Director of TCLab, Smita Srinivas was invited to present an Editorial "One in six globally, but is India counting its own workers?", to India in Transition, a publication of the Centre for Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania in February 2008. The op-ed also runs on the pages of the 10-million readership Hindi newspaper, Hindustan.
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The Director:
Smita Srinivas is Director of the Technological Change Lab (TCLab) and Assistant Professor of Urban Planning at Columbia University. She is a Faculty Associate of the South Asian Institute (SAI), Columbia University. Her training is in economics and economic development planning and her theoretical interest in institutions draws from political economy and evolutionary economics applied to real-life economic plans and decision-making. She is especially interested in re-evaluations of theory and economic history based on current practice in so-called developing countries, and the strong influence of European industrial history and rhetoric on these economic plans. Her research is comparative whenever possible. Her professional engagements include working with multilateral, local and international NGOs and advocacy groups, labour unions, and consortia of diverse organizations interested in economic development, innovation, and social policies. Prof. Srinivas is a member of the American Economic Association and the American Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP). She was Co-Chair 2008-‘09 of the Global Planning Educators’ Interest Group (GPEIG), ACSP, and is Co-Rep 2008-’09 and continuing, Northeast Region, Faculty Women’s Interest Group (FWIG). The focus of her work is the current comparative practice of and historical relationships between technological advances and employment and welfare regimes. These include the political and material realities of technological investments, e.g. technology design and engineering, local land politics, health, employment, skills of people working with technology. Regions: India (esp. South), collaborative work on Brazil, Finland (primary data), other Nordic countries and Western Europe (secondary data). She focuses in particular on two areas of research and advisory work (a) Practice and history in "Late" industrial development, technological learning, urban and regional technology policies and industrial plans, nation-state versus city regions in industrial welfare: The contradictory compass of economic planning processes and state regulation; industrial welfare, gender, "informality", and regulation of alternate institutions other than states and markets. Comparative European, Asian, and other models of 'lateness' and social protections, implications and limitations of Nordic models for late industrial development, welfare, and public institutions. Her joint work with Francie Lund on a gendered approach to social protection for informal workers published by the ILO and WIEGO has been widely used in theory and practice. (b) Economic development history and models of technological change, technology planning processes and inequality in development plans and processes, plans versus "self-organization" in modern Europe and Asia especially relationships between cognitive, material and built, political and labour aspects that increase innovation and reduce inequalities. This work looks closely at scientific advances, technology design, protoypes, participation and user-producer relationships, industrial scale up and diffusion. It also includes epistemological and political philosophy questions of the influence of the Enlightenment, religious and secular views of humans, technology and social organization in Asia and Europe. For the last 2-3 years, her work on innovation taxonomies with Judith Sutz is being increasingly discussed in development agencies and academic settings. The taxonomy can be usefully extended to analyze economic history and both the macro-context of demand and markets, and the micro-context of how innovation emerges. 2009 ISERP award Prof. Srinivas recently received a research seed grant from the Institute of Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP) at Columbia University to study the changing relationship between technologies, industrial organization, and health protections (esp. insurance) in India. The pilot study begins with sectoral contrasts in Karnataka state in the south and looks at the historical evolution of technological changes and broader industrial welfare and health entitlements. The research aims to bridge several gaps between the economics of technical change, and the political economy of social and industrial polciies. Professional and Research Experience Prof. Srinivas has well over a decade of economic research and policy experience and has been an invited advisor and research consultant to diverse development, educational, and practice organizations on topics of economic change, industrial and regional development, employment and social protections (including gender issues), technology choices and innovation. Her research and invited advisory work has included organizations such as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the International Labor Organization (ILO), the international network WIEGO on women and informal employment, the union Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), and the Aga Khan Development Foundation. Although she could not accept, the Government of India's National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS) invited her in 2004 to join the Commission's efforts as a member/consultant on issues of social protection for "informal" workers, technology and training. In 2010 she has been a Senior Advisor to the upcoming Indian Institutes for Human Settlements (www.iihs.ac.in) on curricular and research issues in economics, economic development, and political economy. The effort includes several Indian advisors from across the country and various organizations