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SUMMARY:‘Doing’ comparative research in South Asia: Positionality\, po
 stcolonial cities and the making of urban place - Shreyashi Dasgupta\, Cen
 tre of Development Studies
DTSTART:20181127T110000Z
DTEND:20181127T120000Z
UID:TALK112849@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:66652
DESCRIPTION:There is a substantive literature on comparative work from var
 ious epistemological standpoints in urban studies (Robinson 2014\, Scott a
 nd Storper 2015). The idea of comparative urban research seeks to transcen
 d the boundaries of a single-city perspective. But as McFarlane (2010) poi
 nts out that comparative work has often been understood in relation to cit
 ies between the Global North and Global South but a more postcolonial deba
 te considers comparativism as a research and mode of thought. At the core 
 of the ‘doing’ comparative urban research entails the challenge of the
  researcher. However\, scanty literature focuses directly on the process o
 f producing South-South comparability\, positionality of researchers and t
 he methodologies and ethical dilemmas of the ethnographic self. In this pr
 esentation\, I will explore two important questions – First\, what does 
 it mean to be a South Asian researcher doing comparative contemporary urba
 n research in South Asia? I will elaborate this by unpacking the connectio
 ns between South Asian cities from two neighbouring nation-states\, look a
 t the process of comparative research once the historical place has geogra
 phically moved beyond a single city\, nation-state or region (Reference Ke
 nny and Magdin 2015). Second\, I will address the impact of insider-outsid
 er positionality on collected data. I will elaborate on this by highlighti
 ng the ethnographic self\, issues of intersectionality between caste\, rel
 igion\, migrant and a researcher trained in the UK doing research on South
  Asia. To advance my arguments\, I will make use of interviews and observa
 tional data gathered to understand the influences of the identities and ge
 ographies of the researcher on their work.
LOCATION:Seminar Room\, Department of Geography\, Downing Site
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