Vol. 29 (1)
2025

Artigos

“Enough of this fake war”: ecologies of value, workers and environmentalists in Southern Italy

Antonio Maria Pusceddu

This article mobilizes the ecologies of value as a conceptual framework to account for the conflicts, contradictions and dilemmas arousing from the experience of the contemporary socio-ecological crisis. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Brindisi,

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Artigos

“Preventing them from being adrift”: challenges for professional practice in the Argentinean mental health system for children and adolescents

Axel Levin

This ethnographic article addresses the difficulties, practices, and strategies of the professionals of the only Argentine hospital fully specialized in the treatment of mental health problems of children and adolescents. More specifically, it

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Artigos

Making Children: an iconography of the ibejadas in the centers, religious article shops, and factories of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Morena Freitas

The ibejadas are childlike entities that, alongside the caboclos, pretos-velhos, exus, and pombagiras, inhabit the umbanda pantheon. In religious centers, these entities manifest through colorful images, joyful sung chants and an abundance of sweets

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Artigos

To migrate and to belong: intimacy, ecclesiastical absence, and playful competition in the Aymara Anata-Carnival of Chiapa (Chile)

Pablo Mardones

The article analyzes the Anata-Carnival festivity celebrated in the Andean town of Chiapa in the Tarapacá Region, Great North of Chile. I suggest that this celebration constitutes one of the main events that promote the reproduction of feelings of

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Artigos

Hauntology and nostalgia in the touristed landscapes of Sarajevo

Marta Roriz

Drawing on anthropological and ethnographic developments in the study of urban tourism, this essay offers a description of Sarajevo’s tourist landscapes from the perspective of an ethnographic tourist, detailing how time is inscribed in the

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Memory

David J. Webster in Mozambique: minimal epistolary (1971-1979)

Lorenzo Macagno

The article comments on, contextualizes and transcribes the epistolary exchange between social anthropologist David J. Webster (1945-1989) and ethnologist and Portuguese colonial official António Rita-Ferreira (1922-2014) between 1971 and 1979.

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Dossier ‘Gender and Care in the Cape Verdean transnational experience’

Género e cuidados na experiência transnacional cabo-verdiana: introdução

Luzia Oca González, Fernando Barbosa Rodrigues and Iria Vázquez Silva

Neste dossiê sobre o género e os cuidados na comunidade transnacional cabo-verdiana, as leitoras e leitores encontrarão os resultados de diferentes etnografias feitas tanto em Cabo Verde como nos países de destino da sua diáspora no sul da

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Dossier ‘Gender and Care in the Cape Verdean transnational experience’

“Vizinhu ta trocadu pratu ku kada casa”… Caring to avoid hunger in Brianda, Santiago Island, Cape Verde

Fernando Barbosa Rodrigues

Taking the ethnographic field as a starting point – the interior of the island of Santiago in the Republic of Cabo Verde – and basing on participant observation and the collection of testimonies from the local inhabitants of Brianda, this

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Dossier ‘Gender and Care in the Cape Verdean transnational experience’

“Eu já aguentei muita gente nessa vida”: about care, gender, and generation in Cape Verdian families

Andréa Lobo and André Omisilê Justino

This article reflects on the care category when crossed by the dynamics of gender and generation in Cape Verde. The act of caring is of fundamental importance for family dynamics in this society, which is marked by mobilities of multiple orders –

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Dossier ‘Gender and Care in the Cape Verdean transnational experience’

Global care chains in Cape Verdean migrations: women who stay so that others can migrate

Luzia Oca González and Iria Vázquez Silva

This article is based on fieldwork conducted with women of four generations, belonging to five families living in the locality of Burela (Galicia) and their domestic groups originating from the island of Santiago. We present three ethnographic

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Dossier ‘Gender and Care in the Cape Verdean transnational experience’

The difficult balance between work and life: care arrangements in three generations of Cape Verdean migrants

