Indian agriculture is widely believed to be in crisis. There is broad consensus among scholar, policymakers and activists that economic hardships and the changing climate have made sustaining a... Show moreIndian agriculture is widely believed to be in crisis. There is broad consensus among scholar, policymakers and activists that economic hardships and the changing climate have made sustaining a livelihood through farming increasingly untenable. There is a strong sense that something has to be done to help farmers deal with the crisis, and in recent years agricultural insurance has been presented as a possible fix for rural distress. This dissertation studies how a new agricultural insurance scheme called PMFBY becomes part of everyday social interactions and experiences. Insurance companies often assert that quantified procedures can accurately - and fairly - calculate the extent of agricultural risk, attach a price tag to it and protect against it. Can quantification really be the antidote to crisis? To answer this question I explore how insurance numbers translate to the everyday experiences of rural people in central Maharashtra. I find that, when seen from the perspective of those encountering them in their daily lives, the numbers are anything but straightforward. The effects of quantification were often arbitrary, and despite promises of transparency, they had a tendency to obscure rather than clarify. In short, the numbers turned out to be inconsistent and ambiguous. The dissertation describes how people attempt to make sense of this ambiguity through their moral understandings. It focusses on the (often heated) discussions, the collective pondering such discussions led to, the personal dilemmas it posed as well as the dreams and aspirations numbers became entwined with. I explore how such quandaries unfold and argue that a focus on the morality of quantification brings to light the social life of numbers beyond their 'objective' factuality. Show less
Este libro pretende entender las transiciones y negociaciones culturales entre arte y política -de 1989 a 2020- a través del análisis de una serie de novelas cubanas. La caída del muro de Berlín... Show moreEste libro pretende entender las transiciones y negociaciones culturales entre arte y política -de 1989 a 2020- a través del análisis de una serie de novelas cubanas. La caída del muro de Berlín tuvo un enorme peso simbólico en el mundo, quizás, tanto como la misma Revolución en su día. Las últimas tres décadas –entre la soviética y la postpandémica– podrían pensarse como un entrelugar en la isla, un afuera del tiempo o un presente incómodo de difícil representación, sobre todo si las leemos desde las dos grandes ideologías en juego. A nivel simbólico, estaríamos hablando de una crisis crónica de características particulares, una que se ha hecho evidente en la novelística a partir de la relación entre sujeto y vivencia. Timmer analiza el malestar del sujeto como síntoma de lo social escapando a los binomios de la Guerra Fría y aborda el presente cubano a través de las múltiples subjetividades e imaginarios de su producción cultural, de su literatura. Show less