Dr Jens Lerche | Staff | SOAS University of London

Department of Development Studies

Reader in Agrarian and Labour studies

SOAS South Asia Institute

Academic Staff, SOAS South Asia Institute

Agrarian Change and Development

Research Cluster Member

Neoliberalism, Globalisation, and States

Research Cluster Member

Labour, Movements and Development

Research Cluster Member

Name:: Dr Jens Lerche
Email address:: jl2@soas.ac.uk
Telephone:: 020 7898 4505
Address:: SOAS University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
Building:: Russell Square: College Buildings
Office No:: 295
Academic Support Hours:: Wednesdays 12-2pm (by appointment: goo.gl/HhQNsB)

Biography

Jens has an MA and PhD in Social Geography from the University of Copenhagen, His research focuses on India. His research interests include the political economy of agrarian transformation, and class and caste relations in agrarian transition; the political economy of labour relations, unfree labour and rural labour migration; and struggles, movements and labour organisations; and the role of the ILO. Recent publications include the co-authored volume Ground Down by Growth. Tribe, Caste, Class, and Inequality in Twenty-First Century India; and articles on class, caste and social mobilisation, and on agrarian transition and agrarian crisis an Indian context,. He is editor of the Journal of Agrarian Change. His present research is on inequality and poverty of Dalits and Adivasis in India, funded by the ESRC and ERC.

Teaching

Modules Taught

Agrarian Development, Food Policy and Rural Poverty

PhD Students supervised

Enrique Castañon ,
Joe Buckley, The relationship between changing working conditions and forms of labour activism in southern Vietnam's garment and textile industry
Muhtar Habibi, Agrarian Capitalism in Neoliberal Indonesia: Class, Production and Reproduction
Prince Asafu-Adjaye, Trade Union Responses to Neoliberalism in Ghana
Roshni Menon, Land-pooling for the ‘smart city’ of Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh: Inclusive development or land dispossession in a different guise?
Shreya Sinha, Agrarian Accumulation in Liberalised India: A Study of Capitalist Farmers in Punjab

Other Modules Taught:

Theory, Policy and Practice of Development

Labour, Social Movements and Development

Introduction to Political Economy of Development

Research

Jens has researched extensively in northern India since the early 1990s, with particular interests in agrarian change, caste and labour relations, including seasonal domestic labour migration. He has also undertaken many shorter field research visits to many other parts of India and in 2000-2002 he worked as Governance Advisor for the Great Lakes (Africa) region in the Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK government.

Expertise

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Available for

Briefings
Short Term Consultancy

Regional Expertise

Oceania

Country Expertise

India

Languages

Publications

Authored Books

Alpa, Shah and Lerche, Jens and Axelby, Richard and Benbabaali, Delel and Donegan, Brendan and Raj, Jayaseelan and Thakur, Vikramaditya (2018) Ground Down by Growth. Tribe, Caste, Class, and Inequality in Twenty-First Century India. London and New delhi: Pluto Press and Oxford University Press (India).

Shah, Alpa and Lerche, Jens and Axelby, Richard and Denbabaali, D. and Donegan, B. and Raj, J. and Thakur, Vineet (2017) Ground Down by Growth: Inequality in 21st century India. London: Pluto.

Articles

Lerche, Jens and Shah, Alpa (2018) 'Conjugated Oppression under Contemporary Capitalism: Class Relations, Social Oppression and Agrarian Change in India'. Journal of Peasant Studies, (45) 5, pp 927-949.

Lerche, Jens and Alpa, Shah (2018) 'Conjugated oppression within contemporary capitalism: class, caste, tribe and agrarian change in India'. Journal of Peasant Studies, (45) 5-6, pp 927-949.

Campling, Liam and Jens, Lerche (2016) 'Introduction to the Special Issue: The Political Economy of Agrarian Change: Essays in Appreciation of Henry Bernstein'. Journal of Agrarian Change, (16) 3, pp 365-369.

Lerche, Jens and Shah, Alpa and Harriss-White, Barbara (2013) 'Introduction: Agrarian Questions and Left Politics in India'. Journal of Agrarian Change, (13) 3, pp 337-350.

