Rina Agarwala
Biographic Data
| ID | 289847 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rina Agarwala |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rina |
| FAMILY NAME | Agarwala |
| SIGNATURE | AGARWALA R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Johns Hopkins University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8631-9295 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 106 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1969 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Union‐Cooperative Collaborations: Toward a Global Framework of Analysis
Union‐cooperative collaborations, which first emerged in the 18th century, have witnessed a resurgence in recent years. Across the world, they have created new jobs, safeguarded worker‐owners facing exploitation, and reinvigorated community and labor movements. By combining cooperatives' democratizing ideals of self‐reliance and social security with union ideals of empowerment and mass organization, union‐cooperative collaborations hold immense p…
Experiments in power-building: An intellectual history and comparative framework for informal worker organizing
This special issue examines how contemporary organizations of informal workers have experimented with power-building strategies across countries, employment sectors, and time periods. Its findings hold important lessons for our attempts to adapt to changing political and institutional structures and ultimately build a new model of social justice. In this introductory article, we first offer an intellectual history and motivation for the special i…
Explaining informal workers’ organizing experiments: A cross-country study of Brazil, China, and India
Informal workers’ recent organizing efforts deserve our attention. They have defied the odds and launched alternative models that are more relevant to contemporary structures of globalized and neoliberal production than earlier industrial union-based organizing efforts. While some have succeeded in increasing protections and others have failed, all have relied on informal workers’ willingness to experiment with new organizational forms, rules, an…
The Perils and Promises of Unequal Democracy: Insights from the Sociology of India
Why has India, the world's largest liberal democracy, joined the global turn toward authoritarianism? Drawing on the sociological literature on Indian politics, we argue that India's authoritarian turn emerges from the difficulty of sustaining democracy within an unequal society. The Indian state historically managed this difficulty by balancing the interests of opposed social groups: responding favorably to underprivileged groups' demands for we…
Book Forum on Labor Skills and Migration in India
The Role of Migration in Classes of Labour: Work and Life in a Central Indian Steel Town
The Migration-Development Regime: How Class Shapes Indian Emigration
How can we explain global migration from the perspective of sending states and migrants? The Migration-Development Regime introduces a novel analytical framework to answer this question in India, the world’s largest emigrant exporter and largest remittance-receiving country. Drawing on archives, a new database of transnational migrant organizations, and unique interviews with poor and elite emigrants, recruiters, and government officials, this bo…
A Forum on the Politics of Skills
The ILR Review invited this group of scholars who work within the fields of sociology, history, and urban planning to share their perspective on the politics of skills. We called on their expertise to draw attention to the politics that drive the definition and development of skill and its use in shaping the rights and voice of workers. The essays in this forum explore the politics of skill along three lines. First, they interrogate the definitio…
Capital, the Right, and a New Age for Labour Scholarship
It is fitting that the tenth anniversary of the Global Labour Journal (GLJ) coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of Milton Friedman's seminal essay entitled "The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits". The latter appears to be a retirement party, which leaves room for the former to be a coming of age celebration
Using Legal Empowerment for Labour Rights in India
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 …
The Development of Labor under Contemporary Capitalism
This paper offers a revised theoretical model to understand the historical development of labor under capitalism. Drawing on Antonio Gramsci, Karl Polanyi, and Nancy Fraser, the revised model highlights how state politics and ideologies have reshaped formal and informal labor to fuel evolving accumulation models since the 1950s. It also deepens our analysis of the potential and limits of labor's contemporary countermovements. Potential advances m…
Whatever Happened to Class: Reflections from South Asia
1. Introduction - Restoring Agency to Class: Puzzles from South Asia Ronald J. Herring and Rina Agarwala 2. On the Decline of Class Analysis in South Asian Studies Vivek Chibber 3. Was the Indian Labor Movement Ever Co-opted? Evaluating Standard Accounts Emmanuel Teitelbaum 4. From Work to Welfare: A New Class Movement in India Rina Agarwala 5. Middle-Class Activism and the Politics of the Informal Working Class: A Perspective on Class Relations …
Informal Workers’ Movements in India: Undervalued Dissent: Informal Workers’ Politics in India
The Employment Relationship and Movement Strategies among Domestic Workers in India
This article examines how paid domestic workers in India fight to reproduce themselves by attaining recognition for their employment relationship and struggling to advance their labor rights. We find a striking convergence toward female-dominated unions that articulate the recipient of domestic services as 'employers,' their employment relationship as an exploitative one in terms of time and dignity, and the household as a place of work and profi…
