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Currently, projects exist on multiple industrial sectors and their employment and welfare realities, and regions with ongoing and planned projects across several countries.

There are three ongoing core projects at the TCLab Lab using quantitative, qualitative and visual techniques
(details are available upon request).

 

Other relevant publications

UNCTAD LDCR Report cover black and white

THE LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
REPORT 2009 UNITED NATIONS
New York and Geneva, 2009

The State and Development Governance

Local Innovation Systems Project (MIT Industrial Performance Center) Working Papers

Lund and Srinivas WIEGO report cover Learning from Experience: A gendered approach to social protection for workers in the informal economy (Frances Lund and Smita Srinivas, 2000/2005. International Labour Organization: Geneva)

Read WIEGO's statement on Lund and Srinivas and Social protection

Slums

 

-Publications:

Srinivas, Smita
Cost, Risk, and Labour Models: The State and Sticky Institutions, Discussion Paper

Abstract
This chapter posits that there is no a priori reason to believe that industrial upgrading will lead to greater employment numbers or quality as markets expand. I ask three sets of questions and attempt a conceptual framework of the local governance and socio-economic ecology within which these changes occur:

1. Do expanding sectoral markets necessarily lead to increased social protections and lowered risks especially for women workers?
2. How does domestic versus export demand affect the cost and risk calculus of states and firms?
3. Among those the worst off, can analyses and interventions at the “low” end improve conditions along other labour segments? i.e. can labour conditions in the better entitled segments percolate across/down to other rungs of the labour market?

I will argue that a regional risk ecology of the firm ties in institutionally in insightful ways for the “low” end to segmentation theories for primary-secondary workers and insider-outsiders, as well as approaches to the emergence of social protections. I suggest a typology of place, work, and work-place systems of public and private industrial governance. Industrial upgrading can then be more specifically termed work-place processes which have particular institutional and spatial characteristics of social protectionss.

Link to Full Text

Forthcoming : Srinivas, Smita
Industrial Welfare and the State: Nation and City Reconsidered

Source
in Theory and Society (special double volume in honour of Charles Tilly: "Cities, states, trust, and rule: New departures from the work of Charles Tilly"), Chris Tilly and Mike Hanagan Eds.

Contributions (author, field, university, "title")
1. Michael Hanagan and Chris Tilly, “Introduction”
2. Charles Tilly, “Cities and States in World History: Cities, States, and Trust Networks”
3. Wim Blockmans, History, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study,
“Inclusiveness and Exclusion: Trust Networks at the Origins of European Cities”
4. Miguel Centeno, Sociology, Princeton University, “From Empires to States”
5. Elisabeth Clemens, Sociology, University of Chicago,
“From the City Club to the Nation State: Business-Networks in American Political Development”
6. Diane Davis, Urban Planning, MIT, “Non-State Armed Actors, New Imagined Communities, and Shifting Patterns of Sovereignty in a Globalizing Urban World”
7. Peter Evans and Patrick Heller, Sociology, Berkeley & Brown,
“Cities and Citizens; Challenges of Urban Governance and Democracy in the 21st Century”
8. Carmenza Gallo, Sociology, Queens College and Graduate Center CUNY,
“States and Citizenship Rights: Colombia 1950-2000”
9. Michael Katz, History, University of Pennsylvania, “Was government the solution or the problem? The role of the state in the history of American social policy”
10. Marcel van der Linden, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam,
“Unanticipated Consequences of `Humanitarian Intervention’: The British Campaign to Abolish the African Slave Trade (1808-1900)”
11. Peter Marcuse, Urban  Planning, Columbia University, “The City: Divisions over Space and Time”
12. Ariel Salzmann, History, Queens University, “Is there a Moral Economy of State Formation?  Religious Regimes and Secular Political Change within Euro-Asia 1250-1750”
13. Salvador Sandoval, Political Science, Pontificia Universidade Catolica de São Paulo,
“Colonial Cities and State Formation in Latin America: Two Contrasting Processes”
14. Hwa-ji Shin | Sociology, University of San Francisco,
“The Colonial Legacy of Ethno-racial Inequality in Japan”
15. Edward Soja, Geography, UCLA, “Cities and States in Geohistory”
16. Smita Srinivas, Urban Planning, Columbia University,
“Industrial Welfare and the State:  Nation and City Reconsidered”
17. Michael Storper, Geography, London School of Economics,
“Cities and Globalization: the Great Unbundling”

Forthcoming : Srinivas, Smita and Wallin, Sirkku
Social Foundations of Innovative Economies: Complementary institutions and evolution in the welfare state



