Books by RIMPLE MEHTA
Routledge, 2023
This volume brings together academics, activists, social work practitioners, poets, and artists f... more This volume brings together academics, activists, social work practitioners, poets, and artists from different parts of the world during the Covid-19 pandemic. It sheds light on how the pandemic has exposed the inequities in society and is shaping social institutions, affecting human relationships, and creating new norms with each passing day.
It examines how people from diverse societies and fields of work have come to conceptualise and imagine a new world order based on the principles of social and ecological justice, care, and human dignity. It prioritises the realm of imagination, creativity, and affect in understanding social formations and in shaping societies beyond the positivist approaches. Documenting the myriad experiences and responses to the pandemic, the volume foregrounds varied processes of making meaning; understanding impulses, resistances, and coping mechanisms; and building solidarities. Further, it also acts as a tool of memory for future generations, and articulations- artistic, political, socio-cultural, scientific- of hope and perseverance. This spectrum of expressions intends to value visceral experiences, build solidarities, and find solace in art.
Its uniqueness lies in the way it brings together a much-needed interface between science, social sciences, and humanities. A compelling account on our contemporary lives, the volume will be of great interest to scholars of sociology and social anthropology, politics, art and aesthetics, psychology, social work, literature, health, and medical sciences.
Orient BlackSwan, 2022
In the popular imagination, the female criminal/prisoner is a figure of curiosity and intrigue. H... more In the popular imagination, the female criminal/prisoner is a figure of curiosity and intrigue. Hidden behind male prisoners, partners in their lives and/or crimes, the female prisoner is made invisible, or she is memorialised a grotesque and demonic figure, one who has transgressed the legal, normative, and moral boundaries of social life.
Women, Incarcerated pierces through this invisibilisation/memorialisation paradox to shine the spotlight squarely on the lived experiences of women prisoners.
The book shows how the prison and the State act as extensions of the family and community in dealing with women seen as deviants. Through a focus on both the everyday and the extraordinary aspects of imprisoned women’s lives, the chapters narrate the experiences of exclusion, marginalisation, and violence in the lives of women prisoners. The book also highlights their negotiations with and resistance to penal power.
The volume also initiates, for the first time, a dialogue between researchers, practitioners, and activists to raise some critical questions: How is the prison as an organisation gendered? In what ways do the threat and the actual use of violence feature in the management, control, and treatment of female prisoners? Is it possible to trace narrative continuities between female prisoners' experience of prison life and their experiences outside the prison?
The book illustrates the collapse and remaking of everyday life in prison, revealed through narrative accounts focusing on the travails of women prisoners, the formation of meaningful relationships within prison, and how art helps to retain the dignity and humanity of prisoners. Such a dialogue can further enable collaborative reflections on building humane prisons.
Cambridge University Press, 2024
Social workers are increasingly faced with contemporary global challenges such as inequality, cli... more Social workers are increasingly faced with contemporary global challenges such as inequality, climate change and displacement of people. As a field committed to supporting the world's most vulnerable populations and communities, social work must adapt to meet the needs of this changing global landscape. Re-imagining Social Work broadens the imaginative horizons for social workers and acquaints readers with their potential to creatively contribute to global change. Written in an accessible style, this book motivates readers to think outside the box when it comes to linking theory to their social work practice, in order to construct innovative solutions to prominent social problems. Re-imagining Social Work provides a unique perspective on how social work can evolve for the future. Through theory and critical perspective, this book provides the skills required to be an innovative creative social worker.
This book explores how Bangladeshi women from poor and undereducated/semi-educated backgrounds wh... more This book explores how Bangladeshi women from poor and undereducated/semi-educated backgrounds who have crossed the Indo-Bangladesh border find themselves in prisons serving sentences under the Foreigners Act, 1946. Drawing on original fieldwork, this book explores these women’s understanding of borders and state sovereignty and how the women - from conservative rural and semi-rural backgrounds which impose a strict moral code - adjust to the socio-cultural context of an Indian prison, where being an inmate is "dishonourable" in their community.