Divine Development: Transnational Indian Religious Organizations in the United States and India
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 ov…
Redefining Exploitation: Self-Employed Workers’ Movements in India's Garments and Trash Collection Industries
This article examines how self-employed workers are organizing in the garments and waste collection industries in India. Although the question of who is profiting from self-employed workers’ labor is complex, the cases outlined in this paper highlight telling instances of how some self-employed workers are organizing as workers. They are fighting labor exploitation by redefining the concept to include additional exploitation axes (from the state …
Power, policy, and protest: The politics of India’s special economic zones
Power, Policy, and Protest is a timely, informative volume on the policies and contexts shaping India’s special economic zones (SEZs.) Since the early 2000s, SEZs – politically and geographically d
Informal Labor, Formal Politics, and Dignified Discontent in India
Since the 1980s, the world's governments have decreased state welfare and thus increased the number of unprotected 'informal' or 'precarious' workers. As a result, more and more workers do not receive secure wages or benefits from either employers or the state. This book offers a fresh and provocative look into the alternative social movements informal workers in India are launching. It also offers a unique analysis of the conditions under which …
Managing the Margins: Gender, Citizenship, and the International Regulation of Precarious Employment
Trends in Funding for Dissertation Field Research: Why Do Political Science and Sociology Students Win So Few Awards
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 …
Whatever Happened to Class: Reflections from South Asia
Reshaping the social contract: Emerging relations between the state and informal labor in India
Resistance and Compliance in the Age of Globalization: Indian Women and Labor Organizations
This article summarizes findings obtained through ethnographic research conducted in three states in India between 2002 and 2004. On the basis of interviews with more than three hundred labor leaders, government officials, and working women, the author reports on the efforts of informal workers in construction and tobacco manufacturing to organize and improve their conditions of life. Contrary to mobilizations in the formal sector, those workers …
From Work to Welfare: A New Class Movement in India
The rigidity of early class analysis and the recent demise of any type of class analytics have turned attention away from examining the growing population of informally employed workers as a class. By not examining informal workers as a class "in themselves," we are losing insights into how they are translating their positions into a class "for themselves." As a consequence, the recent literature on globalization and liberalization is increasingl…
Refining the Measurement of Women's Autonomy: An International Application of a Multi-dimensional Construct
Women's autonomy has long been a central concern for researchers examining the social position of women in developing countries. However, little emphasis has been placed on the measurement of autonomy, despite its importance for assessing the validity of comparative research. In this research, we use confirmatory factor analyses to determine (1) whether items thought to measure autonomy in fact form a reliable measure of autonomy, (2) whether the…
Refining the Measurement of Women's Autonomy: An International Application of a Multi-dimensional Construct
Women's autonomy has long been a central concern for researchers examining the social position of women in developing countries. However, little emphasis has been placed on the measurement of autonomy, despite its importance for assessing the validity of comparative research. In this research, we use confirmatory factor analyses to determine (1) whether items thought to measure autonomy in fact form a reliable measure of autonomy, (2) whether the…
From Work to Welfare: A New Class Movement in India
The rigidity of early class analysis and the recent demise of any type of class analytics have turned attention away from examining the growing population of informally employed workers as a class. By not examining informal workers as a class "in themselves," we are losing insights into how they are translating their positions into a class "for themselves." As a consequence, the recent literature on globalization and liberalization is increasingl…
Reshaping the social contract: Emerging relations between the state and informal labor in India
The Employment Relationship and Movement Strategies among Domestic Workers in India
This article examines how paid domestic workers in India fight to reproduce themselves by attaining recognition for their employment relationship and struggling to advance their labor rights. We find a striking convergence toward female-dominated unions that articulate the recipient of domestic services as 'employers,' their employment relationship as an exploitative one in terms of time and dignity, and the household as a place of work and profi…
Redefining Exploitation: Self-Employed Workers’ Movements in India's Garments and Trash Collection Industries
This article examines how self-employed workers are organizing in the garments and waste collection industries in India. Although the question of who is profiting from self-employed workers’ labor is complex, the cases outlined in this paper highlight telling instances of how some self-employed workers are organizing as workers. They are fighting labor exploitation by redefining the concept to include additional exploitation axes (from the state …
