Lewis, David


Professor David Lewis  

Department

Position held

Department of Social Policy

Professor of Social Policy and Development

Experience keywords:

development organizations; international development; NGOs

Research summary > [Click to expand]

Overall my research is concerned with international development policy. I have a particular interest in the roles of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society in development; and in anthropological approaches to the study of development organizations: my main geographical focus is on South Asia; mainly Bangladesh but also India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. I have also worked in the Philippines. I have undertaken consultancy for a range of development organizations including Oxfam, Save the Children, UK Department for International Development (DFID), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and The Body Shop.

Sectors and industries to which research relates:

EnvironmentPolicy and Regulatory BodiesPublic Administration

Countries and regions to which research relates:

South Asia; Bangladesh; Philippines

Languages:

French [Written: Basic]; Bengali [Spoken: Basic]

Media experience:

RadioTV

Contact Points

LSE phone number:

020 7955 6037

Publications

The following references are sourced from LSE Research Online|. References that are linked lead to the full text.

2013

Lewis, David and Rodgers, Dennis and Woolcock, Michael (2013) The projection of development: cinematic representation as a(nother) source of authoritative knowledge? Journal of development studies, 49 (3). pp. 383-397. ISSN 0022-0388

2012

Lewis, David (2012) Bangladesh: politics, economy and civil society. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England. ISBN 9780521713771

Austin, Michael J. and Dal Santo, Teresa and Lewis, David (2012) Boundary-crossing careers of senior human service administrators: a cross-case analysis. Administration in social work, 36 (2). pp. 109-132. ISSN 0364-3107

Lewis, David (2011) Exchanges of professionals between the public and non-governmental sectors: life-work histories from Bangladesh. Modern Asian studies, 45 (3). pp. 735-757. ISSN 0026-749X

Lewis, David (2011) Tidy concepts, messy lives: defining tensions in the domestic and overseas careers of UK non-governmental professionals. In: Mosse, David, (ed.) Adventures in aidland: the anthropology of professionals in international development. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9780857451101

Biggs, Stephen and Justice, Scott and Lewis, David (2011) Patterns of rural mechanisation, energy and employment in South Asia: reopening the debate. Economic and political weekly, XLVI (9). pp. 78-82. ISSN 0012-9976

Lewis, David (2011) There is no crisis of civic participation: The Big Society risks undermining the integrity of both state and civil society. Blog post from London School of Economics & Political Science

2010

Lewis, David (2010) The strength of weak ideas?: human security, policy history and climate change in Bangladesh. In: Security and development. Berghahn Books, Oxford, England, pp. 113-129. ISBN 9780857451774

Lewis, David (2010) Political ideologies and non-governmental organizations: an anthropological perspective. Journal of political ideologies, 15 (3). pp. 333-345. ISSN 1356-9317

Lewis, David (2010) Encountering hybridity: lessons from individual experiences. In: Billis, David, (ed.) Hybrid organizations and the third sector: challenges for practice, theory and policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke. ISBN 9780230234635

Lewis, David (2010) Disciplined activists, unruly brokers?: exploring the boundaries between non-governmental organizations (NGOs), donors, and the state in Bangladesh. In: Gellner, David, (ed.) Varieties of activist experience: civil society in South Asia. Sage Publications, London. ISBN 9788132104506

2009

Biggs, Stephen and Lewis, David (2009) Fair trade and organizational innovation in Nepal: lessons from 25 Years of growth of the Association of Craft Producers (ACP). European journal of development research, 21 (3). pp. 377-396. ISSN 0957-8811

Lewis, David and Kanji, Nazneen (2009) Non-governmental organisations and development. Routledge, London, UK. ISBN 9780415454308

Lewis, David (2009) International development and the ‘perpetual present’: anthropological approaches to the re-historicization of policy. European journal of development research, 21 (1). pp. 32-46. ISSN 0957-8811

2008

Lewis, David (2008) Using life histories in social policy research: the case of third sector/public sector boundary crossing. Journal of social policy, 37 (4). pp. 559-578. ISSN 0047-2794

Lewis, David (2008) Crossing the boundaries between 'third sector' and state: life-work histories from the Philippines, Bangladesh and the UK. Third World quarterly, 29 (1). pp. 125-141. ISSN 0143-6597

Lewis, David and Rodgers, Dennis and Woolcock, Michael (2008) The fiction of development: literary representation as a source of authoritative knowledge. Journal of development studies, 44 (2). pp. 198-216. ISSN 0022-0388

