About the Book

This book approaches grassroots governance and democracy from a sociological perspective, focusing on the interaction between the community and the State.  It explores the interrelationship between state, governance and community and demonstrates the performativity aspects of both political actors and citizens in various elections in India. It also highlights the need to understand the dynamics of governance in a multi-ethnic society and democracy like India both at the micro and macro levels. Offering detailed explanations of formal and informal governance in people’s everyday lives, it reviews some of the key debates on governance with respect to the engagement of the community. This book is intended for academics, researchers, activists, planners and policymakers from a range of disciplines, such as sociology, public policy, social anthropology, development studies, politics and regional development, interested in governance and development in India.

Contents

Sociology of Governance and the Grassroots Democracy

Locating the State, Power and Governance in the Social Sphere

Seeing Like a Citizen: People’s Everyday Engagement with the State and Governance

Documenting the Body: Entitlements and Paper Citizenship

Rituals of the State: Enchanting Elections and Enacting Citizenships

Corporatization of the State in the Neoliberal Era

About the Author / Editor

Amiya Kumar Das is an associate professor at the Department of Sociology and coordinator of the Centre for Public Policy and Governance at Tezpur University, Assam. His research interests include Governance and Development, Sociology of Health, and Illness. Some of his recent publications include Investigating Developmentalism: Notions of Development in the Social Sphere (co-edited, 2019), Neighbourhoods in Urban India: In Between Home and the City (co-edited, 2021), Indigeneity, Citizenship and the State: Perspectives from India’s Northeast (co-edited, 2021). He is also interested in sustainable farming and is a collaborator in the Feeding City Lab project at the University of Toronto.