Devika Narayan
Biographic Data
| ID | 297180 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Devika Narayan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Devika |
| FAMILY NAME | Narayan |
| SIGNATURE | NARAYAN D |
| AFFILIATIONS | World Bank |
| ORCID | 0009-0002-3059-3356 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1183 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Making sense of the digital growth machine
I respond here to the ‘digital growth machine’ and its five sites of extraction, or hinterland types, as proposed by Jovanna Rosen and Luis Alvarez Leon. The five dimensions they outline cover both the domains of production and consumption. This is refreshing as contemporary scholarship too often focuses on one or the other, rarely combining the two. The five sites capture a wide array of practices defining digital capitalism. Here I raise questi…
Cloud capitalism and the rise of scalable digital assets
This article conceptualizes the nature, form, and organization of digital assets–the algorithms, data, and computing infrastructure used by capitalist firms toward various ends. Historically, creating or using machines has involved long-term fixed investments and fixed organizational practices of asset use. This article argues that the rise of Big Cloud introduces hyper-flexibility in the domain of assets and upends this source of fixity for the …
Cloud as Infrastructure: Theorising the Links Between ‘Big’ Tech and ‘Small’ Tech
Cloud providers, by creating and owning massive computing assets, produce new internet infrastructure. Large-scale data centres that aggregate hardware resources are an important element shaping the expansion of platform economies. The impact of this configuration of hardware on the dynamics of software development is still unclear. There is growing scholarship on data centres, however the aggregation of a highly scalable hardware system has a pr…
Decoding the aid-poverty trap: A comprehensive review of theories and evidence
Purpose This paper offers a review of theoretical and empirical literature on the effectiveness of development aid on aid recipients’ economic development. Design/methodology/approach The study employs an integrative literature review framework, combining conceptual and thematic synthesis. It focuses on two strands: the theories and empirics of indirect and direct effects of development aid and evolving discussions on blended finance and results …
A conjunctural approach to global production networks: The case of India’s software services industry
Global production networks (GPNs) are a ubiquitous mode of industrial organization. This article advances the theorization of GPN formation. By focusing on the catalytic effect of seemingly unrelated crises that occur in different fields, it demonstrates the value of a conjunctural approach. Situated crises generate a mid-level thrust toward GPN formation, spurring new inter-regional and inter-firm relations. The study makes this point by using a…
Exploring the effect of ODA on poverty: Insights From Least Developed Countries
Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the long run impact of official development assistance (ODA) on Poverty levels in a sample of 33 least developed countries (LDCs) from 1991 to 2018. Design/methodology/approach This study employed second-generation panel econometric techniques like Westerlund (2007), Pedroni (2004) cointegration tests and the augmented mean group (Eberhardt and Bond, 2009); (Eberhardt and Teal, 2010) and fully modif…
Erin L. Kelly and Phyllis Moen. Overload: How Good Jobs Went Bad and What We Can Do About It
Monopolization and competition under platform capitalism: Analyzing transformations in the computing industry
Cross-disciplinary scholarship on platform-mediated transformations is growing rapidly. Large-scale data centers that aggregate hardware resources are an important element shaping the expansion of platform economies. The impact of this configuration of hardware on the dynamics of software development is still unclear. Data centers aggregate and centralize computing capacity and in turn enable the growth of globally distributed and organizationall…
Platform capitalism and cloud infrastructure: Theorizing a hyper-scalable computing regime
There has been an explosion of scholarship on platform capitalism, with scholars identifying emergent labor practices, organizational forms, and business models. There is broad agreement that successful platform companies quickly dominate their markets, and winner-takes-all scenarios are common. However, market domination should not only be viewed as a condition but also as a process that is defined by specific drivers and practices. With regard …
Through the Optics of Finance: Speculative Urbanism and the Transformation of Markets
Moving Out of Poverty (Volume 1): Cross-disciplinary Perspectives on Mobility
This volume brings together multidisciplinary perspectives on poor people's mobility, a dynamic approach that hopefully will add to the reader's understanding of how and why people move into and out of poverty. The chapters draw on the latest longitudinal micro data to present a moving picture of poverty that is rather different from what one can see in single snapshots, the staple of traditional poverty analysis. The book is also important becau…
Measuring Social Capital: An Integrated Questionnaire