Lewis, David and Hossain, Abul (2008) Understanding the local power structure in rural Bangladesh. SIDA, Stockholm, Sweden. ISBN 9789158681156

2007

Bebbington, Anthony and Lewis, David and Batterbury, Simon and Olson, E and Shameem Siddiqi, M (2007) Beyond the development text: the World Bank and empowerment in practice. Journal of development studies, 43 (4). pp. 597-621. ISSN 0022-0388

Hallman, Kelly and Lewis, David and Begum, Suraiya (2007) Assessing the impact of vegetable and fishpond technologies on poverty in rural Bangladesh. In: Adato, Michelle and Meinzen-Dick, Ruth, (eds.) Agricultural research, livelihoods, and poverty: studies of economic and social impacts in six countries. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA, pp. 103-148. ISBN 9780801887215

Hossain, Mahabub and Lewis, David and Bose, Manik L. and Chowdhury, Alamgir (2007) Rice research, technological progress, and impacts on the poor: the Bangladesh case. In: Adato, Michelle and Meinzen-Dick, Ruth, (eds.) Agricultural research, livelihoods, and poverty: studies of economic and social impacts in six countries. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA, pp. 56-102. ISBN 9780801887215

2006

Lewis, David (2006) The management of non-governmental development organisations. Routledge, London, UK. ISBN 9780415370936

Lewis, David (2006) Issues and priorities in non-governmental organisation research. Journal of health management1, 8 (2). pp. 181-193. ISSN 0972-0634

Lewis, David and Opoku-Mensah, Paul (2006) Moving forward research agendas on international NGOs: Theory, agency and context. Journal of international development, 18 (5). pp. 665-675. ISSN 0954-1748

Lewis, David and Mosse, D. (2006) Development brokers and translators: the ethnography of aid agencies. Kumarian Books, Bloomfield, CT. ISBN 156549217X

Lewis, David (2006) Globalization and international service: a development perspective. Voluntary action, 7 (2). pp. 13-26. ISSN 1465-4067

Lewis, David and Mosse, D (2006) Encountering order and disjuncture: Contemporary anthropological perspectives on the organisation of development. Oxford development studies, 34 (1). pp. 1-13. ISSN 1360-0818

Lewis, David and Siddiqi, M. Shameen (2006) Social capital from sericulture? : actors, markets, and power in a multi-agency project in Bangladesh. In: Bebbington, Anthony J. and Woolcock, Michael and Guggenheim, Scott E. and Olson, Elizabeth, (eds.) The search for empowerment: social capital as idea and practice at the World Bank. Kumarian Press, Bloomfield, CT., USA, pp. 239-257. ISBN 1565492153

Lewis, David (2006) Anthropology and development: knowledge, history, power and practice. In:Anthropology in practice: theory, method and ethnography in Swedish Development Cooperation (30 Nov - 2 Dec 2006 : Uppsala, Sweden).

Lewis, David (2006) Non-governmental organisations. In: Tate, N., (ed.) Governments of the world. Macmillan Reference, pp. 205-209. ISBN 9780028658117

2005

Lewis, David (2005) Policy tensions in public space: shifting boundaries between non-governmental organisations (NGOs), donors and state in Bangladesh. In:The public reconfigured: The production of poverty in an age of advancing liberalism (23-25 Sep 2005 : Bergen, Norway).

Lewis, David and Rodgers, Dennis and Woolcock, Michael (2005) The fiction of development: knowledge, authority and representation. London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

Lewis, David (2005) Individuals, organisations and public action : trajectories of the non-governmental in development studies. In: Kothari, Uma, (ed.) A radical history of development studies. Zed Books Ltd, London, pp. 200-222. ISBN 1842770000

Mosse, David and Lewis, David and Mosse, David and Lewis, David (2005) The aid effect: giving and governing in international development. Pluto Press, London. ISBN 0745323871

Lewis, David (2005) Anthropology and development : the uneasy relationship. In: Carrier, James G., (ed.) A handbook of economic anthropology. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, pp. 472-486. ISBN 1843761750

Lewis, David (2005) Entries on ‘civil society’, ‘non-governmental organisations’ and ‘Grameen Bank’. In: Forsyth, Tim, (ed.) Encyclopaedia of international development. Routledge. ISBN 9780415253420

2004

Lewis, David (2004) On the difficulty of studying “civil society”: NGOs, state and democracy in Bangladesh. Contributions to Indian sociology, 38 (3). pp. 299-322. ISSN 0069-9667

