Urbanities,
Vol. 3
·
No 2
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November 2013
© 2013
Urbanities
147
cultural, political and economic conditions of a community and psychosocial distress. The
study highlights the contested nature of social space and brings out the reasons for increasing
distress amongst women. Feminist methods and reflexive ethnography were used for
collection of data.
Psychosocial Distress amongst women is embodied and expressed through the
categories of possession and illness experiences. Possession experiences are seen as powerful
negotiating tools as they provide a means of communication to those who have been silenced.
In addition to possession, psychosocial distress is expressed through the ‘tired body’ (pains,
aches, sleeplessness and disinterest). Stressful daily routines, negative life events and worries
about the future are related to bodily distress. Women in the field site seek help from multiple
systems which include the 'traditional' or 'folk' healers. Increasingly, the legitimacy of
'traditional' or 'folk' healers is being questioned and the medical paradigm is gaining
hegemony. Bourdieu's concept of doxa has been used to argue that women's distress is
increasingly being 'misrecognised' as illness and 'treated' with medicines. Oppressive social
conditions are medicalised and the real issues remain unaddressed. Women's movements
have been instrumental in bringing out relationship between women's social position and
distress. The research brings out how reduction of psychosocial distress of women implies not
only a better quality of life for them but also implies better governance.
Dr Mahima Nayar
is currently Assistant Professor in the Centre for Disability Studies and Action,
School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. She previously obtained a
Masters degree in Social work and M.Phil in Psychiatric Social Work. Her research interests include
gender and violence, disability, urbanization and health.
Name:
Max Rousseau
Affiliation:
Université de Saint-Etienne – Université de Lyon, France
Triangle – UMR 5206
Awarded:
2012, Université de Saint-Etienne
Selling the (Post) Industrial City:
Capitalism, Power and Image Policies in Roubaix and Sheffield (1945-2010)
Based on a careful study of the evolution of urban capitalism and power in two (post)
industrial cities, Roubaix (France) and Sheffield (UK), this dissertation aims at refining the
regulationist analytical framework commonly used by urban studies (based on two periods:
Fordism and post-Fordism) by introducing a periodization in five steps. The first part of the
dissertation analyzes the emergence of the image policies in both cities at the turn of the
1960’s as reflecting a process of “fordisation on urban policies”. This section proposes a
division of the Fordist era into two ideal-typical periods: early, then late urban Fordism.
Indeed, even during the Fordist era, the industrial base of both cities evolves, some new social
interests emerge and the urban governments gradually move away from the working class.
The second part is devoted to the few years of the “urban sacrifice”, during which
