Suraj Jacob

Areas of Interest & Expertise

  • Political Economy of Development
  • Policy Processes
  • Institutions and Institutional Change

Biography

Suraj Jacob is a visiting faculty with the School of Development.

Suraj was trained as a political economist and now uses inter-disciplinary perspectives. He was educated in India, England and the US, and holds a PhD in Economics from Stanford University. Suraj taught for some years in the US. He has also worked with NGOs in India and the US. Suraj worked as chief executive of Vidya Bhawan, Udaipur in 2017 – 19. He teaches courses on policy practices, evaluation, and policy change. His academic work explores the nature of injustice’, social processes and state practices around it, and their dynamics of change. His latest work (co-authored) is Governing Locally: Institutions, Policies and Implementation in Indian Cities (CUP2021).

Courses

Publications

  • Jacob, B., & Jacob, S. (2021). Governing Locally: Institutions, Policies and Implementation in Indian Cities. Cambridge University Press. 
  • Jacob, S., Natrajan, B., & Ajay, T. G. (2021). Why don’t they use the toilet built for them?’: Explaining toilet use in Chhattisgarh, Central India. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 55(1), 89 – 115
  • Jacob, S. & Natrajan, B. (2020) Deepening divides: The caste, class and regional face of vegetarianism. Economic & Political Weekly, 55(15), 21 – 24.
  • Jacob, S., & Chattopadhyay, S. (2019). Speaking of abuse: The pyramid of reporting domestic violence in India. Economic & Political Weekly, 54(1), 53 – 61.
  • Jacob, S. (2019). Party types and electoral performance across states, 1980 – 2016. In How India Votes: A State-by-State Look (pp. 95 – 124). Orient Blackswan.
  • Jacob, S. (2018). Knowledge, framing, and ethics in programme design and evaluation. In Ethics in Public Health Practice in India (pp. 45 – 61). Springer.
  • Jacob, S., & Viswanatha, V. (2018). Gender and Indian literary awards. Economic & Political Weekly, 53(25), 23 – 27.
  • Chattopadhyay, S., Mishra, A., & Jacob, S. (2018). Safe’, yet violent? Women’s experiences with obstetric violence during hospital births in rural Northeast India. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 20(7), 815 – 829.
  • Natrajan, B., & Jacob, S. (2018). Provincialising’ vegetarianism putting Indian food habits in their place. Economic and Political Weekly, 53(9), 54 – 64.
  • Scherpereel, J. A., Adams, M., & Jacob, S. (2018). Ratchets and see-Saws: Divergent institutional patterns in women’s political representation. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, 4, 1 – 13.
  • Konkipudi, K., & Jacob, S. (2017). Political pressures and bureaucratic consequences: Vignettes of Janmabhoomi implementation in Andhra Pradesh. Studies in Indian Politics, 5(1), 1 – 17.
  • Jacob, S., Scherpereel, J. A., & Adams, M. (2017). Will rising powers undermine global norms? The case of gender-balanced decision-making. European Journal of International Relations, 23(4), 780 – 808.
  • Jacob, S. (2016). Development’ as state identity? Locating the state vis-a-vis development reality in India. Brown Journal of World Affairs 23(1), 205 – 222.
  • Jacob, S., & Chattopadhyay, S. (2016). Marriage dissolution in India. Economic & Political Weekly, 51(33), 25 – 27.
  • Adams, M., Scherpereel, J., & Jacob, S. (2016). The representation of women in African legislatures and cabinets: An examination with reference to Ghana. Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 37(2), 145 – 167.
  • Jacob, S., Natrajan, B., & Patil, I. (2015). Explaining village-level development trajectories through schooling in Karnataka. Economic and Political Weekly, 50(52), 54 – 64.
  • Ayyangar, S., & Jacob, S. (2015). Question hour activity and party behaviour in India. The Journal of Legislative Studies, 21(2), 232 – 249.
  • Jacob, S. (2015). What do we know about village-level change and stasis in India?. India Review, 14(4), 399 – 418.
  • Jacob, S. (2015). Towards a comparative subnational perspective on India. Studies in Indian Politics, 3(2), 229 – 246.
  • Ayyangar, S., & Jacob, S. (2014). Studying the Indian legislature: What does question hour reveal?. Studies in Indian Politics, 2(1), 1 – 19.
  • Jacob, S., Scherpereel, J. A., & Adams, M. (2014). Gender norms and women’s political representation: A global analysis of cabinets, 1979 – 2009. Governance, 27(2), 321 – 345.
  • Jacob, S. (2014). Gender and legislative performance in India. Politics & Gender, 10(2), 236 – 264.
  • Jacob, S. (2014). The Kerala régime and regional disparities in health infrastructure versus outcomes. India Review, 13(1), 58 – 77.