Patrick Heller studies how inequality shapes development, urban transformation, democracy and globalization. His work has focused primarily on Brazil, India and South Africa. He has written on a range of topics including democratic deepening, social movements, state transformation and development policy. His work has drawn on extensive fieldwork, survey data and spatial analysis.
Patrick Heller studies development, political sociology, and comparative political economy. He is the author of
The Labor of Development
(Cornell University Press, 1999) which examines the role of subordinate classes in the transformation to capitalism in the Indian state of Kerala. He has written on a range of topics on India, including democratic consolidation, the politics of economic transformation, social capital and social movements. Most recently, he has conducted fieldwork in South Africa, exploring processes of democratization through case studies of the civics movement and local government re-structuring. He is currently engaged in a long-term project exploring the dynamics of democratic deepening in India, Brazil and South Africa.
2005-2008
National Science Foundation, Human Social Dynamics, P.I., "Remaking the Apartheid City" ($459,621)
2003-2004
World Bank, with Shubham Chaudhuri and Gianpaolo Baiocchi, "An Evaluation of Participatory Budgeting in Brazilian Municipalities" ($105,000)
2001-2002
Ford Foundation, India, principal investigator with Shubham Chaudhuri (Columbia University) and in collaboration with the Centre for Development Studies, January 2002 present, "Does Democratic Decentralization Make a Difference?" ($80,000)
Salomon Grant, principal investigator, May 2002-present, "Technocrats, Politicians and Civil Society in the Building of the Post-Apartheid City: Democratic Transformation in Durban and Johannesburg" ($10,000)
2001
MacArthur Foundation, collaborative research grants (with co-researchers), awarded $74,700
2000
Swiss Development Cooperation, $3,000 grant to partially fund conference on democratic decentralization in Kerala, India
2000
American Institute of Indian Studies, senior short-term research grant, awarded $4,500 for four-month research project
1999
Institute of Social and Economic Theory and Research, Columbia University, (with Shubham Chaudhuri) awarded $10,000 for seed grant project to assess financial and developmental impact of decentralization in Kerala, India
1997
American Institute of Indian Studies, senior short-term research grant, awarded for four-month research project on the politics of class compromise in Kerala, India
