Rina Agarwala

Bio: Rina Agarwala is an academic researcher from Johns Hopkins University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Globalization & Collective action. The author has an hindex of 13, co-authored 29 publications receiving 907 citations. Previous affiliations of Rina Agarwala include University of Copenhagen & Cornell University.

Divine Development: Transnational Indian Religious Organizations in the United States and India

Abstract: This article examines how Indian Americans' religious organizations send not only financial remittances to India, but also social remittances that shape development ideologies. Comparing Indian- American Hindu and Muslim organizations, I find both groups draw from their socioeconomic experiences in India and use their position as elite immigrants in the United States to identify and empower their respective religious constituencies in India and overturn different social relations (not just religious practices). Hindu Americans draw from their majority status in India to overturn India's lower position in the world system and support poverty alleviation efforts within a neoliberal development framework. Indian-American Muslims draw from their poor status in India to overturn economic inequities within India by shifting India's development rhetoric from identity to class. Collective religious identities (expressed through organizations) not only affect the intensity of immigrants' development efforts, but also their content and ideology. These findings urge us to fold transnational religious organizations into contemporary discussions on migration and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Politics of India’s Reformed Labor Model

Abstract: This chapter offers a new theoretical framework to understand Indian labor in the contemporary context of strengthening ties between the Indian state and business. Labor in the twenty-first century must be redefined to include formal and informal workers; it must be re-envisioned to include manufacturing, as well as the growth sectors of construction and services; and the relationship of labor exploitation must account for the market, as well as state politics and ideology. Drawing from the arguments of Antonio Gramsci and Karl Polanyi, historical sources, and interview data, this chapter exposes how, since the 1980s, the Indian state has used informal labor to organize consent for a powerful political project that undermines labor’s twentieth-century gains, empowers large business, and retains state legitimacy with a mass electorate. In addition to examining these hegemonic forces from above, this chapter details the potential and limits of labor’s budding countermovements emerging from below and nuances the common cries of “jobless growth” in India.

Using legal empowerment for labour rights in India

Abstract: This paper brings labour back into the literature on legal empowerment against poverty. Employing a historical lens, I outline three waves of legal movements. Each wave is distinguished by its timing, the state-level target, and the actors involved. In all three waves, legal empowerment was won, not bestowed. Labour played a significant role, fighting in each subsequent wave for an expanded identity to address exclusions. Drawing from the Indian case, this paper’s findings highlight the evolving strategies of legal empowerment movements vis a vis uneven welfare states. They underline the significance of symbolic power of legal recognition, even in the absence of perfect implementation. Finally, they highlight contemporary workers as an overlooked, identity-based group that addresses the intersectionalities between class and ascriptive characteristics.

From Theory to Praxis and Back to Theory: Informal Workers’ Struggles against Capitalism and Patriarchy in India

Abstract: This chapter examines how gender interacts with informal workers’ collective action strategies in the context of contemporary development scripts around economic growth. Specifically, it engages the theoretical debates on the relationship between patriarchy and capitalism as the systems of domination that organize gender and class. Drawing from a comparative analysis of informal workers’ movements in India’s domestic work and construction sectors, I find the relationship between gender and class and between patriarchy and capitalism is being reconceptualized from below and differs by occupational structures and organization histories. For domestic workers, movements assert what I call a “unitary” model of exploitation. Because domestic workers’ organizations entered the productive sphere through a focus on social reproduction, their struggles conflate gender and class to reverse the shame attached to domestic work and increase the recognized worth of women’s labor. Because construction workers’ organizations mobilize male and female workers and began as class-based organizations focusing on productive work, they articulate what I term “a dual systems” approach to patriarchy and capitalism that exposes inequalities between men and women within the sector, such as unequal pay, glass ceilings, and issues of embodiment. In both cases, global development scripts have not only shaped movement approaches, but also enabled movements to articulate gendered labor subjects in innovative ways. While domestic workers’ unitary model has had more success in increasing women workers’ dignity and leadership, construction workers’ dualist model has attained more successes in attaining material benefits in the reproductive sphere. These findings suggest that debates on unitary versus dual-systems models of exploitation present a false dichotomy and veil the reality that both are necessary for feminist theory, development models, and women workers’ struggles on the ground.

