Overview

This book presents commuting as a new paradigm in mobility studies in the context of global south. It delves into suburban train commuting in Eastern India. The book interprets commuting not only as a means to attend work but also as a process producing kinetic event-space infused with different mobile practices, which is not determined by their locational fixity, rather can be cognized. It analyses the role of suburban train commuting in the metropolitan expansion of Kolkata, and the transformation of rural space into urban. The significant contribution of the book lies in explaining commuters’ experiencescape and the production of spatial fluidity in time capsule through commuting. It also explores the subjective reality of gendered commuting. The book uses a trans-disciplinary research design, blending quantitative and ethnographic research methods. The area selected for the empirical research is the Howrah-Bardhaman Main Railway Line (108 km), the first suburban railwayline in Eastern India. Commuters originating from three adjacent districts of Purba Bardhaman, Hooghly and Howrah took part in this research. Besides the commuters, non-commuting passengers and hawkers in the train were also interviewed to understand the diverse perceptions of the process of commuting.  This book may be considered as a reference book for mobility studies, transport studies, urban geography and regional planning.

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9783030783525

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Bhaswati Mondal is presently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, Rampurhat College, located in the district of Birbhum in West Bengal, India. After obtaining her Master’s degree, she completed her PhD from the Department of Geography, The University of Burdwan with the help of financial grant from the University Grants Commission in the form of Junior and Senior Research Fellowships. Her core areas of research include mobility studies, rural development and urban environment. She has presented her research findings on different perspectives of commuting in a number of national and international seminars held across the country. She won the Young Geographer 2017 award at the International Seminar and 48th Regional Science Conference held in Tripura University. She has published articles in different peer-reviewed journals and as book-chapters in edited volumes. She thinks herself to be a learner of geography. Gopa Samanta is a Professor in the Department in Geography, The University of Budwan. Her core areas of research and teaching interest are Urban, Gender and Mobility studies. With grants from different national and international institutions such as the UGC, ICSSR, Ford Foundation, Australia India Institute and INR-France, IRD-France, she has completed a number of research projects with interdisciplinary methodologies and collaborative research teams. As a geographer, she has a passion for undertaking in-depth and field-based empirical research. She is the joint author of two books: 1. Dancing with the River: People and Life on the Chars of South Asia, published from Yale University Press; 2. Negotiating Terrain in Local Governance: Freedom, Functioning and Barriers of Women Councillors in India, published from Springer. She acts as peer reviewer of academically acclaimed journals such as Community Development Journal, Development in Practice, ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, Local Environment, Economic and Political Weekly, etc. She was on the editorial board of the Journal of Mobility Studies called Transfers. She has acted as Visiting Fellow of Australian National University and Paris Diderot University, and as Gender Chair of Paris Sorbonne University.

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