Class, Space, and Crisis in Karachi

This talk draws upon Dr. Ayaaz Mallick's in-progress book publication, tracing the evolution of working-class politics in one of South Asia's largest city, Karachi. The lecture will briefly discuss epistemological and methodological precepts for studying class formation. Special attention will be focused on the critical years between the mid-1970s to late-1980s characterized by the multi-layered processes through which the city's vibrant labour movement was pacified and politics ultimately dominated by (violent) ethnic populism(s). This entailed processes of concerted coercion, trasformismo, and severing of labour’s social-spatial mediations, while drawing upon emerging faultlines within the working class and urban space in the urbanized city of Karachi.

Zoom link: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/81454054442
Passcode: 459465