes and rural-based labourers in South India

Abstract This article analyses why informal labourers working ‘at the margins’ of global production networks lack ‘structural’ and ‘associational’ power. It does so in order to better understand potential changes in their material and political conditions, and as part of broader calls to put labour at the centre of development studies. The article focuses on rural-based labourers in south India who work relatively invisibly as agricultural labourers and informal factory workers, and on the construction sites of a ‘global city’ (Bangalore). It deploys a three-way labour control regime framework that encompasses (1) the macro-labour control regime, which is ultimately defined by capitalist relations of production, and characterised in India by particularly high levels of informality (precarious and largely unregulated work) and segmentation (due to the fragmentary impact of caste); (2) the local labour control regime, which refers to how class relations in specific places are shaped by patterns of accumulation and work (themselves shaped by differences in agro-ecology, irrigation, and remoteness from non-agricultural labour markets), distributions of classes and castes, and the uneven presence of the state; and (3) the labour process, which is increasingly marked by forms of ‘remote control’ marshalled by labour intermediaries. Debate on the macro-labour control regime and on the labour process is well established, but little has been said about local labour control regimes, which are newly defined here and discussed in terms of differences between ‘wetland/circulation zones’ and ‘dryland/commuting zones’. The article identifies locations where labour has greater potential structural and associational power. Increased worker organisation in these areas could have knock-on effects in more ‘obscure’ sites.

Blind Alleys and Red Herrings?:Social Movements, the State, Class Alliances and Pro-Labouring Class Strategy

This chapter reflects on strategies aimed at improving the material and political conditions of India’s labouring class. It does so through an analysis of two prominent Indian social movements that engages with debates about where the fundamental fault-lines of domination and collective action lie. In line with approaches that recognise class differences within the countryside as well as transnational aspects of exploitation, it argues that cross-class alliances are not in labour’s interests, and should be rejected in favour of organising ‘classes of labour’. This requires place and time-sensitive strategies, which may include engagement with the state when this can augment labour’s room for political manoeuvre. Undue acceleration of pro-labour strategies may trigger countermoves that leave it in a worst position, while undue hesitancy can unnecessarily restrict the scope of change and hold down the material conditions of millions.

Labour, state and society in rural India

This engaging and capillary analysis by Jonathan Pattenden focuses on evolving class relations in rural Karnataka, across villages located in the Raichur and Dharwad regions of India. The book is composed of nine chapters. After the introduction, chapters two and three, A class-relational approach, and Labour, state and civil society in rural India, elaborate on the theoretical framework deployed, inspired by Marxian insights, taking into consideration key debates around the political economy of India. Chapters four and five, Changing dynamics of exploitation in rural South India and Dynamics of domination in rural South India, present a rich field-based narrative of the different ways in which exploitation and oppression manifest in the areas studied. Chapter six and seven, Social policy and class relations, and The neoliberalisation of civil society explore the complex politics of social programmes, ranging from NREGA to different types of community-based engagements. Chapter eight presents evidence on Organisations of labouring class women, and chapter nine concludes the narrative.