About the Journal

About the Journal

Aim and Scope. New Angle: Nepal Journal of Social Science and Public Policy is an internationally peer-reviewed journal (ISSN 2565-5124) published by Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS) on behalf of Nepal Policy Research Network (NPRN). The Journal publishes articles which are based upon concrete data as well as analysis of secondary and historical sources. We encourage articles which record the results of completed investigations and raise questions emerging from on-going work.

New Angle is an open-access Journal available at websites of New Angle www.newangle.sias-southasia.org and SIAS www.sias-southasia.org. This journal is published yearly in English.

Topics. The journal welcomes papers in following themes (but not limited to): natural resources management; climate change, water, and urban resilience; livelihoods and economic development; and democratic processes and local governance. We announce call for papers for each issue with a specific theme and accept the papers within the theme of the call. For instance, our first call was on ‘Mapping the dynamics of Nepal’s Transition’ while the latest one is on ‘Urbanization and disaster risks in the Himalaya’.’

Types of articles. We accept two broad types of articles i.e. research papers and opinion/commentary pieces. The research papers can include articles which are based on rich empirical data, preferably collected fresh from the field. However, rigorous analysis of secondary/historical sources will also be accepted. Shorter opinion pieces/commentary will also be accepted. All articles need to be guided by a well formulated purpose and clearly defined research questions.

Publication fee. Publishing in New Angle Journal is free of charge for authors. All content is freely available without charge and users are allowed to download the individual articles or the full issue of journal published online. The printed version of the journal can be collected by requesting to SIAS (refer to the contact details).

Peer review. All manuscripts submitted to New Angle Journal are examined by the editors and reviewed by applying the double-blind peer review method (the identities of the author(s) and reviewers are anonymized). The reviewers selected are the experts in the relevant field. Authors can expect a fast review of their submission because decisions are usually communicated within a month after the manuscript is submitted. Acceptance is based on originality, scientific excellence, and topical balance of the journal. Once the editors have accepted the manuscript, the author can expect it to be published online (officially published) within a month.

We accept submissions in English. Any queries about potential submissions to New Angle Journal can be directed to the Editors or in the contact email.

 

Announcements

Call for papers: Special issue on “Nepal’s Community Forestry at the crossroad”

2023-11-05

New Angle: Nepal Journal of Social Science and Public Policy

Vol 10 (1), 2024

Community forestry has long been acclaimed as a successful community-based forest management model in achieving local democracy, forest restoration, livelihoods and decentralization. However, forest-people relationships conceptualized in the 1970s to develop models of community forestry have changed substantially today as new and different socio-economic conditions are emerging and forest dynamics are shifting according to the changed socio-economic processes. These social and ecological changes have also resulted changed local collective action. Nevertheless, there is limited understanding on what challenges and opportunities these changes bring for the community forestry and in what ways new collective action practices are shaping forestry in Nepal. These comprehensive and complex changes and dynamics demand a rigorous scholarly attention to understand the nature, scale and influence of such changes that will pave the way for future direction of the management of the community-based forest managements in general.

In this context, Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS) is pleased to call for the papers covering broad and diverse dimensions of the community forestry in the changing context of Nepal for the special issue of the “New Angle: Nepal Journal of Social Science and Public Policy”. We welcome researchers and practitioners to submit research articles related, but not limited to the following themes:

  • Institutional evolution, innovations and challenges of community forestry (CF) in the changing context triggered by factors such as climate, migration, remittances etc.
  • The changing role of women, gender-based constraints (or opportunities) in the management of community forestry, particularly in the context of increasing male-outmigration.
  • Changes in the forest conditions and community dynamics and the state response to forest management.
  • Impact of socio-economic-ecological changes in participation and community collective action.
  • Institutional incentives to the community that maintain (and promote) community forestry
  • Scientific forestry and technical forest management
  • Community innovations and shifting collective action
  • Community forestry and climate change.
  • Community forestry, biodiversity and ecosystem services
  • Forest-based enterprise and commercialization
  • Changing community-forest relations
  • Democracy, decentralization and community

We hope to publish four broad types of articles, i.e., analytical research papers, opinion/commentary pieces, literary review articles and empirically oriented essays highlighting insights based on practice-based knowledge from the field. The research papers can include articles that are based on rich empirical data, preferably collected fresh from the field. However, rigorous analysis of secondary/historical sources will also be accepted. Shorter opinion pieces/commentary will also be accepted. All articles need to be guided by a well-formulated purpose and clearly defined research questions.

Please send your abstracts of 200-300 words for the research paper, review article, opinion piece or empiric reports together with a short bio of author/s of 150-200 words to newangle@sias-southasia.org by 15th January 2024. English is the preferred language of the publication and we are eager to publish articles in Nepali language as well. The deadline for submission of full contributions will be 1st April 2024.  

Chief Editor: Dr. Dil Khatri

Special Issue Editors: Dr Govinda Paudel, Dr Dinesh Paudel, Dr Rajan Parajuli and Dr Prativa Sapkota

Managing Editor: Binod Adhikari

Read more about Call for papers: Special issue on “Nepal’s Community Forestry at the crossroad”

Current Issue

Vol. 8 No. 1 (2022): Understanding the Changing Livelihoods, Vulnerability and COVID-19 Pandemic

The last few decades have witnessed changes in the livelihoods of the people that has manifested in the form of transition from traditional to commercial agriculture and growing off-farm employment activities such as (foreign labor) migration, small business, wage laboring etc. This change in livelihood has been catalysed by socio-economic and political change, particularly through market expansion, access to basic infrastructures such as road, electricity, information and communication technologies and improvement in education.

However, both farm and non-farm-based sources of livelihoods are ridden with multiple challenges. On the one hand, there is a wide range of factors such as the size of land, shortage of labor, water, and damage of crops by wild animals that is making farming challenging and is pushing rural people towards exploring new sources of livelihood. On the other hand, globalisation has opened up opportunities for people to join the international labour market, though in precarious working conditions.

COVID-19 and associated disease control measures have brought unprecedented disruptions to the lives of people around the world. In the Himalayan region, where the population is already vulnerable to the shocks related to climate change, strict lockdown imposed to control the spread of COVID-19 disease caused loss of income due to diminished income-generating opportunities, and disruption in the social services, broken supply chain, and more. The shock of COVID-19 experienced in tandem with other existing stressors exacerbated the pre-existing vulnerabilities of the people in the region. While there is a broad understanding that COVID-19 has deepened social, political, and economic inequities on multiple fronts, much is yet to be understood about the longer-term impacts of the pandemic in the Himalayan region. Therefore, it is pertinent to ask how COVID-19 impacts livelihoods vulnerability in the Himalayan region.

This special issue of New Angle – Understanding the Changing Livelihoods, Vulnerability and COVID-19 Pandemic focuses on building and further deepening the understanding of the short-term and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on livelihoods and the responses adopted at the local level to cope with the crisis. To that end, we invite papers including but not limited to the following themes.

  • Changing dynamics of livelihood strategies and practices
  • Understanding the livelihood vulnerability
  • Impacts of COVID-19 on the livelihoods
  • Policy and institutional aspects of COVID-19 containment
  • People’s responses to COVID-19 related situations
  • Changing dynamics of migration and remittance in the face of COVID-19
  • Local responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and lessons
  • Local innovations for adaptation in the new normal
Published: 2023-08-11

EDITORIAL

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLES

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