Dr Mallika Shakya

     DR MALLIKA SHAKYA

     M.Phil. (University of Glasgow)

     Ph.D. (London School of Economics)
 

Mallika is a former Postdoctoral Fellow in the Human Economy Programme. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and Community Development at the University of Pretoria. She can be contacted on [email protected].

I am an economic anthropologist with a PhD from LSE and a Wolfson Research Fellowship from University of Oxford.  Currently I am also a Post-Doctoral Fellow within the Human Economy Programme at the University of Pretoria. My research investigates the industrial clusters on Nepal-India border towns involving the leading business ethnic group from South Asia – the Marwaris. It is an extension from my doctoral dissertation, which examined the role of cultural capital in Nepal’s industrialization process and the way its industrial structures are embedded within broader social and political hierarchies. My thesis focused on two key issues that overshadowed the modern readymade garment industry in Nepal – the international trade politics following WTO and the local ethnopolitics following rise of Nepali Maoists.

In 2004, I joined the International Trade department of the World Bank where I founded an Export Competitiveness Thematic Group (EC-TG) that brought on board leading economic sociologists, business scholars and macroeconomists to jointly work an interdisciplinary framework for industrial development. My handbook on export competitiveness has now been applied in several of the World Bank country operations in Asia, Africa and Latin America. I have advised governments in Asia and Africa on their policies for readymade garment industry. I was the Chief Moderator of Liberal Democracy Nepal forum (LDN) based in the Nepal Study Centre of University of New Mexico (NSC/UNM).

Some of Mallika's recent publications include:

Shakya, M. 2011.“World Bank and Private Sector Development: Is ‘Doing Business’ an Extension of the and Structural Adjustment Programme or a Departure?” In St. Antony’s International Review. Oxford. 6 (3), pp. 30-39.

Shakya, M. 2010. “Capitalism, Culture and the Rising Wave of Communism in Nepal’ in In Himalaya: Association of Nepal and Himalayan Studies. 28 (1 and 2). Reproduced in M. Lawoti (ed). Himalaya: Ethnicity, Inequality and Politics in Nepal. Social Science Press: Kathmandu.

Shakya, M. 2007. “Our Hymns are Different but Our Gods are the Same:  Trust and Social Networking in Modern Garment Factories in Nepal.” In European Bulletin of Himalayan Research: CNRS, 31, spring, pp. 67-82.

Shakya, M. 2004. “Nepalisation of an Indian Industry:  The Fast Evolving (and Dismantling) Ready-Made Garment Industry of Nepal” inContributions to Nepalese Studies: TU Kathmandu, 31 (3), pp. 265-291.

Himes, J.; Parker, D. and M. Shakya. 2000. “Economic Dimensions of the Conventions on the Rights of the Child”in A. Petren and J. Himes (eds) Children’s Rights: Turning Principles into Practice, Falth & Hassler: Sweden. [Foreword by Honourable Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland]

Shakya, M. 1999. “Economic Liberalisation and Nepal.”  The Organisation, Vol. 2, July-September, pp. 24-38.