Dr Nitasha Kaul awarded grant for two-year project “Narratives for Sustainable Biodemocracy: Bhutan and Beyond”

The project, which runs from 2020 to 2022, will create a biodemocratic understanding of Bhutan to locate and strengthen the narratives that help the developmental process to be more dynamic, responsive, transparent, accountable and consultative.

It will link political and ecological concerns through activities that create an understanding of planning and policy-making by using a narrative-based approach with specific focus on responsible consumption and production, also known as the Sustainable Development Goal 12 of the United Nations.

In the project, Dr Kaul will collaborate with Sangay Khandu from the Centre for Local Governance & Research, and other entities, including civil society organisations and the UN in Bhutan.

This interdisciplinary, boundary-crossing project will benefit academics working on questions of development and environment, policy and planning, arts and humanities in Bhutan, the UK and beyond. 

The project will benefit these areas through the showcasing of the importance of reflexive narratives of development planners, encouragement of multisectoral citizen deliberation, understanding the role of innovation for responsible consumption and production and the facilitation of arts and humanities-focused conversations on challenges of modernisation and indigeneity.

This builds on Dr Kaul's previous work on Bhutan and biodemocracy, including the Bhutan Biodemocracy and Resilience conference in 2019, which brought together individuals from politics, civil society, media, business, academia and education. This resulted in meaningful deliberations, a shareable digital archive and published proceedings.

Dr Kaul teaches on the International Relations MA, International Relations and Security MA and the Politics and International Relations BA Honours courses.