Joshi, Nemu (2015) Contesting globalisation experiences of women in urban spaces of Nepal. MPhil thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.
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Abstract
Focusing on the influence of media, this study explores a variety of gender practices in the era of globalisation. In recent years various scholars have written about gender and globalisation but most have focused on women’s work more than their intimate gender issues. Moreover, the meanings of gender roles and intimate relationships need to be contextualised on the basis of an understanding of the logic of local concepts and practices. This study explores how urban Nepali women constantly negotiate between global flows and local context and the effects of this negotiation on their gender roles, and on their familial and intimate relationships.I analyse the ways media, especially Indian visual media, which is a common source of discussion amongst urban women, is affecting them and their daily lives. Examining the importance of visual media, films and television in directing new identities and implications of gender roles and intimate relationships, this study explores ways urban women of Nepal are negotiating their gender relations and intimate lives in relation to the binary of ‘cultural practices' and 'modernity' found in contemporary Nepalese cultural discourse. This study analyses the experiences of urban Nepali as revealed in women through their narratives when talking about modernity, cultural practices experienced and imagined through watching Indian visual media, and explores the claimed changes in their gender roles, family and intimate relationships. To compare the lived experiences of women within categories of class, caste, ethnicity, social statuses and age, I interviewed 54 middle class urban Nepali women of different generations residing in Kathmandu. They belong to different social statuses such as married, unmarried, single, widowed and divorced. My findings show that Indian visual media play a significant role in day to day life of the participants who are struggling to balance contradictory practices of ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’. It also reveals that these women see themselves as thikka, i.e. appropriately modern, in that by identifying themselves as such they are interplaying between their understandings of ‘culture’ and their agency.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Copyright Holders: | The copyright of this thesis rests with the author, who asserts his/her right to be known as such according to the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. No dealing with the thesis contrary to the copyright or moral rights of the author is permitted. |
| Depositing User: | Acquisitions And Metadata |
| Date Deposited: | 30 Sep 2015 13:42 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Nov 2023 12:31 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/40144 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.18743/PUB.00040144 |
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