This article peers into the anxieties of the democratic process in post-conflict Nepal. Today, while the recent elections gave Nepal’s politicians a new mandate to finish the constitution-drafting process, the negotiations surrounding the troubled issue continue. Despite the established formal democratic institutions and procedures, authoritarian legacies and pre-democratic political practices, values and attitudes co-exist with the new democratic establishment with negative consequences for governmental stability. The article shows how the existing Nepalese political culture reflects a contradictory mix of deference to senior leaders, but also distrust of their authority, and a culture of confrontation rather than compromise.

By employing semi-structured interviews this article investigates the peacebuilding environment in Kathmandu, Nepal, with an eye in particular to capture everyday conceptualizations of sustainable peace, and to investigate whether these might contribute to more holistic peacebuilding approaches in the country. The article draws initial inspiration from the post-liberal peace framework put forth by Oliver Richmond, which problematizes the liberal peace model by highlighting its tendency to neglect the local context and needs, as well as its frequent reliance on top-down and technocratic measures. Instead, Richmond calls for peacebuilding approaches which are more holistic and sensitive to the everyday needs of inhabitants of post-conflict societies. It is found that the post-liberal peace approach largely corresponds to the manner in which the interlocutors of this article conceptualize sustainable peace, i.e. by highlighting everyday issues such as material improvements, social justice, and national political stability. However, the article concludes by arguing that there are also issues of practical concern with both the post-liberal peace framework and the manner in which sustainable peace is conceptualized by interlocutors in Kathmandu.

Denne rapporten handler om den universelle retten alle barn og unge har til å delta, å si sin mening og bli hørt i alle saker som angår dem. Vi ønsker å gi innblikk i hvordan denne retten sikres for barn og unge med funksjonsnedsettelser i Norden.

I rapporten belyser vi noen av de vanligste barrierene for deltakelse som barn og unge møter på ulike arenaer. Vår nordiske ekspertgruppe har bidratt med å finne fram aktuell forskning og gode metoder og redskaper til arbeidet med å sikre inkludering og deltakelse for flere.  En rekke samfunnsaktører har en viktig rolle i arbeidet med å sikre deltakelse for barn og unge med funksjonsnedsettelser. I rapporten har vi tatt mål av oss til å beskrive sentrale nasjonale og nordiske aktører og deres rolle. Vi har også fått innspill fra nordiske ungdomsdelegater.

Retten til deltakelse og innflytelse er særskilt viktig for barn. Det kommer av at barnet som et sosialt vesen må delta for å få utvikle en egen identitet, finne sin stemme og lære å utrykke sine følelser og behov. Retten til deltakelse er med på å sikre barnets innflytelse over eget liv, sine muligheter og til å ta kompetente beslutninger.

This innovative volume is the first systematic study of civil society elites in Southeast Asia (and indeed anywhere in the world). Spanning two previously separate areas of research – civil society and elites – it sheds new light on power inequalities within and beyond civil society, identifies different types of elite formation and elite interaction within and beyond civil society, and traces interactions and integration with elite groups from party politics, the state, and the business sector. This tightly edited volume, produced by a research team ranging from senior scholars to promising younger academics, analyses how such processes are influenced by reliance on foreign funding and explores how they play out in two settings – where the political space for civil society is generally shrinking (Cambodia) and where it is relatively expanding (Indonesia). However, the volume offers more than a rethinking of civil society in Cambodia and Indonesia; it looks beyond. It thus challenges a view of civil society entities as relatively isolated from the state and from political and economic society, revealing power relations that link them. Suggesting a new direction for civil society research, the book will be of great interest to the many researchers working on civil society, elites and contemporary Southeast Asian politics as well as those engaged in other areas of society in Cambodia and Indonesia. Policymakers, donors and not least civil society activists themselves will find the volume highly relevant to their work.

Beneath the protest marches, rallies and sieges dividing Thailand in recent times are more subtle pressures that emerge from everyday encounters involving cultural notions of rank and hierarchy. These are the focus of this highly accessible ethnographic study, which ventures beyond the barricades to explore the connections between inequality, space and social life in modern-day Bangkok.

The author argues that the notion of an urban–rural divide obscures a far more complex reality linking city and countryside in reciprocal relations within both urban and national systems of status and class. Global market forces have increased the emphasis on material wealth in contemporary status relations and exacerbated pre-existing inequalities informed by a premodern system of status ranking called sakdina. This has compounded the challenges facing the growing urban middle classes and further marginalised rural and economically disadvantaged Thais.

Nordic Solutions to Global Challenges is an initiative by the prime ministers of the most integrated region in the world. The Nordic Region promotes sustainability and progress toward the UN Sustainability Goals, sharing knowledge of three themes: Nordic Green, Nordic Gender Effect and Nordic Food & Welfare.