Modern Matters: Negotiating the Future of Everyday Life in South Asia

Description

South Asia has been described as in a state of flux. While it is part of the soaring ‘Asian century’ led by China and India, it remains on the periphery of its promising future. India is celebrated as an attractive investment destination for its impressive growth rate, and for moving out of what has been called the waiting room of history and into the modern era at an accelerated pace. However, large parts of South Asia, including some regions within India, are still defined by the development agendas and interventions of a previous era. The region which is home to one-fifth of the world’s population has its largest youth demography, is celebrated for its demographic dividend. But this also raises concerns about the low investment in education, job training and public health. The uplifting narratives of call centers, shopping malls, new modes of leisure, and the global lifestyles of technologically–adept consumer-citizens contrast with shortages in material goods, services, and employment opportunities. Everyday life in South Asia is typified by these wide gaps in wealth, abundance and consumption.
How is notion of modernity experienced
This workshop explores what it means to consider oneself modern, or outside the limits of modernity, in an extremely diverse region. How is the notion of modernity experienced, contested, and negotiated in South Asia within the broader promise and hope of the Asian century? South Asian modernity will be considered in terms of regional, national, and global societies by pursuing the following, larger questions:

1. Can we discover regional understandings of modernity in South Asia? If so, how do they differ, and what do they have in common?

2. What are the specific discourses related to global modernity in South Asian societies?

3. How are class, caste, ethnicity, religion, and gender related in contemporary South Asian societies?

4. What resistance to modernity can we find in South Asian contexts? What categories are involved, and which arguments are raised?

Period	2016 Sept 20 → 2016 Sept 22
Event type	Conference
Location	Lund, SwedenShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International