University of Sussex
Browse
Orchard (2021) Sustainable Developmentality - Interrogating the Sustainability Gaze and the Cultivation of Mountain Subjectivities in the Central Indian Himalayas.pdf (2.59 MB)

Sustainable developmentality: interrogating the sustainability gaze and the cultivation of mountain subjectivities in the central Indian Himalayas

Download (2.59 MB)
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-10, 01:38 authored by Steven Orchard
Sustainability challenges persist in the central Indian Himalayas (CIH) despite an array of solutions proffered by external experts. This paper interrogates the sustainability gaze which reflects attempts to reconcile neoliberal economic growth with environmental conservation within the logics of technical and biophysical rationalities - by exploring local experiences of rapid and uncertain social and environmental change. Three strands of policy and practice shape the gaze: (i) natural hazard mitigation for climate change adaptation; (ii) reducing social vulnerability through pro-poor development; and (iii) increasing resilience through environmental management and conservation. Results challenge narratives that overpopulation causes environmental degradation and changing patterns of migration are a natural process of modernisation in the CIH. Alternative local narratives highlight haphazard and inequitable economic growth, lack of mountain planning and disaster management, inadequate social welfare programmes, and monkey relocation policies as the major sustainability challenges. The paper discusses how the gaze produces 'sustainable developmentality' - a depoliticising process that cultivates multiple and conflicting mountain subjectivities, namely: (i) active community members responsible for mitigating natural hazards, (ii) productive farmers and flexible waged labourers, and (iii) custodians of the environment. This creates a triple-bind for smallholders which has forced huge numbers to migrate from their mountain dwellings with unsustainable outcomes. Exploring local perspectives re-politicises the debate, exposing the contradictions and tensions of the gaze and the broader systemic issues of power and inequity the gaze overlooks. Such insights are crucial for rendering development policies more relevant to mountain residents of the CIH and beyond.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Geoforum

ISSN

0016-7185

Publisher

Elsevier

Volume

127

Page range

209-221

Department affiliated with

  • Geography Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Sussex Sustainability Research Programme Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2021-11-04

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2021-11-04

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC