‘Upgrading’ in precarious times: social mobility, skills and entrepreneurship among pastoralist youth in urbanising Gujarat

Abstract

ABSTRACT The paper examines the occupational trajectories of young pastoralist (rabari) men as they turn to new livelihoods in place of livestock herding in urban Gujarat. In contrast to the dominant skill development narratives, the paper offers a micro view of how youth with limited education and financial resources rely on an alternative infrastructure of skills beyond the state and private sector to cope with economic precarity. What is the role played by caste and community networks in shaping youth aspirations for social mobility, the pursuit of new occupations and the acquisition of innovative skills? To what extent do youth manifest a new entrepreneurial spirit and individual-centric agency that is commonly associated with the advent of the neoliberal political economy? The findings reveal the workings of a communitarian skill-ecosystem that mobilises community networks, reinvents traditional practices and produces innovative cultures of skilling and entrepreneurship, whereby youth attempt to cope and survive in precarious urban landscapes.