Lata Narayanaswamy
Biographic Data
| ID | 2418207 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lata Narayanaswamy |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lata |
| FAMILY NAME | Narayanaswamy |
| SIGNATURE | NARAYANASWAMY L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Leeds |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1172-0583 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 19 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Co-opting rights, reframing development
This article examines the convergence between anti-gender/pro-family advocacy and neoliberal development paradigms within global governance institutions, with a particular focus on United Nations spaces. While much existing scholarship frames anti-gender politics as backlash, we argue that these movements strategically align with dominant ‘smart economics’ discourses that instrumentalise cisgender, heterosexual women and girls in their reproducti…
Escaping the Capitalist Black Hole
Colonial legacies and neoliberal capitalism continue to underpin and intensify global water insecurity. Drawing on five years of research from the UK-funded Water Security and Sustainable Development Hub across Colombia, Ethiopia, India and Malaysia, this Research Note identifies consistent patterns of water dispossession linked to capital accumulation. Despite divergent local contexts, our findings point to a common dynamic: a ‘Capitalist Black …
Who gets to belong?” Navigating appearance-based discrimination and transgender access to urban toilets in India
This article examines the challenges faced by transgender and gender non-confirming individuals when attempting to access sanitation in urban India. It highlights how the experiences of these individuals intersect with broader social dynamics related to appearance, which can affect people of all genders. Using an iterative and inductive approach, the study combines insights from interviews with activists, academics and government practitioners, a…
An analysis of gender inclusion in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene ( Wash ) projects
Why a feminist ethics of care and socio-ecological justice lens matter for global, interdisciplinary research on water security
In this conceptual analysis, we set out some of the negotiations and tensions that emerge when we try to build a shared understanding of water (in)security through the dual lenses of a feminist ethics of care and socio-ecological justice. We further reflect on how these theoretical lenses shape our work in practice—how do we actualise them in an international, interdisciplinary partnership? We actively seek to engage all our colleagues in how we …
Decolonising (feminist) knowledge and practice
Introduction
Development Studies Association (DSA) co-hosted a seminar of the same title, to celebrate the journal's 25 th birthday.This issue includes articles initially presented there, alongside a range of others, commissioned in line with our usual practice from an open Call for Contributions.To ensure international development supports women's rights and gender equality, it is essential that feminist values infuse and underpin every aspect of research.Fe…
If only they knew better
Information and knowledge are frequently upheld as the cornerstones of development programmes. Poverty reduction measures delivered through social policies are frequently premised on the need to ensure that both users and providers of services have access to information. In contexts where poor and marginalised groups are largely excluded from knowledge access and uptake, Southern-based civil society is called upon to act as an interlocutor to lev…
NGOs and Feminisms in Development
The inclusion by Northern stakeholders of a discursively constructed category of 'Southern women's NGO' - increasingly heralded as the ultimate organisational form of grounded, subaltern, collective action - has come to represent a signifier of commitments to gender equality, poverty reduction and/or social justice. Southern women's NGOs are frequently credited with the capacity to facilitate the inclusion of marginalised groups conventionally ex…
Problematizing 'Knowledge-for-Development
This article argues that measures designed to improve the availability and accessibility of information as a key strategy to facilitate development have become ends in themselves, de-linked from their potential to have an impact on Southern knowledge systems that may lead to improved development outcomes. The production and dissemination of ever-greater volumes of information in response to concerns about the uneven availability of information, p…
The power to subvert
Increasing support to women’s organisations and networks to facilitate empowerment is a growing strategy amongst a range of Northern agencies, with a particular emphasis on Southern women. This article argues that strategies employed by both Northern and Southern women’s NGOs to promote the ‘empowerment’ of women and subvert hegemonic discourses through information-sharing and privileging Southern voices deny the value-laden nature of ‘informatio…
Problematizing 'Knowledge-for-Development
This article argues that measures designed to improve the availability and accessibility of information as a key strategy to facilitate development have become ends in themselves, de-linked from their potential to have an impact on Southern knowledge systems that may lead to improved development outcomes. The production and dissemination of ever-greater volumes of information in response to concerns about the uneven availability of information, p…
Introduction
Development Studies Association (DSA) co-hosted a seminar of the same title, to celebrate the journal's 25 th birthday.This issue includes articles initially presented there, alongside a range of others, commissioned in line with our usual practice from an open Call for Contributions.To ensure international development supports women's rights and gender equality, it is essential that feminist values infuse and underpin every aspect of research.Fe…
NGOs and Feminisms in Development
