Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

State Of Urbanization In Nepal: The Official Definition And Reality, Keshav Bhattarai, Ambika P. Adhikari, Shiva Gautam

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Nepali government’s official delineation of several human settlements as new urban areas has been questionable because many important criteria such as urban infrastructure and services, open space, population density and economic viability are not thoroughly analyzed while defining what is urban. Many settlements in Nepal officially defined as urban, often driven by political considerations, are operating in the rural framework forming ruralopolises. This paper analyzes various criteria needed for defining urbanization that are internationally accepted to assess Nepal’s official definition of urban settlements. Urban areas have been expanding in Nepal at the cost of agricultural, forest, and shrubland land uses. …

Current Developmental Challenges In Nepal: How Can The Diaspora Help?, Ambika P. Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Nepal now enjoys a unique opportunity to positively transform the country’s economy and society. The economic activities fueled by remittance, supported by foreign aid, and aided by domestic economic activities such as tourism, trade, and services, including start-ups, are helping increase individual incomes. However, the earnings from remittances, which measure to about 25% of Nepal’s GDP, are spent on consumer goods and not on investments that can generate employment and raise the standards of living. The foreign aid is often donor driven and also not always well managed and wisely spent on national priorities. Further, it is frequently marred by …

Re-Situating The Buffer State In International Relations: Nepal’S Relations With India And China, Bibek Chand

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

No abstract provided.

The Bearing Earth: Colonization, Conservation, And Political Ecology In Costa Rica (Coto Brus 1948 - Present), Pablo Alonso Arias-Benavides

Latin American Studies ETDs

This thesis presents two questions: How are relationships between people in Coto Brus and the land – specifically, forest – mediated by social, political, and economic forces? How are personal and collective identities expressed through relationship with the landscape? I chose Coto Brus because it is a forested region of Costa Rica which was populated with state support in the 1950s, and because it is my father’s hometown. In order to understand the subjective experiences of Costa Ricans involved in deforestation and reforestation, I performed interviews in the canton, visited conservation sites, and analyzed historical sources. This study combines multiscale …

A Chinese Fallacy Of Communist Lynchpin And American Retort In Nepal, Ashis Adhikary

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Why are Chinese and American activities escalating in Nepal? This research question frames the objective of this study. To opt for an answer, the paper delves into two distinct areas: the rise of Nepal’s communist forces and the corresponding influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the historic role of America in curbing communism inside Nepal. It argues, the visible Chinese intent of forming a favorable communist power in Nepal, especially during and after the general elections of 2017, is a fallacy as it undermines American presence to limit the communist influence. Conceptually, the paper claims that the recent …

Minimizing Surface Run-Off, Improving Underground Water Recharging, And On-Site Rain Harvesting In The Kathmandu Valley, Ambika P. Adhikari, Keshav Bhattarai

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Nepal's political institutions and administrative units were thoroughly restructured in 2015 with the promulgation of the new Constitution. Several rural areas were combined to meet the definition of urban threshold criteria to classify rural areas into urban categories. Accordingly, over 3,900 local political and administrative units were amalgamated into 753 units, of which, 293 units are classified as urban. Within these newly defined urban areas, many natural environments have been converted into impervious surfaces such as paved roads, sidewalks, and building roofs. These impervious surfaces have drastically increased the amount of surface run-offs-often termed as "urban floods"--under increasing precipitation caused …

Summary Report Of Discussions At The Forum “Nepali Diaspora Organizations In North America: Achievements, Opportunities, And Challenges”, Coppell, Texas, Usa July 2022, Ambika P. Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

The forum “Nepali Diaspora Organizations in North America: Achievements, Opportunities and Challenges” was held at the annual convention of the Association of Nepalis in the Americas (ANA) in Coppell, TX, USA on July 2, 2022. Nepalese Society of Texas (NST) hosted the convention and forum. As studies related to diaspora have become important topics in the fields of development, community culture, sociology and anthropology, ANA decided to include this topic in the forums organized at the national convention.

