Devika Narayan
I am an Assistant Professor/Lecturer at the University of Bristol. My position is split between the Bristol Digital Futures Institute and School of Management, where I am part of the Work, Employment, Organizations, and Public Policy Group.
Prior to this, I was postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford where I co-led a research project on the digital transformation of work.
I hold a Ph.D in Sociology from the University of Minnesota. At Minnesota, I was a Fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change and a Resident at the Charles Babbage Institute, a centre for computing history.
As an interdisciplinary sociologist, I study the changing structure of markets, new digital platforms, and the emergent workplace structures that shape contemporary capitalism. I am particularly interested in managerial practices and workplace transformations in the software sector. Currently, I investigate the technological, organizational, and workplace shifts catalyzed by the rise of cloud computing platforms.
I also have a keen interest in financialization and speculative capital. I have been a researcher on an NSF - funded collaborative project. I examined how global private equity alters local real estate practices and introduces new speculative logics in global south economies.
My research has been published by EPA: Economy and Space, Work, Employment & Society, New Media & Society, the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (IJURR), Water International, and Economic and Political Weekly.
Many of these papers have received awards from the American Sociological Association and other organizations. Most recently, an article I co-authored won the IJURR Best Paper Award 2021 and a Best Article Award from the American Sociological Association (Sociology of Development Section).
As a teacher, I emphasize critical and creative thinking, helping students make sense of a perplexing and unequal social world. I look forward to continuing to mentor students and teach courses that draw from economic sociology, economic geography, and political economy.
I have an M.Phil. and M.A (Sociology) from the Delhi School of Economics and a B.A. (Sociology) from St. Xavier's College, Bombay.