I want to know how appropriate it is to apply 'world system theory' in the urban anthropological researches in a country like Nepal. If it is appropriate, how can it be done?
Concepts from world system theory - as formulated by Immanuel Wallerstein - can be applied in at least two different ways to your area of research: (1) Nepal can be located within the wider framework of the Center-periphery-semiphery conceptualization, its position within this setting should have - according to world system theory - an influence on institutions, economics, politics and hence be an important "environmental" variable shaping the urban areas as well as its inhabitants. A second approach would be to "downsize" the center-perihpery-semiperiphery model to the urban area itself, meaning that withinan urban agglomeration these spheres can be detected as well - providing a useful concept for the study of urban areas - which might lead to a number of interesting and meaningful questions to investigate.
The question is a complex one, it cannot be reduced to only Wallerstein and only within the field of Economic Anthropology.
May I suggest the following:
1. Read other world system theorists like Andre Gunder Frank (Reorient) and Samir Amin, plus the point made by A. Emmanuel that the so called developing societies are profiting from the technological windfalls of technological progress done/discovered in the center (medecine, internet, mobile telephones, motorcycles, etc).
2. Ascertain how the Nepalese urban society reacts, (absorbs, rejects, etc.) to the world system images and technological windfalls of: TV, mobile telephones, etc.
3. What forms of accessibility [and information] to the World at large, are available (or economically possible) to the various segments of the urban population.
4. Are you going to take into consideration the urban reality in Nepal, if and when a high speed chinese train will reach the nepalese borders ?
Also, please do not underestimate the demographic and scale factors
a. We are now 50% urbanized and 7 billions humans; future perspective for all young persons in the world is to join a sort of "urban universe" dream.
b. Today's World System is made of a number of distict technologically backed dynamic subsystems most of which are not simple economic ones, the result being that everybody on earth is synchronized (i.e. live in the same time space, with very limited time lag)
c. The Developed "Center" societies are getting old, spending about 15% of GNP in medical care. Developing societies concentrate 2/3 of humanity's youth, so the "urban universe image" at the Center is for oldies and retreaties and the "urban universe aspiration" in the Peripheries is the quest of young and very young multitudes, in billions (a significant percentage of whom is already well acquainted with the use of modern guns and arms ...)
Good luck for Nepal
Prof. Emeritus Nicolas Vernicos
Human Ecology
University of the Aegean, dept. of Cultural Technology and Communication.
Dear Shri Amrit Bhandari
In the 1974 I worked with Corneille Jest as Unesco’s consultant to the MAB program, and had obtained some (limited) information about the ecology and culture of Nepal.
I am also an active member of the Greek-Indian association in Athens since the 1980’s.
I am therefore very interested in your research and wish to underline its importance.
It is my understanding that though apparently remote, Nepal was and is still at the confluence of major civilizations, religions and people. Often, this involves an acute sense of the existing surrounding cultures and forces as well as a capacity to absorbe external influences (in some cultures with a limited numerical populations, well retrenched in their natural habitat, we also observe a sort of ideological “contempt” against the surrounding potential invaders).
I therefore believe that urban mentalities in Kathmandou, social identities and behaviours are still and will continue to be largely molded by the historical ideologies and “foundation myths” of Nepal (plus the typical mix of active contemporary popular demands for justice, welfare, equal opportunities and compassion).
Globalisation in the dominant Western, (largely English speaking academia) implicitly considers (as a sort of axiomatic hypothesis and wishful thinking) that everybody converges towards a common “consumerist / technological” ideology, with shallow historical identities.
As all old cultures (including minorities) are now showing their plasticity and resilience, I believe that understanding the way urban cultures evolve, in the so-called emerging world (i.e. 2/3 + of humanity) is a major challenge to the social sciences.
Dr. Nicolas Vernicos
Prof. Emeritus of Human Ecology
University of the Aegean (Greece)
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