The Department of Sociology hosted a talk on 13th February 2023 by Prof. Nazli Kibria, Professor, Department of Sociology, Boston University, USA and Dr. Anushyama Mukherjee, Asst. Prof. Department of Sociology St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata and an alumna of the Department. The talk was titled, “There is no Borrowing or Lending between us: Economic Exchanges of Middle-Class Siblings in Contemporary India”. The talk was chaired by the Head of the Department, Prof. C. Raghava Reddy. Prof. Aparna Rayaprol introduced the visitors and PhD scholar Anamika Das thanked the speakers and the participants.
The talk was based on findings from the Global Siblings and Inequalities project, a research initiative to explore families in relationship to contemporary economic inequalities. Sibling relationships (or “sibships”) are long lasting family ties with important consequences for health and well-being. Family studies focus on spousal or parent/child relations but the speakers noted that there is little work on sibling exchanges.
Drawing on qualitative data on adult siblings in India, Sweden and the USA, they examined how families mediate economic inequalities, as safety nets of support and as arenas of sense making. The research in India was done in two cities, Kolkata and Chennai often with siblings in the same family. The discussion focussed on the research methods used and the parameters of comparison across countries.