Background

The Nepalese state and society have witnessed a massive transformation in different spheres of life including social, political, and cultural since 1990s, and the process speeded up with the Peoples’ Movement and Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2006. Recently, the state underwent the process of State Restructuring. Nepal now is constitutionally a Federal Democratic Republic. The unitary state has been restructured into seven provinces, 77 districts and 753 local level entities. The State Restructuration process can bring about social structural changes, and redefine the traditional powerful centers, as it is envisioned in the constitution of Nepal, is supposed to decentralize the power and authority to the province levels and the local entities. However, providing good governance and addressing the aspirations of the marginalized sections of society at the grassroots level still remain as a daunting challenge. To address the aspirations of people, as reflected in the constitution, the state infrastructures are necessary, and more importantly, mentality of the people, involved in formulation and execution of laws need drastic changes. Migration has been a feature of the Nepali society. There is a great magnitude of Nepali emigrants abroad who have been supporting their families at home and also contributing to the ailing economy of the country. However, this over-dependence on remittance cannot be considered as a secured way of managing the family, society and state. In spite of high potentiality, the progress of Nepal is slow. Intensive social analysis over these and similar issues can generate relevant knowledge for policy formulation. The conference aims to provide a platform for the social scientists to discuss and analyze Nepal’s development issues. The theme of the conference is “Sociology of Nepal: State restructuring, Good governance and People's Participation”.