Latest SASNET News

Associate Professor Alia Ahmad from the Department of Economics, Lund University, held a SASNET Brown Bag lunch seminar lecture on Thursday 10 May 2012, 12.30–13.30, at Lunds konsthall, Mårtenstorget 3, Lund. Her presentation was entitled ”Community Management of Inland Fisheries in Bangladesh and India”, and was based on results of a joint research project in which she has been involved in recent years.  See the poster for the seminar.
By coincidence her book summarizing the research results was published by Mullick Brothers, Dhaka, the same week as Dr. Ahmad held her SASNET lecture.
The book has been co-written by Dr. Amalendu Jyotishi, Amrita School of Business in Bangalore; and Iftekharul Haque, lecturer at BRAC University in Dhaka, currently on leave for higher studies in University of Guelph, Canada. 

The study was initially supported by a planning grant from SASNET and later on sponsored by Sida and the Swedish Research Council. Organisations from three countries have been involved – Lund University, Sweden; Gujarat Institute of Development Research, India; and WorldFish Center, Bangladesh. The project addressed two major research issues: community management of inland fisheries for poverty alleviation, and the role of external agents in promoting user-based community organisations. The case studies are the community based Fisheries Management (CBFM) in Bangladesh, and the Cooperative Fisheries  Management of TAWA Reservoir in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India.
The interdisciplinary South Asia seminars were introduced by SASNET a year ago, and from 2012 they are organised in collaboration with Arbetarnas Bildningsförbund (ABF) Lund, and Lunds konsthall.
More information about previous Brown Bag seminars.

From the spring 2012 the University of Gothenburg project Go:India and SASNET has jointly launched a new lunch seminar series with focus on contemporary India that will take place in Gothenburg. Go:India is an interdisciplinary academic network and project promoting exchange and cooperation between University of Gothenburg and universities in India. Go:India was initiated in 2011 and its first phase will continue until 2013. In the spring of 2012 SASNET and Go:India decided on joining efforts in order to replicate the successful Lund-based SASNET Brown Bag seminar series, and offer a similar seminar series also in Gothenburg. 
The seminar series is held once a month and features researchers working on contemporary India.
Coordinators for the seminar series are Sigríður Beck and Katharina Plank from Gothenburg University, and Julia Velkova from SASNET.

The first public lunch seminar of the series took place on 17 April 2012 at the The Glass House (Glashuset), located at Chalmersgatan 4 (the inner court yard between the School of Photography and the Valand School of Fine Arts) in Gothenburg. The seminar featured Professor Gopal Karanth who is ICCR India Chair Professor at Lund University during the academic year 2011/12. Prof. Karanth talked about ”Looking back and looking forward. Class, Caste and Economic Change in Contemporary Rural India”.
Read a report about the seminar.

The next Go:India – SASNET Brown Bag seminar in Gothenburg will take place on 29 May 2012 and will feature Professor Annika Härenstam from the Department of Work Science. More information to follow.
 

SASNET’s Lars Eklund with Bino Thomas and Johny Joseph from Christ University, Bangalore.

On 26 April 2012, Bino Thomas, Head of the Dept. of Social Work, Christ University, Bangalore, India; and Johny Joseph, Director of the Center for Social Action at the same university, made a courtesy call to SASNET’s office in Lund. They met with Anna Lindberg, Lars Eklund and Julia Velkova.
Thomas and Joseph had come to Lund University to participate in a conference on ”Social Work in an International Context”, organised by the School of Social Work, Lund University. During this conference, the School of Social Work’s partner universities and organizations in India, Argentina, Holland, Iceland and Denmark – among them Christ University – held presentations on social work in their countries.
Mr Thomas has a specialization is social work and family mental health, family and marital counseling and parenting skills development programmes. Johny Joseph has, through the Center for Social Action, initiated developmental projects for rural and urban communities involving the students of Christ University since 1999, and has designed activities for student sensitization on social issues.

Ramnath Narayanswamy, Professor in the Economics and Social Sciences Area at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore (IIMB), held a SASNET lecture about ”Understanding India. A Country in Transition” on Wednesday 11 April 2012, 10.15–12.00. The seminar was co-organised by the Dept. of Economic History, Lund University. Venue: Lund university School of Economics and Management, Room EC3:207, Tycho Brahes väg 1, Lund.
See the poster for the seminar.

In his presentation, Prof. Narayanswamy focused primarily on understanding the Indian economy, society and polity as a bumpy transition process from an economy dominated by state controls to an economy  dominated by competition. Specifically, he focused attention on an issue that is likely occupy attention of policy makers, namely, a program of affirmative action in the private sector. The author along with two other colleagues has completed a piece of research on this subject and the paper is a summary of its results.
Since 2009, Ramnath Narayanswamy is spending extended periods in Sweden as a Visiting Professor at the School of Business, Economics and Law (SBEL), University of Gothenburg. His areas of research interest include Business and Society, Spirituality and Self Development, Entrepreneurship in the Creative Sector and Creativity and Innovation. More information about his research work in Gothenburg.