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D'Amato, Ilario. "Bringing electricity to rural India." Thesis, Malmö högskola, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-23549.
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In today’s Development environment, characterised by a scarcity of resources for projects and interventions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) must fiercely compete for funds. This has led NGOs to adhere to the donor’s narrative, language and Neoliberal values – with storytelling assuming a prominent position – potentially creating stereotyping issues in their communication outputs – while also facing the contrasting forces of market, state and communities. This thesis focuses on the case-study of the Bijli project, an energy access initiative for rural villages in India, created by The Climate Group – an important actor in the field and the charity where the author of this thesis still works. After a quick analysis of how the energy issue has shaped development in India, this work uses the academic tools of Discourse Analysis and Representation to examine the issues of stereotypes and marginalisation in the video produced by The Climate Group at the end of the Bijli program. Then, the ‘lessons learned’ have been applied to the video script for a new, potential video for a similar project that The Climate Group is now developing. Finally, such empirical application has shown how the issues arisen in the analysis relate to the modern debate in the Communication for Development field and how these new partnerships both challenge and reinforce the existing power relationships in the current Neoliberal climate. A more participatory, inclusive model could help the Global North audience better understand the reality in which it wants to intervene, but at the same time state and market are two powerful, useful actors to bring a more equitable development.
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Klenk, Rebecca Marshall. "Educating activists : gender, modernity, and development in north India /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/6479.
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Tsa, Tak-yan Dane, and 謝得恩. "A comparative study of the woodfuel crisis and rural energy planning in India and China." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1992. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31950188.
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Uma, V. "NGOS and rural development process in India : case studies from Rayalaseema." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.316295.
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Tsa, Tak-yan Dane. "A comparative study of the woodfuel crisis and rural energy planning in India and China." [Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong], 1992. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B13288635.
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Bhatt, Meenakshi Sanjeev. "Participatory strategies in income generation programmes for poor women in India." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2004. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B29247135.
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Kore, Shettar Shivanagappa F. Carleton University Dissertation Geography. "Disparities in economic development; learning from the "growth centre" experiences of India's five year plans (1951-1985)." Ottawa, 1988.
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Barat, Sourav K. "Some environmental implications of agricultural and agro-industrial development in rural India." Thesis, University of Salford, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.291729.
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Powis, Benjamin. "Penetrating localities : participatory development and pragmatic politics in rural Andhra Pradesh, India." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2012. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/43090/.
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This research sets out to explore the interface between the new politics of localisation and the political process in India. Governments and donors have increasingly emphasised the locality as the primary unit of development and politics. This new trajectory has been manifest in the increase of community-based organisations and mechanisms of participatory governance at the local level. From the late 1990s, the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh emerged as one of the most important examples of this new developmental politics and this research sets out to explore how local dynamics changed as a result. Political economy approaches tend to focus on state-periphery relations in terms of interest groups or vote banks. By contrast, this research found the village to be an enduring unit in the political system through which political identity manifests itself through three features. First, participation in local elections is driven by common forces of politics of parties, caste and corruption but its outcome is dependent on the specific context at the village level. Second, new participatory institutions created through state policy were found to merge with informal practices at the local level and produce a complex interplay between the new local and state identities. Third, analysis of leadership found evidence of a well-defined system of organisation within party groups at the village level, which were shaped not by party institutions but by the inner workings of village politics. These findings give cause to reassess the way in which we understand policy and political change. I do so by expanding on Skocpol's polity approach, which focused attention on the dynamic interplay of policy and social structure. Drawing on elements of the 'political development' theory, the concept of a ‘developing polity' approach is elaborated on, to better explain the complex interplay between local and higher level politics. These findings have implications for understanding both political change in India and development strategy. The macro-perspective on the decay of political institutions is contrasted with a local perspective that finds evidence of the vitality of party politics at the village level. This has a number of important implications for development, both in terms of the way in which we analyse participation and the way in which participatory development can be translated into political change
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Gaiani, Silvia <1974>. "Rural development and communication: a community media project in Uttar Pradesh (India)." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2008. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/736/1/Tesi_Gaiani_Silvia.pdf.
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Loaded with 16% of the world’s population, India is a challenged country.
More than a third of its citizens live below the poverty line - on less than a dollar a day. These people have no proper electricity, no proper drinking water supply, no proper sanitary facilities and well over 40% are illiterates.
More than 65% live in rural areas and 60% earn their livelihood from agriculture. Only a meagre 3.63% have access to telephone and less than 1% have access to a computer.
Therefore, providing access to timely information on agriculture, weather, social, health care, employment, fishing, is of utmost importance to improve the conditions of rural poor.
After some introductive chapters, whose function is to provide a comprehensive framework – both theoretical and practical – of the current rural development policies and of the media situation in India and Uttar Pradesh, my dissertation presents the findings of the pilot project entitled “Enhancing development support to rural masses through community media activity”, launched in 2005 by the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lucknow (U.P.) and by the local NGO Bharosa.
The project scope was to involve rural people and farmers from two villages of the district of Lucknow (namely Kumhrava and Barhi Gaghi) in a three-year participatory community media project, based on the creation, implementation and use of a rural community newspaper and a rural community internet centre.
Community media projects like this one have been rarely carried out in India because the country has no proper community media tradition: therefore the development of the project has been a challenge for the all stakeholders involved.
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Gaiani, Silvia <1974>. "Rural development and communication: a community media project in Uttar Pradesh (India)." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2008. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/736/.
Full textAbstract:
Loaded with 16% of the world’s population, India is a challenged country.
More than a third of its citizens live below the poverty line - on less than a dollar a day. These people have no proper electricity, no proper drinking water supply, no proper sanitary facilities and well over 40% are illiterates.
More than 65% live in rural areas and 60% earn their livelihood from agriculture. Only a meagre 3.63% have access to telephone and less than 1% have access to a computer.
Therefore, providing access to timely information on agriculture, weather, social, health care, employment, fishing, is of utmost importance to improve the conditions of rural poor.
After some introductive chapters, whose function is to provide a comprehensive framework – both theoretical and practical – of the current rural development policies and of the media situation in India and Uttar Pradesh, my dissertation presents the findings of the pilot project entitled “Enhancing development support to rural masses through community media activity”, launched in 2005 by the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lucknow (U.P.) and by the local NGO Bharosa.