Resistance and Compliance in the Age of Globalization: Indian Women and Labor Organizations
This article summarizes findings obtained through ethnographic research conducted in three states in India between 2002 and 2004. On the basis of interviews with more than three hundred labor leaders, government officials, and working women, the author reports on the efforts of informal workers in construction and tobacco manufacturing to organize and improve their conditions of life. Contrary to mobilizations in the formal sector, those workers …
Explaining informal workers’ organizing experiments: A cross-country study of Brazil, China, and India
Informal workers’ recent organizing efforts deserve our attention. They have defied the odds and launched alternative models that are more relevant to contemporary structures of globalized and neoliberal production than earlier industrial union-based organizing efforts. While some have succeeded in increasing protections and others have failed, all have relied on informal workers’ willingness to experiment with new organizational forms, rules, an…
A Forum on the Politics of Skills
The ILR Review invited this group of scholars who work within the fields of sociology, history, and urban planning to share their perspective on the politics of skills. We called on their expertise to draw attention to the politics that drive the definition and development of skill and its use in shaping the rights and voice of workers. The essays in this forum explore the politics of skill along three lines. First, they interrogate the definitio…
Experiments in power-building: An intellectual history and comparative framework for informal worker organizing
This special issue examines how contemporary organizations of informal workers have experimented with power-building strategies across countries, employment sectors, and time periods. Its findings hold important lessons for our attempts to adapt to changing political and institutional structures and ultimately build a new model of social justice. In this introductory article, we first offer an intellectual history and motivation for the special i…
Divine Development: Transnational Indian Religious Organizations in the United States and India
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 ov…
Trends in Funding for Dissertation Field Research: Why Do Political Science and Sociology Students Win So Few Awards
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 …
An Analysis of the Effects of Investment Incentives on Investment Behaviour in the British Economy
In the post-war period in Great Britain, a number of fiscal devices have been tried for regulating private investment. In this connection, depreciation allowances have been changed on a number of occasions, and more recently investment grants and changes in corporation tax have been introduced. The argument for these changes is that they will affect the profitability and/or liquidity of business firms and may thus affect their rate of investment.…
From Work to Welfare: A New Class Movement in India
The rigidity of early class analysis and the recent demise of any type of class analytics have turned attention away from examining the growing population of informally employed workers as a class. By not examining informal workers as a class "in themselves," we are losing insights into how they are translating their positions into a class "for themselves." As a consequence, the recent literature on globalization and liberalization is increasingl…
Refining the Measurement of Women's Autonomy: An International Application of a Multi-dimensional Construct
Women's autonomy has long been a central concern for researchers examining the social position of women in developing countries. However, little emphasis has been placed on the measurement of autonomy, despite its importance for assessing the validity of comparative research. In this research, we use confirmatory factor analyses to determine (1) whether items thought to measure autonomy in fact form a reliable measure of autonomy, (2) whether the…
Resistance and Compliance in the Age of Globalization: Indian Women and Labor Organizations
This article summarizes findings obtained through ethnographic research conducted in three states in India between 2002 and 2004. On the basis of interviews with more than three hundred labor leaders, government officials, and working women, the author reports on the efforts of informal workers in construction and tobacco manufacturing to organize and improve their conditions of life. Contrary to mobilizations in the formal sector, those workers …
Whatever Happened to Class: Reflections from South Asia
Reshaping the social contract: Emerging relations between the state and informal labor in India
Trends in Funding for Dissertation Field Research: Why Do Political Science and Sociology Students Win So Few Awards
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 …
Managing the Margins: Gender, Citizenship, and the International Regulation of Precarious Employment
Informal Labor, Formal Politics, and Dignified Discontent in India
Since the 1980s, the world's governments have decreased state welfare and thus increased the number of unprotected 'informal' or 'precarious' workers. As a result, more and more workers do not receive secure wages or benefits from either employers or the state. This book offers a fresh and provocative look into the alternative social movements informal workers in India are launching. It also offers a unique analysis of the conditions under which …
Divine Development: Transnational Indian Religious Organizations in the United States and India
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 ov…
Redefining Exploitation: Self-Employed Workers’ Movements in India's Garments and Trash Collection Industries
