4th Annual Research Days- Event Proceedings

4th Annual Research Day

Negotiating the Pandemic

This book centers on negotiations around cultural, governmental, and individual constructions of COVID-19. It considers how the coronavirus pandemic has been negotiated in different cultures and countries, with the final part of the volume focusing on South Asia and Pakistan in particular. The chapters include auto-ethnographic accounts and ethnographic explorations that reflect upon experiences of living with the pandemic and its implications for all areas of life. The book explicates people’s dealings with COVID-19 at various levels, situates the spread of rumors, conspiracy theories, and new social rituals within micro- and/or macro-contexts, and describes the interplay between the virus and various institutionalized forms of inequalities and structural vulnerabilities. Bringing together a variety of perspectives, the volume relates to the past, describes the Covidian present, and offers futuristic implications. It enlists distinct imaginaries based on current understandings of an extraordinary challenge that holds significant importance for our human future

World cinema beyond the periphery : developing film cultures in Bhutan, Mongolia, and Myanmar

According to UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity there exists a need in light of the “imbalances in flows and exchanges of cultural goods and services at the global level” to enable “all countries, especially developing countries and countries in transition, to establish cultural industries that are viable and competitive at a national and international level” (2001). The dissertation explores ways in which viable cultural industries can be established in developing countries. More specifically, the focus is on the development of film industries in countries in transition. Three national film industries, examined in light of their historical development and contemporary situation, provide the empirical basis for the dissertation’s claims and arguments. The three developing countries under investigation are Bhutan, Mongolia, and Myanmar, and in each case the study traces the historical trajectory of the relevant film industries leading to the mapping of the recent trends and tendencies. The examination of the individual cases foregrounds industrial and commercial challenges and solutions rather than the aesthetic or stylistic properties of specific films. That is, the study seeks to explore how educational practices, production modes, approaches to distribution and exhibition, and cultural policy measures have facilitated or thwarted the emergence of film industries in three developing countries in the Asian region. The approach taken builds on the call for a more inclusive approach to the study of world cinema (Nagib 2006). Equally important is an analytical approach derived from the field of small national cinema studies, one that underscores the need to explore solutions to problems facing filmmakers in countries sharing similar developmental challenges (Hjort & Petrie 2007). Following this conceptual perspective the study aims firstly, through its historical examination, to contribute to expanding the historiography of world cinema, where little to no attention is given to these largely unexplored national cinema cultures. Secondly, following the mapping of the contemporary situation of the institutional and organizational make-up of the film industries in question, the aim is to identify the systematic challenges and opportunities that are embedded in specific film sectors. The approach is applied with the intention of facilitating a constructive discussion that explores and compares proactive strategies. The point ultimately is to identify models that might be more generally relevant and thus transferable across national boundaries

ADAPTABILITY IN A BHUTANESE REFUGEE COMMUNITY: NAVIGATING INTEGRATION AND THE IMPACTS ON NUTRITIONAL HEALTH AFTER U.S. RESETTLEMENT

Increasing rates of overweight, obesity, and related metabolic diseases documented among refugee communities across the United States necessitate greater attention to how processes of integration impact refugee health. These nutritional health trends (e.g., increasing rates of obesity) suggest potential disconnects between refugees\u27 past environments and their conditions after re-settlement, which may contribute to adverse changes in energy balance (diet and exercise). While Bhutanese refugees were among the largest refugee groups entering the US during the five years leading up to this research, very few studies have examined how they have responded to integration and the impact of this transition on their health. Grounded in human adaptability and political economic theories, and adopting a biocultural approach, this dissertation investigates how Bhutanese refugees in “Prospect City” (pseudonym) negotiate changing and unfamiliar structural and sociocultural conditions after resettlement and the consequences for energy balance and nutritional status. The results reveal high rates of overweight and obesity compared to US averages. Age and caste related differences in nutritional status were also found. High rates of overweight and obesity corresponded with an energy imbalance due to over consumption of energy dense traditional foods and limited understanding of the importance of regular exercise. Over consumption of energy dense traditional foods stemmed from several interrelated factors: the abundance of foods in the US, prior experiences with food deprivation, a history of political exile that reinforced desires to preserve cultural food preferences, and joint family efforts to accommodate work-related time constraints by increasing food production and availability. Decreases in exercise appeared to stem from more sedentary lifestyles in the US as a result of work environments and available transportation, coupled with a lack of health knowledge regarding health benefits of physical activity. This dissertation’s findings are being reported to Prospect City’s Bhutanese Community Organization to help develop strategies for improving nutritional health in the community

