Arun Agrawal

Arun Agrawal is well rounded with a research background and extensive knowledge in many different areas of academics. As a political scientist he is internationally renowned. However, in the newly developing field of environmental governance he is even more highly respected. Agrawal has a knack for taking complex ideas from different academic fields such as environmental science, economics, and political science, and drawing connections in simple language. He has given lectures and presentations on his research at conferences and events all over the world. In the field of environmental governance his work is widely read, discussed, and quoted and has been cited over 600 times.[2]

He is currently a Professor in the School of Natural Resources & Environment at the University of Michigan. His research and teachings emphasize on the politics of international development, institutional change, conservation, and environmental governance. He has written extensively on indigenous knowledge, community-based conservation, common property, population, resources, and environmental identities. Recently his interests have been focused around the decentralization of environmental policy, and the surfacing of environment as a subject of human concern. Geographically, he is focused on South Asia, although recent projects have included other developing countries in both Africa and Latin America. [3]

Contents

Background

  • Early Life
Arun Agrawal was born and grew up in the state Bihar in India. In Bihar Agrawal completed his primary and secondary education, as well as his Bachelor of Arts degree and his Masters degree.[4]
  • Inspirations
After completing his Bachelor of Arts degree in History at the University of Delhi Arun Agrawal first enrolled in the business Masters program at the Indian Institute of Management he planned on studying marketing, but after completing a marketing internship after his first year he realized that this was not the right field for him. The Indian Institute of Management also offered business a Masters program called Development Administration and Public Policy with a focus on the management of the delivery of public services and using management of people and resources to contribute to business efforts; Agrawal was greatly interested by this field so he switched out of marketing and completed his masters in Development Administration and Public Policy.[4]
  • Interests
Arun's primary interests include adaptation and climate change, forests and communities, and poverty and rural social life. In his free time, away from teaching, writing, and traveling, he enjoys hunting mushrooms, baking bread, playing the piano, learning French, and spending time with his wife and eight year old daughter.[5]

Education

  • Ph. D - Political Science, Duke University 1992
  • MA - Political Science, Duke University 1988
  • MBA - Development Administration and Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management, India, 1985
  • BA - History, Delhi University, India, 1983 [6]

Work History

Positions Held

  • 1993 to 1997, Agrawal was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Florida
  • 1997 to 2000, Agrawal was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Yale University
  • 2000 to 2002, Agrawal was an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Yale University
  • 2002 to 2003, Agrawal was an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and McGill School of Environment at McGill University
  • 2003 to 2008, Agrawal was the Associate Professor of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan
  • 2009 to 2011, Agrawal was the Research Associate Dean in the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan
  • 2008 to present, Agrawal is currently a Professor in the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan [6]

Field Experience

  • 1985: Agrawal spent two months in India working with grassroots development organizations in social forestry.
  • 1989-1990: Agrawal spent 12 months in the Thar Desert and in the India's Western Himalayas researching the role of community. institutions in the use of commonly owned fodder and fuel resources. After the conclusion of this field work Arun proceeded to stay an additional four months in the Thar Desert to observe and research the Raika migrant shepherd community.
  • 1990: Agrawal researched in Bhutan on indigenous institutions of forest resource use.
  • 1993: Agrawal spent 2 months in Western Himalayas in India on village forest Councils.
  • 2002-2003: Agrawal is a member of the Laboritory in Comparative Ethnic Processes in addition to being part of the editorial board for Conservation and Society, Human Ecology, and Studies in comparative International Development.
  • 2006-2008: Agrawal is a member of the International Dissertation Research Fellowship (IDRF) selection committee, on the Social Science Research Council.
  • 2006-present: Agrawal is a coordinator for the International Forestry Resource and Institutions Program [6]

Awards and Grants

Arun Agrawal has a large variety of awards and grants. His most recent grant, from the Gates Foundation in June 2011, will allow him to conduct research on some of the world’s poorest families. He will be analyzing how marginalized people strive for agricultural development in order to understand how governments can assist them in these risky endeavors.[7]