The project scope was to involve rural people and farmers from two villages of the district of Lucknow (namely Kumhrava and Barhi Gaghi) in a three-year participatory community media project, based on the creation, implementation and use of a rural community newspaper and a rural community internet centre.
Community media projects like this one have been rarely carried out in India because the country has no proper community media tradition: therefore the development of the project has been a challenge for the all stakeholders involved.
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Sivasankaran, Anitha. "Essays on Gender, Intra-Household Allocation and Development." Thesis, Harvard University, 2014. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:11570.
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This dissertation studies gender, intra-household allocation and development. Industrialization and globalization has expanded opportunities for women in developing countries to work in manufacturing and service sector jobs often located outside their villages. The first chapter of this dissertation studies whether such job opportunities can lead to socio-economic changes for women, particularly with regard to marriage, fertility and empowerment. The second chapter examines the impact of a large public workfare program targeting rural households in India on children. In particular, we study the impact of time use by the youngest and oldest children in a household as adult time use changes in response to new work opportunities. The final chapter of this dissertation studies the impact of age of marriage on female mobility and autonomy in rural India.Economics
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Ray, Kirsten. "Infrastructural Development’s Effects on Rural Women’s Livelihoods in Tehri-Garhwal, Northern India." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/23820.
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This thesis investigates the effects of change and modernization on rural women’s livelihoods in northern India. Infrastructural development projects have been identified by research agencies and scholars as beneficial to people in rural areas. I reconceptualize infrastructural development – which here consists of a road, electricity, and irrigation – to act as a lens in which to define and understand the processes of change and modernization. Grounded in feminist methodology, this research is based on interviews with fifty women from six different villages in Tehri-Garwhal, India. I found that while infrastructural development did increase the quality of life for women, women did not experience empowerment. Rather, I argue that the changes brought upon by infrastructural development restructure and redefine the gender inequalities that exist in a region. Infrastructure development acts as a catalyst in a liminal space.
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Panneerselvam, A. "Role of small towns and intermediate cities in regional development in India." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.388736.
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Oliver, Jane E. "Contradictions in organisation : case study of a rural development NGO in Rajasthan, India." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.296335.
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Irenaeus, Ellen. "Empowerment of women- a strategic tool in rural development : Case study at the Barli Development Institute for Rural Women, Madhya Pradesh, India." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Kulturgeografiska institutionen, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-158829.
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Strobel, Michaela. "Mediaded. : A study on Community Video as a tool for Empowerment in rural India." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för mediestudier, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-104617.
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This thesis explores the potential of community video for rural development work in India. It addresses the topic via a process-oriented approach, looking into the individual steps from the creation of a video until its dissemination. Considering it as a form of storytelling, it goes beyond research projects which are finite and only focus on the final product. Storytelling in urban settings has been studied with an emphasis on the individual. Development work however goes beyond the individual, aiming for a broader influence. Thus, community video was studied in the context of developmental organizations which create films along with groups. As far as empowerment as a necessary basis for development is concerned, the study analyzes whether community video fosters or even creates the feeling of empowerment. In order to do justice to both- the medium community video and the storytelling process of it, the aspects of empowerment were examined through narrative analysis of videos and ethnographic field research combined with interviews and discussions. The connections which were discovered between narrative elements and empowerment were discussed with production teams and audiences. These discussions revealed that the communities were well aware of the power of community video and saw it as a tool for increasing knowledge within their own groups. This knowledge encompasses informational content as well as experience-sharing. It came to the fore that especially sharing has an empowering nature. The communities also see it as a mouthpiece to make the world aware of their issues and at the same time show society that they are capable of much more than what stereotypes suggest. The empowering effects of community video go beyond a simple feeling of empowerment and furthermore enable the communities to take action for their own progress. The field observations showed that with the help of organizations, the triggers for empowerment within the individual storytelling stages, from creation to dissemination, can be enhanced. Interviews with the heading organizations indicated that a balance has to be found between teaching techniques and contextual influence. This means that models for effective community video use can be useful but at the same time, the immense creative potential of the communities has be preserved. The very experience of creating something is the core of empowerment in community videos for rural Indian communities.
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Rew, Martin John. "Auditing 'development' : an anthropological study of 'audit culture' within a 'participatory rural development' project in Eastern India." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.619960.
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Bergenholtz, Julle, and Åsa Ljusenius. "Destruction in the name of Development : a study on grassroots advocacy in rural India." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsvetenskaper, SV, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-12523.
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The aim of this Bachelor thesis is to find keys to successful advocacy in a rural, Indian setting. The study is based on inductive, explorative research at a grassroots level, from a bottom-up perspective. Geographically, it takes place in the East Godavari District, in the state of Andhra Pradesh. At the centre of this study is the NGO:s Sujana and the Kadali Network, who are both advocating the rights of poor, marginalised and deprived people, as well as training people to carry out advocacy themselves. The theoretical framework for this thesis originates from theories within development communication, advocacy and Participatory Rural Appraisal. The research was carried out by making 16 individual interviews and 3 focus group interviews. Findings from the interviews have been categorised into themes and analysed through meaning condensation. The result of this study shows that there are multiple ways in which grassroots movements in East Godavari conduct advocacy. The analysis states that advocacy can be successful in a short to medium time span; the most prominent keys to success being: having a driving spirit, being creative, developing networks and being knowledgeable about laws and rights. In a longer time span though, the advocacy and struggle for change is hampered by lack of, or conflicting, political interest from the local government and by conflicting economical interests from companies.
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Kiessling, Brittany L. "Ethnographic Investigations of Commercial Aquaculture as a Rural Development Technique in Tamil Nadu, India." FIU Digital Commons, 2016. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2560.
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Since the 1960s, international aid organizations and governments have invested millions of dollars in promoting aquaculture as a way to stimulate local economies and improve food security. India is one such country, incorporating aquaculture research and extension programs as part of their development plans as early as 1971. India’s aquaculture promotion efforts gained momentum in 2004, following the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. The government sees aquaculture as a post-disaster development tool and a method to increase community resilience in rural areas of India.
