1Based on 15 months of ethnographic research in 2018–2019, this dissertation explores family transformations among an emerging middle class in the Nepali city of Bhaktapur. It investigates how people are revising domestic relations and moralities in the pursuit of well-being and how household members conceive of domestic duties and ultimately build their sense of moral selves through a redefinition of the Hindu concept of dharma. Firstly, by analysing personal narratives of conflict and adjustment through the theoretical lens of Husserlian ‘intersubjectivity’ and the notion of ‘conversation’ by Schutz, I demonstrate that through interpersonal conversations, social actors actively work to coordinate with one another to attune their existential dimensions. Secondly, I argue that the negotiation of domestic moralities plays a decisive role in shaping broader processes of social change.

2With its recent civil war, a devastating earthquake, the increase in outmigration and the spread of education and media following a century-long dictatorship, Nepal is a place of rapid social change, which can be vividly seen at household level. Yet studies that address the socio-cultural dimension of development in Nepal and examine how it affects the household in terms of relational well-being are still lacking, and in particular to account for how the daily struggles of people in the pursuit of better lives are shaped by and how they in turn shape kinship ethics. This thesis provides new ethnographic evidence of these processes. I unpack the motivations and actions that shape, reinforce or break down relationships in the name of well-being, with a focus on the emic notions of ‘mutual understanding’ (āpasī samājdari) and ‘lonely-heart talks’ (mane-khanlhagu).

3Taken all together, the stories discussed demonstrate that in Bhaktapur well-being coincides with a balance between the achievement of one’s goals and the maintenance of domestic harmony through the negotiation of needs and desires. By examining the interrelated and mutually influencing ways in which people revise relationships, shape their moral selves and ultimately negotiate social change, this thesis sheds new light on the lived experiences through which moral ideas and behaviours are negotiated for the purposes of attaining well-being from a domestic perspective.