Some of his other recent awards and grants include:
  • 2011-12: John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellow.
  • 2011-13: (PI) Studying Poverty, Agricultural Risks and Coping Strategies (SPARCS), Gates Foundation, 146K.
  • 2011-14: (UM PI) The Emergence of Adaptive Governance Arrangements for Tropical Forest Ecosystems, NSF, 161K
  • 2011-14: (Co-PI) Great Lakes Assessment for Adaptation in Cities (GLAA-C), Kresge Foundation, (PI Donald Scavia), 600K
  • 2010-13: (Co-PI) 3IE. Livelihoods, biodiversity, and carbon in forest commons in Tanzania. (PI – Lauren Persha) 399K
  • 2010-12: (Co-PI) NSF, SBER: “Do Institutions Affect the Attitudes and Behavior of Constituents? Evidence from an Environmental Management Program in India (PI – Elisabeth Gerber, Co-PI Ashwini Chhatre) 200K.
  • 2010-12: (PI) McIntire-Stennis. Passive forest management and forest quality.” (Co-PI Lauren Persha). 60K.
  • 2010-11: (Co-PI) CCAFS/UVM. Governance, institutions and incentives for climate change mitigation and livelihoods at the forest-farm interface. (PI – Lauren Persha) 117K.
  • 2009-12 (Co-PI): NASA-LCLUC: (Grassland Ecosystems and Societal Adaptations Under Changing Grazing Intensity and Climate on the Mongolian Plateau. (PI -- Daniel Brown, Co-PIs - A. Agrawal, K. Bergen, Y. Xie, W. Welsh (EMU) (900K)
  • 2008-10: (PI) Exploring the Conservation Investments Landscape and the Role of Aid in the effectiveness of Conservation Programs. Advancing Conservation in a Social Context, University of Arizona (75K)
  • 2007-12: (PI) NSF, CNH: “Environmental Governance, Forests, and Logging Concessions:The Effects of Institutional Complexity on Forest Systems, Cover and Change in Central Africa.” (Co-PIs – Daniel Brown, Rebecca Hardin, Tom Lyon, and Rick Riolo) (1,497K.)
  • 2007-10: (PI) Ford Foundation. Support for the International Forest Resources and Institutions Program. (250K) [8]

Publications

Throughout his impressive career he has published journal articles, books, and edited collections. His peers describe him as a scholarly leader whose work is highly respected, profound, influential, and important. Some of his most recent work has been published in journals such as Science, Conservation Biology, World Development, and PNAS.[9] In his influential book Environmentality: Technologies of Government and the Making of Subjects, Professor Agrawal recalls his trips to Kumaon, India to assess the environmental crises that the indigenous people faced in the ineffective management of their forests.[10] Agrawal explains that in order to successfully conserve community forests three factors must be taken into account: biodiversity conservation, carbon storage, and livelihood benefits in forests. These concepts are highlighted in this Video interview with Professor Agrawal.[11]

In a recent publication in Nature, Professor Agrawal explores the positive side of disaster. His case study of a 1998 hurricane in Honduras reveals how communities are forced into a revamping of the socio-economic order, as the picture on the right shows. According to Professor Agrawal, natural disasters like this set the stage for alternative social trajectories.[12]

Books

  • 2005: Environmentality: Technologies of Government And The Making of Subjects, Duke University Press, Durham, ISBN 0822334801
Summary
In Environmentality: Technologies of Government and the Making of Subjects Arun explores the emergence of environmental and regulations as well as behavior change within communities regarding the conservation of the forests in Kumaon, India. Agrawal particularly focuses on the technologies of government used in Kumaon and the ways in which they work to influence the relationships between the government, institutions, and the local people. The Kumaon region is of particular interest to Agrawals research due to the village's history of irresponsible foresting practices in the early 1920s when villagers set hundreds of forest fires in response to the implementation of environmental protection regulations by the colonial British state followed by community efforts to conserve and effectively manage these forests decades later in the 1990s. In studies Agrawal visited over forty villages in Kumaon conducted hundreds of interviews, extensively assessed the state of the local forests, and examined local archives and records to analyze the governmental and environmental transformation that occurred.
  • 1999: Greener Pastures: Politics, Markets, and Community Among a Migrant Pastoral People, Duke University Press, Durham, ISBN 0822322331
Summary
In Greener Pastures Arun takes an in depth look at the nomadic shepard Raikas of western India. Through his studies he examines their markets of exchange, local and state politics, and community heiarchy. The Raikas are an extremely unique component of Indian society because for most of their travels they are virtually invisable to the outside world that their economic success is based upon. Arun analyzes their decision making process for the division of labor, delegation of power, and how the Raika community’s travels affect their landholding neighbors.
  • 1998: Decentralization in Nepal: A Comparative Analysis, ICS Press, Oakland, ISBN 1558155074[8]

Journals

Arun Argrawal has made the following contributions to the Journals listed below.

