Dr. Nandini Deo, author of Mobilizing Religion and Gender in India: The Role of Activism, joins us in our second-floor reading room to discuss her new book, Corporate Social Responsibility and Civil Society in India.

Civil society organizations (CSOs) and corporations have a history of hostility towards each other. According to CSO workers, businesses selfishly exploit workers, despoil natural resources and distort democracy to serve their own profit-making ends. According to business executives, CSOs are hopelessly naïve and inefficient and interfere in the market in ways that reduce economic growth.  And yet, in the past decade, more and more CSOs and businesses are collaborating in new ways. Individuals from both sectors are setting up social impact enterprises, and social investing funds are increasing. The more traditional forms of corporate–CSO collaboration have expanded as more funds are flowing from business to the social sector. The divide between the corporate sector and civil society seems to be narrowing. Why is this happening and what are its consequences? This book examines these trends in India, where since 2013, the state has mandated co-operation between the largest firms and CSOs in pursuit of inclusive and sustainable development.

Nandini Deo is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Lehigh University. She spent 2023-24 as a Fulbright Nehru Scholar at SNDT Women’s University in Mumbai. Recently she moved from Mt Airy to Bethlehem, PA. However, she returns to the neighborhood each week for Democracy Days — a self-directed education program she facilitates at Awbury Arboretum. Inspired by her experience as a homeschooling parent, Deo is launching new research on children and democratic experiments.

Her research engages South Asian politics, civil society organizations, religion and secularism, gender and childhood. Her forthcoming book Corporate Social Responsibility and Civil Society in India (Anthem 2024) examines how corporate money and practices are reshaping Indian civil society. It builds on previous books which examined how foreign aid shapes civil society and the challenges of collaboration among NGO networks.

Nandini teaches collaborative courses on Comparative Politics, Social Activism, Religion and Politics, and Indian Politics. These classes feature active learning, lots of discussion, and a certain level of uncertainty as they are typically co-produced along with students as the semester progresses.

This year she is serving as Treasurer for the Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association and has previously been active in the Executive Board for its Gender and Politics Section. Deo has served on a number of book and dissertation award committees for APSA.