Research seminars

Negotiating precarity: governance and agency in hydropower development in the Eastern Himalayan margins of India 

Speaker: Touseef Mir - Zulm as an experience of the repressive authoritarian state - The protracted Kashmir conflict, punctuated by authoritarian domination of Indian state and its predominantly militaristic and non-democratic modes of controlling the territory and experiences of challenges within it, contribute towards the uncertain environment and precarity of life in Kashmir. Living under such circumstances is generally termed as living under zulm. Among the means to deal with and live through zulm, is the employment of rasookh, which in Kashmir context connotes the practice of building, maintenance and utilisation of good offices with the officials and intermediaries of the state. The research theorises rasookh as informal institution interplayed with (and influencing) formal institutions of state as a means of navigating zulm.  
Through the ethnographic case study of downtown Srinagar locality of Indian administered Kashmir, the thesis depicts the employment of informal institutions in response to zulm. From the range of experiences of residents living under the prevalent social condition of zulm, the thesis unpacks the interplay of informal institution of rasookh (with the formal institutions of the state) as a significant means to ease the experience of zulm. This way, the thesis brings in novel insights nuancing the region from mainland India with respect to clientelist networking. In the Indian context, the studies depict use of networks vis-à-vis competing material aspects, whereas, in Kashmir they get employed to mitigate violence and ensure physical security of life, much like other imprisoned sites in the world. Further, the thesis adds to understanding of the neo-institutionalist literature within peace and conflict studies by visibilising the mostly invisible aspect (of the society) in the debate. 

Speaker: Stephanie Shankland  - The UK foreign aid budget was cut in 2020 by $3.6bn. The aid money to be spent on global poverty reduction and the attainment of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was reduced by around 20%. The SDGs are the global agenda to end poverty, protect the planet, and provide peace and prosperity for all people.  
In this context, impact investing (a mix of private and public money for social and environmental good) is increasingly used for aid delivery as it aims to deliver with greater value for money than aid funds alone. How social and environmental impact is measured in these investments is important in how they make a positive difference in the lives of the most vulnerable. It is easy otherwise for huge amounts of money to be directed towards that which is easy to measure over that which has the most impact.   
This seminar explores the extent to which current measurement practices can capture the aspects that beneficiaries of those investments value. The research asked Vanilla farmers in Veracruz, Mexico and Development banks in the country to see common ways of understanding. The common features can help us start to look at measurement in a way that helps it direct money to the most impactful and sustainable projects.  
 

Speaker: Jeanette Baxter – Anglian Ruskin University