The inclusion by Northern stakeholders of a discursively constructed category of 'Southern women's NGO' - increasingly heralded as the ultimate organisational form of grounded, subaltern, collective action - has come to represent a signifier of commitments to gender equality, poverty reduction and/or social justice. Southern women's NGOs are frequently credited with the capacity to facilitate the inclusion of marginalised groups conventionally ex…
Decolonising (feminist) knowledge and practice
Who gets to belong?” Navigating appearance-based discrimination and transgender access to urban toilets in India
This article examines the challenges faced by transgender and gender non-confirming individuals when attempting to access sanitation in urban India. It highlights how the experiences of these individuals intersect with broader social dynamics related to appearance, which can affect people of all genders. Using an iterative and inductive approach, the study combines insights from interviews with activists, academics and government practitioners, a…
Why a feminist ethics of care and socio-ecological justice lens matter for global, interdisciplinary research on water security
In this conceptual analysis, we set out some of the negotiations and tensions that emerge when we try to build a shared understanding of water (in)security through the dual lenses of a feminist ethics of care and socio-ecological justice. We further reflect on how these theoretical lenses shape our work in practice—how do we actualise them in an international, interdisciplinary partnership? We actively seek to engage all our colleagues in how we …
The power to subvert
Increasing support to women’s organisations and networks to facilitate empowerment is a growing strategy amongst a range of Northern agencies, with a particular emphasis on Southern women. This article argues that strategies employed by both Northern and Southern women’s NGOs to promote the ‘empowerment’ of women and subvert hegemonic discourses through information-sharing and privileging Southern voices deny the value-laden nature of ‘informatio…
Problematizing 'Knowledge-for-Development
This article argues that measures designed to improve the availability and accessibility of information as a key strategy to facilitate development have become ends in themselves, de-linked from their potential to have an impact on Southern knowledge systems that may lead to improved development outcomes. The production and dissemination of ever-greater volumes of information in response to concerns about the uneven availability of information, p…
NGOs and Feminisms in Development
The inclusion by Northern stakeholders of a discursively constructed category of 'Southern women's NGO' - increasingly heralded as the ultimate organisational form of grounded, subaltern, collective action - has come to represent a signifier of commitments to gender equality, poverty reduction and/or social justice. Southern women's NGOs are frequently credited with the capacity to facilitate the inclusion of marginalised groups conventionally ex…
If only they knew better
Information and knowledge are frequently upheld as the cornerstones of development programmes. Poverty reduction measures delivered through social policies are frequently premised on the need to ensure that both users and providers of services have access to information. In contexts where poor and marginalised groups are largely excluded from knowledge access and uptake, Southern-based civil society is called upon to act as an interlocutor to lev…
Introduction
Development Studies Association (DSA) co-hosted a seminar of the same title, to celebrate the journal's 25 th birthday.This issue includes articles initially presented there, alongside a range of others, commissioned in line with our usual practice from an open Call for Contributions.To ensure international development supports women's rights and gender equality, it is essential that feminist values infuse and underpin every aspect of research.Fe…
Why a feminist ethics of care and socio-ecological justice lens matter for global, interdisciplinary research on water security
In this conceptual analysis, we set out some of the negotiations and tensions that emerge when we try to build a shared understanding of water (in)security through the dual lenses of a feminist ethics of care and socio-ecological justice. We further reflect on how these theoretical lenses shape our work in practice—how do we actualise them in an international, interdisciplinary partnership? We actively seek to engage all our colleagues in how we …
Decolonising (feminist) knowledge and practice
An analysis of gender inclusion in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene ( Wash ) projects
Who gets to belong?” Navigating appearance-based discrimination and transgender access to urban toilets in India
This article examines the challenges faced by transgender and gender non-confirming individuals when attempting to access sanitation in urban India. It highlights how the experiences of these individuals intersect with broader social dynamics related to appearance, which can affect people of all genders. Using an iterative and inductive approach, the study combines insights from interviews with activists, academics and government practitioners, a…
Co-opting rights, reframing development
This article examines the convergence between anti-gender/pro-family advocacy and neoliberal development paradigms within global governance institutions, with a particular focus on United Nations spaces. While much existing scholarship frames anti-gender politics as backlash, we argue that these movements strategically align with dominant ‘smart economics’ discourses that instrumentalise cisgender, heterosexual women and girls in their reproducti…
Escaping the Capitalist Black Hole
Colonial legacies and neoliberal capitalism continue to underpin and intensify global water insecurity. Drawing on five years of research from the UK-funded Water Security and Sustainable Development Hub across Colombia, Ethiopia, India and Malaysia, this Research Note identifies consistent patterns of water dispossession linked to capital accumulation. Despite divergent local contexts, our findings point to a common dynamic: a ‘Capitalist Black …
Political science (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · Gender Politics and Representation (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Public relations (3 works) · Tourism, Volunteerism, and Development (3 works) · Business (2 works)