Governance; politics of the state and NGOs; decentralisation and participation; donor politics and aid policies; natural resources governance; legal cultures and water rights; disasters, vulnerability, relief and recovery; India, South Africa. 

Research Groups: Global Environmental Justice; Politics, Governance and the State; UEA Water Security Research Centre
 

Recent Research Grants and Awards 

UNDP India Funding for year-long study in Orissa, 2009-2010

British Academy Small Research Grant 2008

Postdoctoral Fellow to Prof Gerry Stoker (ESRC Professorial Fellowship 2005-2007)

ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship 2004-5

Felix Scholarship for Ph.D. Research 1998-2002
 

Research Projects:

Just Ecosystem Management: Linking ecosystem services with poverty alleviation

This is a two year research project (Oct 2010- Oct 2012) with funding under the ESPA initiative by NERC, DFID and ESRC. This project develops a novel conceptual framework to inform research on the linkages between ecosystem services and poverty alleviation. Four case studies in China, India, Nicaragua and Uganda illustrate key justice dimensions in the management of particular coastal and terrestrial ecosystems. My role is to lead the case study in Orissa in India, which follows on from my recent work on socio-political and environmental dimensions of vulnerability and recovery since the 1999 super-cyclone (see below). The current study will focus on socio-ecological tradeoffs concerning mangroves, agriculture and prawn cultivation in coastal Orissa.

Socio-political and environmental dimensions of vulnerability and recovery in coastal Orissa: Critical lessons since the 1999 super cyclone

The United Nations Development Programme, India funded a year-long study in coastal Orissa, India, ten years since the super-cyclone of 1999. This research built on an exploratory study carried out in November-December 2008 together with Roger Few through a British Academy Research Grant. It took a detailed look at livelihoods trajectories in eastern Orissa since 1999, the socio-political and environmental dimensions that have helped shape them, and examine how these translate into the ‘ongoing vulnerability’ of coastal communities. The project was completed between January and December 2010.

The impacts of ecosystem services and environmental governance on human well-being in the Phongola floodplain, South Africa

The Pongola River ESPA was a project managed by Bruce Lankford (DEV, UEA), Chris Dickens and Kate Pringle (both INR, South Africa). I worked on this project together with a project team that included Fonda Lewis, Myles Meander and Zibonele Nxele (from INR)  and Marisa Goulden (from DEV). It was one of 12 projects funded by NERC examining the linkages between eco-system services and poverty alleviation (ESPA). The research site was in the Pongola/Jozini water system in northern Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. The project ran from January 2009 to January 2010. My role was to examine the governance and institutional arrangements in the floodplain area and to clarify their links with ecosystem services and poverty reduction.
 

Publications:

Chhotray, V. 2011 The “Anti-Politics Machine” in India: State, decentralisation and participatory watershed development,  South Asian Studies Series, Anthem Press, London 

Chhotray, V 2011 Disaster Relief and the Indian State: Lessons for Just citizenship, Development and Change, under review

Chhotray, V. and Hill, J. 2011 Socio-political and environmental dimensions of vulnerability and recovery in coastal Orissa: Critical lessons since the 1999 super-cyclone, United Nations Development Programme, India 

Chhotray, V.  and Few, R. 2010 ‘How is recovery related to ‘ongoing’ vulnerability: Results from an exploratory study ten years after the super-cyclone of 1999 in Orissa, India, Global Environmental Change, revise and resubmit

Lankford, B. , Pringle, C., Dickens, C., Lewis, F., Chhotray, V., Mander, M., Goulden, M., Nxele, Z. and  Quayle, L. 2010 The impacts of ecosystem services and environmental governance on human well-being in the Pongola region, South Africa. Report to the Natural Environment Research Council. University of East Anglia and Institute of Natural Resources, London, Norwich, UK and Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

Chhotray, V. 2010 ‘How Samaj Pragati Sahyog works the state and why it succeeds’, in Parasuraman, S. and Narayanan, N.C. (eds), Civil society in water governance in South Asia, part of the ‘Water in South Asia’ series, Sage Publications, New Delhi (forthcoming)

Chhotray, V. and Stoker, G. 2009 Governance Theory: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach, Palgrave Macmillan, London

Chhotray, V. and Hulme, D. 2009 ‘Contrasting visions for aid and governance in the 21st century: White House Millennium Challenge Account and DFID Drivers of Change’, World Development, Volume 37, pp. 36-49

Chhotray, V. 2007 ‘The “Anti-Politics Machine” in India: Depoliticisation through local institution building for participatory watershed development in India', Journal of Development Studies, Volume 43 (6), pp. 1037- 1056

Chhotray, V. 2007 ‘Political entrepreneurs or development agents? An NGO’s story of resistance and acquiescence’, in Bebbington, A., Hickey, S. and Mitlin, D. (eds), Can NGOs make a difference? The Challenge of Development Alternatives, Zed Books, London.