This book examines the implicit challenge in these women’s action and decisions to these codes of honour, to accepted social norms of their religion and community, and ultimately, the dominantly patriarchal system that marks South Asian society. Further, it focuses on the negotiations that the Bangladeshi women make with the social and political borders they encounter in the process of crossing the Indo-Bangladesh border without requisite documents needed by the state for entry into a "foreign" land; how they cope with the daily challenges of living during their imprisonment in a correctional home; and their feelings about their impending return to Bangladesh. Women who are apprehended and criminalised for crossing borders must negotiate with not only the normative understanding of borders which is inherently masculine in nature, but also the gender biased lens through which female mobility is viewed: therefore, they not only cross political borders but also social borders.
This book maps the associations between women’s experiences of mobility and incarceration, and their linkages with social and political borders and the fraught experiences of being in a ‘foreign’ territorial space. It will be important reading for criminologists, sociologists, and those engaged in penology, women’s studies and migration studies.
Journal by RIMPLE MEHTA
From the European South, 2021
The India-Bangladesh border is the fifth longest border in the world. It is 4,096.7 km long and r... more The India-Bangladesh border is the fifth longest border in the world. It is 4,096.7 km long and runs through five densely populated states in India. It is also the longest border India has with any of its neighbours. The nature of the border has created its own specific issues for bordering practices, as people cross borders informally and for variety of reasons (such as trade, farming, kinship, tourism to list a few). The response to unauthorised mobilities is always in terms of the need for more guards and physical presence, along with inhumane border control tactics and the use of force. Importantly, India’s borders and approach to the idea of security is mired in the colonial past, but also the communal and gendered ways in which the boundaries of the nation-state are represented in postcolonial India. These intersections of communal and gendered patterns are also evident in the media reporting of Muslim people and Bangladeshi migrants in India; nevertheless, it has not received sufficient academic attention. There is a dearth of literature which focuses on the representations of Bangladeshi migrants and Muslims in Indian media. This article explores how the media brings the Bangladeshi woman and the Muslim Indian woman together in a discourse which represents them as ‘other’, along the lines of gender, religion, nationality and migration status. The article utilises the existing body of work around borders, migration, media, and gender, which is developed further through the analysis of three well-publicised cases of the ‘woman in red sari’, Zohra Bibi and Felani Khatun. Their media representations bring to the fore three important themes for consideration: ‘madness’, criminality and cruelty.
Social Inclusion, 2022
Refugees lose their networks and support systems on their journey from their home country. In add... more Refugees lose their networks and support systems on their journey from their home country. In addition, they may experience torture, trauma, and socio‐economic hardship. A critical question concerning refugee wellbeing is how refugee belonging, inclusivity, and community connectedness can be better understood, strengthened, and promoted. In this article, we discuss how members of the Tamil Seniors Group, supported by the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS), develop social networks in Australia. Based on two focus group discussions, this article analyses their experiences through the intersection of age and gender to elucidate the challenges and affordances of networking and establishing social relations in Australia.
International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 2023
In this special issue, we explore the limits of existing theories for understanding migration gov... more In this special issue, we explore the limits of existing theories for understanding migration governance from a Southern perspective and what the potential for rethinking border controls and their study, such as alternative epistemological and methodological approaches, might engender. We invited contributions to imagine what a ‘Southern perspective’ on the field of border criminologies would look like. In other words, what does it entail to study and theorise border control from the South? We organised a panel at the European Society of Criminology in September 2021 and then invited further authors. We sought to engage multiple disciplinary traditions and diverse case studies that speak to the various disciplinary perspectives and geopolitical dimensions of bordering. Many of the authors in this special issue are early career researchers who, through engaging with postcolonial theory and decolonial approaches, are fostering novel perspectives within border criminologies. Collectively, the articles bring together the different geopolitical, sociocultural and economic ways in which borders in the Global South are imagined, constructed, negotiated and reconstructed. The articles offer a wide range of epistemological and methodological insights for border criminologies to engage with, shifting our understanding from Northern perspectives.
International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 2024
While much of the mobility of displaced populations is within the Global South, the scholarship a... more While much of the mobility of displaced populations is within the Global South, the scholarship around the criminology of mobility is largely United States/Eurocentric. This article proposes a Southern feminist ethico-political lens from which we can view or engage with the criminology of mobility. The article first highlights the epistemological bordering processes and its implications in academic knowledge production. It then discusses the multifaceted processes of state bordering and the ways in which they produce difference and othering. The article further explores the role of transversal and situated intersectional feminist politics to undo them. It offers epistemological and methodological possibilities by engaging with concepts of reflexivity and accountability, vagueness and fuzziness, spatio‑temporality, embodiment and resistance. It argues that reconfiguring our understanding of these concepts in light of the research experiences within South Asia, a Global South context, will offer crucial ontological, epistemological and methodological insights for the criminology of mobility and lay the groundwork for a Southern feminist approach.
Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2024
Refugee and migrant women in prison are likely to have experiences of trauma and gender-based vio... more Refugee and migrant women in prison are likely to have experiences of trauma and gender-based violence, which shape their pathways to prison and impact their experiences in prison. This systematic review analyses the findings of qualitative studies to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences of migrant and refugee women before and during imprisonment. The review was guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement (PRISMA). A systematic search of four academic databases, ProQuest Central, Taylor and Francis Journals, SAGE Journals and APA PsycInfo and web and citation search was carried out between April and October 2022. The search dates for identifying literature were from September 2001 to September 2021. The review’s search strategy identified 3208 articles from 4 databases and 9 studies from web and citation search, of which 11 met the inclusion criteria for the review. Quality appraisal was conducted using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP). Four analytic themes were identified that detail refugee and migrant women’s experiences before and during imprisonment: women’s pathways to imprisonment; health care experiences; intersectional identities and women’s agency in the context of prison experiences. The findings suggest that the current systems of incarceration fail to reflect the complexity of women prisoners’ racial and ethnic backgrounds. Thus, there is a need for a greater understanding of refugee and migrant women’s experiences to promote better institutional and community support for women before and during prison to eliminate their pathways to the prison. There have been a few studies with a focus on refugee and migrant women in prison. This is an area which lacks focus in terms of both research and intervention, and this review will make an important contribution in this regard.
Journal of Intercultural Studies, 2024
Racism and discrimination, family disjuncture and differential
experiences depending on migration... more Racism and discrimination, family disjuncture and differential
experiences depending on migration experiences influence
resettlement in new environments and sense of belonging. This
article focuses on a little-known group in Australia – Tibetan
youth. This article centres the voices of Tibetan refugee youth in
the state of New South Wales seeking to understand, from their
frame of reference, how they establish networks and social
relations in the context of racism and intergenerational
differences. ‘Refugee youth’ can imply homogenised experiences,
yet intersections such as ethnicity, culture, religion, gender and
more shape diverse experiences. This article also shows the
importance of responsive not-for-profit organisations in filling the
welcome gap that is not apparent in the wider society.
Visual Anthropology Review, 2021
Journal of Indian Law and Society, 2020
Journal of Gender-Based Violence, 2019
This paper is based on 14 interviews with young Bangladeshi women, who in their early or late tee... more This paper is based on 14 interviews with young Bangladeshi women, who in their early or late teenage years got married to Indian men. It traces their journey from their natal home in Bangladesh to their marital home in India. It focuses on the ways in which young Bangladeshi girls who ‘illegally’ cross the Indo-Bangladesh border for multiple reasons end up marrying Indian men in border villages in West Bengal. The paper explores the role of affect in the lives of these young women who negotiate, subvert and resist various norms and laws imposed on them by the family and state respectively. It brings to light the ways in which love, longing, desires of various sorts are caught in the web of securitisation of borders and criminalisation of border crossings.
Economic and Political Weekly, 2018
Both the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party respond aggressively to the i... more Both the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party respond aggressively to the issue of “illegal” Muslim Bangladeshis, the largest “illegal” migrant group in India. Such a response is rooted in the racial underpinnings of Hindutva ideology, which right-wing political formations have attempted to bring into mainstream discourse, especially after the BJP came to power at the centre in 2014.
Borders separating two states are the markers of inequality in terms of gender as well as in term... more Borders separating two states are the markers of inequality in terms of gender as well as in terms of other intersecting social locations of marginalization and discrimination. Mobile populations generate cartographic anxieties for the keepers of these borders who, in turn, respond by increasingly criminalizing unwanted border crossing. While mainstream criminology has historically focused on matters of exclusion, integration and identity, discussion of its relation to borders and more specifically, ‘gendered borders’ has been oblique. This article presents the narratives of young Bangladeshi women, detained in Kolkata, India under the Foreigners Act (1946), on borders and border crossings, bringing into the discussion women’s understandings of their ‘transgressions’ in relation to normative and androcentric paradigms of state sovereignty and border control. It connects the newly emerging body of work on the criminalization of mobility with feminist theorizations and methodologies for an empirical understanding of the lived experiences of those subject to practices of border control. By focusing on the narratives of Bangladeshi women imprisoned in India for infractions against the sanctity of the Indo-Bangladeshi border, the article provides an insight into how everyday border crossings can be framed and understood differently, in juxtaposition to dominant rationales underpinning criminalization discourses.