  • Forthcoming:Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation. Annual Review of Environment and Resources. (with Daniel Nepstad and Ashwini Chhatre).
  • Forthcoming: Inequalities, institutions, and forest commons. Global Environmental Change. (with K. Anderson).
  • 2011: A positive side of disaster. Nature 473: 291-292.
  • 2011: Social and Ecological Synergy: Local Rulemaking, Forest Livelihoods and Biodiversity Conservation. Science 331 (6024):1606-08. (with L. Persha).
  • 2011 Common property theory and resource governance institutions: Strengthening the explanations of multiple outcomes. Environmental Conservation 38(2): 199-210. (with C.S. Benson).
  • 2011: Strengthening casual interference through qualitative analysis of regression residuals: Explaining forest governance in the Indian Himalaya. Environment and Planning A 43: 328-46. (with A. Chhatre).
  • 2011: Against mono-consequentialism: Multiple outcomes and their drivers in social-ecological systems. Global Environmental Change 21:1-3.
  • 2010: Biodiversity conservation and livelihoods in human dominated landscapes: Forest commons in South Asia. Biological Conservation 143(12): 2918-25. (with L. Persha, H. Fischer, A. Chhatre, and C. Benson).
  • 2010: Forests, carbon, and the REDD paradox. Oryx 44(3): 330-39. (with C. Sandbrook, F. Nelson, and W.D. Adams).
  • 2010: Does REDD+ threaten to recentralize forest governance? Science 328: 312-13. (with J. Phelps and E. Webb).
  • 2009: Why "Indigenuos" Knowledge? Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 34(4). 157-58.
  • 2009:Tradeoffs and synergies between carbon storage and livelihood benefits from forest commons. PNAS. 106(42): 17667-17670. (with A. Chhatre).
  • 2009: Place, Conservation, and Displacement. Conservation and Society 7(1)56-58. (with Kent Redford)
  • 2009: Conservation and Displacement: An Overview. Conservation and Society 7(1):1-10. (with Kent Redford)
  • 2008: Changing Governance of the World's Forests. Science 320, 1460-1462. (with Ashwini Chhatre and Rebecca Hardin)
  • 2008: (with Ashwini Chhatre) Forest Commons and Local Enforcement. PNAS vo. 105, no. 36:13286-13291.
  • 2007: State Involvement and Forest Co-Governance: Evidence from the Indian Himalayas. Studies in Comparative Internatinal Development. 42:67-86. (with Ashwini Chhatre)
  • 2007: Fourteen Years of Monitoring Community-Managed Forests: Learning from IFRI's Experience. International Forestry Review 9(2).
  • 2007: A Greener Revolution in Making? Environmental Governance in the 21st Century. Environment
  • 2007: Forthcoming. Forests, Governance, and Sustainability: Common Property Theory and its Contributins. International Journal of the Commons 1(1).
  • 2006: (with Maria Carmen Lemos) Environmental Governance. Annual Review of Environment and Resources.
  • 2006: Political Science and Conservation Biology: The Dialog of the Deaf? Conservation Biology 20(3): 681-82 (with Elinor Ostrom).
  • 2006: Explaining Success on the Commons: Community Forest Governance in the Indian Himalaya. World Development. (with Ashwini Chhatre)
  • 2005: Decentralized and participation: The governance of common pool resources in Nepal's Terai. World Development 33(7): 1101-14 (with Krishna Gupta)
  • 2005: Environmentality: Community, intimate government and environmental subjects in Kumaon, India. Current Anthropology 46(2), April 2005.
  • 2003: Sustainable Governance of Common-Pool Resources: Context, Methods, Politics. Annual Review of Anthropology 32: 243-62.
  • 2002: Indigenous Knowledges and the Politics of Classification. International Social Science Journal (September, 173): 325-36. (Published in English, French, and Spanish)
  • 2001: Common Property Institutions and Sustainable Governance of Resources. World Development 29(10): 1649-72.
  • 2001: Collective Action, Property Rights and Decentralization in Resource Use in India and Nepal. Politics and Society 29(4): 485-514 (With Elinor Ostrom).
  • 2001: The Regulatory Community: Decentralization and the Environment in the Van Panchayats (Forest Councils) of Kumaon. Mountain Research and Development. 21(3): 208-11.
  • 2001: State Formation in Community Spaces: The Forest Councils of Kumaon. Journal of Asian Studies. 60(1): 1-32.
  • 2001: Group Size and Collective Action: Third Party Monitoring in Common Pool Resources. Comparative Political Studies 34(1): 63-93. (With Sanjeev Goyal).
  • 2001: Common Property Theories and Forest Management in the Indian Himalaya. Contributions to Indian Sociology (n.s.). 35(2): 181-212.
  • 2000: Environmental Orientalisms. Cultural Critique. #45: 71-108. (With S. Sawyer).
  • 2000: Transboundary Resources and Adaptive Management. Environmental Conservation. 27(4): 326-33.
  • 1999: Accountability in Decentralization: A Framework with South Asian and West African cases. Journal of Developing Areas 33(Summer): 473-502. (with Jesse Ribot).
  • 1999: Enchantment and Disenchantment: The Role of Community in Natural Resource Conservation. World Development. 27(4): 629-49. (With Clark Gibson). (Reprinted in Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Water Systems, edited by Aaron Wolf. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar).
  • 1998: Profits on the Move: The Raika Shepherds of Western India. Human Organization 57(4): 469-79.
  • 1997: The Politics of Development and Conservation: The Legacy of Colonialism. Peace and Change 22(4): 463-82.
  • 1997: How do Local Institutions Mediate the Impact of Market and Population Pressures on Resource Use. Development and Change 28(3): 435-65 (With Gautam Yadama).
  • 1997: Shepherds and their Leaders among the Raikas of India: A Principal-Agent Perspective. Journal of Theoretical Politics 9(2): 235-63 (Reprinted in Polycentric Games and Institutions, edited by Michael D McGinnis. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press).
  • 1996: Poststructuralist Approaches to Development: Some Reflections. Peace and Change 21(4): 464-77.
  • 1996: The Community versus the Market and the State. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 9(1): 1-15.
  • 1995: Dismantling the Divide between Indigenous and Western Knowleddge. Development and Change. 26(3): 413-39.
  • 1994: Mobility and Control among Nomadic Shepherds: The Case of the Raikas, II. Human Ecology 22(2): 131-44.
  • 1993: Mobility and Cooperation among Nomadic Shepherds: The Case of the Raikas. Human Ecology, 21(3): 261-79.[8]