To be uploaded


Forthcoming : Srinivas, Smita and Shen, Qianqi
Markets and Institutions Reconsidered: 'Unlimited Supply' of workers in India and China

 


To be uploaded

 

2009 : Srinivas, Smita
Industrial Policy, Technological Change, and the State

Source
in Least Developed Country (LDC) Report 2009, Chapter 5 Inputs: Building Productive Capacities, UNCTAD
The State and Development Governance

 

2008 : Srinivas, Smita
Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation, and Healthcare: Unanswered questions in Theory and Policy

Source
Economica, Rio de Janeiro, 10 (2), December: 106-146
Special issue "Contributions to the Development Agenda on Intellectual Property Rights"

Abstract
Intellectual property regimes are usually presumed to exert positive inducements on technological innovation. However, given the dire nature of access to critical health technologies for most of the world’s population, it is worth revisiting this assumption for health technologies. This paper situates
intellectual property rights (IPRs) for health technologies at the intersection of three fields: innovation studies, welfare theories, and international political economy. It revisits the conceptual underpinnings of property rights with particular relevance for needs of today’s industrializing, or so-called “developing”
countries. This paper argues that the debates on IPR have poorly explored counterfactuals in pharmaceuticals and biotechnologies where other means of inducement may exist and innovations may arise in conditions where IPR is either absent or irrelevant. To do this, it first discusses utility as a basis for IPRs and the challenges –philosophical, theoretical and most importantly, practical- in translating this to real-world use. It draws on history to analyze pharmaceutical prior drug generations and alternate inducements. The article offers a novel conceptual framework to study innovation in developing contexts where IPR can be specifically situated. If the real goal is accessible and affordable healthcare- an issue of immense importance worldwide- then we may need to cease barking up the wrong tree of intellectual property rights.

Link to Full Text

Link to Full Issue

2008 : Srinivas, Smita
Innovation and welfare regimes: Capturing income inequality in theories of technological change?

Source
Globelics Conference (1), Mexico city, Sept 2008 (Paper presented at panel on "Forms of Social Democracy and Innovation")
GLOBELICS is the Global Network for Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems

2008 : Srinivas, Smita et Al.
Varieties of Innovation and Welfare Regimes: The leap from R&D Projects to the Development of City-regions

Source
European Planning Studies, 16 (9) October 2008: 1267-1291

Abstract
In the varieties of capitalism, welfare capitalism, and systems of innovation literatures, the university is a critical actor as public employer, trainer and provider of several public goods. However, there is relatively weak enquiry into the spatial and institutional characteristics of university-led economic development and a relative neglect of the political economy and organizational features of embedded R&D projects in urban and regional planning. We argue that technical projects, far from being stand-alone entities, have taken on the broad characteristics of the university and city-regional development mandate in where they reside. The article is based on an exploratory study of university-industry R&D projects in six city regions of Finland. We show that:
(a) the shifting role of universities reflects a changed context for the welfare state in which the “public” debate occurs;
(b) These create distinct issues of legitimacy and coalition-building in local economic planning which give rise to diverse regional interpretations of single technology programmes;
(c) We categorise three general types of models of R&D projects in universities and propose tentative categories of contributions to “public knowledge”.
This diversity of interpretations and outcomes leaves us optimistic regarding the ability of city-regions to adapt and plan for the future against a changing welfare state that shapes the university's role, yet more cautious about any clear-cut “public knowledge” emerging from such technical projects.

Link to Full Text

2008 : Srinivas, Smita and Viljamaa, Kimmo
Emergence of Economic Institutions: Analysing the Third Role of Universities in Turku, Finland

Source
Regional Studies, 42 (3) April 2008: 323-341

Abstract
How do universities become economic development institutions? The normative 'Third Role' in Europe refers to universities taking on explicit economic development mandates such as greater technology transfer, and commercial outputs, without providing much of a compass for institutional change. It is argued that universities transform themselves into economic institutions against a changing canvas of national welfare by a process of 'task-oriented institutionalization' which involves both individual action and university strategy. Two universities' interactions with firms in Turku, Finland's biotechnology concentration, are investigated. Using universities as a lens, notable gaps are found in frameworks on how economic institutions emerge, and the paper concludes with five hypotheses for future studies on universities, institutions, and economic development.