Keina Espiñeira González, Belén Fernández-Suárez and Antía Pérez-Caramés

The reconciliation of the personal, work and family spheres of migrants is an emerging issue in migration studies, with concepts such as the transnational family and global care chains. In this contribution we analyse the strategies deployed by

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Debate

Universal foreigners: the ‘ontological turn’ considered from a phenomenological perspective

Filipe Verde

This article questions the consistency, reasonableness, and fruitfulness of the methodological proposals and idea of anthropological knowledge of the “ontological turn” in anthropology. Taking as its starting point the book manifesto produced by

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Debate

Universos estrangeiros: ainda a polêmica virada ontológica na antropologia

Rogério Brittes W. Pires

O artigo “Estrangeiros universais”, de Filipe Verde, apresenta uma crítica ao que chama de “viragem ontológica” na antropologia, tomando o livro The Ontological Turn, de Holbraad e Pedersen (2017), como ponto de partida (2025a: 252).1 O

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Debate

Resposta a Rogério Pires

Filipe Verde

Se há evidência que a antropologia sempre reconheceu é a de que o meio em que somos inculturados molda de forma decisiva a nossa compreensão do mundo e de nós mesmos. Isso é assim para a própria antropologia e, portanto, ser antropólogo é

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Debate

Da ontologia da fenomenologia na antropologia: ensaio de resposta

Rogério Brittes W. Pires

Um erro do construtivismo clássico é postular que verdades alheias seriam construídas socialmente, mas as do próprio enunciador não. Que minha visão de mundo, do fazer antropológico e da ciência sejam moldadas por meu ambiente – em

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Note on the cover

Note on the cover

Pedro Calapez

© Pedro Calapez. 2023. (Pormenor) Díptico B; Técnica e Suporte: Acrílico sobre tela colada em MDF e estrutura em madeira. Dimensões: 192 x 120 x 4 cm. Imagem gentilmente cedidas pelo autor. Créditos fotográficos: MPPC / Pedro

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Vol. 29 (2)
2025

Articles

A puzzle Narcissus: ethnography faces delirium and “stays” at the Hotel da Loucura – Rio de Janeiro

Luciano von der Goltz Vianna

The present article starts from a debate that aims to understand how the disciplinary regimes of Anthropology lead the researcher to follow a protocol of questions and interests in his research. The objective here is to discuss the existing

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Articles

Por trás das crianças, dos objetos e dos cuises: agência e pesquisa em um bairro periurbano de Córdoba (Argentina)

Rocío Fatyass

Neste artigo retomo ideias emergentes de um projeto de pesquisa com crianças que acontece em um bairro periurbano da cidade de Villa Nueva (Córdoba, Argentina) e discuto a agência das crianças e sua participação na pesquisa em ciências

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Articles

The construction of knowledge about the Amazon ecosystem by a Brazilian scientific institution

Aline Moreira Magalhães

Since expeditions by naturalists in the 18th century, the production of modern knowledge about the flora and fauna of the Amazon has included people who know the ecosystem from experience. At the National Institute for Amazon Research (INPA),

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Interdisciplinarities

Living in a Siza house: the experience of auteur architecture in Malagueira, Évora

Juliana Pereira, Ana Catarina Costa, André Carmo, Eduardo Ascensão

This article draws on the genealogy of studies on the house in Portuguese Anthropology and Architecture as well as on recent perspectives coming from the Geographies of Architecture, to explore the way residents of auteur architecture experience

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Dossiê “Beyond penal populism: complexifying justice systems and security through qualitative lenses”

Introduction: Beyond penal populism: complexifying justice systems and security through qualitative lenses

Annabelle Dias Félix, Maria João Leote de Carvalho, Catarina Frois

In the global political landscape, as far-right parties gain prominence, populist rhetoric advocating for harsher justice and security policies is becoming increasingly prevalent. Proponents of this rhetoric base their discourse on “alarming”

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Dossiê “Beyond penal populism: complexifying justice systems and security through qualitative lenses”

Privatizing urban security: control, hospitality and suspicion in the Brazilian shopping

