Ashild Kolas – författare

This book describes women’s efforts as agents for change in Myanmar and examines the potential of the peace process as an opportunity for women’s empowerment.

Following decades of political turbulence, the volume describes the contributions of women in Myanmar in the midst of a difficult peace process and reflects on the significance of the Women, Peace and Security agenda in this context. The book examines how women have mobilized for peace, while also addressing women’s participation in the conflict, and investigates the perspectives and aims of women’s organizations and the challenges and aspirations of women activists in Myanmar’s ethnic areas. Contributions in the volume discuss and critically assess the argument that war and peacebuilding add momentum to the transformation of gender roles. By presenting new knowledge on women’s disempowerment and empowerment in conflict, and their participation in peacebuilding, this book adds important insights into the debate on gender and political change in societies affected by conflict.

This book will be of interest to students of peace and conflict studies, gender studies and security studies in general.

This book describes women’s efforts as agents for change in Myanmar and examines the potential of the peace process as an opportunity for women’s empowerment.

Following decades of political turbulence, the volume describes the contributions of women in Myanmar in the midst of a difficult peace process and reflects on the significance of the Women, Peace and Security agenda in this context. The book examines how women have mobilized for peace, while also addressing women’s participation in the conflict, and investigates the perspectives and aims of women’s organizations and the challenges and aspirations of women activists in Myanmar’s ethnic areas. Contributions in the volume discuss and critically assess the argument that war and peacebuilding add momentum to the transformation of gender roles. By presenting new knowledge on women’s disempowerment and empowerment in conflict, and their participation in peacebuilding, this book adds important insights into the debate on gender and political change in societies affected by conflict.

This book will be of interest to students of peace and conflict studies, gender studies and security studies in general.

This book offers insights into the issues around food security, public health, equity and global governance. With a focus on India, it highlights the complex networks of sociopolitical, economic and agricultural challenges to ensure self-sufficiency in food production.

Based on field research conducted across India and an in-depth study on government agencies and multilateral fora, this book connects and juxtaposes global, national and local narratives on food security and policy. It analyses issues ranging from climate change to gaps in the nation-wide public food distribution systems. Through interdisciplinary narratives on food insecurity and poverty, the book exposes the underlying problems within policy frameworks and offers solutions for greater accessibility and distribution of food supplies while combating climate variability and agrarian distress.

The volume explores global food governance norms and India’s role in further shaping them. It will be of interest to students and researchers of public policy and governance, development studies, sociology, agriculture studies, public health and nutrition and economics.

This book offers insights into the issues around food security, public health, equity and global governance. With a focus on India, it highlights the complex networks of sociopolitical, economic and agricultural challenges to ensure self-sufficiency in food production.

Based on field research conducted across India and an in-depth study on government agencies and multilateral fora, this book connects and juxtaposes global, national and local narratives on food security and policy. It analyses issues ranging from climate change to gaps in the nation-wide public food distribution systems. Through interdisciplinary narratives on food insecurity and poverty, the book exposes the underlying problems within policy frameworks and offers solutions for greater accessibility and distribution of food supplies while combating climate variability and agrarian distress.

The volume explores global food governance norms and India’s role in further shaping them. It will be of interest to students and researchers of public policy and governance, development studies, sociology, agriculture studies, public health and nutrition and economics.

In the prevailing international security situation, the world community, including India believes nuclear security must be conferred high priority for global peace and security. As a responsible member of this community, India finds itself prioritising this aspect more than ever before. The volume is a revisit of the Indian nuclear discourse. It envisages a comprehensive and predictable nuclear governance architecture for the future, and discusses how India might play a proactive role in this effort.

Please note: T&F does not sell or distribute the hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

In the prevailing international security situation, the world community, including India believes nuclear security must be conferred high priority for global peace and security. As a responsible member of this community, India finds itself prioritising this aspect more than ever before. The volume is a revisit of the Indian nuclear discourse. It envisages a comprehensive and predictable nuclear governance architecture for the future, and discusses how India might play a proactive role in this effort.

Please note: T&F does not sell or distribute the hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

The volume brings together readings describing a range of less-traversed aspects and transferences of women’s rights and struggles in India and develops a comprehensive understanding of the interface between women’s activism and politics.

