Date: February 3rd (Fri.), 2012 16:00-18:00
Location: AA401, 4th Floor, Research Building No. 2, Yoshida Campus,
Kyoto University
(Access Map: http://www.asafas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/about/access.html)
Speaker: Dr. Jagannath Adhikari (Visiting Professor, ASAFAS, Kyoto
University and Executive Director, Nepal Institute for Development
Studies)
Title: Globalization and socio-economic change in Nepal: Implications
for collective action for resource management.
Abstract: Globalization has led to tremendous changes in Nepali
economy and society, particularly since the early 1990s. The changes
are seen in the greater integration of the villages and urban areas to
the global sphere through the movement of people and goods and
commodities, and inflow of cultural images of progress and
modernization in the developed countries through increased access to
media. The other concomitant changes are the greater reliance on
non-farm income for household and village economy, and in greater
political assertion of the community and group interests. These
changes were partly resulted because of the new-found economy detached
from various forms of community-based patron-client relationships, and
increased consciousness of, and search for, the group’s identity. The
paper argues that this socio-economic change led by globalization is
one of the main forces behind growing ‘identity politics’ seen in
Nepal in recent times. This new social/political formation has
consequences for resource management in village Nepal for which
‘collective action’ is necessary. It has, on the one hand, helped in
demanding the rights for resources, and on the other hand, put various
challenges for collective action for resource management, particularly
land and forests.
This seminar is jointly organized by South Asia and Indian Ocean
Studies Seminar, ASAFAS, Kyoto University and the Nepal Academic
Network (NAN) （https://sites.google.com/site/nanjp09/）