Work, Institutions and Sustainable Livelihood: Issues and Challenges of Transformation

The book explores the debates surrounding sustainable livelihood in the neoliberal era effected through transformation of the nature of work and the role of institutions, particularly in the Global South. By creating gainful work and employment opportunities through formal and informal institutions using progressive instruments and innovations within rural and urban economies, livelihood becomes ‘sustainable’, thereby reducing inequality and increasing resilience among households.

Based on both theoretical and empirical studies from Asia and Africa, the book establishes the relationship between three broad concepts – work, institutions and sustainable development. The content has been divided into three broad sections: Rural Economy and Its Transformations; Urbanisation and Sustainable Livelihood; and Innovations and Instruments of Transformation. This book is a valuable resource for scholars of development studies, rural and urban studies, labour studies besides economics, sociology, political science and policymaking.

Virginius Xaxa is Professor of Eminence at Tezpur University and former Deputy Director of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati Campus, Assam, India. He is the author of Economic Dualism and Structure of Class (1997) and State, Society and Tribes (2008), co-author of Plantation Labour in India (1996) and co-editor of Social Exclusion and Adverse Inclusion: Adivasis in India (2012).

Debdulal Saha is an assistant professor at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati Campus, Assam, India. He is the author of Informal Markets, Livelihood and Politics: Street Vendors in Urban India (2017), co-author of Financial Inclusion of the Marginalised (2013) and co-editor of Food Crisis and its Implication on Labour (2013). 

Rajdeep Singha is an assistant professor and chairperson of the Centre for Labour Studies and Social Protection at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati Campus,Assam, India. Prior to joining TISS, he taught at the Department of Economics at St. Joseph's College (Autonomous), Bengaluru, and was a research associate at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.