Dr Pritish Behuria

Overview

My research operates at the intersection of development studies, comparative politics and international political economy. I am a political economist, taking an interdisciplinary approach to studying the challenges associated with late development under 21st Century Globalisation. I completed my PhD in Development Studies at SOAS, University of Lonon (2015). At SOAS, I worked as a Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Development Studies and the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy. I then worked as an LSE Fellow in The Department of International Development at The London School of Economics and Political Science between 2015 and 2017. In 2017, I won the Hallsworth Research Fellowship and started work at The University of Manchester's Global Development Institute. In 2020, I was appointed as Lectuer in Politics, Governance and Development. I also hold honorary positions as a Research Associate at the University of Oxford's Blavatnik School of Public Policy's Global Economic Governance Programme and the University of Manchester's Effective States and Inclusive Development Reserach Centre. I am also the current Reviews Editor for the Journal of Development Studies and the Convenor of the Politics and Political Economy Study Group at the Development Studies Association. I am also the Convenor of the State-Society Relations Group within GDI's Politics, Governance and Management research cluster. 

At GDI, I am currently the Deputy Director of the Rory and Elizabeth Brooks Doctoral College. I am also Pathway Lead for the MSc International Development: Politics, Governance and Development Policy programme. I convene the Political Analysis of Development Policy course and contribute to a range of courses including Global Political Economy, Industrial Competitiveness, Politics, Governance and Development, Development Fieldwork and Development Fundamentals. In 2020/2021, I was nominated by students for two SEED Outstanding Staff Awards for Academic Advising and Teaching. I am also the External Examiner for the MSc Development Studies programme at SOAS, University of London (2021-2024).

I have three main research projects. The first is a comparative examination of the politics of macro-economic strategy - primarily in relation to finance and industrial policy - across four countries: Rwanda, Ethiopia, Botswana and Mauritius. Critically engaging with the developmental states literature, the project is an inductive study of the politics shaping economic trajectories in these four countries.

The second project is a study of domestic capitalist classes and state-business relations in African countries, with research conducted in eight countries: Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Zambia, Botswana and Mauritius. 

The third project links my research on the challenges of promoting economic transformation to a key concern in the 21st century: addressing climate change. Since 2016, I have been researching India's solar energy sector, with several stints of fieldwork in India since then. Building on my recent World Development paper (2020) on India's solar energy sector, my future research examines why industrial policy is so difficult in India's renewable energy sectors. I welcome enquiries from prospective doctoral students on any of these subjects or on global political economy, the politics of economic transformation, state-business relations and industrial policy in Sub-Saharan African or Asian countries.

I have also worked as a consultant for the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, Commonwealth Secretariat, United Nations Development Programme and the UK's Department for International Development among others. My research has contributed to work in The Economist, The East African, The Wall Street Journal, Deutsche Welle, Radio France International, Le Monde, The New Times (Rwanda), Africaisacountry and other online media.

I have been interviewed on four podcasts about my research: Poliko, Conversations, A Correction and Ideas Untrapped