The Political Economy of Textiles in India
Jennifer Bussell, Professor
Political Science, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Closed. This professor is continuing with Spring 2024 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Fall 2024.
This project seeks to understand the dynamics of the textiles industry in India, with special attention to the political economy of production. In this stage of the research, we will be focused on collecting background materials about the industry, including statistics on both small-and large-scale production, documentation of national and state-level policies to regulate and promote textiles, historical mapping of textiles produced, and data on sustainability initiatives.
We will also begin cleaning and analysis of data related to ownership of textiles-related businesses, allocation of geographical indicators for specific products, and other existing survey data.
Role: Primary tasks:
- Research descriptive statistics about the textile Industry in India, primarily with online sources
- Review government websites for information on textile-related policies
- Generate a literature review on existing academic research on textiles and related industries in India and other major producers
- Collect over time data on types of textiles produced regionally in India
- Map textiles data over time
- Clean data on applications for geographical indicator status
- Basic descriptive statistical analyses
Qualifications: NOTE: multiple students will be selected for a team, so it is not necessary for one individual to possess all of the listed skills
- Interest in political economy, particularly with regard to domestic production and international markets, historical change
- Interest in Indian politics
- Strong organizational skills
- Ability to provide written summaries of large amounts of material
- Experience with Excel and/or R for database creation and descriptive statistics
- Experience with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and GIS mapping in R
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Aditi Chugh, Graduate Student
Hours: 6-8 hrs
Related website: http://www.jenniferbussell.com
Engineering, Design & Technologies Social Sciences