The importance of being local: Villagers, NGOs, and the World Bank in the Arun Valley, Nepal

This paper reflects on the ways in which "local" identity became an important basis of legitimacy in the organization of opposition to the Arun dam in Nepal. Large projects such as dams have multiple effects over space and time so that there are many locales that can constitute the proper domain of the "local" voice. Looking only for the most strictly local privileges place over politics and implies that physical boundaries are impermeable. This paper suggests shifting analysis from a search for the legitimate "local" to an understanding of the processes by which different identity claims are employed by various agents to achieve different strategic ends.