The idea of social capital has enjoyed a remarkable rise to prominence in both the theoretical and applied social science literature over the last decade. While lively debate has accompanied that journey, thereby helping to advance our thinking and to clarify areas of agreement and disagreement, much still remains to be done. One approach that we hope can help bring further advances for both scholars and practitioners is the provision of a set of…
Local Institutions, Poverty and Household Welfare in Bolivia
Empowerment and Poverty Reduction: A Sourcebook
Poverty will not be reduced on a large scale, without tapping into the energy, skills, and motivation of the millions of poor people around the world. This book offers a framework for empowerment, that focuses on increasing poor people's freedom of choice, and action to shape their own lives. This approach requires three societal changes: a change in the mindset, from viewing poor people as the problem to viewing them as essential partners in red…
Local Institutions, Poverty, and Household Welfare in Bolivia
The authors empirically estimate the impact of social capital on household welfare in Bolivia--where they found 67 different types of local associations. They focus on household memberships in local associations as being especially relevant to daily decisions that affect household welfare and consumption. On average, households belong to 1.4 groups and associations: 62 percent belong to agrarian syndicates, 16 percent to production groups, 13 per…
A Dimensional Approach to Measuring Social Capital: Development and Validation of a Social Capital Inventory
While social capital is emerging as a theory rich in its potential for understanding the relationships between societal norms and values, and community outcomes, clarification of its measures remains unresolved. This article attempts to contribute to this measurement issue by presenting a reliable self-report instrument for measuring social capital in societal environments. The instrument is grounded in the theoretical and measurement literature …
Crying Out for Change: Voices of the Poor
No AccessStand Alone Books1 Feb 2013Crying Out for ChangeVoices of the PoorAuthors/Editors: Deepa Narayan, Robert Chambers, Meera K. Shah, Patti PeteschDeepa Narayan, Robert Chambers, Meera K. Shah, Patti Peteschhttps://doi.org/10.1596/0-1952-1602-4SectionsAboutPDF (1.8 MB) ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In Abstract:As the second book in a three-part series entitled Voices of the Poor, " Crying o…
Social Capital: Implications for Development Theory, Research, and Policy
In the 1990s the concept of social capital-defined here as the norms and networks that enable people to act collectively-enjoyed a remarkable rise to prominence across all the social science disciplines. The authors trace the evolution of social capital research as it pertains to economic development and identify four distinct approaches the research has taken: communitarian, networks, institutional, and synergy. The evidence suggests that of the…
Social Capital and the State: Complementarity and Substitution
August 1999 - Whatever their nature, interventions to reduce poverty should be designed not only to have an immediate impact on poverty, but also to foster a rich network of cross-cutting ties within society and between society's formal and informal institutions. Using the lens of social capital - especially bridging or cross-cutting ties that cut across social groups and between social groups and government - provides new insights into policy de…
Cents and Sociability: Household Income and Social Capital in Rural Tanzania
No AccessPolicy Research Working Papers21 Jun 2013Cents and Sociability: Household Income and Social Capital in Rural TanzaniaAuthors/Editors: Deepa NarayanDeepa Narayanhttps://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-1796SectionsAboutPDF (0.1 MB) ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In Abstract:July 1997 Matching a measure of social capital with data on household income in certain rural villages in Tanzania shows th…
Cents and Sociability: Household Income and Social Capital in Rural Tanzania
The authors construct a measure of"social capital"in rural Tanzania, using data from the Tanzania Social Capital and Poverty Survey (SCPS), a large-scale survey that asked individuals about the extent and characteristics of their associational activity and their trust in various institutions and individuals. They match this measure of social capital with data on household income in the same villages (both from the SCPS and from an earlier househo…
Voices of the poor: Poverty and social capital in Tanzania
This study reveals the power and utility of participatory methods for policy research. It demonstrates practices and processes that can tap the knowledge the poor have about their own reality. By comparing and contrasting findings from participatory methods with findings from more conventional household consumption and expenditure surveys, the study identifies poverty indicators used by local people at the village level. It also shows how using t…
Does Participation Improve Performance? Establishing Causality with Subjective Data