This article examines how self-employed workers are organizing in the garments and waste collection industries in India. Although the question of who is profiting from self-employed workers’ labor is complex, the cases outlined in this paper highlight telling instances of how some self-employed workers are organizing as workers. They are fighting labor exploitation by redefining the concept to include additional exploitation axes (from the state …
Power, policy, and protest: The politics of India’s special economic zones
Power, Policy, and Protest is a timely, informative volume on the policies and contexts shaping India’s special economic zones (SEZs.) Since the early 2000s, SEZs – politically and geographically d
The Development of Labor under Contemporary Capitalism
This paper offers a revised theoretical model to understand the historical development of labor under capitalism. Drawing on Antonio Gramsci, Karl Polanyi, and Nancy Fraser, the revised model highlights how state politics and ideologies have reshaped formal and informal labor to fuel evolving accumulation models since the 1950s. It also deepens our analysis of the potential and limits of labor's contemporary countermovements. Potential advances m…
Whatever Happened to Class: Reflections from South Asia
1. Introduction - Restoring Agency to Class: Puzzles from South Asia Ronald J. Herring and Rina Agarwala 2. On the Decline of Class Analysis in South Asian Studies Vivek Chibber 3. Was the Indian Labor Movement Ever Co-opted? Evaluating Standard Accounts Emmanuel Teitelbaum 4. From Work to Welfare: A New Class Movement in India Rina Agarwala 5. Middle-Class Activism and the Politics of the Informal Working Class: A Perspective on Class Relations …
Informal Workers’ Movements in India: Undervalued Dissent: Informal Workers’ Politics in India
The Employment Relationship and Movement Strategies among Domestic Workers in India
This article examines how paid domestic workers in India fight to reproduce themselves by attaining recognition for their employment relationship and struggling to advance their labor rights. We find a striking convergence toward female-dominated unions that articulate the recipient of domestic services as 'employers,' their employment relationship as an exploitative one in terms of time and dignity, and the household as a place of work and profi…
Using Legal Empowerment for Labour Rights in India
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 …
Capital, the Right, and a New Age for Labour Scholarship
It is fitting that the tenth anniversary of the Global Labour Journal (GLJ) coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of Milton Friedman's seminal essay entitled "The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits". The latter appears to be a retirement party, which leaves room for the former to be a coming of age celebration
The Migration-Development Regime: How Class Shapes Indian Emigration
How can we explain global migration from the perspective of sending states and migrants? The Migration-Development Regime introduces a novel analytical framework to answer this question in India, the world’s largest emigrant exporter and largest remittance-receiving country. Drawing on archives, a new database of transnational migrant organizations, and unique interviews with poor and elite emigrants, recruiters, and government officials, this bo…
A Forum on the Politics of Skills
The ILR Review invited this group of scholars who work within the fields of sociology, history, and urban planning to share their perspective on the politics of skills. We called on their expertise to draw attention to the politics that drive the definition and development of skill and its use in shaping the rights and voice of workers. The essays in this forum explore the politics of skill along three lines. First, they interrogate the definitio…
Book Forum on Labor Skills and Migration in India
The Role of Migration in Classes of Labour: Work and Life in a Central Indian Steel Town
Union‐Cooperative Collaborations: Toward a Global Framework of Analysis
Union‐cooperative collaborations, which first emerged in the 18th century, have witnessed a resurgence in recent years. Across the world, they have created new jobs, safeguarded worker‐owners facing exploitation, and reinvigorated community and labor movements. By combining cooperatives' democratizing ideals of self‐reliance and social security with union ideals of empowerment and mass organization, union‐cooperative collaborations hold immense p…
Experiments in power-building: An intellectual history and comparative framework for informal worker organizing
This special issue examines how contemporary organizations of informal workers have experimented with power-building strategies across countries, employment sectors, and time periods. Its findings hold important lessons for our attempts to adapt to changing political and institutional structures and ultimately build a new model of social justice. In this introductory article, we first offer an intellectual history and motivation for the special i…
Explaining informal workers’ organizing experiments: A cross-country study of Brazil, China, and India
Informal workers’ recent organizing efforts deserve our attention. They have defied the odds and launched alternative models that are more relevant to contemporary structures of globalized and neoliberal production than earlier industrial union-based organizing efforts. While some have succeeded in increasing protections and others have failed, all have relied on informal workers’ willingness to experiment with new organizational forms, rules, an…
Political science (19 works) · Law (17 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Economics (15 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (12 works) · Politics (12 works) · Political economy (10 works) · Labor Movements and Unions (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Labour economics (7 works)