Susana Durão, Paola Argentin

In this article we argue that hospitality security – a modality that confuses control and care – operates through the actions of security guards in the creation of what we call pre-cases. From a dense ethnography accompanying these workers in a

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Dossiê “Beyond penal populism: complexifying justice systems and security through qualitative lenses”

“Police abuse, we face it every day”: ethnographic notes on racist police violence

Pedro Varela

Racist police violence is one of the most brutal facets of racism in our society, reflecting structures of power and oppression that marginalize sectors of our society. This paper emphasizes the importance of understanding this reality, highlighting

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Dossiê “Beyond penal populism: complexifying justice systems and security through qualitative lenses”

Marginality, security, surveillance, crime, imprisonment: reflections on an intellectual and methodological trajectory

Catarina Frois

This article engages with contemporary anthropological and ethnographic methodological debates by reflecting on the challenges of conducting research in contexts related with marginality, deviance, surveillance, and imprisonment. It examines the

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Dossiê “Beyond penal populism: complexifying justice systems and security through qualitative lenses”

Navigating the labyrinth: qualitative research in the securitized border regions of North Africa

Lydia Letsch

Qualitative researchers face unique challenges in the dynamic domain of border regions, particularly when venturing into highly securitized areas with a constant military presence, advanced surveillance, and restricted access zones. This article

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Memory

Uma vida, muitas vidas: entrevista com Victor Bandeira, etnógrafo e viajante

Rita Tomé, João Leal

Falecido recentemente, Victor Bandeira (1931-2024) desempenhou um papel fundamental no desenvolvimento da museologia etnográfica em Portugal. Foi graças às suas expedições a África (1960-1961, 1966, 1967), ao Brasil (1964-1965) e à Indonésia

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Lévi-Strauss Award

From the “note of condolence” to the “unjust aggression”: news about death written by the PMSC

Jo P. Klinkerfus

This paper is a reduced and synthesized version of the ethnography on PMSC Notícia, the news platform of the Military Police of Santa Catarina (PMSC). Based on news about death, dying and the dead published on the website in 2021, social

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Meta-Governance and the Informal Reality of Nepal's Bureaucracy

Binod Pokharel

02.07.2025

Summary

This text addresses the concept of meta-governance—the governance of governance—which combines rules, markets, and networks to manage complex systems. It explains how, in Nepal, despite theoretical potential for improving accountability, governance is undermined by pervasive corruption, patronage, and inefficiency. Citizens often rely on bribes or brokers (dalals) to obtain basic services, as bureaucratic processes are routinely distorted into private deals. Rather than regulating informal networks, the state frequently sustains them, turning public offices into venues for elite bargaining. Without reforms aligning rules with citizens’ needs and constraining clientelism, Nepal’s public services remain inaccessible to those without connections or resources.

Resumo

Este texto aborda o conceito de meta-governança - a governança da governança - que combina regras, mercados e redes para gerir sistemas complexos. Explica como, no Nepal, apesar do potencial teórico para melhorar a responsabilização, a governação é prejudicada pela corrupção generalizada, pelo clientelismo e pela ineficiência. Os cidadãos recorrem frequentemente a subornos ou a intermediários (dalals) para obterem serviços básicos, uma vez que os processos burocráticos são sistematicamente distorcidos em negócios privados. Em vez de regular as redes informais, o Estado apoia-as frequentemente, transformando as repartições públicas em locais de negociação entre as elites. Sem reformas que alinhem as regras com as necessidades dos cidadãos e limitem o clientelismo, os serviços públicos do Nepal permanecem inacessíveis a quem não tem contactos ou recursos.