Aquaculture currently constitutes nearly half of global seafood production today. Due to this importance, and the attention such practices receive through funding and extension, many scholars have focused on the social impacts that aquaculture practices have on rural communities. In particular, scholars have investigated the effects of aquaculture on environmental conditions, food security, livelihoods, gender relations, and social conflict. However, more scholarship is needed concerning the historical legacies that have contributed to how aquaculture is promoted and practiced, particularly connections to the Green Revolution. Furthermore, there needs to be more research about commercial aquaculture as a post-disaster development strategy.
My research – based on 9 months of ethnographic fieldwork and archival analysis in Tamil Nadu, India – contributes to this body of literature. I synthesized post-development theory with that of environmental risk and vulnerability, building upon the work of scholars such as James Ferguson, Tania Li, and Piers Blaikie. My analysis uncovers large disparities between the goals of aquaculture development programs and actual aquaculture outcomes. I attribute this to the technocratic governance structure of the aquaculture industry, which leads to a lack of engagement and participation between aquaculture managers, researchers, and practitioners. This lack of engagement ultimately makes the communities in which aquaculture is being practiced more vulnerable to anthropogenic and natural disturbances. Additionally, I found that aquaculture practices in the study site are causing significant changes to local agrarian structures, particularly through changes to labor. These changes have implications for social stratification and disempowerment of women. Overall, these findings contribute to the anthropological study of aquaculture as well as to theories of post-development.
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Tummon, Nisa Mairi. "Gender and participation in rural community development in the Thevaram Basin, Tamil Nadu, India." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/MQ58383.pdf.
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Sugathan, Manju. "Community development and empowerment of women in rural India through a recycle textile cooperative." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2015. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/10646/.
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In the village of Vellanchery, Tamil Nadu state, India, the main source of income is through the weaving of traditional silk saris. This activity is completed by the males of the families. This is a domestic process carried out on handlooms using a warp of approximately twenty-one metres; from which, three six metre sari lengths are produced. This leaves close to three metres of remnant silk yarns on the warp beam. Past efforts to make use of these remnant yarns have been aimed at the production of fashion accessories, including items such as: bangles and necklaces, which crucially are of low value and only sold in the local market. As such, the production of these items from remnant yarns provide minimal economic empowerment of the women in the village, which is very much needed. The thesis investigates the development of a process of recycling hand spun knitting yarn using 30% of these silk remnants collected from handlooms blended with 70% scoured lamb’s wool. Alluring and unique yarn colours, that are non-repeatable, and have excellent handle and knit-ability can be produced. Notably, non-repeatable yarn colours make this product unsuitable for the mainstream fashion market, however bespoke designs are extremely desirable for craft hand knitters. The idea is to use hand spinning, which is a therapeutic craft, whereby the wheels employed could be housed in one building to enable women to form a cooperative system. The aim of the project is to create a framework for a sustainable cooperative model combining the socio-economic and political aspects for setting up a women’s cooperative, including the technology for production and a marketing strategy.
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Chilibeck, Gillian. "Moving mountains through women's movements : the"feminization" of development discourse and practice in the Indian Himalayas." Thesis, McGill University, 2005. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=82696.
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This thesis examines the varied and contradictory ideas about rural women and their needs that are produced and circulate within development discourses and projects. It pays particular attention to the multiple actors involved in the production of such ideas and the relations of power that determine which ideas gain authority. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the Kullu District of Himachal Pradesh, India, it looks at women's participation in three different development projects: a women's savings and credit group, a broad-based development NGO, and the women's village organizations (mahila mandals ). These case studies demonstrate how development organizations engage with local gender meanings, often working to reinforce or even exploit inequalities, rather than challenge them. As women are targeted by such projects, they creatively receive, shape, and negotiate the ideas and representations that they encounter about themselves. These encounters limit, and sometimes foster, women's potential for new political identities and agency.
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Dhakal, Rajendra Prasad. "Organisation and management of rural development in India: a study of the development agencies in the hill areas of Darjeeling district in West Bengal." Thesis, University of North Bengal, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/188.
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Kumar, Ashutosh. "Can a Women's Rural Livelihood Program Improve Mental Health? Evidence from India." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/612417.
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There is a significant amount of literature documenting empirical linkages between socioeconomic status and mental health of individuals. While economic studies have found beneficial impacts of anti-poverty programs (e.g., micro-credit programs) on mental and emotional health, non-economic studies have documented the powerful roles of social capital in determining mental and emotional health. In this thesis, we study the impact of a large community-driven development (CDD) women's empowerment program, Jeevika, on mental health. JEEViKA is a rural livelihood program in Bihar, India, which promotes women's livelihood through a network of women's self-help group (SHG). Using data on a sample of 2300 SHG women from matched pairs of 66 high-exposure and low-exposure Jeevika villages, we estimate the causal impact of Jeevika on mental health. The results suggest that mental health improves with increasing age and among socially backward communities in high exposure JEEViKA villages. However, overall both the individual and village level analysis demonstrates no significant impact of JEEViKA on the mental health.
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He, Yuan. "Food and shelter : village lives in India and China compared." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2018. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/278016.
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This thesis examines the wellbeing of India and China’s rural-dwellers in Bihar and Gansu administrative units. It focuses on the food and shelter situation within these regions, from the standpoint of the existing status quo and ongoing trends. Moreover, it gives particular consideration to India and China’s governments’ role in the relevant wellbeing outcomes. Accordingly, this thesis argues for the importance of state capacity, and interest alignment, in driving forward development and preventing avoidable death or suffering. This provides a new angle on the dominant, Amartya Sen-inspired development models that emphasize free choice and democracy as the most immediate and preeminent development concerns. Thus, as this thesis proceeds to show, such Senian priorities increasingly lose value in contexts where weak state capacity or non-interest cannot deliver core well-being essentials. For example, populations that continue to either perish or persist with severe impairments from starvation, malnutrition and occupancy of uninhabitable dwellings are unable to exercise substantive freedoms in a manner envisioned by Sen. However, this does not mean this thesis undervalues democracy and freedom, but rather contends, alongside the most recent development sequencing literature, that strong state capacity is a prerequisite for the implementation of stable, lasting and functional democracy. Indeed, state capacity can give people the essential well-being basics to value, comprehend and utilize their freedoms in a full and non-exploited manner. Consequently, this thesis draws on a two-year fieldwork study in Bihar and Gansu’s villages and relies on 230 (215 valid) semi open-ended questionnaires, 29 stakeholder interviews, three focus group discussions and other relevant sources to bolster its argument and analysis.
