Fraser Sugden | International Water Management Institute (original) (raw)

Papers by Fraser Sugden

The Eastern Gangetic Plains of South Asia represents a peripheral region far from the centers of... more The Eastern Gangetic Plains of South Asia represents a peripheral region far from the centers of global capitalist production, and this is all the more apparent in Mithilanchal, a cultural domain spanning the Nepal/Bihar border. The agrarian structure can be considered ‘semi-feudal’ in character, dominated by landlordism and usury, and backed up by political and ideological processes. Paradoxically, Mithilanchal is also deeply integrated into the global capitalist market and represents a surplus labor pool for the urban centers of Western India as well as the Persian Gulf in a classic articulation between pre-capitalist and capitalist modes of production. A review of the changes in the agrarian structure over recent decades in the context of globalisation, out-migration and climate stress, shows that while landlordism remains entrenched, the relationship between the marginal and tenant farmer majority and the landed classes has changed, with the breakdown of ideological ties and reduced dependence on single landlords. The paper thus ends on a positive note, as the contemporary juncture represents an opportune moment for new avenues of political mobilization among the peasantry.

This chapter explores the interrelationships between economic change and environmental issues, by... more This chapter explores the interrelationships between economic change and environmental issues, by showing how aspiration, education, and migration are variously connected to a loss of agroecological knowledges for rural young people. It reviews a series of case studies from Vietnam, India, and China on the implications for rural youth of changed aspirations and ecological and economic stress. The economic and cultural pressures of globalization mean young people increasingly aspire for a life outside of agrarian- and natural resource-based livelihoods. A consequence of this change has been the migration of young people to urban centers and a drive for families to invest in education. This has far-reaching consequences for communities. Those who stay behind face an increased labor burden, and economic pressures can be aggravated when the promise of improved livelihoods outside is not realized. The chapter also points to the negative implications of these changed aspirations on the intergenerational transfer of agroecological knowledge. Thus, in relation to issues of environment and development, the chapter considers why this complex set of relationships between aspiration, education, and migration is important in the context of children and young people’s lives.

This paper reviews the complex impact of climate change on gender relations and associated vulner... more This paper reviews the complex impact of climate change on gender relations and associated vulnerability on the Eastern Gangetic plains of Nepal and India. Field research has identified that gendered vulnerability to climate change is intricately connected to local and macro level political economic processes. Rather than being a single driver of change, climate is one among several stresses on agriculture, alongside a broader set of non-climatic processes. While these pressures are linked to large scale political-economic processes, the response on the ground is mediated by the local level relations of class and caste, creating stratified patterns of vulnerability. The primary form of gendered vulnerability in the context of agrarian stress emerges from male out-migration, which has affected the distribution of labour and resources. While migration occurs amongst all socio-economic groups, women from marginal farmer and tenant households are most vulnerable. While the causes of migration are only indirectly associated with climate change, migration itself is rendering women who are left behind from marginal households, more vulnerable to ecological shocks such as droughts due to the sporadic flow of income and their reduced capacity for investment in off-farm activities. It is clear that policies and initiatives to address climate change in stratified social formations such as the Eastern Gangetic plains, will be ineffective without addressing the deeper structural intersections between class, caste and gender.

This article highlights the continued significance of pre-capitalist formations in shaping the tr... more This article highlights the continued significance of pre-capitalist formations in shaping the trajectory of economic transition in peripheral regions, even in an era of neo-liberal
globalisation. There is a tendency for Marxist scholars to assume the inevitable “dominance” of capitalism over older modes of production. Using a case study from Nepal’s far eastern Tarai, this paper seeks to understand the reproduction of feudal social relations in a region which is both accessible and integrated into regional and global markets. The paper traces the early subordination of indigenous groups to feudalism from the eighteenth century onwards, and the political and ideological processes through which these social relations were reinforced. Through examining the historical role of feudal-colonial alliances, however, the paper notes that pre-capitalist reproduction in Nepal is a dynamic process, actively negotiated and reinforced by the external imperatives of capitalist expansion itself as well as through the entrenched political power of landed classes. Today feudal and capitalist formations co-exist and articulate, with surplus divided between landlords and non-farm employers. Understanding the complex dynamics of feudal or “semi-feudal” reproduction
in an era of globalisation is crucial if one is to identify avenues for collective mobilisation against inequitable pre-capitalist and capitalist class relations.