and universities, and from MIT, University College London, and firms such as IDEO and ARUP. She was recently invited in 2009 to write the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's (UNCTAD) background paper for the Least Developed Countries’ Report on the State, technology and industrial policy. UNCTAD has tradiitonally acted as a multilateral think tank for developing economies. Selected invited talks, keynote/plenary Prof. Srinivas has been an invited speaker at several international venues over the past decade. A snapshot of selected talks over the last decade: 1999 historic International Labor Organization plenary talk with Francie Lund, first observor status for non-unions 2005 American Association for the Advancement of Science on science and practice 2007 UPenn-Brandies, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation sponsored workshop on Indian health policy reforms. 2008 UNESCO meeting in Montevideo plenary on Science, Technology, Innovation and Social Inclusion. 2009 Carnegie Mellon University and U-Pittsburgh event series on the Indian economy with Aravind Panagariya and others 2009 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's (UNCTAD) expert group meeting on Least Developed Countries in March 2009 (invited chapter) 2009 Brown University's Watson Center for International Affairs to speak on New Industrial Policies and the BRICSA countries. Unable to accept 2007 Inter-Parliamentary Union to address parliamentarians in Geneva on the issue of women's employment and social protections 2010 as keynote speaker to the Futures Security conference in Turku, Finland Publications, journal affiliations Prof. Srinivas is primary author and co-author of Learning from experience: A gendered approach to social protection for workers in the informal economy (Geneva: ILO 2000/2005 with Frances Lund), and Women Organizing for social protection, The Self-employed Women's Association's Integrated Insurance Scheme, India (Geneva: International Labour Office, STEP Programme, 2001). Lund and Srinivas (2000 WIEGO/ILO), was subsequently reprinted in 2005, and is a "best-seller", according to the ILO. She continues active engagement on the pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and biotech sub-sectors, and the political economy and urban context of their economic development and health impacts. She is a member of an international Access to Medicines Project (led from the United Nations University-MERIT, Maastricht) and is currently completing some writing on data coillected under an IAVI project of 45 years of vaccine history. She is an invited reviewer for several journals on development, economics and institutions, including among others, Journal of Development Studies, Feminist Economics, and World Development. She is an International Editorial Board member of the new journal Millennial Asia-Asian Economy, Society and Polity, (Association of Asia Scholars), and on the Scientific Committee of the new journal Innovation and Development (Routledge, Taylor & Francis group). Prof. Srinivas has published single and co-authored articles on various aspects of industrial development, innovation and welfare regimes in peer-reviewed journals such as World Development, Theory and Society, Regional Studies, European Planning Studies, and Technology in Society. |
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Smita Srinivas received a Ph.D. in Economic Development and Technology Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she specialized in microeconomic and institutional analysis of industrial and technology policy, and minored in public finance. Her prior degrees are from the Institut Universitaire de hautes Etudes Internationals, Geneva, Switzerland, Yale University and Smith College in the U.S. She has held pre- and post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in the Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs (Science, Technology and Public Policy program) and was also an Associate at the Science, Environment and Development program (now Sustainability Schience program) of the Centre for International Development at Harvard. She remains an Affiliate of the MIT Industrial Performance Centre in Cambridge, Mass. and with the Sloan Foundation's Industry Studies program. She is the recipient of various graduate and post-graduate awards, fellowships and grants, including a UNIDO Fellowship at Harvard, an Industrial Performance Centre grant at MIT, a Mellon-MIT grant, and a nominated membership as an undergraduate to Sigma Xi, the national Science Honour Society. In summer 2008, she was a Visiting Scientist at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, in the Department of Management Studies and the Centre for Sustainable Technologies. The IISc is one of India's premiere science and engineering research institutes. |
Besides her prior book publications in 2000 and 2001 (ILO), she is completing a manuscript on regulation of health technologies and health entitlements in late industrial suppliercountries. The book is written in comparative historical perspective, uses original research on Indian pharmaceuticals and vaccines, and focuses on the state's dilemmas of regulation in access to medicines and economic and urban development supports for the pharmaceutical industry. Latest article (invited)S. Srinivas. 2010. Industrial Welfare and the State: Nation and City Reconsidered, Theory and Society, Tilly, Chris and Hanagan, Michael (Eds.), special double volume, “Cities, states, trust, and rule: New departures from the work of Charles Tilly”, Vol. 39 (3-4), May/July. Journal articlesS. Srinivas. 2010. Industrial Welfare and the State: Nation and City Reconsidered, Theory and Society, Chris Tilly and Mike Hanagan (Eds.), special double volume, “Cities, states, trust, and rule: New departures from the work of Charles Tilly”, Vol. 39 (3-4), May/July. (invited) S. Srinivas. 