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Sreekumar, Thundiyil Thrivikraman Pillai. "State, civil society and development e-topia : information and communication technologies and the making of a rural network society in India /." View abstract or full-text, 2004. http://library.ust.hk/cgi/db/thesis.pl?SOSC%202004%20SREEKU.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 202-215). Also available in electronic version. Access restricted to campus users.
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Madon, Shirin. "The impact of computer-based information systems on rural development : a case study in India." Thesis, Imperial College London, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/7532.
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Thaikoodan, Joseph. "Education and rural development in India since Independence in 1947 : with special reference to Kerala." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1985. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10019576/.
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In 1947, when India became independent, she had a new Constitution which embodied hopes for a better future for all Indian citizens and a range of institutions which represented the historical heritage of India. These institutions included the ancient Hindu caste system, and village government, and a great number of administrative systems established by the British. The school system was an integral part of the British system of administration. Chapters Two and Three of this thesis explore the problem which was brought about by the change in normative aims introduced by tne Constitution and the lack of change in the institutions. They also look at the different ways in which the new norms were interpretea, particulary the different views of modernisation taken by Nehru and Gandhi. Chapters Four and Five deal with the First and Second Five Year Plans respectively. The Five Year Plans are treated as tentative solutions to the problem set out in the early chapters. Although the first plan incorporated some of the rhetoric of Gandhi, the main tnrust of both plans was in line with Nehru's vision of the development of India. The chapters not only look at the general plan frames and the provisions made in the plans, but also look at the beneficiaries of the plans. For the most part the plans benefitted tne better off, and failed to provide for the basic needs, for food, housing, health, clothing and employment of the poorest sections of society, especially the rural poor. Education, and the close coordination between the education system and government and business administration, helped to ensure that those who had access to the traditional educational system had preference in the competition for housing, health and work. Chapter Six deals with education in detail. Kerala offers a unique opportunity to stuay the relationship between education and development. Education has played an important part in the development of Kerala, which on many indeces has a very highly educated population; literacy rates are high, and the state of Kerala has a very high number of newspapers. But while the high level of education is reflected in some otner indicators, it has not produced economic growth, and Kerala has one of the lowest per capita incomes among the States of India. Chapter Seven examines the relationship of education and development in Kerala. The concluding chapter of this thesis draws together the criticisms of the current system of education of India, and proposes a system of education based on problem-solving, to help supply the basic needs of all India's population.
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Leurs, Robert. "Technology for rural development in India : an exploratory national survey of government and non-government institutions involved in the development and dissemination of 'appropriate' rural technologies." Thesis, University of Manchester, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.257313.
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Pasumarthy, Soumya. "Co-creating forevers : stories of multi-level governance for implementation of rural development projects in India." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111431.
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Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2017.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 81-82).
In my thesis, I study systems of governance, and actors, involved in the implementation of social audits and digitized wage payments in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Andhra and Telangana, India. Theoretically, I begin by looking at Stoker's propositions of the characteristics of a governance system, Ostrom's idea of a socio-ecological system, within which governance actors perform, and Marks and Hooghe's comments on multi-level governance. I then use the prism of Tendler's and Grindle's work to lay out positive and negative repercussions of the current literature on governance systems, especially for developing countries, and why we must build the body of research on case-specific successes. My findings suggest that there seem to have been three possible influencers: political background, a strong and committed bureaucracy at the state level, and prior history of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and grassroots work. Probing further, deeper motivations and reasons emerge for the behavior of bureaucrats and implementers, organized civil society, and political actors. These instances seem to argue for an ideal case where having strategic ties with multiple actors can help implementers be more effective and proactive even in adverse and unfavorable implementation environments. Actors performed well in flexible environments, but with clear roles and accountability structures.
by Soumya Pasumarthy.
M.C.P.
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Gupta, Saurabh. "The politics of development in rural Rajasthan (India) : evidence from water conservation and watershed development initiatives since the early 1990s." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.619039.
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Supri, Salinder Singh. "Off-farm activities in India : a case study of rural households in Rurka Kalan Development Block, Punjab, c.1961-1993." Thesis, University of Salford, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.245059.
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Mukhopadhyay, Boidurjo. "Solar energy based entrepreneurship and rural development : analysing institutional arrangements that support solar energy entrepreneurs in India." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2017. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/68229/.
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Renewable energy (RE hereafter) has been observed as a potentially significant new source of jobs and rural growth in both OECD and BRICs countries, and a means of addressing environmental and energy security concerns. The global deployment of RE has been expanding rapidly. For instance, the RE electricity sector grew by 26% between 2005 and 2010 globally and currently provides about 20% of the world's total power (including hydro-power) (OECD, 2012). Rural areas attract a large part of investment related to renewable energy deployment, rending to be sparsely populated but with abundant sources of RE. Several case studies have found that RE deployment can provide hosting communities with some benefits including new revenue sources, new job and business opportunities, innovation in products/practices/policies in rural areas, capacity building and community empowerment, and affordable energy. There is a growing body of evidence on the instrumental role that entrepreneurs and small businesses play in driving local and national economies. The structure of rural economies is essentially composed of small enterprises, which are responsible for most of the job growth and the innovation. Rural development is a key element of strategies to reduce poverty and create income and employment opportunities (UNIDO, 2003). It is important to unleash and harness the creativity of grassroots entrepreneurs but they are posed with many challenges, the biggest being these grassroots inventions don't scale up. To overcome these challenges and promote rural entrepreneurship, support roles are required; this is also where the importance and role of institutions and their planned arrangements (for example, partnerships) are much debated in both domestic and international forums. This research investigates the current institutional arrangements that support solar entrepreneurship which creates solar energy based income-generating micro enterprises in rural India. In addition to that, it explores the wider implications on rural development that these entrepreneurships have while using these solar RETs. Institutions and individuals promoting rural development see entrepreneurship as a strategic development intervention that could accelerate the rural development process (Ezeibe, 2013). India, being the only country with a national ministry dedicated to RE initiatives (the MNRE, Government of India) and also ranking third on the renewable energy country attractiveness index (E&Y, 2013; 2016) makes an interesting country choice for investigation. The thesis applies a qualitative research method with an exploratory design to understand the interaction process between institutions and how different institutions support rural development to generate an in-depth analysis of existing institutions using a conceptual framework.
