Pradhan, Uma

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 European Bulletin of Himalayan Research 58 | 2022VariaIn Search of Future: Youth, aspiration and mobility inNepal, by Andrea KölbelUma PradhanElectronic versionURL: https://journals.openedition.org/ebhr/481DOI: 10.4000/ebhr.481ISSN: 2823-6114PublisherCNRS - UPR 299 - Centre d'Etudes Himalayennes Electronic referenceUma Pradhan, “In Search of Future: Youth, aspiration and mobility in Nepal, by Andrea Kölbel”, EuropeanBulletin of Himalayan Research [Online], 58 | 2022, Online since 15 July 2022, connection on 21 July2022. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/ebhr/481 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/ebhr.481 This text was automatically generated on 21 July 2022.Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International - CC BY 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/In Search of Future: Youth, aspirationand mobility in Nepal, by AndreaKölbelUma PradhanREFERENCESIn Search of Future: Youth, aspiration and mobility in Nepal, by Andrea Kölbel. New Delhi:Oxford University Press. Education and Society in South Asia Series. 2020, 156 pages,ISBN 978-0-19-012451-91 Andrea Kölbel’s book titled In Search of Future: Youth, aspiration and mobility in Nepal is anexcellent work on how young people shape their aspiration through formal education.It skilfully brings together the literature on youth studies, education studies and futurestudies to provide us with an insight into how young people in Nepal are engaging witheducation to pursue their visions for the future. In Search of Future revolves around thelives  of  24  young  people  pursuing  higher  education  in  Nepal.  By  locating  youngpeoples’ agency in their world of social obligations, Kölbel offers a nuanced perspectiveon young people’s aspirations as not merely being a quest for independence but as anegotiation within their social worlds. The book’s main contribution lies in criticallyengaging with the concept of ‘capacity to aspire’  (p19) and with how young peoplecome to form their future orientations in ‘uneven and often unexpected ways’ (p34).2 The book is divided into six chapters. The first two chapters situate educated youth inNepal  within  broader  theoretical  literature  on  youth  studies  and  within  varioustransformations in education in the history of Nepal. It is also very prolific in usingboth the idea of ‘vital conjunctures’ (p15) in the lives of young people and the ways inwhich these serve ‘crucial periods in people’s lives which can have multiple outcomes’(p17). The three empirical chapters elaborate on this idea through a detailed analysis ofthe educational journey of students on Patan Multiple Campus. Kölbel clearly draws onIn Search of Future: Youth, aspiration and mobility in Nepal, by Andrea KölbelEuropean Bulletin of Himalayan Research, 58 | 20221the time she spent with these young people, the friendship she built with them andtheir discussions about future plans. She positions this within the complicated contextof higher education in Nepal, especially in the various ways in which young people tryto acquire the skills, knowledge and certifications required for the future they envisagefor  themselves.  In  all  the  chapters,  she  includes  painstaking details  –  for  example,about the limited number of seats allocated in the science department by the studentunion (p82), about a discussion on the future of student canteens (p88) and about howmale  students  crisscross  the  city  on  their  motorbikes  (p96)  –,  therefore  providingunique details about the lives of young people and about the way they spend their time.In doing so, Kölbel has expertly captured how many life decisions are taken in spacesthat are situated outside formal spaces of the university. This is all brought together inthe final chapter that questions the politics of realising one’s aspirations.3 The chapters also strike a beautiful balance between the details provided about youngpeople’s lives and the way in which they are positioned within the Nepalese context oftransformations  in  education.  These  broader  social  political  environments  arepresented not only as a background context but as being central to the life decisionsmade by students. Nepal’s rapidly changing educational context has led to fundamentalshifts in the training and employment opportunities available to students. The chapterscontextualise young people’s life stories within the particular details of their individualsocial  context.  Jeevan’s  reluctance  to  become  abara  yuba (vagabond  youth)  (p101),Anandi’s regret at not pursuing the ‘difficult’ degree in economics (p85) and Ranjan’shope of setting himself up as a development expert (p108) – all show how their lives aredeeply interconnected with collective  future visions.  These detailed empirical  casesenable  Kölbel  to  make a  very  persuasive  argument  about  how individual  agency isembedded in its social context.4 Though the book provides nuanced insight into the lives of ‘ordinary’ students (p56), itleft me wanting to understand a little more about how young people resolve conflictsand contradictions in their lives, especially when there are ‘pressures and recursiveinterventions  by  adults’  (p15).  Similarly,  the  epilogue  lists  the  career  trajectory  ofyoung people, with most of them seemingly settled in middle-class jobs and three ofthem now living abroad. Given the centrality of migration for educational purposes inyoung people’s future imaginations (Chapter 5), these cases could have been utilisedeffectively to engage fully with the idea of both spatial and social mobility. Though thebook  attempts  to  bring  together  concepts  such  as  agency,  mobility  and  futureorientations, it does not, however, address these concepts in relation to each other. Itthus  feels  like  a  missed  opportunity  of  drawing  on well-established scholarship  onmobility  and  of  contributing  to  the  emerging  literature  on  upcoming  studies.Nonetheless, the book is an excellent example of how diverse life stories can be broughttogether  and  analysed  in  conjunction  with  broader  social  and  political  changes.  InSearch of Future is an important contribution to the disciplines of human geography,area studies, education and migration.In Search of Future: Youth, aspiration and mobility in Nepal, by Andrea KölbelEuropean Bulletin of Himalayan Research, 58 | 20222AUTHORSUMA PRADHAN Uma Pradhan is lecturer at University College London, United Kingdom. Uma's research exploresthe larger processes of state-society interaction in the production of education. Her research hasbeen published in journals such as South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Globalisation,Societies, and Education, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education,Studies in Nepali History and Society. In Search of Future: Youth, aspiration and mobility in Nepal, by Andrea KölbelEuropean Bulletin of Himalayan Research, 58 | 20223

In Search of Future: Youth, aspiration and mobility in Nepal, by Andrea Kölbel

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In Search of Future: Youth, aspiration and mobility in Nepal, by Andrea Kölbel

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