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The Global Aspirational Class and It’s Demographic Fortunes

Global educational expansion and growth in middle-income households in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) have brought worldwide attention to the social transformation underway in many countries. Simultaneously, income inequalities within LMICs has also grown sharply, and employment opportunities have lagged behind the aspirational transformations. This seminar will examine the changes in education and employment opportunities in LMICs over the past three decades and explore changes in marriage, fertility and investments in children that have accompanied these economic changes.

Sonalde Desai (Distinguished University Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Maryland and Professor and Centre Director, NCAER-National Data Innovation Center, New Delhi) is a demographer whose work deals primarily with social transformation and its impact on the lives of individuals with a focus on education, employment, gender, and maternal and child health.

She leads the India Human Development Survey of over 40,000 households, one of the few national panel surveys in India providing a rich and free public resource for studying the transformation of Indian society in the 21st Century. Since April 2020, Desai, and her colleagues at NDIC have carried out telephone surveys around COVID-related experiences in Delhi National Capital Region.

She received a Ph.D. from Stanford University and post-doctoral training at the University of Chicago and RAND Corporation. Desai was elected President of Population Association of America for 2022.

She is a frequent contributor to Indian newspapers and has published extensively in Indian and international journals.

Feb 24, 2023 12:30 PM in Pacific Time (US and Canada)