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Bird, Jessica. "Micro-Enterprise Development for Dalit Women in Rural India: An Analysis of the Implications of “Women's Empowerment”." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2019. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1286.
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The overall purpose of this study is to assess various market-based versus aid based approaches to financial autonomy for Dalit women in rural India and the goals and assumptions of the multiple stakeholders involved in each method (mainly, national and international NGOs, the state, and micro-finance organizations). I argue that approaches to income generation such as entrepreneurship, capital investment, and skill building, are based on similar objectives of economic agency, but ultimately lend to different results because of their varying assumptions about “women’s empowerment.” By separating these approaches into three methods of income generation based on their objective to promote either wages, labor, or capital, the political incentives of each stakeholder becomes more clear. The research presented in my literature review ultimately led me to predict that for Dalit women in India to experience financial autonomy, wage labor that produces immediate outcomes is a more viable route to overall empowerment than entrepreneurship due to its cultural constraints women fact. However, after analyzing my comparative case studies which focused on three different methods of handicraft and textile production facilitated through state, institutional, private stakeholders, I began to see how a a multiple-income generating approach, such as combining the resources of NGOs, micro-finance, and the state, reduces caste and gender barriers to entrepreneurship. Through a feminist and Marxist analysis, I assess the problems that occur when actors determine a blanket approach to empowering all women without considering their diverse contexts, and more specifically, how different identities and standpoints work to inform and oppress notions of empowerment. My interviews with experts in the field have led me to recommend that methods of income generation facilitated through grassroots Self Help Groups is the best way for rural, Dalit women to women to achieve economic agency.
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Chitnis, Ketan S. "Communication for Empowerment and Participatory Development: A Social Model of Health in Jamkhed, India." Ohio : Ohio University, 2005. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?ohiou1127144625.
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Cranney, Brenda. "The women of Himachal Pradesh, the impact of development on the everyday lives of poor, rural women in India." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape15/PQDD_0018/NQ27287.pdf.
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Fernandes, Michelle Caroline. "Does prenatal maternal depression predict foetal and infant development? : a study of mothers and infants in rural South India." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:20052f9e-7598-49ac-833e-ae7d5f168b62.
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Introduction: Prenatal maternal depression is associated with an increased risk of psychopathology in childhood. The understanding of the mechanisms underlying this association is limited. Further, despite high rates of prenatal depression in the developing world, no research investigating this issue exists from these settings. Objectives: The primary objectives of this thesis are to study the association between prenatal maternal depression and the following early offspring outcomes in a non-smoking, non-alcohol consuming prenatal sample from rural, South India: Foetal stress responsivity, measured through foetal heart rate (FHR). Infant stress responsivity, measured through infant cortisol response to immunisation. Infant temperament. Methods: 194 pregnant women from Solur, India were assessed for depression. The first 67 mothers with elevated symptoms of prenatal depression and the first 66 controls underwent FHR monitoring to study foetal stress responsivity. 58 mother-infant dyads returned at 1.5-3 months post birth. Infant salivary cortisol was measured before and after immunisation. Information on infant temperament and maternal postnatal depression (PND) was also collected. Results: Twenty nine mothers (14.9%) met a diagnosis of major depression during pregnancy while 67 (34.5%) had elevated symptoms of prenatal depression. Whilst there were no linear association between prenatal depression and foetal responsivity, a curvilinear (U shaped) association existed with the foetuses of mothers with very high and very low levels of prenatal depression having elevated stress responses compared to those with moderate levels of prenatal depression. Prenatal depression predicted infant cortisol responsivity independent of PND (B=13.08, p=0.02).The relationship between infant cortisol responsivity and prenatal depression was also U shaped. There was no association between prenatal depression and infant temperament. Conclusions: This is the first study from the developing world investigating the relationship between prenatal depression and offspring outcomes. It provides evidence suggestive of the programming influence of prenatal depression on the developing offspring.
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Watson, Samantha. "The limits of self help : policy and political economy in rural Andhra Pradesh." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2013. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/the-limits-of-self-help-policy-and-political-economy-in-rural-andhra-pradesh(e3d798e0-0010-4aed-8ad4-6f069ccafd1c).html.
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This thesis analyses the scope for the “self-help” model of rural development to succeed in its broadly stated aims of enabling rural women to advance their social status and enhance their own and/or their family’s livelihoods. The thesis is organised around two key sites of investigation. The first questions the potential for “self-help” to operate within existing social relations - expressed in access to land, other assets and resources (including credit), and in different forms, conditions, and relations of labour. The second questions its potential to intervene in, and potentially overturn, these relations. These questions are embedded in a wider analysis of the ways in which individual and collective attempts to advance living conditions (or at least defend them from deterioration) are defined by historically (re)produced social relations. Analysis is centred on the South Indian State of Andhra Pradesh, where the “self-help” policy approach, now widely replicated as a model for central and federal interventions, is most established. This is a mixed-methods study. It draws on statistical analysis of large-scale secondary survey data, analysis of primary fieldwork, and of government policy documents and other relevant documentation. The thesis engages directly with the philosophical issues this raises, to develop a foundation for the logically consistent assimilation of statistical and “qualitative” methods into mixed methods research. Fieldwork centred on two villages in southern Chittoor district and relied primarily on repeated in-depth interviews with members of four self help groups and, where applicable, their husbands (30 respondents in total). Local officials and programme staff and bank managers were also interviewed. In addition, multi-level logit regression analysis was conducted with two large-scale, complex secondary data sets; the All India National Survey Sample (round 61; schedule 10; 2004/05) and the Young Lives Project Survey (round two; 2005/2006). An innovative weighting procedure was applied to adjust for the latter’s non-random sampling procedure.The findings demonstrate the tensions invoked by state policy emphasising agential action in the absence of due regard for the structural relations within which actions not only take place, but in which the conditions for their possibility and articulation are generated, institutionalised, and reproduced. This situation is exacerbated by unfolding ecological crisis in the fieldwork village sites, problematising the land-based solutions traditionally advocated by the Indian Left. The thesis concludes that Andhra’s self-help programmes can perform a non-trivial ameliorative role in the short-term, but this is undermined by a wider tendency to reproduce and potentially exacerbate ongoing processes of rural differentiation.
