William F. Fisher

Advocates a Transnational View

 

Anthropologist William F. Fisher, Director of International Development, Community, and Environment and Professor of International Development, explores the complex efforts of NGOs, social movements and transnational advocacy networks to enable local communities to better compete for access to natural resources, achieve sustainable development and aspire to social justice.

 

Fisher first became interested in sustainable livelihoods in  1973, after graduation from Bucknell University with a BA in philosophy and history. Eager to experience unfamiliar worlds, he picked citrus fruit for eight months on an Israeli kibbutz, worked on fishing boats off the Greek island of Tinos, and traveled overland through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Himalayas.

 

“When I crossed into Nepal,” Fisher remembers, “I felt like I had come home.” The Himalayans’ closeness to the earth, confidence in their value system, sense of balance and humor rang true. He lived with Nepali families in remote villages for more than a year, learning about their culture and ethnic groups.

 

Fisher has returned often to Nepal to conduct field research on the emergence and strategies of ethnic associations, such as the Janajati Mahasangh. His study of the economic innovation, cultural transformation and migration among the Thakali of central Nepal has culminated in the book Fluid Boundaries: Forming and Transforming Thakali Identity in Nepal (Columbia University Press, 2001). Fisher also has examined  non-governmental  associations, democracy  and  natural resource competition in Nepal.

 

An M.A. in economic and political development (1979), an M.A. in anthropology (1982), and a Ph.D. in anthropology (1987) from Columbia University formed the foundation for his work. Fisher continued at  Columbia as Assistant Director of the Southern Asian Institute, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, and Director of the Economic and Political Development Program at the School of International and Public Affairs.

 

At this time he became interested in the World Bank-funded project to dam India’s Narmada River, divert most of the river for irrigation, and potentially displace more than 100,000 people. From 1990-92, Fisher worked to understand the complexities of the Narmada situation while interacting with two social activist groups: Arch-Vahini and the Narmada Bachao Andolan.

 

“The resistance to the Narmada Dam demonstrates the variety of resources-cultural, political, social and economic-that people can use to shape their own futures and to resist a major development project designed elsewhere,” says Fisher. “I realized that the sustainable management of livelihood resources is as much political as technical-at issue is who manages what resources and for whose benefit.” 

 

Fisher continued his research on major dams when he joined the anthropology faculty of Harvard University in 1992. He has written articles on the struggle of project-affected people against large dams, as well as the book, Toward Sustainable Development?  Struggling Over India’s Narmada River.

 

At Harvard, Fisher served as Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Anthropology and was a Dillon Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. His consultancies have included work in Jamaica, South Africa, Afghanistan, Nepal and India for CARE, the American Foundation for AIDS Research, the U.S.Agency for International Development and the United Nations Development Programme.                 

 

According to Fisher, the campaign against large dams provides a window on new lines of communication and political influence. “I am interested in the growing ability of local groups to join transnationally with other movements and institutions to influence the actions and policies of international organizations and national governments,” he says.

 

At Clark, Fisher offers courses in “Culture, Politics and International Development,” “Social Movements, Globalization and the State," and "Religion, Identity, and Violence in a Globalizing World."  He sees the interdisciplinary IDCE programs as a dynamic blend of theory and practice.

 

“It is a welcome and exciting challenge to come to Clark when IDCE is expanding,”  says Fisher, “and to help our students broaden their opportunities to apply what they learn here to real life situations.”