Fieldwork

This research project consists of various case studies.

“Urban Disaster and Dissident Ethics in Karachi, Pakistan,” Salwa Tareen

Amidst Karachi’s crumbling urban landscape, public grievances against state negligence have transformed ordinary charitable giving into a form of collective protest. Continuing her extensive ethnographic research, Salwa traces how charity serves as a platform for righteous dissent in one of the world’s most beleaguered city. Rather than romanticize charity as a compassionate respite from urban violence or criticize it as a capitulation to neoliberalism, Salwa seeks to explore how Karachiites utilize Muslim ethics, political protest, and popular grievance in their demand to be cared for.

“Islamic Charity, Sovereignties and the Social Contract in Hyderabad, India,” Arman Hasan

Arman's PhD project is located in Hyderabad, India. He hopes to understand how Islamic charities work for the welfare of the marginalised, in between the political sovereignty of the state and God's sovereignty. His project aims to study the different scales and forms that Islamic charities and charitable endowments are adopting as they complicate the notion of the social contract for Muslims in India.

More information on the other case studies will follow shortly.

Fieldwork area