Climate change poses critical challenges for farmers across South Asia, and vulnerability often t... more Climate change poses critical challenges for farmers across South Asia, and vulnerability often takes on a gendered dimension. Findings from IWMI's research conducted in Madhubani, Bihar, India, and in Dhanusha and Morang of the NepalTerai (Madhesh) substantiate previous literature on the region by showing how men and women are differentially affected by climate change. However, another set of findings, outlined in this policy brief, show how gendered vulnerability stems from a diverse set of climatic and non-climatic causes, and is not always direct, and policy responses should be tailored accordingly.

Water Resources and Economics, 2015

Climatic stress is experienced differently by various groups and individuals based on several fac... more Climatic stress is experienced differently by various groups and individuals based on several factors, including poverty and gender, which often influence where people live in respect to climatic stresses, their roles and responsibilities within households and communities, and the assets available to them for meeting individual and family needs in the face of these stresses. Gender provides a relevant framework for approaching climate adaptation in Bangladesh, in view of its patriarchal rural society where gender is central to the organization of social structures and norms. Women, especially from poorer groups, are thought to have the lowest asset base, the least capacity to adapt to shocks and are the most vulnerable (Ahmad 2012). Interviews were conducted with women participating in two initiatives to increase their contributions to household food and income security in Barisal District (Women onset technologies for sustainable homestead agriculture in Bangladesh project) and Kurigram District (Char market development initiative project). Based on these interviews, this policy brief highlights how sensitivity to access to specific assets and constraints experienced by women (in particular local contexts) can help realize their potential of becoming important actors in adapting local food production to climatic stress.

Research in Comparative and International Education, 2014

Over the last few years research funding has increasingly moved in favour of large, multipartner,... more Over the last few years research funding has increasingly moved in favour of large, multipartner, interdisciplinary and multi-site research projects. This article explores the benefits and challenges of employing a full-time research fellow to work across multiple field sites, with all the local research teams, on an international, interdisciplinary project. The article shows how such a 'floating' research fellow can play a valuable role in facilitating communication between research teams and project leaders, as well as in building capacity and introducing disciplinary specific skills. It also highlights some key challenges, including problems of language and translation, and the complex power relations within which such a researcher is inevitably embedded. This article contributes to the development of strategies for collaborative projects to facilitate coordination between research teams. It is based on a five-site, cross-cultural project, involving nine partners with a mixture of natural and social science backgrounds, researching aquatic resource use, rural livelihoods, work and education in China, Vietnam and India.

Development and Change, 2014

ABSTRACT This article identifies some of the multiple processes of capitalist development through... more ABSTRACT This article identifies some of the multiple processes of capitalist development through which access to common property resources and their utility for communities are undermined. Three sites in upland Asia demonstrate how patterns of exclusion are mediated by the unique and selective trajectories through which capital expands, resulting in a decline of common property ecosystems. The process is mediated by economic stress, ecological degradation and political processes such as state-sanctioned enclosure. The first case study from Shaoguan, South China, indicates how rapid capitalist industrialization has depleted the aquatic resource base, undermining the livelihoods of fishing households yet to be absorbed into the urban working class. At the second site, in Phu Yen, Vietnam, capitalist development is limited. However, indirect articulations between capitalism on the lowlands and the peasant economy of the uplands is driving the commercialization of agriculture and fishing and undermining the utility of communal river and lake ecosystems. In the third site, Buxa in West Bengal, India, there is only selective capitalist development, but patterns of resource extraction established during the colonial period and contemporary neoliberal ‘conservation’ agendas have directly excluded communities from forest resources. Restrictions on access oblige them to contribute subsidized labour to local enterprises. The article thus shows how communities which are differentially integrated into the global economy are excluded from natural resources through complex means.

Debates over the effectiveness of foreign aid have been recently revived both in the development ... more Debates over the effectiveness of foreign aid have been recently revived both in the development sector and in the academia. International funding agencies have notably adopted new principles to improve aid delivery. Using the particular case study of a set of irrigation interventions in Western Nepal, we argue that these steps will not radically improve the pro-poor outcomes of aid interventions as long as the latter are framed in an apolitical, technical and managerial vision and discourse of development. We propose to adopt social and environmental justice as an analytical framework and vocabulary for action.

