Governance, Resistance and Neoliberal Development: Struggles against Development-Induced Displacement and Forced Evictions in South Asia

Research summary

This project, funded by the Academy of Finland (2013–2016), provided theoretically innovative and empirically new and valuable knowledge of the complex dynamics between governance and resistance in the context of the dominant, neoliberal development paradigm. It studied social and political struggles in three countries in South Asia – Nepal, Bangladesh and India – by examining social movements that fight against forced displacement and slum demolitions – all caused by development projects. The project engaged critically in the debate on neoliberal development by analyzing problems related to it, charting possibilities for addressing hem, and offering alternative visions for socially, culturally and politically more sustainable models of development.

Description

For main findings of the project, see the following publications:

- Seppälä, Tiina (2016) Feminizing Resistance, Decolonizing Solidarity: Contesting Neoliberal Development in the Global South. Journal of Resistance Studies, 2(1): 12-47. https://resistance-journal.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Volume-2-Number-1.-Tiina.pdf

- Seppälä, Tiina (2014) Biopolitics, Resistance and the Neoliberal Development Paradigm. Journal für Entwicklungspolitik (JEP), Austrian Journal of Development Studies, 30(1): 88–103. https://doi.org/10.20446/JEP-2414-3197-30-1-88

- Khanam, Afroja & Seppälä, Tiina (2020) Rethinking Knowledge, Power, Agency: Learning from Displaced and Slum Communities in Bangladesh. In: Anu Valtonen, Outi Rantala, & Paolo D. Farah (Eds.), Ethics and Politics of Space for the Anthropocene (pp. 72-106). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781839108709.00011

- Seppälä, Tiina (2021) Participatory Photography with Women’s Rights Activists in Nepal: Towards a Practice of Decolonial Feminist Solidarity? In: Tiina Seppälä, Melanie Sarantou & Satu Miettinen (Eds.), Arts-Based Methods for Decolonising Participatory Research (pp. 81-98). New York: Routledge. Routledge Advances in Art and Visual Studies https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003053408

Research info

Research title
Governance, Resistance and Neoliberal Development: Struggles against Development-Induced Displacement and Forced Evictions in South Asia

Research timeline
1.9.2013 - 1.8.2016

Keywords
Activism biopolitics decolonization development displacement evictions forced migration governance internally displaced people neoliberalism power resistance slum demolitions social movements

Region
Asia

Countries
Array

Institution
University of Lapland
Faculty of Social Sciences
Rovaniemi, Finland

Funding instrument
Academy of Finland

Project budget
200,000 - 500,000 euros

Head of research
Tiina Seppälä

Partners
Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (CRG), Kolkata, India; Nepal Institute of Peace (NIP), Kathmandu, Nepal; University of Dhaka, Department of International Relations, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Jagannath University, Department of International Relations and Political Science, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Contact information
Tiina Seppälä
+358-40-7262687
tiina.seppala@ulapland.fi
Open link

Record last updated
5.6.2023