Bhaskar Vira
Biographic Data
| ID | 750549 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bhaskar Vira |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bhaskar |
| FAMILY NAME | Vira |
| SIGNATURE | VIRA B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cambridge |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7766-6773 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 223 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Unveiling pervasive assumptions
This paper reflects on the continued persistence of the idea in conservation research and practice that poverty drives biodiversity loss (the poverty-biodiversity loss association [PBLA]). We draw on evidence to show how the PBLA has proven resistant to counter-evidence and is particularly visible at local-level implementation, and is often implicit in conservation strategies. We untangle three underlying reasons that help to explain why the PBLA…
Where Nature and Poverty Meet
Despite the intrinsic relationships between the natural environment, poverty and human wellbeing, measures of poverty do not adequately account for environmental dimensions of wellbeing. This paper furthers theoretical debates about environment-poverty relationships by developing environmental dimensions and indicators for integration into multidimensional poverty indices. We demonstrate that this integration is practically possible using public …
The comparative performance of land sharing, land sparing type interventions on place‐based human well‐being
Environment‐facing interventions impact the distribution, use of and access of natural resources and have important implications for all dimensions (material, relational, quality of life) of human well‐being (HWB). Yet conventional impact metrics routinely surpass the non‐material impacts which may be particularly salient in rural contexts where small‐scale farmers depend directly on the land and biodiversity. Furthermore, little is known about t…
Offline contexts of online jobs
Young people not in Employment, Education or Training (Neet) in Sub-Saharan Africa
Sustainable Development Goal 8, Target 8.6, represents a direct commitment to improving the dramatic labour market situation of young people by substantially reducing the proportion of young people Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) by 2020. This deadline has now passed, and while progress has been made in most EU countries, the situation of young people categorized as NEET in Sub-Saharan Africa has worsened over the past ten years. …
Characterizing and Evaluating Integrated Landscape Initiatives
Protecting half of the planet could directly affect over one billion people
A political ecology of water and small-town urbanisation across the lower Himalayas
Exploring natural capital using bibliometrics and social media data
Research and interest into natural capital, i.e., the stock of the world's natural resources, is increasing as it links humans with nature within a social-ecological system, contributing to ecosystem sustainability. We collected publication data for 300 natural capital papers to explore academic networks and research trends. We used Twitter to collect 14,193 tweets about natural capital over nine months. Analyzing publication data shows three mai…
Will the Sustainable Development Goals address the links between poverty and the natural environment
The relationships between the natural environment and poverty have been a central theme in the sustainability and development literatures. However, they have been less influential in mainstream international development and conservation policies, which often neglect or fail to adequately address these relationships. This paper examines how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) may influence the framing of environment–poverty relationships. We …
Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Medals and Awards celebration 2018
The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) annual Medals and Awards recognise achievements in researching, communicating and teaching a wide range of geographical knowledge. The speeches and citations are a record of the 2018 celebration, with contributions from Professors Wendy Larner, Mark Macklin, Yadvinder Malhi, Bhaskar Vira, and Paul Rose. The speeches include comments on: the importance of geography for solving the most pressing of societal…
Mainstreaming investments in watershed services to enhance water security
Poorer without It? The Neglected Role of the Natural Environment in Poverty and Wellbeing
The relationship between sustainable development's prime goal, human wellbeing, and the natural environment has been narrowly conceived. This paper focuses on the possibility and the implications of treating the natural environment as a ‘constituent’, or internal element, of the concepts of wellbeing and poverty, as opposed to a ‘determinant’, or instrumental, external factor. Our review of philosophical accounts and conceptual frameworks of well…
Introduction to the Basas 2016 Special Issue
This special issue of Contemporary South Asia consists of five papers that were presented at the Annual Conference of the British Association of South Asian Studies (BASAS), which was held at Fitzw
Working at the margins? Muslim middle class professionals in India and the limits of 'labour agency
This paper explores the work-lives of middle class Muslim professionals in India's new service economy. While these workers have successfully negotiated labour market entry into the 'core' growth sectors of India's globalising economy, they are simultaneously subject to different forms of social, cultural and political marginalisation. Strikingly, they also remain at the margins of both economic geography and development geography scholarship. Th…