Local Environment, 2013

In the context of ecological and economic change, this paper identifies the impact of ongoing tra... more In the context of ecological and economic change, this paper identifies the impact of ongoing transformations in young people's labour contribution in four natural resource dependent regions in India, Vietnam and China. Children's work is important to maximise household labour productivity, while also endowing them with the ecological knowledge necessary to sustain key productive livelihood activities. However, today, an increased emphasis on education and the out-migration of youth is reducing their labour contribution, particularly in the more economically developed case study communities in Northern Vietnam and China. While selective in its extent, these changes have increased the labour burden of older household members and women, while the economic opportunities young people aspire to following schooling or migration frequently prove elusive in a competitive liberalised economy. Another implication of young people diverting their labour and learning away from traditional natural resource based livelihood activities is the loss of valuable ecological knowledge.

Geoforum, 2009

In recent years, neo-liberalism has manifested itself in peripheral social formations on an ideol... more In recent years, neo-liberalism has manifested itself in peripheral social formations on an ideological basis through strategies of poverty alleviation. This process is epitomized by Nepal's donor led agrarian strategy, which constructs farmers as 'rational entrepreneurs' responsible for their own welfare. In the process it seeks to encourage smallholders to shift from subsistence to market oriented production. However, over 10 years since the current agrarian strategy was released, there is little evidence of commercialisation and the integration of rural populations into global or domestic markets, while subsistence production remains dominant. To understand this failure, one must examine both the contradictions inherent in neo-liberal ideologies and the rural political economy of Nepal. While the emphasis on self-help through market access can be understood to be an ideological process constitutive of the overdetermined nature of capitalist expansion, contradictions are evident in such ideologies when they are mobilised in regions dominated by non-capitalist economic systems. The depoliticizing assumptions inherent in such ideologies can serve the interests of capitalist expansion through glossing over the associated forms of class exploitation. However, a case study from Nepal's eastern lowlands demonstrates how they also divert attention from complex non-capitalist modes of surplus appropriation in both the relations of production and circulation. Such forms of exploitation have not only obstructed the process of classical agrarian transition long envisaged in Marxian theory, but have also blocked the emergence of the particular form of rural commodity production envisaged in Nepal's neo-liberal agrarian strategy itself.

The publications in this series cover a wide range of subjects-from computer modeling to experien... more The publications in this series cover a wide range of subjects-from computer modeling to experience with water user associations-and vary in content from directly applicable research to more basic studies, on which applied work ultimately depends. Some research reports are narrowly focused, analytical and detailed empirical studies; others are wide-ranging and synthetic overviews of generic problems.

Tashi Yang Chung Sherpa and Utsav Bhattarai are consultants with IWMI, Kathmandu, Nepal. Sugden, ... more Tashi Yang Chung Sherpa and Utsav Bhattarai are consultants with IWMI, Kathmandu, Nepal. Sugden, F.; Shrestha, L.; Bharati, L.; Gurung, P.; Maharjan, L.; Janmaat, J.; Price, J. I.; Sherpa, T. Y. C.; Bhattarai, U.; Koirala, S.; Timilsina, B. 2014. Climate change, out-migration and agrarian stress: the potential for upscaling small-scale water storage in Nepal. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 38p. (

The publications in this series record the work and thinking of IWMI researchers, and knowledge t... more The publications in this series record the work and thinking of IWMI researchers, and knowledge that the Institute's scientific management feels is worthy of documenting. This series will ensure that scientific data and other information gathered or prepared as a part of the research work of the Institute are recorded and referenced. Working Papers could include project reports, case studies, conference or workshop proceedings, discussion papers or reports on progress of research, country-specific research reports, monographs, etc. Working Papers may be copublished, by IWMI and partner organizations.

