Convenor
Amiya Kumar Das
Department of Sociology, Tezpur University, Tezpur, Assam
Co-convenor
Nava Kishor Das
Former Deputy Director, Anthropological Survey of India, Kolkata
Abstract
The disciplines of sociology and anthropology share common philosophical roots and focus on universal social and cultural systems of humankind. During last century they developed different approaches; while sociology dwelt more on urban and modern world, anthropology studied nonindustrial societies. Such contours are no more rigid and sociology and anthropology are increasingly devoting attention to modern day issues of human well being, especially the issues of development, decentralization and governance. Thus, today, in most parts of the world, sociology and anthropology as academic disciplines are concerned with a range of common theoretical perspectives and research methods. Among the themes of common interest are social movements, global interdependence, health and well being, religion, family, and social justice; as also issues of poverty, exclusion, inequality and marginalization, environmental issues, issues of development and governance.
Development is no longer merely in the domain of the state, the neoliberal shift has led to the rise of national and international agencies which engage in ‘development’, both in the “Third World”, as well as in the western parts of the globe. In line with the current global trend of streamlining the role of the state, the governments of most developing countries have devolved power to grassroots institutions with a view to enhance development. Such devolutions have in many cases been quite inefficient to achieve this goal. Unless rural people are empowered to participate in the development process, development efforts will only have partial positive effects if at all they have any progressive effect. Developing world has seen increasing devolution of political and economic power to local governments. Decentralization is considered an important element of participatory democracy and it allows ‘sharing’ on part of traditional and local institutions to shoulder burden of economic policy. Electoral participation further ensures political decentralization and political power at local level. The development deliverances are dependent on measures of governance. Social scientists have now realized the value of governance, including democratization, corruption control, and capacity-building.
This panel seeks to redefine the converging theoretical and methodological approaches of sociology and anthropology, especially in the context of the developing countries in the South Asia and elsewhere in the globe, where decentralization being an element of participatory democracy allowing traditional and local institutions to ‘share’ burden of economic policy. This panel invites researchers and practitioners of development and governance to make both theoretical and empirical presentations on various conceptual and practical challenges pertaining to development and governance.