Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner

Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner is an Assistant Professor of politics and global studies at the University of Virginia (UVA). Prior to joining UVA, she was an Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, and an Assistant Professor of political science at Boston College. She received a Ph.D. in political science, a Master's in international development and regional planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a B.A. in sociology/anthropology from Swarthmore College. She has also worked in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa on issues related to economic and social rights, service delivery, disaster risk reduction, and environmental sustainability. Gabi’s research is focused on citizenship practice, local governance, welfare provision, and citizen-State relations, with a regional focus on India. Her book, Claiming the State: Active Citizenship & Social Welfare in India (Cambridge University Press, 2018), investigates the conditions under, and pathways through which, citizens demand welfare provision from the local State, and was awarded the Joseph W. Elder Prize in the Indian Social Sciences by the American Institute for Indian Studies.

Citizen-State relations: Countryside and city
To what extent do citizens expect officials to respond to local problems, and how do they make demands on the State to advance their well-being? Based on surveys in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, this article finds that urban slum residents are less likely to believe that they will get a direct response from an official, and more likely to report the presence of ‘political brokers’ – as compared to similarly poor rural residents.
