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Basu, Alaka
Cornell Faculty Member
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Professor Basu`s area of expertise and research is predominantly in the areas of reproductive health and family planning, gender and development and child health and mortality. She also has interests in population studies and culture and demographic behavior.
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Affiliations
other Cornell affiliations
Research
research overview
- While my general field of research is Demography, within this field I am particularly interested in the vast diversity of human experience as well as the equally vast potential for change even in social behaviors and practices that seem to be culturally ingrained or biologically immutable. In both the areas of reproduction as well as practices related to health and survival, I am interested in studying the social and cultural dynamics that constrain people’s choices at some times but can just as radically force changes in these choices. Gender relations are an important feature of these social arrangements that impinge on reproductive behavior and I have a special interest in this. Understanding these dynamics offers policy lessons on how to retain protective behaviors as well as to change those that are harmful. So I have a great interest in the policy implications of demographic research. But my policy interest goes beyond straightforwardly drawing policy prescriptions from research. I am avidly interested in the politics and biases of the policy process itself and one of the ways in which I try to understand this is by studying the history of the academic discipline of demography.
research activities
area(s) of concentration/expertise
- Community Sociology, Social Indicators/Social Monitoring, Political Soc
- Community Sociology, Sociology of Aging and Life Course, Gender Stratification
- Demography (Migration, Mortality), Race and Ethnic Minorities, Methodology
- Demography, Development Sociology
- Dev. Sociology; Gender Relations, Comparative Inequalities, Policy Analysis
keywords
- Child Health and Mortality
- Culture and Demographic Behavior
- Gender and Development
- Population Studies
- Reproductive Health and Family Planning
- Social Demography
geographic focus
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country
submitted impact statement
Publications
individual publications
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academic article
- Mass schooling, empowerment, and demographic and economic outcomes: a note of dissent. Vienna Yearbook of Population Research. 8:25-29. 2010
- “Over-demonizing the international population movement”, Review Essay. Population Studies. 63:187-193. 2009
- Are the Millennium Development Goals Relevant to Academic Research?. Economic and Political Weekly. 42:4235-4238. 2007
- Gender, Leisure and Empowerment. Asia Pacific Population Journal. 21:8. 2006
- The Emotions and Reproductive Health. Population and Development Review. 32:107-121. 2006
- Is a little learning never a dangerous thing? Maternal education and the proximate determinants of infant and child mortality. Social Science and Medicine. 60:2011-2023. 2005
- Low levels of maternal education and the proximate determinants of childhood mortality: a little learning is not a dangerous thing. Social Science and Medicine. 60:2011-2023. 2005
- The Millennium Development Goals Minus Reproductive Health: An Unfortunate, but Not Disastrous, Omission. Studies in Family Planning. 32:132-134. 2005
- Ultramodern contraception: Social Class and Family Planning in India. Asian Population Studies. 1:303-323. 2005
- Popular Perceptions of Emerging Influences on Mortality and Longevity in Bangladesh and West Bengal . Population Studies. 58:357-363. 2004
- The Squabble that Never Ends: Religion and Fertility in the 2001 Census of India. Economic and Political Weekly. 39:4294-4296. 2004
- Spatial variations in contraceptive use in Bangladesh: Looking beyond the borders. Demography. 39:251-267. 2002
- Why does education lead to lower fertility? A critical review of some of the possibilities. World Development. 30:1779-1790. 2002
- Fertility decline and worsening gender bias in India: A response to Irudaya Rajan et al. Development and Change. 31:1093-1095. 2000
- Gender in population research: Confusing implications for health policy. Population Studies. 54:19-28. 2000
- Fertility Decline and Increasing Gender Imbalance in India: Including a possible South Indian Turnaround. Development and Change. 30:237-263. 1999
- The `politicization' of fertility to achieve non-demographic objectives. Population Studies. 51:5-18. 1997
- The new International Population Movement: A framework for a constructive critique. Health Transition Review. 7:7-31. 1997
- The International Conference on Population and Development: What about men's rights and women's responsibilities?. Health Transition Review. 6:95-99. 1996
- How Pervasive are Sex Differences in Nutritional Status in South Asia?. Social Biology. 40:25-37. 1994
- Maternal Education, Fertility and Child Mortality: Can One Disentangle some of the Interrelationships in Words?. Health Transition Review. 4:207-215. 1994
- Cultural Influences on the Timing of First Births in India: Large Differences that Add up to Little Difference. Population Studies. 47:85-95. 1993
