Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing

Extended Abstracts of the 13th Annual Meeting of the AK Südasien, 03.-04.02.2023, Eberswalde

Extended Abstracts of the 12th Annual Meeting of the AK Südasien, 21./22. Januar 2022, Bonn/online

Extended Abstracts of the 11th Annual Meeting of the AK Südasien, 7th/8th May 2021 in Göttingen (Online):

Extended Abstracts der 10. Jahrestagung des AK Südasien, 24./25. Januar 2020 in Freiburg.

Extended abstracts der 9. Jahrestagung des AK Südasien, 25./26. Januar 2019 in Heidelberg.

Extended abstracts der 8. Jahrestagung des AK Südasien, 19./20. Januar 2018 in Köln.

The Indian West Ghats are located in the monsoon climate with rainfalls up to over 3000 mm a year. Since the mountain chain is the source of almost all major Indian rivers, the characteristics of the headwater catchment areas are of great importance for the water balance of the entire Indian sub-continent. However, due to its proximity to the agglomeration areas of Mumbai and Pune, the previously rural Pune district in Maharashtra is facing strong demographic and economic growth and is thus increasingly affected by land use change. While these changes can be recognized from satellite data, changes in soil properties are rare avilable. Water affect a variety of physical, chemical and biological processes and by that almost every aspect of soil development and soil behavior. Conversely, the characteristics of soils for hydrological variables, such as the storage and provision of plant-available water, are crucial. In order to understand changes in the hydrology of a region, detailed knowledge of the effects of land use change on soil properties is required. This work should help to understand the characteristic of tropical soil formations in the northern Western Ghats and to show possible effects of different land uses on soil quality with a special focus on hydraulic properties.

Extended Abstracts der 7. Jahrestagung des AK Südasien, 27./28. Januar 2017 in Augsburg.

This study is looking into the matter of urban development in a post-war setting. Drawing on Guy Debord’s book titled The Society of the Spectacle, it argues that urban governance has become increasingly concerned with transforming the cityscape into a space for consumption tailored to the needs of a post-industrial society. As cities compete for international prominence and business investments, urban planners turn to flagship projects as tools for city branding. In post-war Sri Lanka it is believed that economic progress will remedy grievances and detract from societal issues regarding ethnic segregation, poverty or ethno-nationalism. On the empirical case of Arcade Independence Square, a newly developed high-end shopping mall in Colombo, this study shows how the government aims to draw attention away from such issues by commissioning large-scale infrastructure projects.

Medical travel facilitators play an important role in bringing transnational healthcare markets into being as they help patients seeking medical treatment abroad. However, little is known about the work of medical travel facilitators located at medical travel destinations, such as Delhi in India.

Ethnographic fieldwork shows that the facilitation model practiced in Delhi excels in comprehensive and individualised support of international patients, in which facilitators engage in a broad range of tasks that I suggest conceptualising as ‘care work’. These facilitators not only care for the overall well-being of patients but express their care in a particularly concerned, devoted, even affectionate manner. The way care logics and market logics are intertwined in the facilitators’ practices arguably challenges the dichotomy between cold economy and benevolent lifeworld.

Extended Abstracts der 6. Jahrestagung des AK Südasien, 22./23. Januar 2016, Osnabrück.

In light of the upcoming FIFA world championship in Qatar, increasing international attention has turned to the large role of foreign workers in the rapid growth of many Gulf cities, as well as the often problematic working and living conditions of these laborers. Considerably less attention, however, has been given to the ‘other ends’ of those migration processes, namely the contexts from which these people originate and return to. One of these contexts is in Nepal, where hundreds of thousands of migrants leave the country each year in search of so-called low-skilled employment. In light of Nepal’s considerably small population and weak economy, these practices have an enormous impact on the country – both financially and in terms of the social and cultural transformations that go along with them. The thesis investigates how these mostly male migrants and their families navigate through transnational lifestyles and how their identities are transformed alongside them. By drawing on qualitative empirical research conducted in 2012, particular focus is put on the re-definition of relationships and intimacy in transnational family practices and the often conflictual and fragmented negotiation of migrant identities. Thereby, the publication provides not only insights into a particular Nepalese practice, but also contributes to the increasingly influential field of critical migration research.

Extended Abstracts der 5. Jahrestagung des AK Südasien, 23./24. Januar 2015, Göttingen.

Extended Abstracts der 4. Jahrestagung des AK Südasien, 24./25. Januar 2014, Freiburg.

Extended Abstracts of the 3rd Annual Conference of the South Asia Study Group, Heidelberg, 25./26. January 2013.