The many faces of LGBT inclusion

"A year after Fellows met at Schloss Leopoldskron, Austria in 2015, the Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum gathered in Chiang Rai, Thailand for its first meeting outside of Europe to both learn from diverse Asian LGBT communities and to contribute to expanding the plurality of global LGBT discussions. As in previous years at the Forum, participants shared stories, joined causes and raised sensibilities. This is crucial at a time when the tides affecting LGBT human rights worldwide are mixed, with continued anti-LGBT violence happening in parallel with remarkable progress in favor of LGBT inclusion at the national and international levels. The opportunity to reflect in a comforting environment is not to be taken lightly. In the often-tough road of LGBT activism, policymaking, creative work and research, the impact of finding new collaborators, confidants and kindred spirits is beyond measurement. The Forum this year brought together 58 Fellows and staff representing 33 countries. They engaged in 20 scheduled activities during 100 hours that produced 60,000 words of minutes. Plenty of valuable material was left out because of space and security aspects, yet it is hoped that this report is insightful, informative, and motivating to the reader. Since its beginnings, Salzburg Global Seminar has encouraged open and candid discussions and supports session participants to speak as individuals and not as representatives of their organizations. A guiding principle for participants that have chosen to become part of the Salzburg Global LGBT Forum community is to protect one another. All session attendants ensure the comfort and safety of any participants in need of greater protection, and treat the diffusion of audiovisual, photographic or written media with great care. Under the Chatham House Rule, no direct statement attribution in print, audiovisual or digital form is made without the author’s expressed permission. In line with these principles, some identities have been omitted in the report.

Negotiating the Pandemic

This book centers on negotiations around cultural, governmental, and individual constructions of COVID-19. It considers how the coronavirus pandemic has been negotiated in different cultures and countries, with the final part of the volume focusing on South Asia and Pakistan in particular. The chapters include auto-ethnographic accounts and ethnographic explorations that reflect upon experiences of living with the pandemic and its implications for all areas of life. The book explicates people’s dealings with COVID-19 at various levels, situates the spread of rumors, conspiracy theories, and new social rituals within micro- and/or macro-contexts, and describes the interplay between the virus and various institutionalized forms of inequalities and structural vulnerabilities. Bringing together a variety of perspectives, the volume relates to the past, describes the Covidian present, and offers futuristic implications. It enlists distinct imaginaries based on current understandings of an extraordinary challenge that holds significant importance for our human future

Narratives of Successful Refugee Resettlement in Houston

This research project examines the connotations of successful refugee resettlement and socio-economic integration through a series of first-person interviews focusing on the well-being of refugees in the Houston metropolitan area. The responses from interviewed persons are examined in the broader context of refugee resettlement regimes internationally, in the United States, and also in Houston. Key findings that emerge from this study’s literature review and primary data suggest that services from refugee resettlement agencies, while generally enough for a basic level of self-sufficiency, are not sufficient to provide the kind of long-term success as identified in this study’s interviews with refugees and Special Immigrant Visa holders. Given interviewees\u27 responses in the context of domestic and international literature on refugee resettlement and integration, this study finds that refugee resettlement in Houston falls short in the quality of services provided by resettlement agencies, and that the United States’ refugee resettlement system needs more federal support and funding. At the same time, refugees’ high valuation of positive multicultural interactions, social interconnectivity, and professional and educational networking and advancement are also apparent in first-person accounts. These values should be prioritized going forward with the goal of providing a resettlement model that encourages a more holistic wellness through keeping refugees’ long-term integration in mind