Data from 121 diverse rural water projects provide strong statistical findings that increasing beneficiary participation directly causes better project outcomes. Three possible econometric objections to these findings are addressed and answered. The subjective nature of the data does not preclude valid, cardinal measures of participation appropriate for statistical analysis. “Halo effects”—changes in the measurement of one variable because of the…
Social Capital: Implications for Development Theory, Research, and Policy
In the 1990s the concept of social capital-defined here as the norms and networks that enable people to act collectively-enjoyed a remarkable rise to prominence across all the social science disciplines. The authors trace the evolution of social capital research as it pertains to economic development and identify four distinct approaches the research has taken: communitarian, networks, institutional, and synergy. The evidence suggests that of the…
Crying Out for Change: Voices of the Poor
No AccessStand Alone Books1 Feb 2013Crying Out for ChangeVoices of the PoorAuthors/Editors: Deepa Narayan, Robert Chambers, Meera K. Shah, Patti PeteschDeepa Narayan, Robert Chambers, Meera K. Shah, Patti Peteschhttps://doi.org/10.1596/0-1952-1602-4SectionsAboutPDF (1.8 MB) ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In Abstract:As the second book in a three-part series entitled Voices of the Poor, " Crying o…
Cents and Sociability: Household Income and Social Capital in Rural Tanzania
The authors construct a measure of"social capital"in rural Tanzania, using data from the Tanzania Social Capital and Poverty Survey (SCPS), a large-scale survey that asked individuals about the extent and characteristics of their associational activity and their trust in various institutions and individuals. They match this measure of social capital with data on household income in the same villages (both from the SCPS and from an earlier househo…
A Dimensional Approach to Measuring Social Capital: Development and Validation of a Social Capital Inventory
While social capital is emerging as a theory rich in its potential for understanding the relationships between societal norms and values, and community outcomes, clarification of its measures remains unresolved. This article attempts to contribute to this measurement issue by presenting a reliable self-report instrument for measuring social capital in societal environments. The instrument is grounded in the theoretical and measurement literature …
Platform capitalism and cloud infrastructure: Theorizing a hyper-scalable computing regime
There has been an explosion of scholarship on platform capitalism, with scholars identifying emergent labor practices, organizational forms, and business models. There is broad agreement that successful platform companies quickly dominate their markets, and winner-takes-all scenarios are common. However, market domination should not only be viewed as a condition but also as a process that is defined by specific drivers and practices. With regard …
Local Institutions, Poverty and Household Welfare in Bolivia
Monopolization and competition under platform capitalism: Analyzing transformations in the computing industry
Cross-disciplinary scholarship on platform-mediated transformations is growing rapidly. Large-scale data centers that aggregate hardware resources are an important element shaping the expansion of platform economies. The impact of this configuration of hardware on the dynamics of software development is still unclear. Data centers aggregate and centralize computing capacity and in turn enable the growth of globally distributed and organizationall…
Through the Optics of Finance: Speculative Urbanism and the Transformation of Markets
Cloud capitalism and the rise of scalable digital assets
This article conceptualizes the nature, form, and organization of digital assets–the algorithms, data, and computing infrastructure used by capitalist firms toward various ends. Historically, creating or using machines has involved long-term fixed investments and fixed organizational practices of asset use. This article argues that the rise of Big Cloud introduces hyper-flexibility in the domain of assets and upends this source of fixity for the …
A conjunctural approach to global production networks: The case of India’s software services industry
Global production networks (GPNs) are a ubiquitous mode of industrial organization. This article advances the theorization of GPN formation. By focusing on the catalytic effect of seemingly unrelated crises that occur in different fields, it demonstrates the value of a conjunctural approach. Situated crises generate a mid-level thrust toward GPN formation, spurring new inter-regional and inter-firm relations. The study makes this point by using a…
Does Participation Improve Performance? Establishing Causality with Subjective Data
Data from 121 diverse rural water projects provide strong statistical findings that increasing beneficiary participation directly causes better project outcomes. Three possible econometric objections to these findings are addressed and answered. The subjective nature of the data does not preclude valid, cardinal measures of participation appropriate for statistical analysis. “Halo effects”—changes in the measurement of one variable because of the…
Voices of the poor: Poverty and social capital in Tanzania