Investigating consistency of a pro-market perspective amongst conservationists
While biodiversity conservation has had a longstanding relationship with markets, the recent past has seen a proliferation of novel market-based instruments in conservation such as payments for ecosystem services. Whilst a number of conservation organisations have aligned themselves with this 'neoliberal' shift, relatively few studies interrogate the extent to which this move resonates with the values held by conservation professionals. An earlie…
Research priorities for managing the impacts and dependencies of business upon food, energy, water and the environment
Delivering access to sufficient food, energy and water resources to ensure human wellbeing is a major concern for governments worldwide. However, it is crucial to account for the 'nexus' of interactions between these natural resources and the consequent implications for human wellbeing. The private sector has a critical role in driving positive change towards more sustainable nexus management and could reap considerable benefits from collaboratio…
Does environmental certification in coffee promote “business as usual”? A case study from the Western Ghats, India
The politics of negotiation and implementation
Kovacs, E. K., C. Kumar, C. Agarwal, W. M. Adams, R. A. Hope, and B. Vira. 2016. The politics of negotiation and implementation: a reciprocal water access agreement in the Himalayan foothills, India. Ecology and Society 21(2):37.http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-08462-210237
Natural capital and ecosystem services informing decisions
The central challenge of the 21st century is to develop economic, social, and governance systems capable of ending poverty and achieving sustainable levels of population and consumption while securing the life-support systems underpinning current and future human well-being. Essential to meeting this challenge is the incorporation of natural capital and the ecosystem services it provides into decision-making. We explore progress and crucial gaps …
Taking Natural Limits Seriously
This article explores how thinking about ecological limits, thresholds and boundaries has evolved in the last few decades, and explores the analytical and political possibilities that emerge if development studies scholars engage with these ideas. It makes the case for an engaged political economy approach, which focuses on understanding how finite resources at a variety of scales are shared between the competing claims of different groups in soc…
Creating win-wins from trade-offs? Ecosystem services for human well-being
Ecosystem services can provide a wide range of benefits for human well-being, including provisioning, regulating and cultural services and benefitting both private and public interests in different sectors of society. Biophysical, economic and social factors all make it unlikely that multiple needs will be met simultaneously without deliberate efforts, yet while there is still much interest in developing win-win outcomes there is little understan…
Geographies of corporate practice in development
Payments for ecosystem services and the fatal attraction of win‐win solutions
In this commentary we critically discuss the suitability of payments for ecosystem services and the most important challenges they face. While such instruments can play a role in improving environmental governance, we argue that over‐reliance on payments as win‐win solutions might lead to ineffective outcomes, similar to earlier experience with integrated conservation and development projects. Our objective is to raise awareness, particularly amo…
What do conservationists think about markets
Creating win-wins from trade-offs? Ecosystem services for human well-being
Ecosystem services can provide a wide range of benefits for human well-being, including provisioning, regulating and cultural services and benefitting both private and public interests in different sectors of society. Biophysical, economic and social factors all make it unlikely that multiple needs will be met simultaneously without deliberate efforts, yet while there is still much interest in developing win-win outcomes there is little understan…
What do conservationists think about markets
Poorer without It? The Neglected Role of the Natural Environment in Poverty and Wellbeing
The relationship between sustainable development's prime goal, human wellbeing, and the natural environment has been narrowly conceived. This paper focuses on the possibility and the implications of treating the natural environment as a ‘constituent’, or internal element, of the concepts of wellbeing and poverty, as opposed to a ‘determinant’, or instrumental, external factor. Our review of philosophical accounts and conceptual frameworks of well…
Protecting half of the planet could directly affect over one billion people
Labour geographies of India’s new service economy
The last two decades have seen a profound shift in how labour is spatially conceptualized and understood within economic geography, based on a recognition of workers' abilities to fashion the geography of capitalism to suit their own needs. However, the bulk of work in labour geography fails to examine worker agency beyond a narrow focus on the trade union movement, largely divorces workers' activities from the sphere of social reproduction, and …
Researching hybrid ‘economic’/‘development’ geographies in practice
