Abstract
Examining the boundaries of state–society–citizen–environment after the federal restructuring in Nepal, we ask how do people claim authority or citizenship rights? We theorise state power through the socio-environmental state framework as a set of socio-natural relations in the making, formed by struggles over authority, recognition and environment. Using qualitative data from Barpak, the epicentre of the 2015 earthquake, we capture the politics of natural resource governance that (re)emerged during earthquake reconstruction and local-level elections, illustrating how control over resources is negotiated, disputed, and inscribed in law (land titles and water sources) and landscapes (water sources, earthquake resettlement area, an open-air museum).
Highlights
Power divested at the local level has been restored in a positive way
People still ask for the gabisa sachiv (Village Development Committee secretary under the previous system) when they come to the ward office; the structural change is too recent
We argue that to understand political transition in state–society– citizen–environment relations—or, more generically, state transformation—requires going beyond the legal and political uncertainties thrown up by popular democracy movements, the civil war, adoption of a new constitution and the subsequent institution of federalism.[4]
Summary
Both villages.[39] Ordinary people recognise the authority of user groups by abiding by the rules, and make claims to belonging by buying permits and asserting collective rights over land and the water source While these claims to authority and belonging are potent during the transition when jurisdictional borders are in flux, government officials at the District Coordination Committee office confirmed that governance of resources, water, fell squarely under the jurisdiction of the state, as dictated by the 2015 Constitution. We are fairly sure court representatives are not authorised to sanction rebuilding in an area marked unsafe by the former District Development Committee (under the new structure, this body would be the District Disaster Management Committee) In this instance, it seems that either our respondent was unclear about which kind of official he dealt with, or this transaction reveals the struggles over authority between the local district- and national-level governments that are rife in the current political transition. These struggles serve to transform the state through the possibility to democratically elect the new ward leader, or by occupying land, with consequent effects on state transformation
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