[Urbanstudy] Second Posting

[sumalatha b.s]

Dear all,

This is my second posting on my project for the Sarai Studentship on
cities titled "Space for Brokering Branches in Kerala Townships: A
Casual link with Urbanization".  In my first posting, I have recounted
a day's life in this urban space. This in fact grew out of a field
visit done at one of the branches of a stock brokering firm in my
city. Presently, the interactions among the constituents of this space
have led to this scribbling, i.e. how the various stakeholders breathe
the space within a brokering firm. While the direct contributors of
this space vary form investors/speculators to employees of the firm,
one can include as many indirect, casual links to this relatively new
phenomenon in Kerala's urban development. The positives are that this
endeavor includes views from across Kerala. Here I will depict the
hierarchical arrangement in a branch and views form each of the strata
before going to the investor class.

The employees seem to be the major occupants of the space generated by
this new phenomenon. Since the job demonstrates similar
characteristics, these stakeholders also seem to be similar across
places. This urban institution also has got a hierarchical face. The
Manager will be the boss in any branch. The traders (employees who
execute the buying and selling for the clients), the assistants
(employees who manages the front office and back office jobs) seems to
hold similar statues quo in the office. But, interactions within
employees have revealed that traders are paid more than the
assistants. However, the interesting and amazing point is that the
remuneration is comparatively lower in this field. Bijoy (name
changed) is a manager of a branch of the stock brokering firm that I
usually visited in my city. To me, as a sample he ideally represented
majority of the branch managers in this field. At first he seems
secretive and doubtful of the purpose and once revelations are made,
become helpful and talkative about the nuances of the daily life in a
stock brokering branch. In fact interactions with him have re-modeled
my perception from an urban phenomenon towards a combination of
technology- information- urbanization paradigm. He says "This stock
market, or brokers or investors all have been there earlier also. But
economic liberalisation (of the country) has provided more freedom to
these kinds of activities. Now residents can engage in more forms of
financial activities". I then had to interrupt him "But these types of
financial activities are speculative, isn't it?  But his reply was in
supportive of financial liberalisation and newer ways of profit
maximisation "Look, one cannot consider this as a speculative. These
are newer avenues through which the investors can maximize the income
form the investments which also incurs elements of risk. So one has to
use all kinds of available methods permitted by the system for
guarding against risk and then to garner the most of the profits. May
be then, these kinds of activities involves some bit of speculation.
But all investment activities are having some bit of speculative
tinge, isn't it? ". In essence he seems to point towards the
hypothesis of an urban space created by modern technology
(information) with an orientation towards augmenting (?) the urban
capital through mild modes of speculation.

However, one gets a feeling of exploitation while interacting with the
lower strata of employees. Their reward is low comparing with the
human capital them posses. In that branch in my city, most of the
traders are post graduates, while the lower sections are mostly
graduates. The traders felt similar to what I had felt with regard to
speculation.  Jay, one of the traders I have interacted told "There
can be both forms of investing, while the investments of short-term
nature can be speculative in nature; investments covering long periods
of time will not be as speculative as in the case of a short-term
investment. The long-term investor waits for a substantial point of
time for reaping the fuller margins of profit. But, the short-term
investor are usually aggressive investors will sell of in sight of a
mere profit or loss. They are called also as speculators". Jay was
also was elaborative of problems while dealing with a majority of
speculators. "They will always keep us on tender hooks and will be
always mongering for short-term profits. In fact it is high tension to
deal with speculators. One small mistake in typing or lack of
concentration may erode profits and results in losses. This can incur
the wrath of these people. In short, we will always have to service
these sections happy".

Enquiring about the work conditions made me more realize the true
nature of an informational urban space utilizing the local human
capital for augmenting the local capital through new methods of
speculative financial trading. The office begins life by 9 in the
morning and continues till 5 in the morning everyday with Sunday the
exception. Half of the Saturdays are to be spent for back office jobs.

In this posting I have tried to analyse the perceptions of the
employees of the brokering firm's branches, out of my interactions
with these occupants of the urban space. This has in fact pointed
towards something like an informational city utilizing local skill for
enhancing financial capital. And the way through which this is done is
through these kinds of financial activities.  In the next and final
posting I will try to highlight the perceptions of the other important
constituent of this city space; the investors.