Book Chapter by RIMPLE MEHTA
he Coronavirus Crisis and Challenges to Social Development: Global Perspectives, 2022
Social work experiences of Covid are differentially experienced within and between countries. The... more Social work experiences of Covid are differentially experienced within and between countries. The chapter is a co-production and draws on interviews with social work academics and social work practitioners in India and Australia, which highlight inequities. From the voices of co-producers, four thematic areas that arose are discussed: People and the State: Migrants, Refugees and Citizens; Women, Mobility and Violence; Digital Divide: Access to Communities and Social Work Practice; Role of Social Workers; Relief and Systemic Interventions. The rich narratives highlight the expertise of social workers as complementary to the dominant reliance on health professional interventions.
he 1947 Partition of British India: Forced Migration and Its Reverberations, 2022
Women, Incarcerated: Narratives from India, 2022
Centering Borders in Latin American and South Asian Contexts: Aesthetics and Politics of Cultural Production, 2023
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Books by RIMPLE MEHTA
It examines how people from diverse societies and fields of work have come to conceptualise and imagine a new world order based on the principles of social and ecological justice, care, and human dignity. It prioritises the realm of imagination, creativity, and affect in understanding social formations and in shaping societies beyond the positivist approaches. Documenting the myriad experiences and responses to the pandemic, the volume foregrounds varied processes of making meaning; understanding impulses, resistances, and coping mechanisms; and building solidarities. Further, it also acts as a tool of memory for future generations, and articulations- artistic, political, socio-cultural, scientific- of hope and perseverance. This spectrum of expressions intends to value visceral experiences, build solidarities, and find solace in art.
Its uniqueness lies in the way it brings together a much-needed interface between science, social sciences, and humanities. A compelling account on our contemporary lives, the volume will be of great interest to scholars of sociology and social anthropology, politics, art and aesthetics, psychology, social work, literature, health, and medical sciences.
Women, Incarcerated pierces through this invisibilisation/memorialisation paradox to shine the spotlight squarely on the lived experiences of women prisoners.
The book shows how the prison and the State act as extensions of the family and community in dealing with women seen as deviants. Through a focus on both the everyday and the extraordinary aspects of imprisoned women’s lives, the chapters narrate the experiences of exclusion, marginalisation, and violence in the lives of women prisoners. The book also highlights their negotiations with and resistance to penal power.
The volume also initiates, for the first time, a dialogue between researchers, practitioners, and activists to raise some critical questions: How is the prison as an organisation gendered? In what ways do the threat and the actual use of violence feature in the management, control, and treatment of female prisoners? Is it possible to trace narrative continuities between female prisoners' experience of prison life and their experiences outside the prison?
The book illustrates the collapse and remaking of everyday life in prison, revealed through narrative accounts focusing on the travails of women prisoners, the formation of meaningful relationships within prison, and how art helps to retain the dignity and humanity of prisoners. Such a dialogue can further enable collaborative reflections on building humane prisons.
This book examines the implicit challenge in these women’s action and decisions to these codes of honour, to accepted social norms of their religion and community, and ultimately, the dominantly patriarchal system that marks South Asian society. Further, it focuses on the negotiations that the Bangladeshi women make with the social and political borders they encounter in the process of crossing the Indo-Bangladesh border without requisite documents needed by the state for entry into a "foreign" land; how they cope with the daily challenges of living during their imprisonment in a correctional home; and their feelings about their impending return to Bangladesh. Women who are apprehended and criminalised for crossing borders must negotiate with not only the normative understanding of borders which is inherently masculine in nature, but also the gender biased lens through which female mobility is viewed: therefore, they not only cross political borders but also social borders.
