Friday, September 16, 2016
2:00pm – 4:00pm
Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute, 111 Thayer Street
Free admission
Semester Opening Reception to Follow
Adda is word used in South Asia to indicate a site of collective deliberation. In this adda, five experts will comment on Prerna Singh's How Solidarity Works for Welfare: Subnationalism and Social Development in India. The author will then have time to respond before the floor is opened for questions from the audience.
Commentators:
Andreas Wimmer, Columbia University
Ashutosh Varshney, Brown University
Irfan Nooruddin, Georgetown University
Melani Cammett, Harvard University
Peter Hall, Harvard University
Sanjay Reddy, New School
How Solidarity Works for Welfare poses the following questions:
Why are some places in the world characterized by better social service provision and welfare outcomes than others? In a world in which millions of people, particularly in developing countries, continue to lead lives plagued by illiteracy and ill-health, understanding the conditions that promote social welfare is of critical importance to political scientists and policy makers alike. Drawing on a multi-method study, from the late nineteenth century to the present of the stark variations in educational and health outcomes within a large, federal, multiethnic developing country - India, this book develops an argument for the power of collective identity as an impetus for state prioritization of social welfare. Such an argument not only marks an important break from the dominant negative perceptions of identity politics but also presents a novel theoretical framework to understand welfare provision.