Resumen

Este texto aborda el concepto de metagobernanza -la gobernanza de la gobernanza-, que combina normas, mercados y redes para gestionar sistemas complejos. Explica cómo, en Nepal, a pesar del potencial teórico para mejorar la rendición de cuentas, la gobernanza se ve obstaculizada por la corrupción generalizada, el clientelismo y la ineficacia. Los ciudadanos suelen recurrir a sobornos o intermediarios (dalals) para obtener servicios básicos, ya que los procesos burocráticos se distorsionan sistemáticamente para convertirlos en tratos privados. En lugar de regular las redes informales, el Estado suele apoyarlas, convirtiendo las oficinas públicas en lugares donde las élites pueden negociar. Sin reformas que adapten las normas a las necesidades de los ciudadanos y limiten el clientelismo, los servicios públicos de Nepal siguen siendo inaccesibles para quienes carecen de contactos o recursos.

Résumé

Ce texte aborde le concept de méta-gouvernance - la gouvernance de la gouvernance - qui combine les règles, les marchés et les réseaux pour gérer des systèmes complexes. Il explique comment, au Népal, malgré le potentiel théorique d'amélioration de la responsabilité, la gouvernance est entravée par la corruption généralisée, le clientélisme et l'inefficacité. Les citoyens ont souvent recours à des pots-de-vin ou à des intermédiaires (dalals) pour obtenir des services de base, les procédures bureaucratiques étant systématiquement détournées au profit de transactions privées. Au lieu de réglementer les réseaux informels, l'État les soutient souvent, transformant les bureaux publics en lieux où les élites peuvent négocier. En l'absence de réformes visant à aligner les règles sur les besoins des citoyens et à limiter le clientélisme, les services publics népalais restent inaccessibles à ceux qui n'ont pas de contacts ou de ressources.

This section has a profile similar to that of a blog, which can include independent and original posts, but also short reflections by authors of texts published in the journal, providing a more "popular" version, in blog format, of the respective article.

This text addresses the concept of meta-governance—the governance of governance—which combines rules, markets, and networks to manage complex systems. It explains how, in Nepal, despite theoretical potential for improving accountability, governance is undermined by pervasive corruption, patronage, and inefficiency. Citizens often rely on bribes or brokers (dalals) to obtain basic services, as bureaucratic processes are routinely distorted into private deals. Rather than regulating informal networks, the state frequently sustains them, turning public offices into venues for elite bargaining. Without reforms aligning rules with citizens’ needs and constraining clientelism, Nepal’s public services remain inaccessible to those without connections or resources.

Foto: City Scape , Kathmandu , Nepal via Unsplash.

Meta-governance literally means "governance of governance." The origins of meta-governance are in public administration and political science (Jessop 1997). It is about how governments can steer complex systems through directing rules, markets and networks. It shows us that the state can no longer rely upon one mode of control, but rather determine a blend of hierarchical regulation, market incentives and stakeholder or stakeholder-seized networks to arrive at optimal conditions for each issue. Meta-governance can be seen as practice by public authorities that involves the open coordination of one or more modes of governance using various instruments, approaches and strategies in response to governance failures (Gjaltema et al. 2020). It is about effectively managing the overarching governance ecosystem - "governing the governors," not just enacting new regulations of providing subsidies. Ideally, it ends up being about a more coordination policy response through design and management of appropriate mixes of hierarchy, market, and network governance - among other things. (For example - firm land use rules in connection with social excursions managed by community and private sector partnerships with consideration of local contexts). Gjaltema et al. (2020) give some caution on the conceptual vagueness of the term as it runs the risk of becoming a “catch-all” phrase that lacks analytical clarity.

In the theoretical literature, meta-governance aims to move beyond the pointless debates of “government versus governance” by demonstrating how public actors can coordinate a variety of modes. Meta-governance relies upon Jessop's idea of the "governance of complexity" but the main message is really rather straightforward: no society relies solely upon formal law or solely upon private markets as it draws from both (and a lot more besides). Brinkerhoff and Goldsmith (2002) say it plainly, for every country in the world, there are both formal and informal governance systems, "co-existing side by side". This means that in addition to official bureaucracies and elections, informal practices such as patronage, clientelism, and social networks are always at play. Hence, meta-governance would recognize and aim to regulate, rather than ignore, informal governance systems.