The global Nepali diaspora population in 2022 is estimated at 800,000. Although no authoritative statistics is available, the Nepali diaspora in North …

(Un)Matched: Racialized Narratives Of U.S.-Based Japanese Men, Masculinity, And Heterosexuality In Online Dating Apps, Keisuke Kimura

Communication ETDs

In this study, I documented and examined U.S.-based Japanese men’s narratives about their day-to-day experiences in and across online dating contexts. Through the analysis of narratives, I critiqued how multilayered differences (i.e., race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and more) working with dominant social structures affect their everyday experiences within the spectrum of power, privilege, and marginalization in the transnational space. Specifically, the overarching purposes and goals of this study were to better understand U.S.-based Japanese men’s online dating experiences and to critique the relationalities of how Japanese men’s narratives (i.e., micro-level context) and their beliefs/attitudes within and between cultural communities …

A Review Of Environmental Vulnerabilities Related To Nepal’S Graduation Process From Least Developed To A Developing Country Status, Ambika P. Adhikari, Keshav Bhattarai, Basu Sharma

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Nepal has long aspired to graduate from the Least Development Country (LDC) to Developing Country category as defined by the United Nations system. Nepal had met two of the three graduating criteria and could have technically graduated from the LDC status in 2015. However, based on the Nepal government’s request to defer the review, the new 2021 assessment by the United Nations Committee for Development Policy (CDP) recommended that the country should graduate from the LDC status by 2026. The graduation requires not only meeting pre-defined development-related thresholds, but also maintaining sustained improvements in at least two consecutive assessments in …

Hegemonic Instability? India’S Himalayan Hegemony In Theoretical And Historical Perspective, Philip Hultquist Ph.D., Prakash Adhikari Ph.D.

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Is India the regional hegemon of South Asia? If so, what kind of hegemon is it? India has long been considered the regional hegemon of South Asia, primarily based on relative power considerations alone. We critique this material basis for hegemony. Hegemons must act to establish their hegemony, and smaller states must acquiesce to some degree to establish the relationship. We follow the literature to identify three strands of behavioral definitions of regional hegemony—leadership, domination, and sphere of influence—each drawing on different theoretical foundations, liberalism, realism, and imperialism, respectively. India has demonstrated characteristics of each, depending on the period and …

An Anatomy Of Nepal's Remarkable Export Decline, Rishi Sharma

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

This paper documents and breaks down a remarkable decline in Nepal's exports over the 2000-2019 period. This decline is due to a collapse in the country's top export products and is largely uniform across destinations and products. Furthermore, it is not on account of the poor global performance of the sectors Nepal was specialized in but is something more specific to Nepal. Industry-level statistics show that gross output increased in major exporting industries while value-added grew slower or declined. The increase in gross output together with the decline in exports implies a movement towards producing for domestic consumption using more …

Towards Creating Smart Cities In Nepal, Ambika P. Adhikari, Keshav Bhattarai

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Many urban centers in the world are seeking to become smart cities. Nepali city leaders are also aspiring to make their cities smart. A smart city basically has clever improvements made in three sectors of its operations: technological, human, and institutional. Globally, many cities have recently made impressive enhancements in at least one or more of these areas. Nepal’s National Planning Commission (NPC) in 2016 had released a concept paper on smart cities for Nepal, defining smart cities as sustainable, information and technology-based, with high quality services and replicable (NPC 2016). As most Nepali cities still operate with limited infrastructure, …

How Do Farmers Experience Agroecology In Rural Communities Of Northern Ecuador?, Neil Michael Ayala Ayala

Latin American Studies ETDs

Agroecology, a concept in continuous evolution embraces science, practice and sociopolitical aspects. Its meaning is gaining space of debate and global interest as an alternative for building sustainable food systems and resilient communities, not only from the environmental perspective, but from all the dimensions of sustainability. The Andes region is recognized for its agrodiversity and for its history of agricultural activity; nevertheless, the effects of unsustainable agricultural practices inspired in the principles of the so called “Green Revolution” are evident. Conventional agriculture has decreased the capacity of resilience of the agroecosystems and their associated communities. Agroecology is often perceived as …