Books Edited

  • 2001: Agrarian Environments: Resources, Representations, and Rule in India, Duke University Press, Durham, ISBN 0822325551
  • 2001: Social Nature: Resources, Representations, and Rule in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, ISBN 0195654609
  • 2001: Communities and the Environment: Ethnicity, Gender, and the State in Community-Based Conservation, Rutgers University Press, Piscataway, ISBN 081352914X
  • 2003: Regional Modernities: The Cultural Politics of Development in India, Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, ISBN 0804744157 [8]

Future Plans

Agrawal plans on continuing his work as a Professor at the University of Michigan and has several current and future research projects planned. In terms of research Agrawal's main interest lies in the relationship between the outcomes of environmental issues or conservation practices and the management of resources for people's livelihood. Agrawal currently has two research projects related to this subject in progress and is working on a proposal for a third. These projects will focus on community managed forests and finding a balance between carbon sequestration efforts and maintaining community livelihood. They also examine the ways in which people tend to think about the environment in a more positive way and how the relationship between the changing environment and people's community and livelihood can change this view. Agrawal's recently proposed research project will focus on the intersection between farming and changing land cover in forests in Brazil and Indonesia.[4]

References

  1. ^ http://www.flickr.com/photos/snre/5750963543/in/photostream/
  2. ^ http://www.regents.umich.edu/meetings/05-08/2008-05-IV-1/PDF%20files/SNRE/Agrawal,%20Arun.pdf Retrieved 20 November 2011
  3. ^ "Arun Agrawal UofM Profile". http://www-personal.umich.edu/~arunagra/. Retrieved November 2011. 
  4. ^ a b c "Arun Agrawal. (personal communication, December 10, 2011)". 
  5. ^ "CV Arun Agrawal". https://blogs.worldbank.org/climatechange/team/arun-agrawal. Retrieved November 2011. 
  6. ^ a b c "CV Arun Agrawal". http://snre.umich.edu/sites/snre.umich.edu/files/faculty/ARUN%20AGRAWAL%20curriculum%20vitae2011.pdf. Retrieved November 2011. 
  7. ^ http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Grants-2011/Pages/University-of-Michigan-OPP1018604.aspx Retrieved 18 November 2011
  8. ^ a b c d http://snre.umich.edu/sites/snre.umich.edu/files/faculty/ARUN%20AGRAWAL%20curriculum%20vitae2011.pdf
  9. ^ http://snre.umich.edu/profile/arunagra Retrieved 20 November 2011
  10. ^ Environmentality: Technologies of Government and the Making of Subjects (New Ecologies for the Twenty-First Century), Arun Agrawal, May 25, 2005, Duke University Press
  11. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXX66D9YLb0
  12. ^ http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v473/n7347/full/473291a.html Retrieved November 2011