About
Neil Howard is a Reader (Associate Professor) in the Department of Social & Policy Sciences at the University of Bath, where he serves as Director of the Centre for Development Studies. He co-leads international policy experiments in Dhaka, Bangladesh and Hyderabad, India through the CLARISSA and WorkFREE projects, and leads the Bath UBI Beacon initiative to establish Bath as a national center for Universal Basic Income scholarship. His ORCID is 0000-0003-2328-8230 and he can be reached at N.P.Howard@bath.ac.uk.
Howard's research focuses on the intersection of social protection, labor governance, and development. As an anthropologist of development turned social protection scholar, he ethnographically examines exploitative and 'unfree' labor targeted by the Sustainable Development Goals, with particular attention to Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) combined with community organizing. He frequently collaborates with Terre des Hommes on participatory action research with child migrants, street-connected children, and child workers. His work challenges conventional paradigms in anti-trafficking discourse, advocating for politically engaged approaches that respect children's agency.
His extensive publication record shows consistent focus on UBI experiments, child labor interventions, and ethical research practices. The work demonstrates strong engagement with community perspectives across Global South contexts, emphasizing participatory approaches to social protection and labor governance. Recent publications particularly highlight cash plus interventions in Bangladesh and ethical considerations in UBI experimentation.
- Vice-Chancellor's Engage Awards for Public Engagement (2025)
Howard is open to supervising new students and serves as an external examiner for PhD theses. His research is supported by significant funding including ESRC IAA, European Research Council, Humanity United, and Mustardseed Trust grants totaling projects through 2026. He actively engages with policy communities through the Basic Income Earth Network (where he serves on the Executive Committee) and regular public presentations on UBI and social protection.
Howard co-leads the CLARISSA project in Bangladesh (https://clarissa.global/) and WorkFREE project in India (https://www.work-free.net/), both combining UBI with participatory community organizing. Through the Bath UBI Beacon initiative (https://www.bath.ac.uk/campaigns/bath-beacon-universal-basic-income/), he aims to establish the University of Bath as the leading national center for UBI scholarship in the UK, fostering interdisciplinary research on basic income and its societal implications.