Climate Change Adaptation In Highland Ecuador: Intersections Of Gender, Geography, And Knowledge In Farming Communities, Dinka Natali Caceres Arteaga

Latin American Studies ETDs

This dissertation uses a feminist political ecology perspective to explore the socioeconomic impacts of climate change in Ecuador, especially but not limited to the agriculture sector. It is based on the use of mixed methods that allowed the participation and validation of the local population, surpassing their role as beneficiaries to co-authors of this research.

The significance of this study relies on the position the local population holds in the fields of human geography, under a community local-planning perspective, as they attempted to collaborate in the process of adaptation to climate change by presenting analysis and calculation of an index …

Issues And Perspective On The Covid-19 And Nepal: An Introduction, Ambika P. Adhikari, Basu Sharma

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Even though Nepal has relatively fewer Covid-19 cases as of 24 September 2020 (about 70,000 cases and more than 450 deaths), the numbers are on the rise. If this trend continues for a while, the likely consequences of the Pandemic would be no less severe than elsewhere. Further, Nepal’s next-door neighbor India is now experiencing a rapid rise in the virus infection rate and virus-related death toll. In fact, as of 24 September, 2020, India is seeing some about six million total Covid-19 cases, and more than 92,000 deaths. As India and Nepal have open borders, and as India is …

Urban Development In Nepal And The Impacts Of Covid-19, Ambika P. Adhikari, Keshav Bhattarai

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

The Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has created a public health crisis worldwide and is impacting the way we plan and design cities. While much is still being learned about Covid-19, we have seen that the virus spreads quickly and its fatality rate is also significant. The virus has already seriously impacted the global economies and most urban activities.

During pandemics, regular public interactions in the city can be the cause for spread of communicable diseases. In this context, urban planning should include approached to help mitigate the spread of virus. Designs of facilities should help the residents to physically distance themselves …

Seventeenth-Century Spanish Colonial Identity In New Mexico: A Study Of Identity Practices Through Material Culture, Caroline M. Gabe

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation explores how seventeenth-century Spanish colonial households expressed their group identity at a regional level in New Mexico. Through the material remains of daily practice and repetitive actions, identity markers tied to adornment, technological traditions, and culinary practices are compared between 14 assemblages to test four identity models. Seventeenth-century colonists were eating a combination of Old World domesticates and wild game on colonoware and majolica serving vessels, cooking using Indigenous pottery, grinding with Puebloan style tools, and conducting household scale production and prospecting. While assemblages are consistent in basic composition, variations are present tied to socioeconomic status. This blending …

Migration, Return Migration, And Economic Development In Latin America, Jose R. Bucheli

Economics ETDs

This dissertation presents a collection of essays that study ways in which human mobility affects economic development in origin countries. It focuses on Latin America—a region historically connected to episodes of large-scale migration, recipient of significant remittance flows, and victim of sluggish economic growth. The first two chapters examine the effects of return migration from the United States on aggregate economic welfare and non-state violence in communities of origin in Mexico. The analysis is motivated by the historic reversal in the Mexico-U.S. migration flows in the early 2000s. The third chapter analyzes the interaction between remittances, migration, and secondary school …

Planning For Protest: The Spatial Dimensions Of Civil Resistance Movements In Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, Nora Lamm

Architecture and Planning ETDs

This research project seeks to better understand how protests of varying sizes take place in public spaces, focusing on the city of Rio de Janeiro. The relationship between cities and protests has increasingly gained importance as urban areas throughout the world become epicenters for demanding greater political rights and expanded notions of citizenship (Harvey, 2003) (Vicino, 2017). Understanding the dynamics of protest in Rio de Janeiro is particularly important as the city struggles to overcome a financial crisis following nearly a decade of hosting international mega-events including the 2016 Olympics. Unstable funding has led to a public security crisis as …

