The doyen among Nepal’s ethnographers, the Janku-blessed Bihari Krishna Shrestha had a valid point. Since his phone had gone dead after the Big Earthquake of 25th April, I had gone to his house in Chakupat to find out if he was OK. Our working together goes back to the Marich Man Singh-constituted “Pokhrel Commission” in…
Nepal: resilience, disasters and development
Melissa Leach on Ebola & inequality – lecture text & audio
Some materials are now available from the recent Sussex Development Lecture on Equality, Sustainability, Security: Interlaced challenges in a global development era by former STEPS Director Melissa Leach. The text is available to download below as a PDF, and you can listen to Melissa’s lecture online, courtesy of the Institute of Development Studies. In the…
The Badaun murder: violence, vulnerability and safer sanitation
by Shilpi Srivastava, DPhil Student, Institute of Development Studies The heinous rape and murder of two teenaged girls in the Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh (India) has provoked a mix of outrage and debates across the globe. Among them is the critical issue of women’s vulnerability and safety. In particular, as the girls were heading…
IPCC: should climate change debates be more political?
The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, focusing on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, makes sobering reading. But it also situates climate change among a range of other challenges and uncertainties faced by society, especially poor people. IPCC reports always provoke a discussion about trust in climate science. But they should also make…
JAPAN: NEGLECTED NUCLEAR LESSONS
Photo: Screen capture from video of an explosion at the Fukushima Daichi plant in Japan (Reuters) By Andy Stirling, STEPS Centre co-director What lessons can be learned from the tragic calamity in Japan, for global debates about nuclear power? With the situation still unfolding, it is too early and uncertain to conclude with any confidence….