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Mehra, Amaani. "Is India's Push for Renewables a Shove to its Impoverished Communities?" Scholarship @ Claremont, 2019. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1335.
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India has ambitious targets to develop extensive renewable energy infrastructure by 2022. These targets are driven by the country’s pressing environmental and demographic concerns. While the development of such infrastructure can have many benefits, the costs of are often disproportionately borne by some of the most impoverished groups due to land acquisition and displacement. Land acquisition often occurs in rural areas, where the majority of the population are farmers or tribal groups. While there are laws to protect the rights of these groups, the effectiveness of these laws is often undermined by state governments that prioritize investment. Looking at the development of solar, wind, and small hydropower, the various impacts on rural communities are evident. Without adequate compensation for the loss of land and the suffering caused by displacement, these groups can often be left worse off than before. Government support needs to be carried out in a way that encourages maximum deployment, while also enforcing regulations that protect the rights of rural communities.
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Gladwell, Caecilia Jean. "An enquiry into the potential of a co-operative approach to sustainable rural tourism development in India : a stakeholder perspective." Thesis, Queen Margaret University, 2015. https://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/7317.
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Sustainable tourism and rural development are much examined research areas. Within these, the importance of community-centric approaches is becoming more and more recognised; however, specific research upon which community-centric development strategies could be built seems to be lacking. This thesis addresses this research gap with the aim to explore the nature of co-operative tourism and its potential towards sustainable rural tourism development in India from a stakeholder perspective. A literature review demonstrated the benefits of co-operatives as a sustainable business model, particularly for poor communities of developing countries; however, a clear gap emerged with regard to investigating tourism and co-operatives in the same context. This research contributes to filling this gap in knowledge and outlines the clear theoretical benefits of adopting a co-operative business model as a community-centric approach to tourism in the context of rural India, while also pointing out considerable challenges in its practical implementation, such as possible limitations to the ability for self-help. Fifty qualitative semi-structured interviews were carried out with stakeholders of a co-operative tourism project in two states of India: Uttarakhand and West Bengal. Twenty-six of these were conducted with farmers who are members of the tourism co-operatives presented in this study, ten with members of the wider community in which the project took place and fourteen with tourism professional and academics local to the areas. Focus was put on in-depth exploration of participants’ experiences, implying qualitative methods and a phenomenological research approach. The findings revealed a clear theoretical advantage of a co-operative approach to tourism development, which has potential to address and alleviate many of the challenges associated with tourism and host communities, and which is intensified in poor peripheral areas. However, there are significant practical challenges, which need to be addressed in order for this comparative advantage to translate into practice. These challenges are manifested in a sense of dormancy in the participants, a lack of skills and significant language difficulties. A limit to the principle of self-help, which is inherent to co-operative activities, was identified as creating effective marketing links and hence, requiring ongoing external support. This research study makes an interdisciplinary contribution to the literature on sustainable tourism, rural development and co-operative studies. In addition, it provides a starting point for further empirical research on the co-operative business model as an approach, which has not yet been sufficiently conceptualised for tourism. Furthermore, it contributes to the wider debate on sustainable rural development through tourism. Future research could usefully investigate how the challenges identified in this study, such as limitations to the principle of self-help, lack of initiative in participants and creating marketing linkages could be addressed.
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Andersson, Malin, and Daniel Svensson. "Impacts on teachers' lives of a capacity building course: A case study in rural Rajasthan, India." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för pedagogik, psykologi och idrottsvetenskap, PPI, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-12807.
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This case study is conducted on teachers working in Non-Formal Education centers (NFE's), for the Non-Governmental Organization Seva Mandir, in the Udaipur district in Rajasthan, India. The setting for the study is remote rural villages around the small city Udaipur, with one million inhabitants. The purpose of this case study is to investigate what impact the capacity building course that Seva Mandir offers the teachers, the NFE certification course, have had on the teacher’s lives. The aim is to get a picture of the overall impact of the course on a professional level and on the individual NFE teachers’ personal life. The case study was conducted on a sample of eleven out of 50 NFE teachers working for Seva Mandir in the Jhadol block. The empirical data was collected through qualitative interviews conducted in the NFE schools. The NFE centers that are run by Seva Mandir are a complement to malfunctioning government schools in areas where most of the children are first generation learners. The schools aim to keep children from working or starting to work, through giving them an educational base. The teachers have no previous teachers training and are having an average prior education of 8th to 10th class. The general findings of the study are that a majority of the teachers felt an increase in self-confidence after participating in the course. They generally had more concrete and ambitious future plans after the course than before it, and they were highly dominated of plans for further education for themselves and their children. It was also found that the teachers felt major changes in their teaching approach after the course. They had learnt new teaching strategies and seemed to have changed their attitude against the children. The teachers used activities like games, songs and stories in their teaching as well as taking help of the local surroundings when teaching.
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Raha, Debadayita. "Dynamics of gender and participation patterns within rural development policy implementation : case studies of public private partnerships from two districts, India." Thesis, University of Reading, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.590144.
