Hem / Att delta i NSU / Förslag till nya studiekretsar / 2007 / A. South Asia and the challenges of the 21st Century
South Asia and the challenges of the 21st Century
India is attracting the most international attention among the five countries (Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) in South Asia (SA). This is due to its ongoing progression from a "developing country" to a potential economic power house. At the same time the other SA countries are, for various reasons, witnessing a less promising development and hence lesser international attention. However, as a region SA is home to cross-boarder conflicts, dynamics, and alliances that we need to study in order to understand and engage with the countries in SA now and in the future.
This cluster proposes to investigate dynamics of change in SA from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. It is concerned with the complex ways in which older, conventional values and practices merge with radically innovative social processes inspired in part by globalization.
The Nordic region’s interest in South Asia
SA holds a great interest for the Nordic region. While some sectors of Nordic societies want to investigate possibilities for investment and the effects of out-sourcing, others are preoccupied with both internal and cross-border security issues. Of general concern is SA’s contribution to global warming as well as its effects on vulnerable and marginal groups in SA.
The Nordic region needs increasingly high level, professional competence on SA. The need is not only for lecturers, but for persons who can function well in a wide range of regional and international institutions.
Via the Nordic Summer University (NSU) activities the cluster will connect the presently dispersed scholars on SA and upgrade the existing mass of Nordic Ph.D.-students and younger researchers.
Proposed activities
The cluster organizes three winter sessions and smaller thematic workshop at the NSU summer sessions.
Winter 2008: Introduction to South Asia Studies: Globalisation and Social Transformation.
This session offers a general introduction to SA and the study of SA. Focus is on essential problem areas, such as: a) The relations between area and discipline based approaches; b) economy, welfare and environment; c) conflicts and political development; d) social movements and political decentralization; e) culture, ethnicity, religion, caste, and gender in social mobilizations; and f) training in access to South Asian data collections.
Concrete case studies will be presented and discussed to illuminate the problems researchers face in applying concepts derived from European historical experiences to the astoundingly complex mixes of pre-modern and modern elements in processes of change in South Asia. Special care will be taken to discuss issues in the documentation of reactions to change.
Winter 2009: Religion, ethnicity and gender in South Asia.
Religion and ethnicity continue to play a vital role in the social, cultural and political developments in South Asia. Religious and ethnic traditions are used as means of claiming rights and recognition, legitimising conflicts, and as sources of identity.
This session will explore theoretical, empirical and methodological interventions in the social sciences and humanities in order to facilitate research and teaching in three areas: a) the role of religion, ethnicity and gender in nationalist politics in South Asia, b) how to analyze the new cross-border expansions of religious/ethnic/gendered spaces between South Asia and Europe, c) how men and women of different religious, ethnic and social backgrounds shape themselves as gendered persons, and the strategies and agencies employed to cope with gendered inequalities.
Winter 2010: Releasing the Indian Tiger – causes and implications of the opening of the Indian economy.
In recent years, India has experienced a tremendous economic change, with very high growth rates and fundamental changes in the industrial and commercial fabric of Indian society. Consequently, a revitalized and increasingly self-confident India is asserting its role in the international economy. The changes have taken place simultaneously with the phasing out of import substitution strategies and the gradual opening of the Indian economy toward international trade and foreign direct investment. But has growing openness really been a decisive factor in the recent economic transformation of India or is it mainly a result of internal reforms and dynamics. And if openness has been important, how has it affected the capacity of various actors within the Indian economy to deal with development challenges? More broadly, what are the implications for Indian industry and commerce, for politics and democracy, and for equity and distribution of more outward oriented development?
In short, this session will direct focus to the opening of the Indian economy and evaluate its implications for economic, social and political development.
NSU Summer sessions: Workshops on political capacity and environmental challenges in SA.
In discussing the challenges which lie ahead for the countries of South Asia, the term, “political capacity”, is more inclusive than the familiar, “state capacity”. This is because achieving sustainable development requires states to call upon institutions, persons, and groups which exist beyond their formal domains. Political capacity includes, for example, the deliberations of village committees for watershed management and the management of village schools. It includes the mobilization of a vast array of voluntary associations, the vibrant NGO engagement in South Asia, as well as the formal central and state political systems and their interaction at national and international levels.
The summer sessions will explorer issues related to political capacity in SA in general and in relation to environmental challenges in particular.
Working group and participants
The cluster consists of a core group:
Peter B Andersen, University of Copenhagen; Hans Blomkvist, University of Uppsala; Michael W Hansen, Copenhagen Business School; Sidsel Hansson and Catarina Kinnvall, Lund University; Pamela Price, University of Oslo.
And several affiliates who will help organize winter and/or summer sessions:
Birgitte R. Sørensen, Gunnel Cederlöf, Sirpa Tenhunen, Tor Halfdan Aase, Ashok Swain, Emil Uddhammar, Örjan Bodin, Jørgen Dige Pedersen, Peter Wad, Ranjula Bali Swain, Kathinka Fröystad, Anna Lindberg, Stig Toft Madsen, Arild Engelsen Ruud, Sten Widmalm, Tone Sissener.
The core group and the affiliates are all senior researchers who either conduct PhD courses or supervise PhD students. The participants in the winter and summer sessions will primarily be draw from this group of PhD students (app. 25 students).
Cluster coordinator: Ass. Prof. Peter B. Andersen, Department for Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, Senior Researcher Sidsel Hansson, Centre for East and South East Asian Studies, Lund University, and Project Coordinator Martin Bech, NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
At the NSU summer session the group will be represented by Sidsel Hansson, Lund University and Martin Bech, NIAS-Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
Bilaga: Dokumentet i Word