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Pluralizing social reproduction approaches (2025)
Journal Article
Mezzadri, A., Rai, S., Stevano, S., Alessandrini, D., Bargawi, H., Elias, J., Hassim, S., Kesar, S., Thiyaga Lingham, J., Natile, S., N., N., Ossome, L., Raghuram, P., Tsikata, D., & Wöhl, S. (2025). Pluralizing social reproduction approaches. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 27(1), 6-33. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2024.2447594

The concept of social reproduction (SR) has gained renewed interest in the past decade. Discussed and elaborated by generations of feminists, the concept offers a rejection of productivism and the possibility of (re)telling the history of capitalism... Read More about Pluralizing social reproduction approaches.

Subcontracting Linkages in India's Informal Economy (2024)
Journal Article
Kesar, S. (2024). Subcontracting Linkages in India's Informal Economy. Development and Change, 55(1), 38-75. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12817

Subcontracting relations have often been considered a key channel to facilitate growth in traditional informal enterprises and enable them to transition into larger, modern enterprises. Such relations are expected to strengthen with economic growth.... Read More about Subcontracting Linkages in India's Informal Economy.

Economic transition, dualism and informality in India: Nature and patterns of household‐level transitions (2023)
Journal Article
Kesar, S. (2023). Economic transition, dualism and informality in India: Nature and patterns of household‐level transitions. Review of Development Economics, 27(4), 2438-2469. https://doi.org/10.1111/rode.13040

We examine the Indian economy during a peak period of high growth between 2005 and 2012 to analyse the nature and patterns of household‐level transitions across different sectors, characterised by varying degrees of formality/informality and various... Read More about Economic transition, dualism and informality in India: Nature and patterns of household‐level transitions.

Standing in the way of rigor? Economics’ meeting with the decolonization agenda (2022)
Journal Article
Kvangraven, I. H., & Kesar, S. (2023). Standing in the way of rigor? Economics’ meeting with the decolonization agenda. Review of International Political Economy, 30(5), 1723-1748. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2022.2131597

This article critically discusses the scope for decolonizing economics teaching. It scrutinizes what it would entail in terms of theory, methods, and pedagogy, and its implications for scholars grappling with issues related to economics teaching. Bas... Read More about Standing in the way of rigor? Economics’ meeting with the decolonization agenda.

Contradictions and Crisis in the World of Work: Informality, Precarity and the Pandemic (2022)
Journal Article
Kesar, S., Bhattacharya, S., & Banerjee, L. (2022). Contradictions and Crisis in the World of Work: Informality, Precarity and the Pandemic. Development and Change, 53(6), 1254-1282. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12733

ABSTRACT: The severe economic impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the global working population can be interpreted as both a fallout from, and a violent assertion of, a larger crisis in the world of work. While this crisis has been attributed to the p... Read More about Contradictions and Crisis in the World of Work: Informality, Precarity and the Pandemic.

Exclusion, Surplus Population, and the Labour Question in Postcolonial Capitalism: Future Directions in Political Economy of Development (2022)
Journal Article
Bhattacharya, S., Kesar, S., & Mehra, S. (2023). Exclusion, Surplus Population, and the Labour Question in Postcolonial Capitalism: Future Directions in Political Economy of Development. Review of Political Economy, 35(1), 145-173. https://doi.org/10.1080/09538259.2022.2134650

In this expository essay, we argue for building a fresh research programme in the political economy of development to analytically investigate and empirically substantiate the specificities of postcolonial capitalism. A key theoretical framework deve... Read More about Exclusion, Surplus Population, and the Labour Question in Postcolonial Capitalism: Future Directions in Political Economy of Development.

Down and out? The gendered impact of the Covid‐19 pandemic on India’s labour market (2021)
Journal Article
Abraham, R., Basole, A., & Kesar, S. (2022). Down and out? The gendered impact of the Covid‐19 pandemic on India’s labour market. Economia Politica, 39(1), 101-128. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40888-021-00234-8

The Covid-19 pandemic has created unprecedented disruptions in labour markets across the world including loss of employment and decline in incomes. Using panel data from India, we investigate the differential impact of the shock on labour market outc... Read More about Down and out? The gendered impact of the Covid‐19 pandemic on India’s labour market.

Pandemic, informality, and vulnerability: impact of COVID-19 on livelihoods in India (2021)
Journal Article
Kesar, S., Abraham, R., Lahoti, R., Basole, A., & Nath, P. (2021). Pandemic, informality, and vulnerability: impact of COVID-19 on livelihoods in India. Canadian Journal of Development Studies, 42(1/2), 145-164. https://doi.org/10.1080/02255189.2021.1890003

We analyze findings from a large-scale survey of around 5000 respondents across 12 states of India, conducted during the months of April and May 2020, to study the impact of COVID-19 pandemic containment measures (lockdown) on employment, livelihoods... Read More about Pandemic, informality, and vulnerability: impact of COVID-19 on livelihoods in India.

Pandemic Effect: 9 Months On, More Younger Workers Remain Jobless (2021)
Digital Artefact
Abraham, R., Basole, A., & Kesar, S. Pandemic Effect: 9 Months On, More Younger Workers Remain Jobless

More younger workers, and women, lost jobs and struggled to recover them. Even after employment rates recovered, quality of employment deteriorated, with individuals moving into less secure self-employment in agriculture, construction and small-scale... Read More about Pandemic Effect: 9 Months On, More Younger Workers Remain Jobless.

Precarity and Development: Production and Labor Processes in the Informal Economy in India (2020)
Journal Article
Bhattacharya, S., & Kesar, S. (2020). Precarity and Development: Production and Labor Processes in the Informal Economy in India. Review of Radical Political Economics, 52(3), 387-408. https://doi.org/10.1177/0486613419884150

We take off from the recent critiques of precarity as an emerging global phenomenon to argue that the processes of precarity in the Global North and the Global South need to be analytically distinguished to bring forth their specificities. We further... Read More about Precarity and Development: Production and Labor Processes in the Informal Economy in India.

Privatising a public good (2019)
Digital Artefact
Kesar, S., Dutt, D., & Dasgupta, Z. Privatising a public good

The argument that India cannot afford low fees at institutions of higher education does not square with the massive giveaways to corporates. The commodification of higher education, the real motive of those calling for fee hikes, will destroy all hop... Read More about Privatising a public good.

Dualism and Structural Transformation: The Informal Manufacturing Sector in India (2019)
Journal Article
Kesar, S., & Bhattacharya, S. (2020). Dualism and Structural Transformation: The Informal Manufacturing Sector in India. The European Journal of Development Research, 32, 560-586. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-019-00228-0

We identify a basic dualism within the informal manufacturing sector (IMS) in India between a ‘traditional’/non-capitalist segment, comprising family-based household enterprises that constitute the vast majority of the IMS, and a segment of ‘modern’/... Read More about Dualism and Structural Transformation: The Informal Manufacturing Sector in India.

Possibilities of transformation: The informal sector in India. (2018)
Journal Article
Bhattacharya, S., & Kesar, S. (2018). Possibilities of transformation: The informal sector in India. Review of Radical Political Economics, 50(4), 727-735. https://doi.org/10.1177/0486613418793989

We identify a basic dualism between capitalist and noncapitalist spaces within the vast informal sector in India, and show that this dualism has been reproduced and reinforced during the past decade of high economic growth. This calls into question t... Read More about Possibilities of transformation: The informal sector in India..