Contact Information
720 S. Wright St.
MC-454
Urbana, IL 61801
Biography
Brian Dill is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he currently serves as the Director of Graduate Studies. He holds affiliate positions in the Department of Geography & Geographic Information Science, the Center for African Studies, and the Center for Global Studies. Brian currently serves as the Secretary/Treasurer for Research Committee 09: Social Transformations and the Sociology of Development of the International Sociological Association.
Research Interests
Political Sociology
Sociology of Development
Research Description
My research interests are at the intersection Political Sociology and the Sociology of Development. My focus is on the social organization of power the practices and processes of social change. There are three dimensions to my research.
One important question that motivates my exploration of the social world is: How do people participate in the decisions that affect their lives? I have explored this question (in the past) through the lens of community-based development in urban Tanzania and (in the present) collaborative governance arrangements in the United States.
A second and related area of research concerns a contemporary aspect of nature-society relations that is fashioned from the principles of ecological restoration and collaborative governance. What I refer to as restorative development is an intentional practice to improve collective well-being by restoring damaged ecosystems and enhancing the social, cultural, and economic relationships that are tied to a particular landscape.
My third area of sociological inquiry involves a close look at the rise of the (digital) developmental state in Africa. I argue that the developmental state framework is a useful way to explore key questions of governance, institution building, and the structural transformation of the national economy.
Education
PhD., University of Minnesota
Courses Taught
Soc 122: Africa in World Perspective
Soc 161: Introduction to Poverty
Soc 226: Political Sociology
Soc 364: Impacts of Globalization
Soc 561: Development Theories
Soc 596: Global and Transnational Sociology
Global Studies 350: Poverty in a Global Context
Global Studies 450: Poverty Interventions and Evaluation
Additional Campus Affiliations
Department Affiliate, Geography and Geographic Information Science
Associate Professor, Center for Global Studies
Associate Professor, Center for African Studies
External Links
Highlighted Publications
Dill, B. J. (2013). Fixing the African State: Recognition, Politics, and Community-Based Development in Tanzania. (Africa Connects). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137281418
Khalil, H., & Dill, B. (2018). Negotiating statist neoliberalism: the political economy of post-revolution Egypt. Review of African Political Economy, 45(158), 574-591. https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2018.1547187
Dill, B., & Aminzade, R. (2017). Historians and the Study of Protest. In C. Roggeband, & B. Klandermans (Eds.), Handbook of Social Movements Across Disciplines (pp. 141-183). (Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57648-0_6
Dill, B. (2010). Community-based organizations (CBOs) and norms of participation in Tanzania: Working against the grain. African Studies Review. 53(2):23-48.
Dill, B. (2009). The Paradoxes of Community‐based Participation in Dar es Salaam
Development and Change. 40(4):717-743.
Recent Publications
Schreiber, K. L., Rodríguez, L. F., Witmer, A. P., & Dill, B. (2019). Understanding and incorporating stakeholder perspectives in international engineering: A phrase mining analysis. Paper presented at 2019 ASABE Annual International Meeting, Boston, United States. https://doi.org/10.13031/aim.201901425
Dill, B. J., & Khalil, H. (2018). Financing Sustainable Development? How International Tax Reform is Failing Africa. In J. L. De Maio, S. Scheld, & M. Woldeamanuel (Eds.), Sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa: Problems, Perspectives, and Prospects (pp. 91-108). Lexington Books.
Khalil, H., & Dill, B. (2018). Negotiating statist neoliberalism: the political economy of post-revolution Egypt. Review of African Political Economy, 45(158), 574-591. https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2018.1547187
Dill, B., & Aminzade, R. (2017). Historians and the Study of Protest. In C. Roggeband, & B. Klandermans (Eds.), Handbook of Social Movements Across Disciplines (pp. 141-183). (Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57648-0_6
Boelens, R., Crow, B., Dill, B. J., Lu, F., Ocampo-Raeder, C., & Zwarteveen, M. (2014). Santa Cruz Declaration on the Global Water Crisis. Water International, 39(2), 246-261. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2014.886936