Lewis, David (2004) Icebergs, hippos and organizational change in Africa, a reply to Rick James. Nonprofit management and leadership, 15 (2). pp. 259-263. ISSN 1048-6682

Lewis, David and Madon, Shirin (2004) Information systems and non-governmental development organisations: advocacy, organisational learning and accountability. The information society, 20 (2). pp. 117-126. ISSN 0197-2243

Lewis, David (2004) "Old" and "new" civil societies in Bangladesh. In: Glasius, Marlies and Lewis, David and Seckinelgin, Hakan, (eds.) Exploring civil society: political and cultural contexts. Routledge, London, pp. 113-120. ISBN 0415325455

Glasius, Marlies and Lewis, David and Seckinelgin, Hakan, (eds.) (2004) Exploring civil society : political and cultural contexts. Routledge, London, UK. ISBN 0415325463 hb

Lewis, David (2004) Non-Governmental Organisations. In: Thomas, Clive S, (ed.) Research Guide to US and International Interest Groups. Praeger Publishers, Westport CT, pp. 263-264. ISBN 0313295433

2003

Lewis, David (2003) NGOs, organizational culture, and institutional sustainability. Annals of the American academy of political and social science, 590 (1). pp. 212-226. ISSN 0002-7162

Lewis, David (2003) Theorising the organisation and management of non-governmental development organisations: towards a composite approach. Public management review, 5 (3). pp. 325-344. ISSN 1471-9037

Lewis, David and Bebbington, Anthony J. and Batterbury, Simon and Shah, Alpa and Olson, Elizabeth and Siddiqi, M. Shameem and Duvall, Sandra (2003) Practice, power and meaning: frameworks for studying organizational culture in multi-agency rural development projects. Journal of international development, 15 (5). pp. 541-557. ISSN 0954-1748

Lewis, David (2003) Civil society. In: Christensen, Karen and Levinson, David, (eds.) Encyclopedia of community: from the village to the virtual world. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, USA. ISBN 0761925988

2002

Lewis, David (2002) Civil society in African contexts: reflections on the usefulness of a concept. Development and change, 33 (4). pp. 569-586. ISSN 0012-155X

Lewis, David (2002) NGOs, performance and accountability: an overview. In: Desai, Vandana and Potter, Robert B., (eds.) The Arnold Companion to Development Studies. Arnold Publishers, London, UK, pp. 519-522. ISBN 0340760516

Lewis, David (2002) Organisational culture in multi-agency development projects. In:Conference on Sustainable Development in Urban Communities (31 Jan - 1 Feb 2002 : University of Arizona).

2001

Lewis, David (2001) Civil society in non-Western contexts: reflections on the ‘usefulness’ of a concept. Civil Society Working Paper series, 13. Centre for Civil Society, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

Lewis, David (2001) The management of non-governmental development organisations: an introduction. Routledge, London. ISBN 9780415207584

2000

Gardner, Katy and Lewis, David (2000) Dominant paradigms overturned or 'business as usual'?: development discourse and the white paper on international development. Critique of anthropology, 20 (1). pp. 15-29. ISSN 0308-275X

Lewis, David (2000) Building 'active' partnerships in aid-recipient countries: lessons from a rural development project in Bangladesh. In: Osborne, Stephen P., (ed.) Public private partnerships: theory and practice in international perspective. Routledge, New York, pp. 252-264. ISBN 9780415212687

Lewis, David and Wallace, Tina, (eds.) (2000) New roles and relevance: development NGOs and the challenge of change. Kumarian Press, West Hartford, CT. ISBN 978-1565491212

1999

Lewis, David (1999) International perspectives on voluntary action: reshaping the third sector. Earthscan Ltd, London, UK. ISBN 9781853835568

Lewis, David (1999) Development NGOs and the challenge of partnership. In: Finer, Catherine J, (ed.) Transnational social policy. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, pp. 49-60. ISBN 9780631211280

1998

Lewis, David (1998) Bridging the gap?: the parallel universes of the non-profit and non-governmental organisation research traditions and the changing context of voluntary action. International Working Paper Series, 1. Centre for Civil Society, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

LSE Research Online is the primary resource for references to publications. For queries or updates please email the LSE Research Online team at lseresearchonline@lse.ac.uk|.

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Personal website

David Lewis’s latest book explains how Bangladesh is becoming of increasing interest to the international community as a portal into some of the key issues of our age.

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