Books by Fraser Sugden

The Eastern Gangetic Plains of South Asia represents a peripheral region far from the centers of... more The Eastern Gangetic Plains of South Asia represents a peripheral region far from the centers of global capitalist production, and this is all the more apparent in Mithilanchal, a cultural domain spanning the Nepal/Bihar border. The agrarian structure can be considered ‘semi-feudal’ in character, dominated by landlordism and usury, and backed up by political and ideological processes. Paradoxically, Mithilanchal is also deeply integrated into the global capitalist market and represents a surplus labor pool for the urban centers of Western India as well as the Persian Gulf in a classic articulation between pre-capitalist and capitalist modes of production. A review of the changes in the agrarian structure over recent decades in the context of globalisation, out-migration and climate stress, shows that while landlordism remains entrenched, the relationship between the marginal and tenant farmer majority and the landed classes has changed, with the breakdown of ideological ties and reduced dependence on single landlords. The paper thus ends on a positive note, as the contemporary juncture represents an opportune moment for new avenues of political mobilization among the peasantry.

This chapter explores the interrelationships between economic change and environmental issues, by... more This chapter explores the interrelationships between economic change and environmental issues, by showing how aspiration, education, and migration are variously connected to a loss of agroecological knowledges for rural young people. It reviews a series of case studies from Vietnam, India, and China on the implications for rural youth of changed aspirations and ecological and economic stress. The economic and cultural pressures of globalization mean young people increasingly aspire for a life outside of agrarian- and natural resource-based livelihoods. A consequence of this change has been the migration of young people to urban centers and a drive for families to invest in education. This has far-reaching consequences for communities. Those who stay behind face an increased labor burden, and economic pressures can be aggravated when the promise of improved livelihoods outside is not realized. The chapter also points to the negative implications of these changed aspirations on the intergenerational transfer of agroecological knowledge. Thus, in relation to issues of environment and development, the chapter considers why this complex set of relationships between aspiration, education, and migration is important in the context of children and young people’s lives.

This paper reviews the complex impact of climate change on gender relations and associated vulner... more This paper reviews the complex impact of climate change on gender relations and associated vulnerability on the Eastern Gangetic plains of Nepal and India. Field research has identified that gendered vulnerability to climate change is intricately connected to local and macro level political economic processes. Rather than being a single driver of change, climate is one among several stresses on agriculture, alongside a broader set of non-climatic processes. While these pressures are linked to large scale political-economic processes, the response on the ground is mediated by the local level relations of class and caste, creating stratified patterns of vulnerability. The primary form of gendered vulnerability in the context of agrarian stress emerges from male out-migration, which has affected the distribution of labour and resources. While migration occurs amongst all socio-economic groups, women from marginal farmer and tenant households are most vulnerable. While the causes of migration are only indirectly associated with climate change, migration itself is rendering women who are left behind from marginal households, more vulnerable to ecological shocks such as droughts due to the sporadic flow of income and their reduced capacity for investment in off-farm activities. It is clear that policies and initiatives to address climate change in stratified social formations such as the Eastern Gangetic plains, will be ineffective without addressing the deeper structural intersections between class, caste and gender.

This article highlights the continued significance of pre-capitalist formations in shaping the tr... more This article highlights the continued significance of pre-capitalist formations in shaping the trajectory of economic transition in peripheral regions, even in an era of neo-liberal
globalisation. There is a tendency for Marxist scholars to assume the inevitable “dominance” of capitalism over older modes of production. Using a case study from Nepal’s far eastern Tarai, this paper seeks to understand the reproduction of feudal social relations in a region which is both accessible and integrated into regional and global markets. The paper traces the early subordination of indigenous groups to feudalism from the eighteenth century onwards, and the political and ideological processes through which these social relations were reinforced. Through examining the historical role of feudal-colonial alliances, however, the paper notes that pre-capitalist reproduction in Nepal is a dynamic process, actively negotiated and reinforced by the external imperatives of capitalist expansion itself as well as through the entrenched political power of landed classes. Today feudal and capitalist formations co-exist and articulate, with surplus divided between landlords and non-farm employers. Understanding the complex dynamics of feudal or “semi-feudal” reproduction
in an era of globalisation is crucial if one is to identify avenues for collective mobilisation against inequitable pre-capitalist and capitalist class relations.

Climate change poses critical challenges for farmers across South Asia, and vulnerability often t... more Climate change poses critical challenges for farmers across South Asia, and vulnerability often takes on a gendered dimension. Findings from IWMI's research conducted in Madhubani, Bihar, India, and in Dhanusha and Morang of the NepalTerai (Madhesh) substantiate previous literature on the region by showing how men and women are differentially affected by climate change. However, another set of findings, outlined in this policy brief, show how gendered vulnerability stems from a diverse set of climatic and non-climatic causes, and is not always direct, and policy responses should be tailored accordingly.