In an increasingly globalized world, the long-standing intellectual division of labour between ‘economic’ geographers and ‘development’ scholars is becoming less tenable. This paper explores some of the practical implications and synergistic outcomes of developing a hybrid economic/development geography ‘trading zone’. Drawing on experiences from our collaborative research on India’s new service economy, we reflect on: our intellectual journey th…
Marginality, Agency and Power
Working at the margins? Muslim middle class professionals in India and the limits of 'labour agency
This paper explores the work-lives of middle class Muslim professionals in India's new service economy. While these workers have successfully negotiated labour market entry into the 'core' growth sectors of India's globalising economy, they are simultaneously subject to different forms of social, cultural and political marginalisation. Strikingly, they also remain at the margins of both economic geography and development geography scholarship. Th…
Young people not in Employment, Education or Training (Neet) in Sub-Saharan Africa
Sustainable Development Goal 8, Target 8.6, represents a direct commitment to improving the dramatic labour market situation of young people by substantially reducing the proportion of young people Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) by 2020. This deadline has now passed, and while progress has been made in most EU countries, the situation of young people categorized as NEET in Sub-Saharan Africa has worsened over the past ten years. …
Unionising’ the new spaces of the new economy? Alternative labour organising in India’s IT Enabled Services–Business Process Outsourcing industry
Mainstreaming investments in watershed services to enhance water security
Will the Sustainable Development Goals address the links between poverty and the natural environment
The relationships between the natural environment and poverty have been a central theme in the sustainability and development literatures. However, they have been less influential in mainstream international development and conservation policies, which often neglect or fail to adequately address these relationships. This paper examines how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) may influence the framing of environment–poverty relationships. We …
A political ecology of water and small-town urbanisation across the lower Himalayas
Building Cross-Sector Careers in India's New Service Economy? Tracking Former Call Centre Agents in the National Capital Region
This article presents findings from a labour mobility survey of 250 former call centre agents in India's National Capital Region (September 2008) exploring individuals' employment before, during and immediately after leaving India's high-profile call centre 'industry'. These data are combined with forty-two in-depth interviews conducted in India's NCR (July 2006 to August 2008) with call centre agents, managers, ex-call centre agents, labour orga…
Politics of citizenship
This introduction discusses the articles in this Special Issue, which are all focused on exploring the everyday interactions between marginalised individuals and groups and the state in contemporary India. In particular the articles highlight the experiences of a diverse set of marginalised groups – Muslim artisans and weavers, Dalits, Tibetan exiles and post-conflict victims in Gujarat – in order to work towards an understanding of the politics …
Research priorities for managing the impacts and dependencies of business upon food, energy, water and the environment
Delivering access to sufficient food, energy and water resources to ensure human wellbeing is a major concern for governments worldwide. However, it is crucial to account for the 'nexus' of interactions between these natural resources and the consequent implications for human wellbeing. The private sector has a critical role in driving positive change towards more sustainable nexus management and could reap considerable benefits from collaboratio…
The politics of negotiation and implementation
Kovacs, E. K., C. Kumar, C. Agarwal, W. M. Adams, R. A. Hope, and B. Vira. 2016. The politics of negotiation and implementation: a reciprocal water access agreement in the Himalayan foothills, India. Ecology and Society 21(2):37.http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-08462-210237
Exploring natural capital using bibliometrics and social media data
Research and interest into natural capital, i.e., the stock of the world's natural resources, is increasing as it links humans with nature within a social-ecological system, contributing to ecosystem sustainability. We collected publication data for 300 natural capital papers to explore academic networks and research trends. We used Twitter to collect 14,193 tweets about natural capital over nine months. Analyzing publication data shows three mai…
Does environmental certification in coffee promote “business as usual”? A case study from the Western Ghats, India
Taking Natural Limits Seriously
This article explores how thinking about ecological limits, thresholds and boundaries has evolved in the last few decades, and explores the analytical and political possibilities that emerge if development studies scholars engage with these ideas. It makes the case for an engaged political economy approach, which focuses on understanding how finite resources at a variety of scales are shared between the competing claims of different groups in soc…
Geographies of corporate practice in development
Managing Tragedies
Conflicts over the management of common pool resources are not simply material. They also depend on the perceptions of the protagonists. Policy to improve management often assumes that problems are self-evident, but in fact careful and transparent consideration of the ways different stakeholders understand management problems is essential to effective dialogue.
