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Through the study of Nepal, shows a successful alternative to dominant energy infrastructure development paradigms typically imposed on developing countries.
List of contents
Preface; 1. A corporate vision: Business as development philosophy; 2. Butwal Technical Institute, Tinau, and the origins of the Butwal Power Company; 3. Andhi Khola; 4. Jhimruk; 5. The 'Great Upheaval': Khimti and the limits of the Hoftun hydropower vision; 6. Melamchi and the rush to privatization; 7. Privatization, the long haul; 8. The new BPC: Cultures in conflict; 9. Conclusion: From seed, to plant, to seed; Bibliography, Index.
About the author
Mark Liechty is Professor of Anthropology and History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is a South Asianist by training with a research specialization in the modern culture and history of Nepal. He is the author of Far Out: Countercultural Seekers and the Tourist Encounter in Nepal, which received the 2017 Kekoo Naoroji Book Award for Himalayan Literature. His work at UIC focuses on world history, South Asian colonial history, culture theory, youth culture, and cultures of the body. He is the co-editor, with Michael Hutt and Stephanie Lotter, of Epicentre to Aftermath: Rebuilding and Remembering in the Wake of Nepal's Earthquakes, forthcoming with the Press in 2021.
Summary
What Went Right describes how Nepal managed to build up an indigenous hydropower development sector thereby largely (though not entirely) escaping the common relations of debt, dependency, and exploitation that most poor developing countries are forced to accept as the price for developing national energy infrastructure.
Foreword
Through the study of Nepal, shows a successful alternative to dominant energy infrastructure development paradigms typically imposed on developing countries.
Additional text
'If asked, most of us would likely explain Nepal's many development challenges as stemming from its status as a flailing minnow sandwiched between the behemoths India and China; as an enduring Shangri-La mired in its ancient cultural and familial heritage; or as the inexorable legacy of harsh colonial imposition and contemporary neoliberal hubris. What Went Right provides a more nuanced and compelling alternative: Nepalis have long sought enhanced well-being, but on their own terms and by finding locally legitimate solutions to their particular development problems, especially as it pertains to harnessing energy from water. Mark Liechty carefully highlights how difficult, fraught, and contingent such a strategy is, and how long it takes to fully consolidate itself, but in so doing demonstrates how respectful partnerships, dogged persistence, and sustained grassroots improvisation can succeed where so many other top-down technical approaches have stumbled.' Michael Woolcock, World Bank and Harvard University