- Women's Roles and Gender Gap in Health and Survival. Economic and Political Weekly. 28:2356-2362. 1993
- The Status of Women and the Quality of Life Among the Poor. Cambridge Journal of Economics. 16:249-67. 1992
- Women's Economic Roles and Child Survival: Illustrated with the Case of India. Health Transition Review. 1:83-103. 1991
- Is Discrimination in Food Really Necessary for Explaining Sex Differentials in Childhood Mortality?. Population Studies. 43:193-210. 1989
- How Economic Development can Overcome Culture: Demographic change in Punjab, India. Population Research and Policy Review. 7:29-48. 1988
- The Domestic Servant as Family Planning Innovator: An Indian case study. Studies in Family Planning. 19:292-298. 1988
- Migrants and the Native Bond: An analysis of micro-level data from Delhi. Economic and Political Weekly. 22. 1987
- The Greying of Populations: Concepts and measurement. Demography India. 16:79-89. 1987
- On the Possibility of a Poverty Induced Fertility Transition: Birth control by assetless workers in Kerala, India. Development and Change. 17:265-282. 1986
- Family Planning and the Emergency: An unanticipated consequence.. Economic and Political Weekly. 20:422-425. 1985
- Ignorance of Family Planning Methods in India: An important constraint on use.. Studies in Family Planning. 15:136-142. 1984
- Family Planning: The numbers game goes on. Economic and Political Weekly. 16:628-632. 1981
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article
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book
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booksection
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chapter
- "Situating Reproductive Health Within the Academy". Critical reflections on Global Reproductive Health and Rights. 182-195. 2009
- Reproductive Health Advocacy. Zed Press. 2006
- Towards an understanding of the emotions of the population of 2300. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, World Population to 2300. 2004
- Two notions of female autonomy and their implications for reproductive health. A Focus on Gender: Collected Papers using DHS Data. 2004
- Gender discrimination in the workplace: Facts, basis and policy response. Improving Labor Market Opportunities and Security for Workers in Developing Countries. 2003
- Postmodern contraception: The rise of traditional methods of birth control among upper class women in India. Discovering Normality in Health and the Reproductive Body. 2001
- Women, poverty and demographic change: Some possible interrelationships over time and space. Women, Poverty and Demographic Change in Developing Countries. 2000
- Poverty and AIDS. Demography and Poverty. 1999
- Anthropological Insights into the Links Between Women's Status and Demographic Behaviour: The Notion of Hypergamy. New Approaches to Anthropological Demography. 1998
- Introduction. New Approaches to Anthropological Demography. 1998
- Women's Education, Marriage and Fertility: Do men really not matter?. Women's Education and Fertility in Developing Countries. 1998
- Anthropological Demography in the understanding of the determinants of child mortality. The Continuing Demographic Transition. 1997
- The household impact of adult mortality and morbidity. The Economics of HIV and AIDS. 1997
- Female Education, Autonomy and Fertility: What do these words mean in South Asia?. Girls' Schooling, Female Autonomy and Fertility Change in South Asia. 1996
- The Demographics of Hindu Communalism. Unravelling the Nation: Sectarian Conflict and India's Secular Identity. 1996
- Family Size and Child Welfare in an Urban Slum: Some Disadvantages of Being Poor but `Modern'. Fertility, Family Size and Structure: Consequences for Families and Children. 1993
- Household Influences of Childhood Mortality: The evidence from mortality trends. Social Biology, Cultural, Social and Behavioural Determinants of Health: Selected Readings. 1990
- The Demand for Children in India and its Sociocultural Context. The Population Problem in North India. 1990
- Young Women and Technological Change: Another aspect. Youth and Society. 1986
- The status of women in India. Women's Status in the Third World. 1982
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conference paper
- Women's Economic Roles and Child Health: An Overview. Proceedings of the Expert Group Meeting on Population and Women organized by the Population Division. 1992
- Sociocultural Influences on Child Health in a Delhi Slum; And in what way is urban poverty preferable to rural poverty?. Proceedings of the Health Transition Workshop on Cultural, Social and Behavioural Determinants of Health; What is the Evidence?. 1990
- Cultural Differences in the Status of Women in India. Population Transition in India, Monograph prepared for the 21st IUSSP International Conference. 1989
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review
Teaching
teaching overview