Gupta (2012), Hull (2003), and Pokharel and Pradhan (2020) have explored various angles of governance in South Asia. Each considered the everyday realities of governance through various local bureaucracies or local governments. In Nepal, governance is formally hampered by inefficiency, politicization, and corruption. As a result of this informal context, many citizens have experienced that even routine public services like land registration, tax filing, business licensing, etc. are abysmally slow and opaque. Reports investigating public services consistently suggest that Nepalese seeking some of the simplest government services must make a choice between paying a bribe or waiting indefinitely. For example, a 2018 Nagarik survey placed citizen-observers in government offices and found that of the 715 visitors in 15 government offices in Kathmandu/Lalitpur, 504 said they were forced to pay a bribe to get their work done (Nepali Times, 2018). Glaring cases of corruption were highlighted in four of the Land Revenue Offices in Kathmandu where 140 of the 180 clients had to pay bribes (Nepali Times, 2018). This same article notes that a government official will casually admit that it will "hold" or "delay" files under "various pretenses" until a baksheesh is paid. The bureaucracy asks for "tips" (tea money, meal money, expedite fees), for services that citizens are legally entitled to, simply because they can.

Nepal’s tax system and administrative commissions show the same pattern of capture. One previous finance secretary asserts Nepali bureaucracies are effectively "one and the same" with political parties (Kathmandu Post 2017). Top jobs usually aren't given to most qualified people but to loyalists of people in power. Consequently, often state mechanisms that exist to facilitate tax collection become agencies of elite deals. For instance, unique bodies like the Tax Settlement Commission (TSC) that were meant to adjudicate disputes frequently grant phenomenal amounts in tax exemptions to connected firms (TSC is supposed to make disputes "just go away"). The TSC was once under investigation for allegedly granting tax exemptions of NPR 21 billion (Kathmandu Post, 2017) to people of political consequence. The rule of law is effectively gutted; bureaucratic processes are distorted into patronage.

The licensing and permitting arena also illustrate the bureaucratic quagmire in Nepal. An investigation into the Transport Management Office unveiled one jaw-dropping scheme: third-party middlemen were conspiring with officials to issue forged driving licenses and then convert the forged licenses into ‘real’ licenses. For instance, agents organized heavy-vehicle licenses by backdating applicant's documentation, asking between Rs 80,000–130,000 per instance (Yadav, 2021). Licenses for which no examinations were taken (there was also no record in the official database) were just ‘renewed’ to maintain some guise of validity (Yadav, 2021). Front-line workers and even medical examiners were, it is alleged, bribed or complicit. This is indicative of the different layers of the licensing process, one could bypass through informal pathways, or shortcuts, namely, the paperwork, the records, the physical, and the examinations.

The evidence shows failure of even basic state capacity. In Akhil Gupta's Red Tape, he argues that government processes can per produce injustice and sometimes death among the poor; that bureaucratic red tape is a systematic form of oppression. While the case of Nepal is slightly different- even if an official wanted to serve everyone equitably, the rules and corruption will often thwart even the best of intentions.

In Nepal’s political lexicon, afno manche (which translates to “one’s own person”) captures the informal patronage at work (Subedi, 2014). According to Brinkerhoff and Goldsmith, no society operates solely according to formal rules; citizens and officials must navigate an invisible and alternative matrix of customs, networks, and favors. In Nepal, this matrix is brazenly apparent. Everyone in Nepal understands that there is a mechanism for people to have their work done through a broker or middleman. Brokers or dalals, do not have an ongoing contractual relationship with clients, but they serve as the de facto channel to cut through the red tape.

Brokers replace formal meta-governance. Broker networks are the informal and hidden organization of access when official coordination fails. Citizens often say they have to deal with a dalal to get their work done. Nepali Times reports how Transparency International Nepal’s chair urged the removal of “middlemen from public offices so citizens are not deceived by them,” even as the government acknowledges that brokers hover around the Survey Department and Land Revenue Office (Nepali Times, 2018). This tension, where brokers are publicly sanctioned by the state and privately relied upon, shows how informal governance has been normalized.