Link to Full Text

2008 : Srinivas, Smita
Urban labour markets in 21st century: Dualism, the regulation and the role(s) of the State

Source
Habitat International, 32 (2) June 2008: 141-159. Special issue on Labour in Urban Areas

Abstract
This paper is concerned with two questions: When and how does society at large (through State, intermediary organizations, labor unions, etc.) institute a set of supports to minimize schisms in the labor market? How exactly do these schisms evolve in response to changing technical standards in industrial production and services many of which are increasingly globally regulated? This paper attempts to sketch some phenomenological features of urban employment in India to address these questions. First, it discusses dualism of the labor market to understand how the division of labor institutionalizes certain rules for economy-wide use. Second, it contends that the State is torn between multiple goals and cannot be treated monolithically. Third, it explores how dualism within the labor market is affected by changing global technical standards and the newer forms of industrial relations that emerge. The argument is that for institutions to embrace both efficiency and equity a shared understanding of goals and procedural language is required between actors and a close attention to the everyday work process of organizations and individuals. Technical regulations and standards permeate industry in diverse ways and exacerbate existing tensions between varied State priorities and make more unclear the costs and context for distributing uncertainty and ensuring cooperation around issues such as training and insurance. The paper lists some salient features of the construction sector in Bangalore, India. Finally, it briefly discusses the relevance of this approach of dualism and institutionalization in the face of technical standards for the Millennium Development Goals and Decent Work agendas.

Link to Full Text

2008 : Srinivas, Smita and Sutz, Judith
Developing countries and innovation: Searching for a new analytical approach

Source
Technology in Society 30 (2) April 2008: 129-140

Abstract
This article argues that the technological innovation is a contextual process whose relevance should be assessed depending on the socio-economic condition it is embedded in. Without this, technology-led economic policies (of Catch-Up varieties) are unlikely to meet the needs of most people, especially in countries where innovation and poverty reside side by side. We analyse micro-level account of the cognitive and socio-economic context within which innovations arise and argue that a process of real importance is being sidelined: the ability to innovate under ‘scarcity’ conditions. In this process, idiosyncratic innovative paths are followed, which we argue have been least theorized and which may provide solutions for urgent and otherwise unsolved problems. We sketch a scarcity-induced innovation framework to analyse such paths and provide a brief account of institutional aspects of planning and policy in this approach.

Link to Full Text

2008 : Srinivas, Smita
One in six globally, but is India counting its own workers?

Source
India in Transition (IiT), February 2008

Excerpt
Consider the following three facts. First, approximately every sixth person in the world is Indian. Second, for the first time in the history of humankind, the majority of people live in urbanized regions, concentrating poverty in new ways. Third, India’s industrial sectors have distinct spatial characteristics that mirror caste, jati, and gender features of Indian workers. These citizens are poorly counted by both the government and unions. These facts raise critical questions about the number of Indians without basic food security, healthcare, shelter and employment options. How should a country support hundreds of millions of citizens and workers who have no easily identifiable employer? What forms of security should it provide workers? How should we think about employment and social policy? If one listens to the pundits speaking of an ‘India Shining,’ one might imagine that we have addressed this contingency. However, if India imagines that its future is one of emulating the trends of the West, it may be in for a rude shock, given that the State does not even know who and where its citizens are [...]

Link to Full Text

2007 : Srinivas, Smita and Viljamaal, Kimmo
Economic Institutionalization in Practice: Development and the “Third Role” of Universities in Turku, Finland

Source
in Innovation, Universities and the Competitiveness of Regions
, Ed. Richard Lester and Markku Sotarauta: 73-94

Abstract
Normative prescriptions for the Third Role of universities assume specific agency and goal orientation. However, this process of institutionalisation is not context-free. To understand what determines if the university behaves as an economic institution, we ask what persuades it to (a) collaborate with industry and (b) engage with regional development. We develop a conceptual framework for “task-oriented” institutionalisation and the role of individual versus institutional action. We do this by analysing the local universities in the biotechnology concentration in Turku, Finland and find that resource constraints rather than a consistent strategy have driven universities’ to collaborate with industry. Implications for institutional theory and economic policy are discussed.

Link to Full Text
Link to Book: Innovation, Universities and the Competiveness of Regions

2007 : Wilson, Paul; Post, Sarah and Srinivas, Smita
R&D Models: Lessons from Vaccine History

Source
International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Policy Research Working Paper #14, June 2007.