Environmental governance in Bhutan : ecotourism, environmentality and cosmological subjectivities

This thesis explores how environmental conservation and subjectivities are influenced as Bhutan negotiates its increasing integration into the global neoliberal capitalist economy. Until recently, Bhutan sought to isolate itself to a large degree from international integration, instead relying on a strongly state-centred monarchic governance regime to deliver economic development domestically. In so doing Bhutan has developed an international reputation for forward thinking in regards to human well-being as the country contests dominant economic models for development practice through its promotion of its signature Gross National Happiness (GNH) agenda. Now, however, Bhutan is working to negotiate increased involvement in global market forces, causing fissures to emerge in this philosophy and ideology. One of the main forms of global market integration currently pursued by Bhutan is ecotourism, which has been described as a quintessential neoliberal project seeking to harness environmental conservation as a form of income generation (Büscher and Fletcher, 2015). While this promotion seeks to frame ecotourism as an economic strategy to balance environmental and development aspirations, how the sector influences cultural values and assumptions is unaddressed. In this way, ecotourism can be seen to promote particular cultural transformations and forms of subjectivities that challenge the broader goals of the GNH agenda to date. This work explores these dynamics through a poststructuralist political ecology framework. Via this lens, an examination of discourse and power relations at multiple scales is conducted in order to gain critical insight into conservation paradigms operating in the country under the influence of newfound neoliberalization processes. Concepts of governmentality and biopower ground this examination by providing a framework for analysing emerging rationalities of governance. Chapter 5 provides insight into Bhutan’s overarching forms of governance, placing the country within the context of global capitalism and associated discourses. A ‘variegated’ governmentality perspective highlights the coexistence of multiple rationalities that contribute to an emergent ‘Buddhist’ biopower grounded in situated values represented by a Buddhist worldview and the country’s Gross National Happiness (GNH) agenda. Chapter 6 focuses on the national level, honing in on environmental governance in particular. ‘Environmentality’, an adaptation of the governmentality concept, is employed as a conceptual framework for understanding environmental discourses in the country. The cases of ‘Bhutan for Life’, a policy plan for implementing conservation funding, and the ecotourism this plan promotes, are examined to understand how neoliberal discourses interact with a Buddhist worldview, a history of state paternalism, and the Gross National Happiness agenda, all of which constitute competing rationalities contributing to Bhutan’s unique environmental governance approach. Chapter 7 takes us to the community level, examining three ecotourism cases in the country, in order to explore ecotourism discourses present in each. Haa Valley homestay, the Phobjikha Homestay network, and the Phajoding Eco-Camp serve as select sites for this analysis. Drawing on Dwelling theory, the chapter shows that ecotourism conflicts with pre-existing local perceptions and values related to the environment. Divergences related to social and human-environment relations thus develop from enrolment in ecotourism programs, with contestations between the explicit goals of GNH and embedded communitarian values. Finally, Chapter 8 probes environmental subjectivities via a case study of Shokuna herders in the highlands of Haa Dzongkhag (district). Through a landscape ethnoecological approach, an animated cosmological landscape is revealed through the process of storying, highlighting particular perceptions and subjectivities related to a truth environmentality. Foucault’s ‘art of distributions’ (1977) are used as a scaffold for analysing this environmentality showing how subjectivities manifest through belief in a cosmological hierarchy, perceptions of an animated landscape, and a reversal of western technocratic and managerial perspectives. As such, herders within the landscape have developed specific beliefs, behaviours, and resource acquisition patterns attuned with a particular ‘environmental’ subject. These four chapters are interconnected, acting in a nested manner to develop a multiscalar analysis of Bhutan’s engagement with and contestations around environmental discourses. As such, these chapters aim to provide a nuanced analysis of the problematic situation facing the country in which ecotourism, and its associated neoliberal rationale, challenge existing societal norms and values. With the ecotourism sector being appraised as an ideal strategy for the country it is critical to explore contestations that emerge with its adoption in order to provide a realistic assessment that addresses broader cultural impacts. In terms of theoretical contributions, this work: Illustrates the variegated nature of a novel governance constellation in Bhutan and how this manifests in a situated form of biopower embodying non-western (Buddhist) spiritualities; Underscores local specificities that account for discrepancies in the vision and execution of neoliberal conservation but goes beyond this to express other rationalities that also exists within a variegated environmentality framework. I show that indigenous efforts prove critical when re-interpreting conservation strategies and warding off external dynamics, such as foreign agencies and global capitalist actors, that promote possibly dangerous trends putting at risk the goals of the GNH agenda; Addresses the discursive nature of the ecotourism sector through a rarely employed dwelling lens, which is used to interpret indigenous perceptions of the landscape and their relation to it in order to reveal local contestations to neoliberal logic. While neoliberalism and ecotourism promote dualist perspectives in terms of humans and/vs nature, dwelling theory resonates with Buddhist and Bhutanese worldviews in which these divides are less concrete; Contributes to GNH studies by juxtaposing the ideal of GNH with the neoliberal conservation paradigm, revealing opportunities for adapting the country’s ecotourism strategy; Provides an analysis of underexplored truth environmentalities based on cosmological subjectivities. The political ecology of conservation in the country reveals a complex constellation of external and internal forces/actors that promote discourses of sustainability and wellbeing, with a concerted effort to respond to demands of the international community while maintaining a cultural identity grounded in spirituality and the concept of GNH. Driven by a need to facilitate development for a largely impoverished population, and the desire to uphold a reputation for strong environmental protection, Bhutan adopts particular strategies (payment for environmental services (PES), ecotourism, and green tax structures) that align with a neoliberal conservation model. However, this adoption is conducted without a critical eye to underlying rationalities that drive such strategies. As a result, discursive processes promote particular environmental subjectivities and novel perceptions that cultivate new social and human-environment relations putting at risk the broader goals of the GNH agenda

