Bridging Anthropology and Global History: Comparative Approaches to the Social-Class/Education Nexus in Nepal

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Bibliographic Details
Title: Bridging Anthropology and Global History: Comparative Approaches to the Social-Class/Education Nexus in Nepal
Language: English
Authors: Todd John Wallenius, Karen Valentin
Source: Comparative Education Review. 2026 70(1):91-110.
Availability: University of Chicago Press. Journals Division, P.O. Box 37005, Chicago, IL 60637. Tel: 877-705-1878; Tel: 773-753-3347; Fax: 877-705-1879; Fax: 773-753-0811; e-mail: subscriptions@press.uchicago.edu; Web site: http://www.press.uchicago.edu
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 20
Publication Date: 2026
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Social Class, World History, Comparative Education, Educational Philosophy, Interdisciplinary Approach, Ethnography, Epistemology
Geographic Terms: Nepal
DOI: 10.1086/739178
ISSN: 0010-4086
1545-701X
Abstract: In recent years, the field of comparative education has boldly turned inward, investigating and questioning its own historical and philosophical foundations. By challenging the discipline's dependence on positivistic, modern modes of comparison, space has emerged for rethinking methodological approaches more broadly. Extending this line of research, this article links modes of comparison from the discipline of anthropology and global history to the interdisciplinary field of comparative education. Drawing on a rereading and writing across the authors' previous historical and ethnographic research in Nepal, this article explores the social-class/education nexus through a multilayered comparative approach. Accordingly, the article points to the comparative dynamics inherent to sociocultural processes of education in Nepal related to the concept of development ("bikas"). In doing so, the article argues for a comparative approach operating at different analytical levels--historical, ethnographic, and reflexive--that move beyond the comparative episteme of modernity still predominant in the field.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2026
Accession Number: EJ1500711
Database: ERIC
Description
Abstract:In recent years, the field of comparative education has boldly turned inward, investigating and questioning its own historical and philosophical foundations. By challenging the discipline's dependence on positivistic, modern modes of comparison, space has emerged for rethinking methodological approaches more broadly. Extending this line of research, this article links modes of comparison from the discipline of anthropology and global history to the interdisciplinary field of comparative education. Drawing on a rereading and writing across the authors' previous historical and ethnographic research in Nepal, this article explores the social-class/education nexus through a multilayered comparative approach. Accordingly, the article points to the comparative dynamics inherent to sociocultural processes of education in Nepal related to the concept of development ("bikas"). In doing so, the article argues for a comparative approach operating at different analytical levels--historical, ethnographic, and reflexive--that move beyond the comparative episteme of modernity still predominant in the field.
ISSN:0010-4086
1545-701X
DOI:10.1086/739178