Political Economy of Social Change and Development in Nepal

Based on research in Nepal since 2001, this book argues that, alongside political transition, there are clear evidence of a qualitative “step-change” in the way Nepali economy and society is organized that is beyond the continual or “normal” processes of incremental change. Many existing social norms and forms are being challenged and many are being reconstructed. The combination (and sometimes the competition) of social and political mobilisations under the guises of Maoist insurgency, ethnic and regional social movements, in parallel with the development of formal and non-formal education and opening up of the public sphere(s), has resulted in a historical transformation of consciousness. Awareness of rights and gender has increased massively, the collective agency of women and oppressed and marginalized groups has escalated and has resulted in durable changes in how individuals, groups, and institutions interrelate. Despite widespread concerns of poor governance, corruption and financial scandals at national and local levels, electoral participation and public debate on politics remains impressive. Nepal has been undergoing tumultuous socio-political and economic changes since the 1950s. At the macro-level, politically, Nepal has leapfrogged from a feudal, hierarchical monarchy to a republican order that has attempted to engrain ideas of human rights, equality and inclusive citizenship. Economically, there has been a gradual shift in the political economy of rural livelihoods with the commodification of land and labour, the widespread flows of cash and financialisation and extensive out-migration, with the countryside deeply penetrated by the ideas as well as the material aspects of development, market and modernity. What does it mean to talk about change, transformation and transition in Nepal beyond its stereotypical image of fatalism and immobility? How are powerful historical processes experienced and negotiated in Nepal? How might we assess the paradoxical effects of these transformations in people's lives and livelihoods, both in terms of expanding ideas of rights and freedom while also producing vulnerabilities and precarity?Drawing on insights from field research carried out in Nepal since 2004, this book engages with these questions and considers whether and how Nepal's political economy might have been transformed since the 1950s while situating these changes in Nepal's modern history and its location in the global economic system Political Economy of Social Change and Development in Nepal is an accessible contemporary political economic analysis of social change in Nepal. It considers whether and how Nepal's political economy might have been transformed since the 1950s while situating these changes in Nepal's modern history and its location in the global economic system. It assembles and builds on the scholarship on Nepal from a multidisciplinary and synoptic perspective. Focusing on local discourses, experiences and expectations of transformations, it draws our attention to how powerful historical processes are experienced and negotiated in Nepal and assess how these may, at the same time, produce ideas of equality, human rights and citizenship while also generating new forms of precarity.