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The three mains concepts in this research were participation, gender relations and governance, producing the main research question: how was PPP initiatives achieving the objectives of women's partcipation and changing the lives of women? Government of India's neo-liberal strategies included implementation of developmental policies in collaboration with the private sector and/or non-state actors. These institutional linkages, known as Public Private Partnerships (PPP), established collaborative roles and responsibilities for policy initiatives. Originally engaged in policies pertaining to the infrastructure and healthcare sectors, recent PPP initiatives were increasingly utilised for developmental policies in the social sector. Another neo-liberal strategy has been engaging in policy implementation through a gender mainstreaming approach. This approach recognises the differential impact policy implementation has on men and women within the community. Using a case study approach, two PPP initiatives were explored, in Bhilwara District of Rajasthan (North-Western State of India) and Puri District of Orissa (coastal Eastern State). The conceptual framework established a scalar dimension for understanding (1) the interaction between policy implementation and contextual institutions effecting women's participation; (2) the combination of PPP structures with intra-household dynamics was creating opportunities for women; and (3) role of everyday state implementing PPP impacting changes in women's lives. A multi-disciplinary methodological approach applied both quantitative and qualitative participatory data collection tools including Focus Group Discussions and Semi-structured Interviews. Data was collected from men and women participants and non-participants in the activities of the PPP initiatives, and from key actors in the public and private institutions. The study established that women's participation was influenced by formal and informal governance structures determining entitlement to resources, and the relative adaptability of men and women to change. Secondly, there was a gap between policy intentions or rhetoric, and policy implementation in tenns of changes in intra-household gender relations. Thirdly, for PPP initiatives within rural India's traditional patriarchal contexts, policy implementation initiatives must construe contextual detenninants, seeking to effectively combine both women-only and gendered approaches. This would make women active participants in certain activities giving them the confidence to transform their traditional subservient roles as passive participants and become active participants within the patriarchal domain. In conclusion, the patriarchal context required gender main streaming approaches conjoining gender neutral activities with women only initiatives to encourage women to engage in activities related to policy implementation. PPP initiatives as vehicles of policy implementation require being redefined as not merely 'partnerships' between the 'public' and 'private', but as 'partnerships' between 'public'; 'private' and the 'people'. The inclusion of this fourth 'P' would determine the effectiveness of PPPs by engaging both men and women, thereby recognising gender dynamics (interaction and inter-relations) improving women's access and participation in policy initiatives.
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Bian, David W. "Design, development, and field-testing of a cost-optimized village-scale, photovoltaic-powered, electrodialysis reversal water desalination system for rural India." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111773.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2017.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 85-91).
The aim of this research was to identify the effectiveness of cost-optimizing a photovoltaic-powered electrodialysis reversal (PV-EDR) system for village-scale applications in rural India based on current component costs and performance. Currently available village-scale off-grid desalination systems have high capital costs - $11,250 USD compared to $4,500 USD for equivalent grid-connected systems - rendering them prohibitively expensive for cost-constrained communities. Compared to current state-of- the-art PV-powered reverse osmosis desalination systems, electrodialysis has the potential to reduce capital cost due to the lower energy requirement of the ED process at brackish feed water salinities. The parametric relationships that govern the characteristics of the electrodialysis process and photovoltaic power systems were investigated and a model was created to predict a PV-EDR system's cost and performance. Through optimization, it was found that the optimal design was composed of a GE Water electrodialysis stack with 62 cell pairs, an applied stack voltage of 45 V, a batch size of 0.42 in 3 , and a power system with 57.5 m2 of photovoltaic solar panels and 22 kWh of batteries. The system is predicted to run 17.7 hours per day on average and cost $23,420. This was a 42% reduction from the $40,138 cost of a PV-EDR system designed using the conventional engineering practice of sequentially designing the load and then the power system. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to evaluate the effects of different parameter changes on optimal system cost and design. The analysis revealed that relaxing the reliability requirement from 100% to 98% would reduce the optimal cost by 5.7%. An ED membrane cost reduction of 87% would cause the previous optimal system design to have a system cost of $15,360. The analysis revealed that optimizing the system with the lower membrane cost results in a system with a different configuration and a system cost of $11,717, a 24% additional cost reduction that was enabled by a flexible operation schedule since the lower membrane cost optimized system would operate on average for 8.6 hours per day instead of 17.7. A pilot PV-EDR system was built and installed in the village of Chelluru in India, where a week-long trial was conducted to collect initial data and results. With the exception of a few practicalities not considered in the model, the experimental results closely matched the PV-EDR system performance model on the basis of solar irradiance, batch power and battery energy levels. To fully validate the model and make it more accurate, long-term field testing must be conducted over the course of a full annual irradiance cycle.
by David W. Bian.
S.M.
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Bian, David W. "Design, development, and field-testing of a cost-optimized village-scale, photovoltaic-powered, electrodialysis reversal water desalination system for rural India." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111773.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2017.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 85-91).
The aim of this research was to identify the effectiveness of cost-optimizing a photovoltaic-powered electrodialysis reversal (PV-EDR) system for village-scale applications in rural India based on current component costs and performance. Currently available village-scale off-grid desalination systems have high capital costs - $11,250 USD compared to $4,500 USD for equivalent grid-connected systems - rendering them prohibitively expensive for cost-constrained communities. Compared to current state-of- the-art PV-powered reverse osmosis desalination systems, electrodialysis has the potential to reduce capital cost due to the lower energy requirement of the ED process at brackish feed water salinities. The parametric relationships that govern the characteristics of the electrodialysis process and photovoltaic power systems were investigated and a model was created to predict a PV-EDR system's cost and performance. Through optimization, it was found that the optimal design was composed of a GE Water electrodialysis stack with 62 cell pairs, an applied stack voltage of 45 V, a batch size of 0.42 in 3 , and a power system with 57.5 m2 of photovoltaic solar panels and 22 kWh of batteries. The system is predicted to run 17.7 hours per day on average and cost $23,420. This was a 42% reduction from the $40,138 cost of a PV-EDR system designed using the conventional engineering practice of sequentially designing the load and then the power system. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to evaluate the effects of different parameter changes on optimal system cost and design. The analysis revealed that relaxing the reliability requirement from 100% to 98% would reduce the optimal cost by 5.7%. An ED membrane cost reduction of 87% would cause the previous optimal system design to have a system cost of $15,360. The analysis revealed that optimizing the system with the lower membrane cost results in a system with a different configuration and a system cost of $11,717, a 24% additional cost reduction that was enabled by a flexible operation schedule since the lower membrane cost optimized system would operate on average for 8.6 hours per day instead of 17.7. A pilot PV-EDR system was built and installed in the village of Chelluru in India, where a week-long trial was conducted to collect initial data and results. With the exception of a few practicalities not considered in the model, the experimental results closely matched the PV-EDR system performance model on the basis of solar irradiance, batch power and battery energy levels. To fully validate the model and make it more accurate, long-term field testing must be conducted over the course of a full annual irradiance cycle.
by David W. Bian.