“Everybody is scared to eat the food”: Exploring food sovereignty applications in a refugee agricultural program

This research documents some of the goals and challenges of refugee farmers and gardeners who participated in an organized agriculture project in Syracuse, New York. During the 2018 harvest season I observed and interviewed nine refugee farmers from Somalia, Bhutan, Nepal, and Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as four organizational staff members who were recruited through their affiliation with the Syracuse Refugee Agricultural Partnership Program (SyRAPP) and the Refugee and Immigrants Self-Empowerment (RISE) organization. Refugee farmers expressed distrust of the conventional food system, they valued control over the food supply through farming, and many desired to live at or near the land they farmed. I map these responses onto the framework of food sovereignty, a strategy which restores power and control of the food system to its producers (Holt Giménez & Shattuck, 2011), in an effort to understand the aspirations of refugees who wish to produce their own food in the US. Immigrant labor and agrarian justice in the US have already been examined as expanding the food sovereignty movement (Brent, Schiavoni, & Alonso-Fradejas, 2015), and I argue that urban and peri-urban refugee farmers in Syracuse also resonate with food sovereignty ideals as they express the desire for increased control over their food systems. In this work I present possibilities for the refugee agriculture program to imagine goals beyond the limits of neoliberalism; to transform its current emphases on individual responsibility, entrepreneurial ventures, and “alternative” markets into visions of collective empowerment and self-sufficiency outside of the market. To that end, I offer pragmatic recommendations that could incorporate some of food sovereignty’s principles and concepts, which I argue the farmers already actively embrace, into its organizational structure

GNH 2022

The GNH Index is a unique approach to measuring the wellbeing and happiness of the Bhutanese population, focusing on multiple indicators and domains that go beyond traditional economic metrics. GNH 2022, produced by the Centre for Bhutan & GNH Studies in the Royal Government of Bhutan, provides detailed insights into the measurements, analysis, and policy implications of the Gross National Happiness Index for 2022 and covers changes in happiness from 2010. The book highlights different typologies of happy people to deepen the Government of Bhutan’s understanding of the nature and causes of wellbeing and happiness, and guides for policies to accelerate GNH growth going forward