Water Resources and Economics, 2015

Climatic stress is experienced differently by various groups and individuals based on several fac... more Climatic stress is experienced differently by various groups and individuals based on several factors, including poverty and gender, which often influence where people live in respect to climatic stresses, their roles and responsibilities within households and communities, and the assets available to them for meeting individual and family needs in the face of these stresses. Gender provides a relevant framework for approaching climate adaptation in Bangladesh, in view of its patriarchal rural society where gender is central to the organization of social structures and norms. Women, especially from poorer groups, are thought to have the lowest asset base, the least capacity to adapt to shocks and are the most vulnerable (Ahmad 2012). Interviews were conducted with women participating in two initiatives to increase their contributions to household food and income security in Barisal District (Women onset technologies for sustainable homestead agriculture in Bangladesh project) and Kurigram District (Char market development initiative project). Based on these interviews, this policy brief highlights how sensitivity to access to specific assets and constraints experienced by women (in particular local contexts) can help realize their potential of becoming important actors in adapting local food production to climatic stress.

Research in Comparative and International Education, 2014

Over the last few years research funding has increasingly moved in favour of large, multipartner,... more Over the last few years research funding has increasingly moved in favour of large, multipartner, interdisciplinary and multi-site research projects. This article explores the benefits and challenges of employing a full-time research fellow to work across multiple field sites, with all the local research teams, on an international, interdisciplinary project. The article shows how such a 'floating' research fellow can play a valuable role in facilitating communication between research teams and project leaders, as well as in building capacity and introducing disciplinary specific skills. It also highlights some key challenges, including problems of language and translation, and the complex power relations within which such a researcher is inevitably embedded. This article contributes to the development of strategies for collaborative projects to facilitate coordination between research teams. It is based on a five-site, cross-cultural project, involving nine partners with a mixture of natural and social science backgrounds, researching aquatic resource use, rural livelihoods, work and education in China, Vietnam and India.

Development and Change, 2014

ABSTRACT This article identifies some of the multiple processes of capitalist development through... more ABSTRACT This article identifies some of the multiple processes of capitalist development through which access to common property resources and their utility for communities are undermined. Three sites in upland Asia demonstrate how patterns of exclusion are mediated by the unique and selective trajectories through which capital expands, resulting in a decline of common property ecosystems. The process is mediated by economic stress, ecological degradation and political processes such as state-sanctioned enclosure. The first case study from Shaoguan, South China, indicates how rapid capitalist industrialization has depleted the aquatic resource base, undermining the livelihoods of fishing households yet to be absorbed into the urban working class. At the second site, in Phu Yen, Vietnam, capitalist development is limited. However, indirect articulations between capitalism on the lowlands and the peasant economy of the uplands is driving the commercialization of agriculture and fishing and undermining the utility of communal river and lake ecosystems. In the third site, Buxa in West Bengal, India, there is only selective capitalist development, but patterns of resource extraction established during the colonial period and contemporary neoliberal ‘conservation’ agendas have directly excluded communities from forest resources. Restrictions on access oblige them to contribute subsidized labour to local enterprises. The article thus shows how communities which are differentially integrated into the global economy are excluded from natural resources through complex means.

Debates over the effectiveness of foreign aid have been recently revived both in the development ... more Debates over the effectiveness of foreign aid have been recently revived both in the development sector and in the academia. International funding agencies have notably adopted new principles to improve aid delivery. Using the particular case study of a set of irrigation interventions in Western Nepal, we argue that these steps will not radically improve the pro-poor outcomes of aid interventions as long as the latter are framed in an apolitical, technical and managerial vision and discourse of development. We propose to adopt social and environmental justice as an analytical framework and vocabulary for action.