Trends in Funding for Dissertation Field Research: Why Do Political Science and Sociology Students Win so Few Awards?.

Abstract: Despite the size and growth of political science and sociology relative to other disciplines, political science and sociology graduate students have received a declining share of funding for dissertation field research in recent years. Specifically, political science and sociology students are losing out to competitive applicants from humanities-oriented fields that provide strong training in area studies and language. These trends are explained by multiple factors. On the funding demand side, changes in graduate training within political science and sociology are undermining students' ability to conduct contextual work, thus leading to lower quality applications. On the funding supply side, the structure of selection committees may be privileging certain disciplines and approaches. We offer suggestions on how to begin reversing these worrisome trends in dissertation funding. Doing so is crucial to ensuring the continued participation of political scientists and sociologists in international comparative research.

Economic growth and income inequality

Abstract: We investigate whether income inequality affects subsequent growth in a cross-country sample for 1965-90, using the models of Barro (1997), Bleaney and Nishiyama (2002) and Sachs and Warner (1997), with negative results. We then investigate the evolution of income inequality over the same period and its correlation with growth. The dominating feature is inequality convergence across countries. This convergence has been significantly faster amongst developed countries. Growth does not appear to influence the evolution of inequality over time. Outline

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

Abstract: What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

Infertility around the globe: new thinking on gender, reproductive technologies and global movements in the 21st century

Abstract: Background Infertility is estimated to affect as many as 186 million people worldwide. Although male infertility contributes to more than half of all cases of global childlessness, infertility remains a woman's social burden. Unfortunately, areas of the world with the highest rates of infertility are often those with poor access to assisted reproductive techniques (ARTs). In such settings, women may be abandoned to their childless destinies. However, emerging data suggest that making ART accessible and affordable is an important gender intervention. To that end, this article presents an overview of what we know about global infertility, ART and changing gender relations, posing five key questions: (i) why is infertility an ongoing global reproductive health problem? (ii) What are the gender effects of infertility, and are they changing over time? (iii) What do we know about the globalization of ART to resource-poor settings? (iv) How are new global initiatives attempting to improve access to IVF? (v) Finally, what can be done to overcome infertility, help the infertile and enhance low-cost IVF (LCIVF) activism? Methods An exhaustive literature review using MEDLINE, Google Scholar and the keyword search function provided through the Yale University Library (i.e. which scans multiple databases simultaneously) identified 103 peer-reviewed journal articles and 37 monographs, chapters and reports from the years 2000-2014 in the areas of: (i) infertility demography, (ii) ART in low-resource settings, (iii) gender and infertility in low-resource settings and (iv) the rise of LCIVF initiatives. International Federation of Fertility Societies Surveillance reports were particularly helpful in identifying important global trends in IVF clinic distribution between 2002 and 2010. Additionally, a series of articles published by scholars who are tracking global cross-border reproductive care (CBRC) trends, as well as others who are involved in the growing LCIVF movement, were invaluable. Results Recent global demographic surveys indicate that infertility remains an ongoing reproductive problem, with six key demographic features. Despite the massive global expansion of ART services over the past decade (2005-2015), ART remains inaccessible in many parts of the world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where IVF clinics are still absent in most countries. For women living in such ART-poor settings, the gender effects of infertility may be devastating. In contrast, in ART-rich regions such as the Middle East, the negative gender effects of infertility are diminishing over time, especially with state subsidization of ART. Furthermore, men are increasingly acknowledging their male infertility and seeking ICSI. Thus, access to ART may ameliorate gender discrimination, especially in the Global South. To that end, a number of clinician-led, LCIVF initiatives are in development to provide affordable ART, particularly in Africa. Without access to LCIVF, many infertile couples must incur catastrophic expenditures to fund their IVF, or engage in CBRC to seek lower-cost IVF elsewhere. Conclusions Given the present realities, three future directions for research and intervention are suggested: (i) address the preventable causes of infertility, (ii) provide support and alternatives for the infertile and (iii) encourage new LCIVF initiatives to improve availability, affordability and acceptability of ART around the globe.