Faculty Directory A to Z

• Thematic Interests: Development Policy and Management, Rural Sociology; Sociology of Food and Agriculture, Environmental Sociology
• Specific Topics: Natural Resources Management, Civil Society and Non-governmental Development Organisations, Agricultural Commodity Value Chains, Governance Reforms

Books:

• Gupta, S. (2016). Politics of Water Conservation: Delivering development in rural Rajasthan, Cham, Switzerland: Springer International; ISBN:978-3-319-21391-0

Journal Articles:

• Khan, R., Gupta, S., Daum, T., Birner, R. and Ringler, C. (2024) Levelling the field: A review of the ICT revolution and agricultural extension in the Global South, Journal of International Development.
• Verma, R., Gupta, S., and Birner, R. (2023). What do (future) civil servants think of bribery and corruption? Evidence from India. Development Policy Review, 41(3), e12673
• Ayobami, A, Gupta.S. Okoruwa, V.O. and Birner, R. 2022 The role of institutions in sustaining competitive bioeconomy growth in Africa: Insights from the Nigerian maize biomass value-web, Sustainable Production and Consumption 30 (2022): 186-203
• Daum, T., Villalba, R., Oluwakayode, A., Mayienga, S.M., Gupta, S. and Birner, R. (2021) Uber for tractors? Opportunities and challenges of digital tools for tractor hire in India and Nigeria. World Development, Vol 144, August 2021, 105480
• Lin, J., Gupta, S., Loos, T. And Birner, R. (2019) Opportunities and Challenges in the Ethiopian Bamboo Sector: A market analysis of the bamboo-based value web. Sustainability, 11 (6): 1644
• Mengistu, T.W., Gupta, S. and Birner, R. (2018) Analysis of maize biomass use in Ethiopia and its implications for food security and the bioeconomy. Food Security, 10 (6): 1631-48
• Poku, Adu-Gyamfi, Birner, R, and Gupta, S. (2018) Is Africa ready to develop a competitive bioeconomy? The case of the cassava value web in Ghana. Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 200: 134-147
• Poku, Adu-Gyamfi, Birner, R. and Gupta, S. (2018) Making contract farming arrangements work in Africa’s bioeconomy: Evidence from cassava outgrower schemes in Ghana. Sustainability, 10 (5): 1604
• Verma, R., Gupta, S. and Birner, R. (2018) Can vigilance-focused governance reforms improve service delivery? The case of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) in Bihar, India, Development Policy Review doi: 10.1111/dpr.12344
• Poku, Adu-Gyamfi, Birner, R. and Gupta, S. (2018) Why do maize farmers in Ghana have a limited choice of improved seed varieties? An assessment of the governance challenges in seed supply, Food Security, 10 (1): 27-46
• Verma, R, Gupta, S and Birner, R (2017). Can Grassroots Mobilization of the Poorest Reduce Corruption? A tale of governance reforms and struggle against petty corruption in Bihar, India, Development and Change 46 (2): 339-363
• Gupta, S. (2014). From Demanding to Delivering Development: Challenges of NGO-led development in rural Rajasthan, India, Journal of South Asian Development 9 (2): 121-145
• Gupta, S. (2014). Worlds Apart? Challenges of multi-agency partnership in participatory watershed development in Rajasthan, India, Development Studies Research 1:1, 100-112
• Gupta, S. (2011). Demystifying 'Tradition': The politics of rainwater harvesting in rural Rajasthan, India, Water Alternatives 4(3): 347-364

Book Chapters:

• Gupta, S. and Sinha, S. (2008). Beyond 'dispositif' and 'depoliticisation': Spaces of civil society in water conservation contexts in rural Rajasthan, India. In Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt and Robert Wasson (eds), Water First: Issues and Challenges for Nations and Communities, New Delhi and London: Sage; ISBN: 978-0-7619-3625-1

• ‘How do Agri-Entrepreneurs Make Use of Digital Technologies? Case-studies from India’, XX World Congress of Sociology, International Sociological Association (ISA), Melbourne, Australia (June 25-July 1, 2023)
• ‘The Changing Nature of ICTs for Agricultural Extension in Developing Countries - A Review’, Tropentag- Annual Conference on Tropical and Sub-tropical Agriculture and Natural Resources Management, Germany (15-17 September, 2021)
• ‘Issues and Challenges in the Sustainable Development Goals’, Returning Experts Workshop, GIZ and The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, New Delhi, India (5 July, 2019)
• ‘Opportunities and Constraints in the Ethiopian Bamboo Sector: An institutional analysis of bamboo-based value web’, Tropentag - Annual Conference on Tropical and Sub-tropical Agriculture and Natural Resources Management, Vienna, Austria (12-14 September, 2016)
• '"Land Grabs", Dispossession and Agricultural Transformation: Revisiting land-acquisition debate in the light of empirical evidence from Ethiopia'. Annual Conference of the International Rural Sociological Association (IRSA), Toronto, Canada (10-14 August, 2016)
• 'Bio-Economy and Regional Planning', Session Chair, Organized by the German Academic Exchange (DAAD), Stuttgart, Germany (2 December, 2015)
• 'Impact of sustainable certification on smallholder farmers: The case of abaca cultivators in Catanduanes, Philippines', Tropentag - Annual Conference on Tropical and Sub-tropical Agriculture and Natural Resources Management, Berlin, Germany (16-18 September, 2015)
• 'Ethiopian Agriculture in Transition', GlobeE Project Status Seminar, Organized by the Germany Ministry of Education and Research, Potsdam, Germany (4-6 March, 2015)
• 'Institutions for Sustainable Livelihoods: A value-chain analysis of Abaca production in the Philippines', Inter-Agency Workshop on Abaca Production, Visayas State University, Leyte, Philippines (7-10 August, 2014)
• 'Biomass-based Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: the role of governance and institutions', Inception Workshop, BiomassWeb Project, Accra, Ghana (10-13 October, 2013)
• 'Multi-agency Partnership in Natural Resource Management: Evidence from participatory watershed development in rural Rajasthan, India', Annual Conference of the German Society of Economic and Social Sciences in Agriculture (GEWISOLA), Berlin, Germany (September, 2013)
• 'From Demanding to Delivering Development: Challenges of NGO-led development in rural Rajasthan, India', Tropentag - Annual Conference on Tropical and Sub-tropical Agriculture and Natural Resources Management, Stuttgart, Germany (17-19 September, 2013)
• 'Community-based Natural Resources Management: Problems and prospects', First World Forum of the International Sociological Association, Barcelona, Spain (5-8 September, 2008)
• 'National Goals, International Agenda and Local Needs: Evidence from water conservation and watershed development programmes in Rajasthan, India', European Conference of Modern South Asian Studies, Manchester, UK (5-8 July, 2008)
• 'The politics of water conservation and watershed development in rural Rajasthan', South Asian Studies Alliance Conference, Claremont Graduate University, CA, USA (29-30 March, 2008)

• Hans Ruthenberg Institute, University of Hohenheim, Germany (August 2011-October 2017)
• School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK (June 2006-July 2011)
• London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK, 2009-10 (Visiting Fellow)
• Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, UK, 2009-11 (Guest Lecturer)

• Article Featured in Editor's Choice Collection (2014), Journal of South Asian Development
• Director's Teaching Prize (2009), SOAS, University of London
• Thesis Writing-up Grant (2007), Sir Ernest Cassel Educational Trust, UK; Gilchrist Educational Society, UK
• Felix Scholarship for PhD at SOAS (University of London), 2002-06