Unfolding Spatial Movements in the Second-Hand Book Market in Kolkata (Notes on the Margins in the Boipara)

This insightful book unfolds the boipara, exploring the acts of thinking and writing about space and place in the context of recent key conversations at the intersections of cultural geographies, mobilities, materialities and heritage studies.

This book reconsiders how we can think about space, place and spatialisation using the book market as a case study. Focusing on everyday lived and imagined experiences within the space, it provides insights into the intricacies, complexities and mobilities involved in the many ways in which temporal, material, structural and sensorial experiences of spaces are inter-implicated. As expression and method, this work aims to be a writing of space (rather than a writing about space) produced through the interleafing of the author’s lived spatial experience of the boipara with the stories, experiences and memories of other regulars who have used and continue to use it, along with the non-human materialities and mobilities that characterise it.

This book is essential reading for a wide international audience, particularly those interested in the evolving discussions on mobility, or writing about space and place, materiality, assemblage theory and heritage spaces in the South Asian context.