Advances Of Standard And Nonstandard Neutrosophic Theories, Florentin Smarandache

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In this book, we approach different topics related to neutrosophics, such as: Neutrosophic Set, Intuitionistic Fuzzy Set, Inconsistent Intuitionistic Fuzzy Set, Picture Fuzzy Set, Ternary Fuzzy Set, Pythagorean Fuzzy Set, Atanassov’s Intuitionistic Fuzzy Set of second type, Spherical Fuzzy Set, n-HyperSpherical Neutrosophic Set, q-Rung Orthopair Fuzzy Set, truth-membership, indeterminacy-membership, falsehood-nonmembership, Regret Theory, Grey System Theory, ThreeWays Decision, n-Ways Decision, Neutrosophy, Neutrosophication, Neutrosophic Probability, Refined Neutrosophy, Refined Neutrosophication, Nonstandard Analysis; Extended Nonstandard Analysis; Open and Closed Monads to the Left/Right; Pierced and Unpierced Binads; MoBiNad Set; infinitesimals; infinities; nonstandard reals; standard reals; Nonstandard Neutrosophic Lattices of First Type (as poset) and …

Planning For Protest: The Spatial Dimensions Of Civil Resistance Movements In Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, Nora Lamm

Shared Knowledge Conference

This research project seeks to better understand how protests of varying sizes take place in public spaces, focusing on the city of Rio de Janeiro. The relationship between cities and protests has increasingly gained importance as urban areas throughout the world become epicenters for demanding greater political rights and expanded notions of citizenship (Harvey, 2003) (Vicino, 2017). Understanding the dynamics of protest in Rio de Janeiro is particularly important now as the city struggles to overcome a financial crisis following nearly a decade of hosting international mega-events including the 2016 Olympics. Unstable funding has led to a public security crisis …

"Sounding The Nile" In Nubian Musical Expression, Regan L. Homeyer

Shared Knowledge Conference

Nubians are indigenous peoples of the Nile River Valley whose ancient civilization parallels that of ancient Egypt. In 1964, 50,000 Egyptian Nubians were removed from their homeland along the Nile because of President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s initiative, the Aswan High Dam Project. With fertile lands and sacred temples doomed to inundation by the waters of what is now Lake Nassar, Nubians were resettled in government built villages that promised both preservation of culture and modern conveniences. What these riverine people received, in fact, were poorly constructed, unfinished dwellings located in the desert, more than five miles from the Nile. A …

La Gota Que Colma La Caguama: How A Brewery Development Sparked Public Participation In Water Decisions, Anthony J. Meluso

Shared Knowledge Conference

Broad and diverse participation of actors is well recognized as a prerequisite for effective and equitable water management. However, scholarship in development and social movement literature in Latin America demonstrates that patterns of participation are shifting to more diverse strategies with non-traditional alliances. This project explores how an internationally owned brewery development sparked renewed participation from various urban and rural groups in the Mexicali Valley. I argue that widespread resistance from different groups was underpinned by neoliberal development tensions that have diminished local agency, but the strong symbolic nature of water, beer and politics provided the catalyst for a social …

Translating Global Nature: Territoriality, Environmental Discourses, And Ecocultural Identities, José R. Castro-Sotomayor

Communication ETDs

In this study, I explore environmental discourses circulating among Indigenous transboundary organizations working on environmental initiatives at the border between Ecuador and Colombia. I focus on three global environmental discourses –sustainability, development, and climate change– as they are at the core of the global environmental governance vernacular. La Gran Familia Awá Binacional (GFAB), one of the few transboundary Indigenous organizations working along the binational border, utilizes these global concepts to frame their environmental initiatives and projects. I use a critical and interpretive qualitative approach to investigate, deconstruct, and rearticulate global environmental discourses circulating among and translated by two of the …

