research team - united states

Prof. Smita Srinivas (Columbia University), Research Affiliate

Smita Srinivas is Assistant Professor of Urban Planning at Columbia University and Director of the Technological Change and Urban Social Policy research unit (TCUSP). Her research focused on technologies, employment, health and welfare regimes and the role of urban and regional economic institutions in improving working and living conditions. Her current research is on the regulation of and mechanization in manufacture and services employment in Indian cities, drawing on comparisons with Brazil and South Africa. The focus is on the poorest workers and the economic and social protection policies of independent India that have instigated and accommodated technological shifts with varying success over the last 50 years. As Director of TCUSP, she oversees collaborative international research and advisory programs focused on the urban and gendered impact of technological changes on employment, social protections and health.

Her interests in the political economy of industrial planning and health has included the tensions between industrial competitiveness and universal health goals in pharmaceuticals and vaccines. This included research on access to medicines, health and social insurance and the role of markets in shaping technologies and local redistribution. She continues to contribute to topics on universalism and the local relevance and prioritisation of scientific and technological innovation. Since 2002, she has also been active on regional development and technology policy in Finland as part of a broader interest in shifting welfare regimes and economic development.

She is primary author and co-author of two books published by the International Labour Organization (ILO): Learning from experience: A gendered approach to social protection for workers in the informal economy (Geneva: ILO, WIEGO 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, a best-seller, according to the ILO.

Prof. Srinivas has worked with or been invited to advise numerous international, national and grass-roots organizations for over ten years. Some of these are the ILO, the Aga Khan Development network, SEWA, UN agencies and WIEGO. In the spring of 2007, she will teach two classes: one on Industrialisation, Technology and Urban Work, the other on Health, Work and Welfare regimes.

In 2005-2006, her publications included "Industrial Development and Innovation: Some Lessons from Vaccine Procurement" (World Development, 2006); "Co-evolutionary policy processes: Understanding innovative economies and future resilience" (Futures, 2006 with M. Sotarauta); "Emergence of Economic Institutions: Analysing Universities and the Third Role in Turku, Finland" (forthcoming, Regional Studies, with K. Viljamaa); "Renewal of Regions, An Evolutionary Point of View: Reflections from South Ostrobothnia, Finland", in Markowski, T. (ed.) Regional Scientists' Tribute to Professor Ryszard Domanski, Polish Academy of Sciences, Studia Regionalia Vol XV Warsaw (2005, with M. Sotarauta); "Economic Development and Innovation: Problem-solving in Scarcity Conditions" (2006, with J. Sutz, Harvard University, Centre for International Development Working Paper); S. Srinivas. 2005. "Technical Standards and Economic Development: Meeting the most Common Denominator?", prepared for UNIDO, Vienna, (input into the World Industrial Development Report 2005); and S. Srinivas. 2005. "Industrial Dynamics, Property Rights and Local Needs: Conceptual and Empirical questions with examples from Health", invited paper for the INPI/UNU-MERIT international workshop on Property rights and the Development Agenda, Maastricht, the Netherlands.

She holds a Ph.D. from MIT in Economic Development and Technology Planning and prior degrees from the Graduate Institute of International Studies (HEI/Institut universitaire de hautes etudes internationales (HEI) Certificat, Economics section),Geneva, Switzerland, Yale University (Physics) and Smith College (Math/Physics) in the U.S. She is the recipient of awards and grants and has held both pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. From 2004 to 2005, she was UNIDO Fellow at the Kennedy School and from 2002-2004, she was the Task Force Fellow with the United Nations Millennium Project's Task Force on Science, Technology, and Innovation (TF10). She remains a Research Affiliate with the MIT Industrial Performance Centre in Cambridge, Mass. She is a nominated member to Sigma Xi, the National Science Honour Society.