Biodiversity Conservation and the Eradication of Poverty
It is widely accepted that biodiversity loss and poverty are linked problems and that conservation and poverty reduction should be tackled together. However, success with integrated strategies is elusive. There is sharp debate about the social impacts of conservation programs and the success of community-based approaches to conservation. Clear conceptual frameworks are needed if policies in these two areas are to be combined. We review the links …
Introduction to the British Association for South Asian Studies annual special issue
This paper introduces the British Association for South Asian Studies special issue of Contemporary South Asia. Contributions to this volume have been made based on papers presented by participants at the 21st British Association for South Asian Studies Annual Conference held in Cambridge in March 2007. The papers in the collection reflect on different aspects of identity in the contemporary South Asian context, focusing on caste, religion, gende…
Unionising’ the new spaces of the new economy? Alternative labour organising in India’s IT Enabled Services–Business Process Outsourcing industry
Biodiversity Conservation
Biodiversity Convention In October 2010, the Convention on Biological Diversity will meet to assess the current condition of global biodiversity and to propose and agree on priorities for its future conservation. In this context, Rands et al. (p. 1298 ; see the News Focus section ; see the cover) review recent patterns of biodiversity conservation, highlighting successes, as well as current and future threats. They argue that biodiversity should …
Researching hybrid ‘economic’/‘development’ geographies in practice
In an increasingly globalized world, the long-standing intellectual division of labour between ‘economic’ geographers and ‘development’ scholars is becoming less tenable. This paper explores some of the practical implications and synergistic outcomes of developing a hybrid economic/development geography ‘trading zone’. Drawing on experiences from our collaborative research on India’s new service economy, we reflect on: our intellectual journey th…
Politics of citizenship
This introduction discusses the articles in this Special Issue, which are all focused on exploring the everyday interactions between marginalised individuals and groups and the state in contemporary India. In particular the articles highlight the experiences of a diverse set of marginalised groups – Muslim artisans and weavers, Dalits, Tibetan exiles and post-conflict victims in Gujarat – in order to work towards an understanding of the politics …
Marginality, Agency and Power
Labour geographies of India’s new service economy
The last two decades have seen a profound shift in how labour is spatially conceptualized and understood within economic geography, based on a recognition of workers' abilities to fashion the geography of capitalism to suit their own needs. However, the bulk of work in labour geography fails to examine worker agency beyond a narrow focus on the trade union movement, largely divorces workers' activities from the sphere of social reproduction, and …
Building Cross-Sector Careers in India's New Service Economy? Tracking Former Call Centre Agents in the National Capital Region
This article presents findings from a labour mobility survey of 250 former call centre agents in India's National Capital Region (September 2008) exploring individuals' employment before, during and immediately after leaving India's high-profile call centre 'industry'. These data are combined with forty-two in-depth interviews conducted in India's NCR (July 2006 to August 2008) with call centre agents, managers, ex-call centre agents, labour orga…
Payments for ecosystem services and the fatal attraction of win‐win solutions
In this commentary we critically discuss the suitability of payments for ecosystem services and the most important challenges they face. While such instruments can play a role in improving environmental governance, we argue that over‐reliance on payments as win‐win solutions might lead to ineffective outcomes, similar to earlier experience with integrated conservation and development projects. Our objective is to raise awareness, particularly amo…
What do conservationists think about markets
Creating win-wins from trade-offs? Ecosystem services for human well-being
Ecosystem services can provide a wide range of benefits for human well-being, including provisioning, regulating and cultural services and benefitting both private and public interests in different sectors of society. Biophysical, economic and social factors all make it unlikely that multiple needs will be met simultaneously without deliberate efforts, yet while there is still much interest in developing win-win outcomes there is little understan…