This book maps the associations between women’s experiences of mobility and incarceration, and their linkages with social and political borders and the fraught experiences of being in a ‘foreign’ territorial space. It will be important reading for criminologists, sociologists, and those engaged in penology, women’s studies and migration studies.
Journal by RIMPLE MEHTA
experiences depending on migration experiences influence
resettlement in new environments and sense of belonging. This
article focuses on a little-known group in Australia – Tibetan
youth. This article centres the voices of Tibetan refugee youth in
the state of New South Wales seeking to understand, from their
frame of reference, how they establish networks and social
relations in the context of racism and intergenerational
differences. ‘Refugee youth’ can imply homogenised experiences,
yet intersections such as ethnicity, culture, religion, gender and
more shape diverse experiences. This article also shows the
importance of responsive not-for-profit organisations in filling the
welcome gap that is not apparent in the wider society.
Book Chapter by RIMPLE MEHTA
It examines how people from diverse societies and fields of work have come to conceptualise and imagine a new world order based on the principles of social and ecological justice, care, and human dignity. It prioritises the realm of imagination, creativity, and affect in understanding social formations and in shaping societies beyond the positivist approaches. Documenting the myriad experiences and responses to the pandemic, the volume foregrounds varied processes of making meaning; understanding impulses, resistances, and coping mechanisms; and building solidarities. Further, it also acts as a tool of memory for future generations, and articulations- artistic, political, socio-cultural, scientific- of hope and perseverance. This spectrum of expressions intends to value visceral experiences, build solidarities, and find solace in art.
Its uniqueness lies in the way it brings together a much-needed interface between science, social sciences, and humanities. A compelling account on our contemporary lives, the volume will be of great interest to scholars of sociology and social anthropology, politics, art and aesthetics, psychology, social work, literature, health, and medical sciences.
Women, Incarcerated pierces through this invisibilisation/memorialisation paradox to shine the spotlight squarely on the lived experiences of women prisoners.
The book shows how the prison and the State act as extensions of the family and community in dealing with women seen as deviants. Through a focus on both the everyday and the extraordinary aspects of imprisoned women’s lives, the chapters narrate the experiences of exclusion, marginalisation, and violence in the lives of women prisoners. The book also highlights their negotiations with and resistance to penal power.
The volume also initiates, for the first time, a dialogue between researchers, practitioners, and activists to raise some critical questions: How is the prison as an organisation gendered? In what ways do the threat and the actual use of violence feature in the management, control, and treatment of female prisoners? Is it possible to trace narrative continuities between female prisoners' experience of prison life and their experiences outside the prison?
The book illustrates the collapse and remaking of everyday life in prison, revealed through narrative accounts focusing on the travails of women prisoners, the formation of meaningful relationships within prison, and how art helps to retain the dignity and humanity of prisoners. Such a dialogue can further enable collaborative reflections on building humane prisons.
This book examines the implicit challenge in these women’s action and decisions to these codes of honour, to accepted social norms of their religion and community, and ultimately, the dominantly patriarchal system that marks South Asian society. Further, it focuses on the negotiations that the Bangladeshi women make with the social and political borders they encounter in the process of crossing the Indo-Bangladesh border without requisite documents needed by the state for entry into a "foreign" land; how they cope with the daily challenges of living during their imprisonment in a correctional home; and their feelings about their impending return to Bangladesh. Women who are apprehended and criminalised for crossing borders must negotiate with not only the normative understanding of borders which is inherently masculine in nature, but also the gender biased lens through which female mobility is viewed: therefore, they not only cross political borders but also social borders.
This book maps the associations between women’s experiences of mobility and incarceration, and their linkages with social and political borders and the fraught experiences of being in a ‘foreign’ territorial space. It will be important reading for criminologists, sociologists, and those engaged in penology, women’s studies and migration studies.
experiences depending on migration experiences influence
resettlement in new environments and sense of belonging. This
article focuses on a little-known group in Australia – Tibetan
youth. This article centres the voices of Tibetan refugee youth in
the state of New South Wales seeking to understand, from their
frame of reference, how they establish networks and social
relations in the context of racism and intergenerational
differences. ‘Refugee youth’ can imply homogenised experiences,
yet intersections such as ethnicity, culture, religion, gender and
more shape diverse experiences. This article also shows the
importance of responsive not-for-profit organisations in filling the
welcome gap that is not apparent in the wider society.