Lerche, Jens (2013) 'The Agrarian Question in Neoliberal India: Agrarian Transition Bypassed?'. Journal of Agrarian Change, (13) 3, pp 382-404.

Lerche, Jens (2012) 'Labour Regulations and Labour Standards in India: Decent Work?'. Global Labour Journal, (3) 1, pp 16-39.

Lerche, Jens and Guérin, Isabelle and Srivastava, Ravi (2012) 'Guest editors' introduction'. Global Labour Journal, (3) 1, pp 1-15.

Lerche, Jens (2012) 'Questioni agrarie o questioni del lavoro? La questione agraria e la sue irrilevanza per il lavoro rurale nell'India neo-liberista'. Soliolologia Del Lavoro 128, pp 76-105.

Lerche, Jens (2011) 'Agrarian Crisis and Agrarian Questions in India'. Journal of Agrarian Change, (11) 1, pp 104-118.

Lerche, Jens (2008) 'Is Forced Labour an Isolated Problem in Developing Countries?'. Development Viewpoint 8.

Lerche, Jens (2008) 'Transnational Advocacy Networks and Affirmative Action for Dalits in India'. Development and Change, (39) 2, pp 239-261.

Lerche, Jens (2007) 'A Global Alliance against Forced Labour? Unfree Labour, Neo-Liberal Globalization and the International Labour Organization'. Journal of Agrarian Change, (7) 4, pp 424-52.

Lerche, Jens (2000) 'Stating the Difference: State, Discourse and Class Reproduction in Uttar Pradesh, India'. Development and Change, (31, no), pp 857-87.

Lerche, Jens (1999) 'Politics of the poor: Agriculture Labourers and Political Transformations in North India'. Journal of Peasant Studies, (26 N 2), pp 182-241.

Kapadia, Karen and Lerche, Jens (1999) 'Introduction'. Journal of Peasant Studies, (26) 2/3, pp 1-9.

Lerche, Jens (1998) 'Agricultural Labourers, the State and Agrarian Transition in Uttar Pradesh'. Economic and Political Weekly, (33) 13, pp A29-A35.

Lerche, Jens (1997) 'Is Bonded Labour a Bound category? Reconceptualising Agrarian Conflict in India'. Journal of Peasant Studies, (22) 3, pp 484-515.

Edited Books or Journals

Jeffery, Roger and Jeffrey, Craig and Lerche, Jens, (eds.), (2014) Development Failure and Identity Politics in Uttar Pradesh. Delhi: Sage.

Jeffery, R and Lerche, J, (eds.), (2003) Social and Political Change in Uttar Pradesh. New Delhi: Manohar (India).

Byres, T.J. and Kapadia, Karin and Lerche, Jens, (eds.), (1999) Rural Labour Relations in India. London: Frank Cass. (Libraby of Peasant Studies).

Book Chapters

Lerche, Jens (2014) 'Regional patterns of agrarian accumulation in India'. In: Heyer, Judith and Harriss-White, Barbara, (eds.), Indian Capitalism in Development. London: Routledge, pp 46-65.

Lerche, Jens (2010) 'From ‘Rural Labour’ to ‘Classes of Labour’: Class Fragmentation, Caste and Class Struggle at the Bottom of the Indian Labour Hierarchy'. In: Harriss-White, Barbara and Heyer, Judith, (eds.), The Comparative Political Economy of Development. Africa and South Asia. London: Routledge, pp 66-87.

Lerche, Jens and Jeffery, R. (2003) 'Uttar Pradesh: Into the Twenty-First Century'. In: Lerche, J. and Jeffery, R., (eds.), Social and Political Change in Uttar Pradesh. European Perspectives.. New Delhi: Manohar, pp 17-53.

Lerche, Jens (2003) 'Hamlet, Village and Region: Caste and Class Differences between Low-Caste Mobilization in East and West UP'. In: Lerche, J. and Jeffery, R., (eds.), Social and Political Change in Uttar Pradesh. European Perspectives.. New Delhi: Manohar, pp 181-198.

Lerche, Jens (2000) 'Dimensions of Dominance: Class and State in Uttar Pradesh'. In: Fuller, C.J. and Bénéï, V., (eds.), The Everyday State and Society in Modern India. Delhi: Social Science Press, pp 91-114.