Jeffrey Paller
Researcher at Department of Government; Faculty
- E-mail:
- jeffrey.paller@statsvet.uu.se
- Visiting address:
- Östra Ågatan 19
753 22 Uppsala - Postal address:
- Box 514
751 20 UPPSALA
Download contact information for Jeffrey Paller at Department of Government; Faculty
- CV:
- Download CV
- ORCID:
- 0000-0001-6983-065X
Short presentation
I use ethnography, focus groups, and surveys to examine the political conditions under which democratic activity and accountability develop in urban communities, specifically in Africa.
Keywords
- sustainability
- cities
- accountability
- democracy
- african politics
Biography
I am a Researcher in the Department of Government at Uppsala University, Associate Professor of Politics at University of San Francisco, and a research associate with the Governance and Local Development Institute (GLD) at the University of Gothenburg. In 2022-23, I was a fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study.
I am the PI for the “Building Sustainable Neighborhoods in African Cities” project (Formas 2024-26), as well as co-leader for “Emerging Cities”, a Swedish Research Council-funded research environment that examines political change and local governance in secondary cities (2023-27). I am a Co-I on the “Political Transformation in African Cities (PACE)” project supported by the Research Council of Norway (2021-24).
My research has been funded by the Social Science Research Council, National Science Foundation, University of Wisconsin, and USF. I was a Research Associate at the Center for Democratic Development in Ghana in 2012. I received my PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the department of political science in 2014. During the academic year 2014-15, I was a Visiting Lecturer of Politics at Bates College. In 2016, I was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, working with the Center for Sustainable Urban Development. I curate the weekly news bulletin This Week in Africa.

Publications
Recent publications
Demanding Recognition: a New Framework for the Study of Political Clientelism
Part of African Affairs, p. 185-203, 2023
- DOI for Demanding Recognition: a New Framework for the Study of Political Clientelism
- Download full text (pdf) of Demanding Recognition: a New Framework for the Study of Political Clientelism
Sustainability Politics and Housing Development in Urban Brazil and Ghana
Part of International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, p. 329-347, 2023
The social embeddedness of elections: Ghana’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns
Part of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, p. 293-314, 2023
Urbanization and political change in Africa
Part of African Affairs, p. 353-376, 2023
Everyday politics and sustainable urban development in the Global South
Part of Area Development and Policy, p. 319-336, 2020
All publications
Articles in journal
Demanding Recognition: a New Framework for the Study of Political Clientelism
Part of African Affairs, p. 185-203, 2023
- DOI for Demanding Recognition: a New Framework for the Study of Political Clientelism
- Download full text (pdf) of Demanding Recognition: a New Framework for the Study of Political Clientelism
Sustainability Politics and Housing Development in Urban Brazil and Ghana
Part of International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, p. 329-347, 2023
The social embeddedness of elections: Ghana’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns
Part of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, p. 293-314, 2023
Urbanization and political change in Africa
Part of African Affairs, p. 353-376, 2023
Everyday politics and sustainable urban development in the Global South
Part of Area Development and Policy, p. 319-336, 2020
Building permanence: fire outbreaks and emergent tenure security in urban Ghana
Part of Africa, p. 437-456, 2019
Dignified Public Expression: A New Logic of Political Accountability
Part of Comparative politics, p. 85-116, 2019
Ethnographies of emergence: everyday politics and their origins across Africa Introduction
Part of Africa, p. 429-436, 2019
Democratic Ruptures and Electoral Outcomes in Africa: Ghana's 2016 Election
Part of Africa Spectrum, p. 5-35, 2018
Defending the city, defending votes: campaign strategies in urban Ghana
Part of Journal of Modern African Studies, p. 681-708, 2017
Informal Institutions and Personal Rule in Urban Ghana
Part of African Studies Review, p. 123-142, 2014
Political Struggle to Political Sting: A Theory of Democratic Disillusionment
Part of Polity, p. 580-603, 2013
Books
Democracy in Ghana: Everyday Politics in Urban Africa
Cambridge University Press, 2019