These informal networks are, by their nature, not accountable. More precisely, decisions of consequence- who receives a service or who bypasses the queue, are made in private. Brinkerhoff and Goldsmith (2002) go so far as to say that informal systems are “indirectly inhibit participation, undermine the rule of law, and distort public service delivery” (p. 1). In Nepal, the informal frequently diminishes the formal. The result for citizens is that the state encounters them like a maze of personal exchanges, not as an impersonal bureaucracy. If you don’t have the afno manche or can’t afford a bribe, even routine requests or services remain unresolved.

Meta-governance theory would suggest that the government should not ignore these networks of corruption but should seek to steer or regulate these networks. In this context, meta-governance would merge bottom-up input from local communities with the top-down planning of a constitutional government; for example, possibly by formalizing community monitors, using non-governmental civil society institutions, or through technological innovations to avoid bribery. In practice, in Nepal, however, the opposite has generally occurred. While the State has created new agencies or commissions (e.g. the Tax Settlement Commission or ad-hoc committees), it has generally failed to modify underlying incentives. These new agencies and commissions then perform as venues for the existing political games. Rather than providing the State with steering networks of governance for the public good, the State has generally allowed patronage networks to steer the State.

Meta-governance requires transparency, accountability and alignment of formal rules with the needs of citizens. In Nepal today, such factors are largely absent. While the post-2015 federal reforms were intended to provide local accountability, many village offices operate in the same patronage as before. Unless Nepalese authorities can learn to govern their governors - public services will remain hostage to the whims of dalals and chiefs. If bureaucrats continue to outsource the "governance of governance" to brokers, changes that affect ordinary Nepalese subjects will largely be done through their afno manche, and they will continue to experience the state not as a neutral arbiter, but as a club, where the insider’s voice is the only one that counts.

Binod Pokharel (Tribhuvan University Kathmandu, Nepal)

Binod Pokharel, with a Master's and Doctorate in Anthropology, has over 35 years of experience. He is a professor and department head at Tribhuvan University's Central Department of Anthropology. His key interests include development, governance, social inclusion, and natural resource management. He has written many jaournal articles, book chapters and edited the books.

Orcid ID: 0009-0003-0232-6944

References

Brinkerhoff, D. W., & Goldsmith, A. A. (2002). Clientelism, patrimonialism and democratic governance: An overview and framework for assessment and programming. US Agency for International Development Office of Democracy and Governance, 1, 49.

Gjaltema, J., Biesbroek, R., & Termeer, K. (2020). From government to governance… to meta-governance: a systematic literature review. Public management review, 22(12), 1760-1780.

Gupta, A. (2012). Red tape. Bureaucracy, Structural Violence, and Poverty in India. Durham/London. DOI: https://doi. org/10.1215/9780822394709.

Hull, M. S. (2003). The file: agency, authority, and autography in an Islamabad bureaucracy. Language & Communication, 23(3-4), 287-314.

Jessop, B. (1997). The governance of complexity and the complexity of governance: preliminary remarks on some problems and limits of economic guidance. In Beyond market and hierarchy (pp. 95-128). Edward Elgar Publishing.

Nepali Times. (2018, December 7). Corruption deep rooted in government. https://nepalitimes.com/from-the-nepali-press/corruption-deep-rooted-in-government

Pokharel, B., & Pradhan, M. S. (2020). State of inclusive governance: A study on participation and representation after federalization in Nepal. Central Department & Anthropology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu.

Subedi, M. (2014). Afno Manchhe: Unequal access to public resources and institutions in Nepal. Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 8, 55-86.

The Kathmandu Post. (2017, August 7). Politicians hand-pick bureaucrats so that they can work together for personal gain. https://kathmandupost.com/interviews/2017/08/07/politicians-hand-pick-bureaucrats-so-that-they-can-work-together-for-personal-gain

Yadav, B. (2021, November 10). Business of converting fake licences into genuine ones. Centre for Investigative Journalism Nepal. https://www.cijnepal.org/business-of-converting-fake-licences-into-genuine-ones