Dr Sarah White
Profile
Sarah White is a sociologist concerned with international development and wellbeing. Her research concerns the ways that social identities, culture and relationships are engaged and represented in development processes. Her main research experience is in South Asia, and particularly Bangladesh. From August 2010-July 2013 she is directing an ESRC-DFID funded research project on Wellbeing and Poverty Pathways in Zambia and India. This is developing new methods for the cross-cultural assessment of wellbeing and using these to provide new evidence on the associations between wellbeing and poverty at personal and community level and how these change over time. This builds on her research on religion and wellbeing in Bangladesh and India under the University of Birmingham DFID funded research programme on Religion and Development (2005-10), and her work within the Wellbeing in Developing Countries Research Group, (WeD) 2002-2007.
From 2011-12 she is supervising nine PhD students, who are working on wellbeing, gender and/or child rights related topics in Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Cambodia, Mexico, Zambia and India.
Research interests
- Culture and Wellbeing
- Gender and Child Rights
- Religion and Race
Teaching
Postgraduate
- SP50242: Wellbeing Assessment in Public Policy and Development Practice
- XX50138: Qualitative Methods 2
Publications
Book Sections
White, S., 2013. Making international development personal. In: Butcher, M. and Papaioannou, T., eds. New Perspectives in International Development. The Open University/Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 191-214. (International Development)
White, S., 2011. Depoliticizing development: the uses and abuses of participation. In: Cornwall, A., ed. The Participation Reader. London: Zed Books, pp. 57-69.
White, S. C., 2011. The 'gender lens': a racial blinder? In: Visvanathan, N., Duggan, L., Wiegersma, N. and Nisonoff, L., eds. The Women, Gender and Development Reader. 2nd Edition. London: Zed Books, pp. 95-98.
White, S., 2009. Forthcoming. Culture. In: Deneulin, S. and Shahani, L., eds. An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach: Freedom and Agency. London: Earthscan, pp. 247-260.
White, S. C. and Choudhury, S., 2009. Children's participation in Bangladesh: issues of agency and structures of violence. In: Percy-Smith, B. and Thomas, N., eds. A handbook of children and young people's participation: perspectives from theory and practice. London, U. K.: Routledge, pp. 39-50.
White, S. and , P., 2009. Reflecting on Wellbeing and Development. In: Wellbeing and Development in Sri Lanka. Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo.
White, S. and Pettit, J., 2007. Participatory approaches and the measurement of human well-being. In: McGillivray, M., ed. Human Well-being: Concept and Measurement. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 240-267.
White, S. and Ellison, M., 2007. Wellbeing, livelihoods and resources in social practice. In: Gough, I. and McGregor, J. A., eds. Wellbeing in Developing Countries: New Approaches and Research Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
White, S. C. and Pettit, J., 2004. Participatory methods and the measurement of well-being. In: Chambers, R., Kenton, N. and Ashley, H., eds. Participatory Learning and Action 50: Critical reflections, future directions. London: IIED, pp. 88-96.
Articles
Devine, J. and White, S. C., 2013. Religion, politics and the everyday moral order in Bangladesh. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 43 (1), pp. 127-147.
White, S. C., 2012. Beyond the paradox: religion, family and modernity in contemporary Bangladesh. Modern Asian Studies, 46 (5), pp. 1429-1458.
White, S. C., Gaines, S. O. and Jha, S., 2012. Beyond subjective well-being: a critical review of the Stiglitz Report approach to subjective perspectives on quality of life. Journal of International Development, 24 (6), pp. 763-776.
White, S.C., Devine, J. and Jha, S., 2012. The life a person lives: Religion, well-being and development in India : La vie que mène une personne: Religion, bien-ětre et développement en Inde. Development in Practice, 22 (5-6), pp. 651-662.
White, S. C., 2010. Domains of contestation: women's empowerment and Islam in Bangladesh. Women's Studies International Forum, 33 (4), pp. 334-344.
White, S. C., 2010. Analysing wellbeing: a framework for development practice. Development in Practice, 20 (2), pp. 158-172.
White, S. C., 2007. Children's rights and the imagination of community in Bangladesh. Childhood, 14 (4), pp. 505-520.
White, S. C. and Choudhury, S. A., 2007. The politics of child participation in international development: the dilemma of agency. European Journal of Development Research, 19 (4), pp. 529-50.
White, S., 2006. The 'Gender Lens': a Racial Blinder? Progress in Development Studies, 6 (1), pp. 68-79.
White, S. C., 2002. Being, becoming and relationship: conceptual challenges of a child rights approach in development. Journal of International Development, 14 (8), pp. 1095-1104.
White, S., 2002. From the Politics of Poverty to the Politics of Identity? Child Rights and Working Children in Bangladesh. Journal of International Development, 14 (6), pp. 725-735.
White, S., 2002. Thinking race, thinking development. Third World Quarterly, 23 (3), pp. 407-419.
Reports/Papers
White, S. C., 2013. Patriarchal investments : marriage, dowry and economic change in rural Bangladesh. Working Paper. Bath, U. K.: Centre for Development Studies, University of Bath. (Bath Papers in International Development; BPD19)
White, S. C., Devine, J., Jha, S. and Gaines, S., 2010. Religion, Development and Wellbeing in India. Working Paper. Religions and Development Research Programme, University of Birmingham.
White, S. C., 2009. Bringing Wellbeing into Development Practice. Working Paper. Bath, UK: University of Bath/Wellbeing in Developing Countries Research Group. (Wellbeing in Developing Countries (WeD) Working Papers; WeD Working Paper 09)
White, S. C., 2009. Analyzing Wellbeing: A Framework for Development Practice. Working Paper. Bath: University of Bath/Wellbeing in Developing Countries Research Group. (Wellbeing in Developing Countries (WeD) Working Papers; WeD Working Paper 09)
White, S. C., 2009. Beyond the Paradox: Religion, Family and Modernity in Contemporary Bangladesh. Working Paper. Birmingham, UK: International Development Department, University of Birmingham.
Conference or Workshop Items
White, S. C., 2006. Children's Rights and the Imagination of Community in Bangladesh. In: Conference on State, Violence and Rights: Perspectives from Social Science, 2006-04-22 - 2006-04-23, Department of Anthropology. Jahangirnagar University.