2009. Cost, Risk, and Labour Markets: The State and Sticky Institutions in Global Production Networks, Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Special Issue on Global Production and Its Implications for Indian Firms and Labour, Vol. 52, No. 4. (invited) S. Srinivas. 2008. Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation, and Healthcare: Unanswered questions in Theory and Policy, Economica, Vol. 10 (2), December, Special Issue on IPR and Development, Brazil. (invited) S. Srinivas. 2008. Urban Labour Markets in the 21st Century: Dualism, Regulation and the Role(s) of the State, Habitat International, 32 (2) June 2008: 141-159. Special Issue on Urban Labour, lead article. (invited). Sotarauta, M. and S. Srinivas. 2006. Co-evolutionary Policy Processes: Understanding Innovative Economies and Future Resilience, Futures, 38 (3), April, pp. 312–336. Select Book Chapters (Invited):Sotarauta, M. and Srinivas, S. 2005. Renewal of Regions -- An Evolutionary Point of View, Reflections from South Ostrobothnia, Finland in Markowski, Tadeusz (ed.). A Tribute to Professor Ryszard Fomanski from Regional Scientists. Polish Academy of Sciences, Committee for Spatial Economy and Regional Planning. Studia Regionalia Vol. XV. Warsaw. S. Srinivas and K. Viljamaa, Economic Institutionalization in Practice: Development and the “Third Role” of universities”, in Richard K. Lester and Markku Sotarauta (Eds.) 2007 in Innovation, Universities and the Competitiveness of Regions, pp. 73-94 ",( Tekes Report, Technology Reviews Series for Tekes, the National Science and Technology Agency, Government of Finland). Book Chapters in Preparation (Invited):Srinivas, S. Chapter on Demand and Technological Innovation: Institutional design and transformation of the Health sector, in Ramani, S. and Joseph, K. (Eds.). Innovation and Inclusive Development -- the Indian case (tentative title) Select list of Official Reports and inputs UNCTAD LDC Report 2009. S. Srinivas. 2009 (March). “Industry Policy, Technological Change, and the State”, Chapter 5 inputs for UNCTAD expert group meeting, LDC Report 2009, UNCTAD, United Nations Geneva, March 2009. (invited) World Development Report 2001. Inputs on social insurance, microfinance and changing employment issues. |
Her current work looks at comparative employment and social protection regimes and their urban and regional roots, in Asia, Europe and Latin America. This research includes comparative historical analysis of technological change in its wider welfare regime and social policy contect. Her recent reserach has focused on India and Finland and Europe with some collaborative comparative (secondary data) work on Brazil. She is completing some sectoral research on the State's role in regulating employment-linked healthcare and its challenges for industrial policy means and goals in pharmaceuticals and vaccine health sector industries. This research since 2002 has built on detailed industry-based analysis of changing markets, social movements for health coverage and insurance, and analysis of Indian urban and national industrial realities in comparative perspective. Several articles from this work are being written, some now published. In 2006-2007, she also designed, led and analysed some work with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative looking at historical vaccine R&D Models and their implications. She is extending this work in terms of comparative social and employment policy to question the changing nature and spatial characteristics of healthcare and of employment-based entitlements. Since 2002, she has been active in studying regional and urban economic development and technology policy in Finland as part of a broader interest in shifting European technological and welfare discourses on the 'knowledge economy'. She has written on Turku, Finland and its biopharmaceutical sector, and has done some comparative writing as part of the MIT Local Innovation Systems (LIS) program. Another sector of considerable interest from an industrial, employment, and social protection perspective is construction which is highly labour-intensive, technologically dualistic, and primarily non-traded in several industrialising countries. |
Since 2006, she has been advisor to approximately 20 M.S. Columbia thesis students and to several Ph.D. students as supervisor or committee member. A sample of supervised topics include: industrialization in Chinese regions; Informality in Indian street-vending; Energy technologies and gender in Dominican Republic; public procurement and green technologies in Europe; SMEs, regional institutions and industrialization in Pakistan; institutions in U.S. and Canadian oil-dependent industrial regions; informal workers, politics and collective action in NY politics; spatial aspects of work-welfare policies in U.S. cities; Housing policies and labour markets in South African townships; S. Korean state and urban redevelopment; industrial development, employment and health in Ugandan villages; Chinese state, STI policies, and regional social networks; remittances and development in Mexico; energy service contracts and NYC green technologies; bio-fuels and public distirbution systems in the U.S; construction technologies and regional development in Yemen. Two of her advisees have won M.S. thesis awards. Leticia Crispin 2006-'07 (Best Qualitative Thesis: on planning the use of Mexican remittances through formal and informal institutions) and Qianqi Shen 2008-'09 (Research Design Award: on local industrial development in Guangzhou the role of universities and networks in STI planning and policy, cases of automotive and software). She has been an external reader for students in India and England. Her graduate seminars for Ph.D. and M.S. students at Columbia University have included students from several Schools and departments across campus.
Her advising and instructorships has also included students at HEI (Geneva), Harvard University, and MIT. TCLab research also attracts students from across campus.
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