- I have always enjoyed teaching and I find my teaching responsibilities at Cornell particularly gratifying. My primary interest is in teaching students to look analytically at the diversity and the complexity of the world; to understand the many injustices and deprivations that also underlie some of this diversity. For example, my course on Theories of Reproduction (DSOC4210), uses the example of birth rates and reproductive practices to illustrate the enormous variations in human behavior between countries and regions as well as between sub-groups of the population within a single country or region. Moreover, by explicating the theories that have been propounded to explain these variations, it demonstrates that these differences in reproduction often have a rational basis; that is, other people’s behavior that is different from ours is not different merely because other people are irrational or unthinking. Instead, the course uses anthropological and sociological knowledge to focus on the variations in socioeconomic levels, social structures, kinship patterns and political systems that underlie many of the variations in fertility rates. On the other hand, my course Inequalities in Health and Survival (DSOC4100) is about the unfortunate and preventable diversity in human experience in a crucial area – illness and death. It illustrates the enormous gaps in health and survival levels between different parts of the world and in population sub-groups within a single country. It then goes on to ask what can be done so that the health and mortality advantage of the better off can be extended to those who suffer needless sickness and premature death. The course tries to demonstrate that these differences are preventable; that is, they are not a result of biological, unchangeable differences between different groups of people. Instead man-made structures of social organization, unequal power relationships, unequal access to resources, and political commitment, account for the fact that the infant mortality rate in the developed countries is in single digits, while in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, it often easily crosses a hundred. Similarly, race and income differentials in health and mortality within a country like the United States need explaining in terms of both contemporary socioeconomic differences as well as historical processes that have added to the burden of socioeconomic disadvantage. In sum, the course is about the fact that not all forms of diversity are to be embraced or celebrated – in matters of life and death, we want convergence rather than difference.
teaching activities
Service
outreach overview
- In addition to the ‘public’ engagement I have already described in the section on the Service Statement, I should mention my long-standing interest in increasing interaction with researchers in my field who are working in relative isolation; that is, without access to the kind of physical as well as collegial resources that a place like Cornell provides. As Director of the South Asia program at Cornell (a position I held until June 2008) I tried to achieve this by setting up an association of researchers working on South Asia in the smaller schools and colleges in Central New York. The members of this association are able to talk to one another online and also now get to meet once a semester at Cornell to discuss common research interests, listen to presentations from others and to explore possibilities of research collaboration.
service to the profession
- American Sociological Association Member 2002 -
- Association for Asian Studies Member 2002 -
- Population Association of America Member 1994 -
- INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF POPULATION Member 1985 -
- AI-SPER-0203DF692AB00010987
- Nominating Committee, International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) Committee Member 2009 - 2013
- Population Council, New York Board of Trustees 1999 - 2008
- Board of Trustees, Population Council Member 1999 - 2008
- American Sociological Association Member, Selection Committee for the Otis Dudley Duncan Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Social Demography 2005 - 2007
- Board of Directors, Population Association of America (PAA) Member 2004 - 2007
- Population Association of America Board of Directors 2004 - 2007
- International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, Governing Council Member 2002 - 2005
- Governing Council, International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) Member 2001 - 2005
- Working Group on Population Development, Center for Global Development Member - 2005
- Center for Global Development Member, Working Group on Population and Development 2005
- Panel on Population Projections, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences Member 1999 - 2001
- Governing Council, International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) Member 1998 - 2001
- International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, Governing Council Member 1998 - 2001
- Asian Development Bank Consultant 1996 - 1998
- Panel on Reproductive Health, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences Member 1994 - 1996
- IUSSP Scientific Committee on Anthropology and Demography Chairperson 1992 - 1996
reviewer or editor for
Background
education and training
- M.S. in Demography, London University, University College 1975
- Bombay University, Post-graduate studies 1972
awards and honors
Other
college
- CALS
research keyword
- Child Health and Mortality
- Culture and Demographic Behavior
- Gender and Development
- Population Studies
- Reproductive Health and Family Planning
- Social Demography
name prefix
- Professor