Chhoray, V. 2005 ‘Who cares about participation? How a rhetorical state policy is practised incredulously’, Contemporary South Asia, Volume 14 (4), pp. 429-446

Chhotray, V. 2005 ‘Managing Watershed Externalities in India’(co-authored with J. Kerr, P. Baumann, A.J. James and G. Milne) in Impact Assessment of Watershed Development: Conceptual and Methodological Issues, edited by K. Palanisami and D. Suresh Kumar,  Associated Publishing Limited, New Delhi

Chhotray, V. 2005 ‘Managing watershed externalities in India: Theory and Practice’ (co-authored with John Kerr, Grant Milne, Pari Baumann and A.J James), Environment, Development and Sustainability,

Chhotray, V. 2004 ‘The negation of politics in participatory development projects, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh’, Development and Change, Volume 35 (2), pp 327-352

Other online publications

Chhotray, V., 2005 ‘Participation or Local Politics? The Illusion of Development Projects’, ID21: Communicating Development Research.
Link to research

Chhotray, V., 2005 ‘The Negation of Politics in Participatory Development Projects, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh’, Development and Change, 35(2), pp 327-352
Link to Journal Article

Book reviews

Chhotray, V., 2008 Review article on 'Rural Governance: International Perspectives' edited by L Cheshire, V Higgins and G Lawrence (2007), Routledge, London, in Journal of Agrarian Change, Vol. 8, no. 1

Chhotray, V., 2006 Review article on ‘Waiting for Democracy: The Politics of Choice in Natural Resource Decentralisation’ by Jesse C. Ribot (2004), World Resources Institute, Washington DC and ‘Democratic Decentralisation through a Natural Resource Lens’, edited by Jesse C. Ribot and Anne M. Larson (2005), Routledge Press, Oxon, in Journal of Agrarian Change, Volume 16 (2), pp. 267-270
Link to Journal Article

Chhotray, V., 2003 ‘The Politics of Development’, Review article on ‘Development Hegemony: NGOs and the State in India’ by S. Kamat (2002), Oxford University Press, New Delhi in Biblio: A Review of Books, Volume 8(1 & 2), pp 30-31
Link to

Chhotray, V., 2001 ‘Speaking for the villages’, Review article on  ‘Participatory Watershed Development: Challenges for the 21^st century’, Edited by J. Farrington, C. Turton and A.O. James (1999), Oxford University Press, New Delhi, in Economic and Political Weekly,
Link to Journal 
 

Conferences and Presentations

Chhotray, V. 2010 ‘Disaster relief and the Indian state: Justice or Political Economy’, paper for the Global Environmental Justice Workshop, School of International Development, University of East Anglia, July 2-3.

Chhotray, V., 2009 'Unequal Imaginaries of Transformation: Multiple Crises and Livelihoods Recovery in Coastal Orissa, India', Paper presented at DSA Annual Conference, University of Ulster, September 2-4.

Chhotray, V., 2009 'Rejecting binaries in state-NGO relationships: How Samaj Pragati Sahyog works the state and why it succeeds' at the 'Experiencing the State: Marginalised People and the Politics of Development in India' conference at the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, March 12-13.

Chhotray, V., 2008 ‘The Idea of “Anti-Politics” presented at a ‘Workshop on Citizenship and Democracy in honour of John Dunn’, University of Southampton, March 7, 2008.

Chhotray, V., 2007 'How Samaj Pragati Sahyog works the state and why it succeeds'. Presentation at the conference 'Civil society in water governance in South Asia', October 10-12 at Pune, India.
Link to Document

Chhotray, V., and Hume, D., 2006 ‘Contrasting visions for aid and governance in the 21^st century: White House Millennium Challenge Account versus DFID Drivers of Change’, presented at the Hallsworth Conference on ‘Opening up Governance’, University of Manchester, Manchester and subsequently at SOAS, UEA and LSE in 2007.
Link to Document

Chhotray, V., and Woodhouse, P., 2005 ‘Legal and extra-legal channels for the redress of historical injustice: Water rights in India and South Africa’, presented at an International Workshop on ‘Water Poverty and Social Crisis: Perspectives for Research and Action’, Agadir, Morocco.
Link to Document

Chhotray, V., 2005 'Responsive to whom? The state and fast track participation in a south Indian district' , paper presented at the UN and Government of Queensland co-organised International Conference on Engaging Communities, Brisbane, Australia and the British Association for South Asian Studies, Leeds.
Link to Document

Chhotray, V., 2005 ‘Political entrepreneurs or development agents? An NGOs story of resistance and acquiescence’, paper presented at the 4^th International NGO Conference, IDPM, Manchester.
Link to Document

Chhotray, V., 2005 'Depoliticisation through local institution building for participatory watershed development in India', paper presented at LSE Department of Geography & Environmental Seminar Series, and Institute of Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester, International Development Seminar Series.

Chhotray, V., 2003 ‘The Politics of Development: Knowledge, Representation and Power’, paper presented at the Annual South Asia Conference, University of Madison, Wisconsin, USA.


If you are unable to access journals please email Vasudha at v.chhotray@uea.ac.uk

I co-direct the MA in Development Studies. I teach and convene the following courses:

Lecturer DEV-M003, Development Perspectives

Convenor and Lecturer DEV-M002, Contemporary World Development

Lecturer DEV-M020, Research Skills for Social Analysis

Lecturer DEV-2D48, South Asian Development

Convenor and Lecturer DEV-2D78, Social Analysis for Development 3

Research Supervision

I welcome research supervisions in the following areas:

• Post-disaster governance and the politics of vulnerability and recovery
• Moral economies, social relationships and the state
• Legal cultures, water governance and water rights
• Political ethnographies of the state and NGOs in development
• Natural resources based anti-poverty programmes in India  

Please see our Ph.D. page for how to apply.

Ph.D. Students

• Citlalli Becerril-Tinoco (Water rights allocation: Extraction and consumption practices in the Upper Lerma River Basin, Mexico).
• Ignacio Macedo Castillejos (Decentralising Rural Development: A case study of the implementation process of the Sustainable Rural Development Act in Mexico.)