The book documents and discusses diverse ways in which Indian women have struggled for empowerment, political voice and representation, and rallied against injustice and discrimination. Against the backdrop of women’s assertion of rights and negotiations for empowerment, the chapters in this volume explore diverse facets of collective agency, and emanations of women’s politico-legal struggles against stereotypes of gender and class in post-independence India. While the donor-driven international community has been eager to celebrate the successes of its global normative agenda-setting and ‘best practices’ approach, this book - based primarily on field research by the contributors - showcases authentic local ownership and women’s own agency, taking seriously the need to understand the cultural context and pay attention to intersectionality. It presents various examples of women’s activism for change, reflecting on the quotidian struggles and dynamic assertions of voice and political power, within and outside of formal political institutions. The book is a contribution to the debate about agency and ownership as key aspects of empowerment, highlighting women who defy dominant narratives.

It will be an essential read for students and academics of political science, gender studies, sociology and social sciences, and cultural studies. It will also be of interest to readers interested in the history of women’s movements and their participation in national and local politics in India.

The volume brings together readings describing a range of less-traversed aspects and transferences of women’s rights and struggles in India and develops a comprehensive understanding of the interface between women’s activism and politics.

The book documents and discusses diverse ways in which Indian women have struggled for empowerment, political voice and representation, and rallied against injustice and discrimination. Against the backdrop of women’s assertion of rights and negotiations for empowerment, the chapters in this volume explore diverse facets of collective agency, and emanations of women’s politico-legal struggles against stereotypes of gender and class in post-independence India. While the donor-driven international community has been eager to celebrate the successes of its global normative agenda-setting and ‘best practices’ approach, this book - based primarily on field research by the contributors - showcases authentic local ownership and women’s own agency, taking seriously the need to understand the cultural context and pay attention to intersectionality. It presents various examples of women’s activism for change, reflecting on the quotidian struggles and dynamic assertions of voice and political power, within and outside of formal political institutions. The book is a contribution to the debate about agency and ownership as key aspects of empowerment, highlighting women who defy dominant narratives.

It will be an essential read for students and academics of political science, gender studies, sociology and social sciences, and cultural studies. It will also be of interest to readers interested in the history of women’s movements and their participation in national and local politics in India.

This book explores the relationship between tourism, culture and ethnic identity in Tibet in , focusing in particular on Shangrila, a Tibetan region in Southwest China, to show how local ‘Tibetan culture’ is reconstructed as a marketable commodity for tourists. It analyses the socio-economic effects of Shangrila tourism in Tibet, investigating who benefits economically, whilest also considering its political implications and the ways in which tourism might be linked to the negotiation and reassertion of ethnic identity. It goes on to examine the spatial re-imagining provoked by the development of tourism, and asks whether a tourist destination inevitably becomes a ‘pseudo-community’ for the visited. Can a fictitious name, invented for the sake of tourists, still provide the ‘natives’ of a place with a sense of identity? This book argues that conceptions of place are closely linked to notions of social identity, and in the case of Shangrila particularly to ethnic identity. Viewing the spatial as socially constructed, and place-making as vital to social organisation, this is a study of how place is constructed and contested. It describes how local villagers and monastic elites have negotiated the area’s religious geography, how agents of the Communist state have redefined it as a minority area, and how tourism developers are now marketing the region as Shangrila for tourist consumption. It outlines the different ‘place-making’ strategies utilised by the various social actors, including local villagers to create the communities in which they live, monastic elites to invent a Buddhist Tibetan realm of ‘religious geography’, agents of the People’s Republic of China to define the area as part of the communist state, and tourism developers to market the region as ‘Shangrila’ for tourist consumption. Overall, this book is an insightful account of the complex links between tourism, culture and Tibetanethnic identity in Tibet, and will be of interest to a wide range of disciplines including social anthropology, sociology, human geography, tourism and development studies.

This book explores the relationship between tourism, culture and ethnic identity in Tibet in , focusing in particular on Shangrila, a Tibetan region in Southwest China, to show how local ‘Tibetan culture’ is reconstructed as a marketable commodity for tourists. It analyses the socio-economic effects of Shangrila tourism in Tibet, investigating who benefits economically, whilest also considering its political implications and the ways in which tourism might be linked to the negotiation and reassertion of ethnic identity. It goes on to examine the spatial re-imagining provoked by the development of tourism, and asks whether a tourist destination inevitably becomes a ‘pseudo-community’ for the visited. Can a fictitious name, invented for the sake of tourists, still provide the ‘natives’ of a place with a sense of identity? This book argues that conceptions of place are closely linked to notions of social identity, and in the case of Shangrila particularly to ethnic identity. Viewing the spatial as socially constructed, and place-making as vital to social organisation, this is a study of how place is constructed and contested. It describes how local villagers and monastic elites have negotiated the area’s religious geography, how agents of the Communist state have redefined it as a minority area, and how tourism developers are now marketing the region as Shangrila for tourist consumption. It outlines the different ‘place-making’ strategies utilised by the various social actors, including local villagers to create the communities in which they live, monastic elites to invent a Buddhist Tibetan realm of ‘religious geography’, agents of the People’s Republic of China to define the area as part of the communist state, and tourism developers to market the region as ‘Shangrila’ for tourist consumption. Overall, this book is an insightful account of the complex links between tourism, culture and Tibetanethnic identity in Tibet, and will be of interest to a wide range of disciplines including social anthropology, sociology, human geography, tourism and development studies.

