Hem / Att delta i NSU / Särskilda arrangemang / 2008 South Asia

South Asia: Social transformations, political capacities, and globalization - theories and debates

Headlines are filled with news from South Asia: Killings in the red mosque and political turmoil in Pakistan; out-sourcing of IT to India; floods in Bangladesh; Maoist rebels in Nepal; boarder disputes in Kashmir; Tamil Tigers in Sri-Lanka etc. The list is long and becoming longer as news agencies become aware of the many issues in South Asia that can affect the international environment and the lives of people in Europe and elsewhere.

This cluster proposes to investigate dynamics of change in South Asia 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. In short, the cluster is concerned with South Asia and South Asia in the world and will propose new ways of looking at the region to explain its development and its relations to the rest of the world.

We invite scholars to a symposium which will discuss a proposal for a South Asia-cluster which - if approved at next year’s NSU summer session in Denmark – shall arrange a series of sessions over a three year period under the auspices of NSU.

In preparation for the symposium please consider a) the proposed theme, its research potential, and the possible research questions it indicates; and b) how you would like to contribute i.e. how can your research interest add knowledge to our understanding of South Asia in relation to the theme and would you like to organize one (or several) of the future NSU session(s).

Participants will prepare a short paper (app. 5 pages) on the above raised issues and present it at the symposium.

Time: From Monday 3 March 2008, 12.00 to Tuesday 4 March 2008, 17.00.
Venue: NIAS - Nordic Institute for Asian Studies, Leifsagde 33, 3rd floor, DK-Copenhagen 2300 S.

Further information: Martin Bech, NIAS, martin.bech@nias.ku.dk , +45-35 32 95 04 and Peter B. Andersen, Dept. of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, peterba@hum.ku.dk, +45-35 32 91 90.