Local Environment, 2013

In the context of ecological and economic change, this paper identifies the impact of ongoing tra... more In the context of ecological and economic change, this paper identifies the impact of ongoing transformations in young people's labour contribution in four natural resource dependent regions in India, Vietnam and China. Children's work is important to maximise household labour productivity, while also endowing them with the ecological knowledge necessary to sustain key productive livelihood activities. However, today, an increased emphasis on education and the out-migration of youth is reducing their labour contribution, particularly in the more economically developed case study communities in Northern Vietnam and China. While selective in its extent, these changes have increased the labour burden of older household members and women, while the economic opportunities young people aspire to following schooling or migration frequently prove elusive in a competitive liberalised economy. Another implication of young people diverting their labour and learning away from traditional natural resource based livelihood activities is the loss of valuable ecological knowledge.

Geoforum, 2009

In recent years, neo-liberalism has manifested itself in peripheral social formations on an ideol... more In recent years, neo-liberalism has manifested itself in peripheral social formations on an ideological basis through strategies of poverty alleviation. This process is epitomized by Nepal's donor led agrarian strategy, which constructs farmers as 'rational entrepreneurs' responsible for their own welfare. In the process it seeks to encourage smallholders to shift from subsistence to market oriented production. However, over 10 years since the current agrarian strategy was released, there is little evidence of commercialisation and the integration of rural populations into global or domestic markets, while subsistence production remains dominant. To understand this failure, one must examine both the contradictions inherent in neo-liberal ideologies and the rural political economy of Nepal. While the emphasis on self-help through market access can be understood to be an ideological process constitutive of the overdetermined nature of capitalist expansion, contradictions are evident in such ideologies when they are mobilised in regions dominated by non-capitalist economic systems. The depoliticizing assumptions inherent in such ideologies can serve the interests of capitalist expansion through glossing over the associated forms of class exploitation. However, a case study from Nepal's eastern lowlands demonstrates how they also divert attention from complex non-capitalist modes of surplus appropriation in both the relations of production and circulation. Such forms of exploitation have not only obstructed the process of classical agrarian transition long envisaged in Marxian theory, but have also blocked the emergence of the particular form of rural commodity production envisaged in Nepal's neo-liberal agrarian strategy itself.

The publications in this series cover a wide range of subjects-from computer modeling to experien... more The publications in this series cover a wide range of subjects-from computer modeling to experience with water user associations-and vary in content from directly applicable research to more basic studies, on which applied work ultimately depends. Some research reports are narrowly focused, analytical and detailed empirical studies; others are wide-ranging and synthetic overviews of generic problems.

Tashi Yang Chung Sherpa and Utsav Bhattarai are consultants with IWMI, Kathmandu, Nepal. Sugden, ... more Tashi Yang Chung Sherpa and Utsav Bhattarai are consultants with IWMI, Kathmandu, Nepal. Sugden, F.; Shrestha, L.; Bharati, L.; Gurung, P.; Maharjan, L.; Janmaat, J.; Price, J. I.; Sherpa, T. Y. C.; Bhattarai, U.; Koirala, S.; Timilsina, B. 2014. Climate change, out-migration and agrarian stress: the potential for upscaling small-scale water storage in Nepal. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 38p. (

The publications in this series record the work and thinking of IWMI researchers, and knowledge t... more The publications in this series record the work and thinking of IWMI researchers, and knowledge that the Institute's scientific management feels is worthy of documenting. This series will ensure that scientific data and other information gathered or prepared as a part of the research work of the Institute are recorded and referenced. Working Papers could include project reports, case studies, conference or workshop proceedings, discussion papers or reports on progress of research, country-specific research reports, monographs, etc. Working Papers may be copublished, by IWMI and partner organizations.

Head of the Nepal office of IWMI in Kathmandu, Nepal; Robyn Johnston is a Senior Researcher -Wate... more Head of the Nepal office of IWMI in Kathmandu, Nepal; Robyn Johnston is a Senior Researcher -Water Resources Planner at IWMI in Colombo, Sri Lanka; Matthew McCartney is Principal Researcher -Hydrologist and Head of the Southeast Asia office of IWMI in Vientiane, Lao PDR; Fraser Sugden is a Researcher -Social Science at the Nepal office of IWMI in Kathmandu, Nepal; Floriane Clement is a Researcher -Institutional and Policy Analysis at the Nepal office of IWMI in Kathmandu, Nepal; and Beverly McIntyre is a Senior Researcher, Water Management and IWMI representative in Washington, DC, USA.