Executive Summary
A preventive HIV vaccine offers the best hope for ending the AIDS pandemic. Scientific evidence suggests that an HIV vaccine is possible, and funding for HIV vaccine research and development (R&D) has increased substantially in recent years. The speed of progress toward an HIV vaccine will depend on the management of the effort as well as on its scale, however, and organizational issues have been the subject of vigorous debate. With this paper, we seek to shed light on these debates by examining the history of vaccine development, as well as some examples of large R&D initiatives in other areas. We focus on two issues: the roles of the public and private sectors, and the merits and risks of strong central direction of R&D. We also consider the scientific, regulatory, and institutional changes that complicate extrapolation from past experience to the case of HIV vaccines. Our analysis draws on extensive interviews with experts in the field as well as a literature review.

Link to Full Text

2006 : Srinivas, Smita
Industrial Development and Innovation: Some Lessons from Vaccine Procurement

Source
World Development, 34 (10) October 2006: 1742–1764

Abstract
This paper suggests that demand instruments of international vaccine procurement, instead of being seen primarily as a global management instrument, can usefully induce industrial change and technological innovation through improved technical standards and regulations. The example of Indian vaccines is analyzed, and an industrial evolution schematic is investigated. The findings suggest that some fine tuning can improve the demand side for technological innovation. However, tensions between industrial and health policies and their separate evolutions are also visible, and more is needed to link industrial and technological gains with domestic health needs, if the goal is broader social impact.

Link to Full Text

2006 : Sotarauta, Markku and Srinivas, Smita
Co-evolutionary policy processes: Understanding innovative economies and future resilience

Source
Futures, 38 (3) April 2006: 312–336.

Abstract
The great debates of most fields associated with economic development rest on emergence versus intention and the interplay between the two. The ‘residual’ of unexplained divergence between goal and outcome, in this sense, can be ascribed in part to the interplay, or co-evolution, between policies (intention) and self-organizing (emergent) development. Do public policy and economic development co-evolve in technologically innovative economies, and if so, how? This paper discusses the basic premise that the gap between economic development strategies and their poor implementation cannot simply be removed by creating better-intended strategies, tools or institutions. The analysis uses evolutionary thinking for an analysis of economic development, and ends with some postulates for future study on innovative regions and the concept of resilience.

Link to Full Text

2005 : Srinivas, Smita
Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Industrial Development

Source
Intellectual Property Rights and the Development Agenda Conference, UNU-INTECH, Maastricht 2005

Abstract
Intellectual property regimes are usually presumed to exert positive inducements on technological innovation. However, given the dire nature of access to critical health technologies for most of the world's population, it is worth revisiting this assumption for health technologies. This paper situates intellectual property rights (IPRs) for health technologies at the intersection of three fields: innovation studies, welfare theories, and international political economy. It revisits the conceptual underpinnings of property rights with particular relevance for needs of today's industrializing, or so-called "developing" countries. This paper argues that the debates on IPR have poorly explored counterfactuals in pharmaceuticals and biotechnologies where other means of inducement may exist and innovations may arise in conditions where IPR is either absent or irrelevant. To do this, it first discusses utility as a basis for IPRs and the challenges -philosophical, theoretical and most importantly, practical- in translating this to real-world use. It draws on history to analyze pharmaceutical prior drug generations and alternate inducements. The article offers a novel 2X2 conceptual framework to study innovation in developing contexts where IPR can be specifically situated. If the real goal is accessible and affordable healthcare - an issue of immense importance.

Link to Full Text

2004 : Fialho, Beatriz de Castro and Srinivas, Smita
Science for Local Needs? Research and Policy Implications of National and International Malaria Efforts

Source
Science, Technology and Globalization Project (STG) Working Paper, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, June 2004

Abstract
Countries are unlikely to solve a particular problem unless they have some level of research invested in the effort. The approach in this paper is to use malaria research as a proxy for effective exploitation of local scientific knowledge. We study the malaria-related research output in two countries, Brazil and India, with among the most advanced science and pharmaceutical capabilities in the developing world. We assess local relevance of science and also its integration with international research by looking at almost 60 years of scientific publications on malaria between 1945-2003. While scientific publications are only one measure of scientific output, they are an important one. This research confirms previous findings of underrepresentation of developing countries in international science and its databases. In addition, we use a variety of indicators to demonstrate that while both countries together show substantial scientific output relative to their combined global share of malaria incidence, each shows low local relevance of malaria-related science using country and journal comparisons, relatively low rates of increase in published outputs and insignificant private sector effort. Finally, both show practically no collaboration with each other, while each is more likely to collaborate with a few advanced industrialised countries. The findings raise questions for both national and international scientific programs aimed at stimulating research for malaria and other neglected diseases.

Link to Full Text