Geographies of corporate practice in development
Natural capital and ecosystem services informing decisions
The central challenge of the 21st century is to develop economic, social, and governance systems capable of ending poverty and achieving sustainable levels of population and consumption while securing the life-support systems underpinning current and future human well-being. Essential to meeting this challenge is the incorporation of natural capital and the ecosystem services it provides into decision-making. We explore progress and crucial gaps …
Taking Natural Limits Seriously
This article explores how thinking about ecological limits, thresholds and boundaries has evolved in the last few decades, and explores the analytical and political possibilities that emerge if development studies scholars engage with these ideas. It makes the case for an engaged political economy approach, which focuses on understanding how finite resources at a variety of scales are shared between the competing claims of different groups in soc…
Investigating consistency of a pro-market perspective amongst conservationists
While biodiversity conservation has had a longstanding relationship with markets, the recent past has seen a proliferation of novel market-based instruments in conservation such as payments for ecosystem services. Whilst a number of conservation organisations have aligned themselves with this 'neoliberal' shift, relatively few studies interrogate the extent to which this move resonates with the values held by conservation professionals. An earlie…
Research priorities for managing the impacts and dependencies of business upon food, energy, water and the environment
Delivering access to sufficient food, energy and water resources to ensure human wellbeing is a major concern for governments worldwide. However, it is crucial to account for the 'nexus' of interactions between these natural resources and the consequent implications for human wellbeing. The private sector has a critical role in driving positive change towards more sustainable nexus management and could reap considerable benefits from collaboratio…
Does environmental certification in coffee promote “business as usual”? A case study from the Western Ghats, India
The politics of negotiation and implementation
Kovacs, E. K., C. Kumar, C. Agarwal, W. M. Adams, R. A. Hope, and B. Vira. 2016. The politics of negotiation and implementation: a reciprocal water access agreement in the Himalayan foothills, India. Ecology and Society 21(2):37.http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-08462-210237
Mainstreaming investments in watershed services to enhance water security
Poorer without It? The Neglected Role of the Natural Environment in Poverty and Wellbeing
The relationship between sustainable development's prime goal, human wellbeing, and the natural environment has been narrowly conceived. This paper focuses on the possibility and the implications of treating the natural environment as a ‘constituent’, or internal element, of the concepts of wellbeing and poverty, as opposed to a ‘determinant’, or instrumental, external factor. Our review of philosophical accounts and conceptual frameworks of well…
Introduction to the Basas 2016 Special Issue
This special issue of Contemporary South Asia consists of five papers that were presented at the Annual Conference of the British Association of South Asian Studies (BASAS), which was held at Fitzw
Working at the margins? Muslim middle class professionals in India and the limits of 'labour agency
This paper explores the work-lives of middle class Muslim professionals in India's new service economy. While these workers have successfully negotiated labour market entry into the 'core' growth sectors of India's globalising economy, they are simultaneously subject to different forms of social, cultural and political marginalisation. Strikingly, they also remain at the margins of both economic geography and development geography scholarship. Th…
Will the Sustainable Development Goals address the links between poverty and the natural environment
The relationships between the natural environment and poverty have been a central theme in the sustainability and development literatures. However, they have been less influential in mainstream international development and conservation policies, which often neglect or fail to adequately address these relationships. This paper examines how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) may influence the framing of environment–poverty relationships. We …
Economics (25 works) · Political science (24 works) · Business (16 works) · Geography (16 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Economic growth (15 works) · Environmental resource management (15 works) · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management (14 works) · Ecology (12 works) · Computer Science (10 works)