Ya No Tengo Vecinos: Local Understandings Of Neighborhood Change In Cusco, Peru, Kalyn Finnell

Architecture and Planning ETDs

This thesis involves the San Blas neighborhood in the Historic Center of Cusco, Peru. It aims to better understand local effects of the changes that San Blas has undergone since the 1990s and to explore possibilities related to improving the qualities of life of long-term residents (vecinos) who have lived in San Blas for at least two generations. It has two principal objectives: 1) Make recommendations to present to various public and private entities who have a presence and influence over the San Blas neighborhood to improve the likelihood that vecino demands are heard, 2) Illuminate the ways that vecinos …

Knowledge Sharing As A Means For Capacity Building In International Non-Governmental Organizations In Ecuador, Yolanda E. Ledesma Silva

Latin American Studies ETDs

The purpose of this research was to study factors that facilitate technical knowledge sharing internally in international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) in Ecuador. Using a qualitative design, and semi-structured interviews this study examined knowledge sharing practices in four INGOS located in Quito, capital of Ecuador.

The findings supported nine factors identified in the literature as influencing knowledge sharing practices. These factors included (1) organizational culture, (2) role in organization, (3) procedures for managing knowledge, (4) perceived value of knowledge sharing, (5) media used for sharing information, (6) management practices, (7) organizational structure, (8) mission and strategy, and (9) organizational climate and …

Agency, The Uncanny, And Strangeways: An Autoethnographic Journey Through An International Wunderland., Roberto T. Ollivier

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

The African diaspora and postcolonial studies author George Lamming writes in his book “The Pleasures of Exile” that the Caliban character from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” “cannot be revealed in any relation to himself-for he has no self which is not a reaction to circumstances imposed upon his life” (Lamming, 1992, p. 107). One could argue that the only hope this half-human half-monstrous creature, or for that matter, any of us have to find peace, lies in the attempt to find resolution through the metaphorical slaying of our respective pasts. Like Caliban, many of us are never …

Uses Of Sampling Techniques & Inventory Control With Capacity Constraints, Florentin Smarandache, Sachin Malik, Neeraj Kumar

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

The main aim of the present book is to suggest some improved estimators using auxiliary and attribute information in case of simple random sampling and stratified random sampling and some inventory models related to capacity constraints. This volume is a collection of five papers, written by six co-authors (listed in the order of the papers): Dr. Rajesh Singh, Dr. Sachin Malik, Dr. Florentin Smarandache, Dr. Neeraj Kumar, Mr. Sanjey Kumar & Pallavi Agarwal. In the first chapter authors suggest an estimator using two auxiliary variables in stratified random sampling for estimating population mean. In second chapter they proposed a family …

Α-Discounting Method For Multi-Criteria Decision Making (Α-D Mcdm), Florentin Smarandache

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In this book we introduce a new procedure called αDiscounting Method for Multi-Criteria Decision Making (α-D MCDM), which is as an alternative and extension of Saaty’s Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). It works for any number of preferences that can be transformed into a system of homogeneous linear equations. A degree of consistency (and implicitly a degree of inconsistency) of a decision-making problem are defined. α-D MCDM is afterwards generalized to a set of preferences that can be transformed into a system of linear and/or non-linear homogeneous and/or nonhomogeneous equations and/or inequalities. Many consistent, weak inconsistent, and strong inconsistent examples are …

Reversing The Flood Of Forced Displacement: Shedding Light On Important Determinants Of Return Migration, Prakash Adhikari Ph.D., Wendy L. Hansen Ph.D.

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Most current research on forced migration focuses on explaining patterns of displacement during armed conflicts and the role that social networks play in pulling people away from conflict torn areas. But what happens to displaced persons after a conflict ends? While many of these individuals are able to resettle in the place to which they fled during conflict, some individuals return to their places of origin while others remain in limbo. This research seeks to better understand behavior after flight. Using a rational choice framework, we theorize that people are strategic in their calculations of the costs and benefits of …