GRADUATE STUDENT | AKSHAY MANGLA
Biography
Akshay Mangla is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at MIT. His research interests span the political economy of governance, development and state-society relations, with a regional specialization in South Asia. In addition, he has a strong secondary interest in field research methods and political theory. Akshay's dissertation examines recent efforts by the Indian state to universalize primary education and seeks to explain subnational variation in the policy implementation process across select states, districts and rural villages of north India using a variety of field-based techniques. The project aims to identify the conditions under which developing democracies secure the rights of politically voiceless actors under conditions of clientelism and entrenched social inequality. Akshay's research has been supported by the American Institute of Indian Studies, NSEP Boren Fellowship and MIT Carroll Wilson Award.
Papers
“Virtue out of Necessity?: Compliance, Commitment and the Improvement of Labor Conditions in Global Supply Chains,” Politics & Society, 37 (3): 319-351, September 2009, (co-authored with Richard Locke and Matthew Amengual).
“Mobilizing Culture for Public Action: Community Participation and Child Rights in Rural Uttar Pradesh,” (Revise and Resubmit to Politics & Society).
“Understanding Child Labor in India,” Perspectives on Work, 13(1):13-16, Summer 2009.
“Preventing Child Labour in the U.P. Carpet Belt,” Case Studies of Development in Practice, New Delhi: UNICEF India, 2007, (co-authored with Diksha Gupta and Afsoon Houshidari).
“Deliberative Norms and Primary Education in Himachal Pradesh,” Working Paper.