S.M.
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Brake, Constance Elaine. "The roles of women fisherfolk in the fishing industry in India and the impacts of development on their lives." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp05/MQ63975.pdf.
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Ansari, Rushina. "The Complexities of Empowering Rural Indian Women (A story of Indian Panchayats)." Thesis, Malmö högskola, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-21007.
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In the following research I strive to focus on the various aspects that influence the‘empowerment’ issue of rural Indian women. I refer to two governmental reforms inparticular - the historic ‘Women’s Reservation Bill’ (WRB) which insists on a onethird participation of women at the lower tier of political structure in India called thePanchayats and the controversial ‘Two Child Norm’ (TCN) which restricts politicalparticipation of both men and women Panchayat candidates if the couple chooses tohave more that two children (Buch, 2005).I spread my research over a variety of social actors relevant to this issue and useKabeer’s (1999) three-dimensional model of dissecting empowerment that analyzesthe term at an intrinsic level. It is revealed through this research and analysis that inspite of the government’s efforts through the WRB reform of providing resources tothe rural women toward economic and social empowerment through politicalparticipation, the power terrains of caste, culture and religion withhold their agency.On the other hand, the tainted TCN stipulation, which in some cases has proveddetrimental to women, has also shown signs of being helpful in determining theintrinsic aspect of empowerment like gaining a voice in terms of reproductive rights.Such findings however bring into focus the government’s lack of commitment andforesight in designing such reforms and hence this research helps us locate the sites ofdevelopment to make the term ‘empowerment’ more meaningful.
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Kay, Ethan Jeremy. "Playing with fire : an MNC's inability to translate its market logic in a culturally complex exchange setting in rural India." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:c35eb4e5-71c9-466a-9420-0b4c7d0679db.
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This dissertation describes the manner by which a multinational corporation (MNC) enacts a market-based logic with a locally embedded partner in a complex and unfamiliar operating setting to fulfil both business and social objectives. It examines a hybrid partnership between BP, an MNC, and SSP, a rural Indian non-governmental organisation (NGO). Together, the organisations trained rural women, who were affiliated with SSP, as agents to distribute and sell BP’s ‘smokeless’ cookstoves and fuel pellets to households who cook on smoky firewood stoves. The research draws on two theories—neo-institutional organizational theory and real markets theory—to examine the process by which logics are aligned across partners and projected and translated into the rural Indian exchange setting. It constructs a four-actor model (MNC, NGO, agent, customer) to explore the exchange relationships between the actors at the meso- and micro-levels. At the meso-level, it explains how the MNC and NGO’s non-aligned logics, asymmetric power dynamics, and lack of mutual trust contribute to the venture’s failure. In addition, the NGO was so determined to succeed as a professional, market-driven, channel partner that it shed part of its identity as a civil advocacy organisation and adopted mainstream commercial practices that were not sensitive to the needs of its local stakeholders. At the micro-level, the partners did not come to a common understanding with the agents regarding the cultural challenges they faced marketing the stove. Moreover, the marketing strategy glossed over the multi-layered social relationships and culinary, behavioural, and religious practices that needed to be translated for the technology to meet the needs of consumers. Using gritty ethnographic data, the dissertation highlights a challenge that large, foreign companies face when entering ‘Base of the Pyramid’ markets, namely the inconsistency between the MNC’s market logic and the wider associational logics that motivate village agents and customers.
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Lindén, Rut. "Educational policies serving the poor : A case study of student's performance in Indian hostels." Thesis, Uppsala University, Department of Economics, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-5995.
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This study examines the effect on school achievement of a policy such as hostels, aimed at
giving children from a poor socioeconomic background an opportunity to receive education.
Data is collected from two different schools in a district in Andhra Pradesh, India, in which
both hostel students and day-scholar students, having a similar background, are studying.
Exam scores for three different subjects are used as dependent variables in the analysis. The
results indicate that private hostels do have a positive effect on achievement in all subjects,
thereby contributing to reducing the large gap in school achievement between different
socioeconomic groups
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Rai, Prabhat. "Building common knowledge : a cultural-historical analysis of pedagogical practices at a rural primary school in Rajasthan, India." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:22402128-d2ca-4de5-8255-c15e4b4699dd.
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The centralised control over curriculum framing and pedagogy, the generally poor quality of teaching with little sensitivity to children’s sociocultural environment; and very high drop out rates, even at the primary school level, are some of the challenges facing school education in many of the regions of India. However, one of the successful approaches to these challenges has been the Digantar school system, working in rural communities. The study is based in one Digantar School in Rajasthan and employs concepts derived from the Vygotskian tradition to interrogate the methods employed in Digantar school system. The study took Edwards’ (2010a, 2011, 2012) idea of common knowledge and Hedegaard’s (2008, 2012, 2013) idea of institutional demand in practices as conceptual lenses through which to investigate the components of the pedagogical practices that help Digantar teachers to align the motives of the school with those of the child in classroom activities. In doing so it analyses the institutional practices that lead to the development of common knowledge that in turn facilitates how teachers engage pupils as learners. Data were gathered over six months and comprised around 120 hours of school-based video data together with interviews and detailed observations with teachers and community members. Data were gathered in classrooms, teacher meetings, meetings between parents and teachers and at school-community meetings. Analyses focused on the construction of common knowledge and the use made of it by the school to achieve a mutual alignment of motives between the practices of the school with the community and the families. The study has revealed that teachers’ engagement with the knowledge and motives of other teachers and community members helped to create common knowledge, i.e. an understanding of what mattered for each participating group, which facilitated teaching-learning in the school. The analysis also points towards a form of democracy, which enhances children’s participation in their learning. It was found that building and sharing of common knowledge and creating a socially articulated ‘space of reasons’ (Derry 2008) produced a pedagogical model that engaged children in creating their social situation of development, seeking and recognising the curriculum demands being placed on them.