This book explores the new debates on Basque sovereignty and statehood that have emerged in the post-violence Basque political scenario. It deciphers how sovereignty is understood or imagined by a revitalized civil society after the unilateral cessation of operations by ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom). The contributors to this book investigate the new political field developing in the nexus between conventional party politics, established socio-cultural and linguistic organizations, creative civil society initiatives, and innovative activism.

This book is for graduate students, scholars and professionals in political science, social anthropology, European studies, political philosophy, transnational studies, sociology, political geography, and global studies. It will also be of interest to academic specialists in Basque studies, specialists working on sovereignty, nationalism and globalization, and professionals in governance, international relations, foreign affairs, European politics and diplomacy.

This book explores the new debates on Basque sovereignty and statehood that have emerged in the post-violence Basque political scenario. It deciphers how sovereignty is understood or imagined by a revitalized civil society after the unilateral cessation of operations by ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom). The contributors to this book investigate the new political field developing in the nexus between conventional party politics, established socio-cultural and linguistic organizations, creative civil society initiatives, and innovative activism.

This book is for graduate students, scholars and professionals in political science, social anthropology, European studies, political philosophy, transnational studies, sociology, political geography, and global studies. It will also be of interest to academic specialists in Basque studies, specialists working on sovereignty, nationalism and globalization, and professionals in governance, international relations, foreign affairs, European politics and diplomacy.

This book sheds new light on the important but diverse roles of women in the civil war in Nepal (1996-2006), and the post-conflict reconstruction period (2006-2016).

Engaging critically with the women, peace and security literature, Women, Peace and Security in Nepal questions the potential of peace processes to become a window of opportunity for women’s empowerment, while insisting on the vital importance of a gender perspective in the study of conflict, security and peace. After the signing of the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Accord, Nepal experienced a huge leap in women’s political representation in the subsequent Constituent Assembly, often portrayed as a landmark victory for women’s empowerment in the context of South Asia. Nepali women’s mobilization played a key role in this success story, though similar mobilization has failed to produce the same outcomes elsewhere in South Asia. How does Nepal differ from the other cases? Presenting studies of war-time and post-conflict Nepal through a gender lens, this book critically assesses the argument that war and peacebuilding can add momentum to the transformation of gender roles. Contributing new knowledge on women’s disempowerment and empowerment in conflict and peacebuilding, the book also offers insights for contemporary debate on gender and political change in conflict-affected societies.

This book will be of great interest to students of peace and conflict studies, gender security, South Asia and international relations in general, as well as policy-makers and NGOs.

This book sheds new light on the important but diverse roles of women in the civil war in Nepal (1996-2006), and the post-conflict reconstruction period (2006-2016).

Engaging critically with the women, peace and security literature, Women, Peace and Security in Nepal questions the potential of peace processes to become a window of opportunity for women’s empowerment, while insisting on the vital importance of a gender perspective in the study of conflict, security and peace. After the signing of the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Accord, Nepal experienced a huge leap in women’s political representation in the subsequent Constituent Assembly, often portrayed as a landmark victory for women’s empowerment in the context of South Asia. Nepali women’s mobilization played a key role in this success story, though similar mobilization has failed to produce the same outcomes elsewhere in South Asia. How does Nepal differ from the other cases? Presenting studies of war-time and post-conflict Nepal through a gender lens, this book critically assesses the argument that war and peacebuilding can add momentum to the transformation of gender roles. Contributing new knowledge on women’s disempowerment and empowerment in conflict and peacebuilding, the book also offers insights for contemporary debate on gender and political change in conflict-affected societies.

This book will be of great interest to students of peace and conflict studies, gender security, South Asia and international relations in general, as well as policy-makers and NGOs.