This study reveals the power and utility of participatory methods for policy research. It demonstrates practices and processes that can tap the knowledge the poor have about their own reality. By comparing and contrasting findings from participatory methods with findings from more conventional household consumption and expenditure surveys, the study identifies poverty indicators used by local people at the village level. It also shows how using t…
Social Capital and the State: Complementarity and Substitution
August 1999 - Whatever their nature, interventions to reduce poverty should be designed not only to have an immediate impact on poverty, but also to foster a rich network of cross-cutting ties within society and between society's formal and informal institutions. Using the lens of social capital - especially bridging or cross-cutting ties that cut across social groups and between social groups and government - provides new insights into policy de…
Cents and Sociability: Household Income and Social Capital in Rural Tanzania
No AccessPolicy Research Working Papers21 Jun 2013Cents and Sociability: Household Income and Social Capital in Rural TanzaniaAuthors/Editors: Deepa NarayanDeepa Narayanhttps://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-1796SectionsAboutPDF (0.1 MB) ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In Abstract:July 1997 Matching a measure of social capital with data on household income in certain rural villages in Tanzania shows th…
Cents and Sociability: Household Income and Social Capital in Rural Tanzania
The authors construct a measure of"social capital"in rural Tanzania, using data from the Tanzania Social Capital and Poverty Survey (SCPS), a large-scale survey that asked individuals about the extent and characteristics of their associational activity and their trust in various institutions and individuals. They match this measure of social capital with data on household income in the same villages (both from the SCPS and from an earlier househo…
Crying Out for Change: Voices of the Poor
No AccessStand Alone Books1 Feb 2013Crying Out for ChangeVoices of the PoorAuthors/Editors: Deepa Narayan, Robert Chambers, Meera K. Shah, Patti PeteschDeepa Narayan, Robert Chambers, Meera K. Shah, Patti Peteschhttps://doi.org/10.1596/0-1952-1602-4SectionsAboutPDF (1.8 MB) ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In Abstract:As the second book in a three-part series entitled Voices of the Poor, " Crying o…
Social Capital: Implications for Development Theory, Research, and Policy
In the 1990s the concept of social capital-defined here as the norms and networks that enable people to act collectively-enjoyed a remarkable rise to prominence across all the social science disciplines. The authors trace the evolution of social capital research as it pertains to economic development and identify four distinct approaches the research has taken: communitarian, networks, institutional, and synergy. The evidence suggests that of the…
Local Institutions, Poverty, and Household Welfare in Bolivia
The authors empirically estimate the impact of social capital on household welfare in Bolivia--where they found 67 different types of local associations. They focus on household memberships in local associations as being especially relevant to daily decisions that affect household welfare and consumption. On average, households belong to 1.4 groups and associations: 62 percent belong to agrarian syndicates, 16 percent to production groups, 13 per…
A Dimensional Approach to Measuring Social Capital: Development and Validation of a Social Capital Inventory
While social capital is emerging as a theory rich in its potential for understanding the relationships between societal norms and values, and community outcomes, clarification of its measures remains unresolved. This article attempts to contribute to this measurement issue by presenting a reliable self-report instrument for measuring social capital in societal environments. The instrument is grounded in the theoretical and measurement literature …
Empowerment and Poverty Reduction: A Sourcebook
Poverty will not be reduced on a large scale, without tapping into the energy, skills, and motivation of the millions of poor people around the world. This book offers a framework for empowerment, that focuses on increasing poor people's freedom of choice, and action to shape their own lives. This approach requires three societal changes: a change in the mindset, from viewing poor people as the problem to viewing them as essential partners in red…
Measuring Social Capital: An Integrated Questionnaire
The idea of social capital has enjoyed a remarkable rise to prominence in both the theoretical and applied social science literature over the last decade. While lively debate has accompanied that journey, thereby helping to advance our thinking and to clarify areas of agreement and disagreement, much still remains to be done. One approach that we hope can help bring further advances for both scholars and practitioners is the provision of a set of…
Local Institutions, Poverty and Household Welfare in Bolivia
Moving Out of Poverty (Volume 1): Cross-disciplinary Perspectives on Mobility
This volume brings together multidisciplinary perspectives on poor people's mobility, a dynamic approach that hopefully will add to the reader's understanding of how and why people move into and out of poverty. The chapters draw on the latest longitudinal micro data to present a moving picture of poverty that is rather different from what one can see in single snapshots, the staple of traditional poverty analysis. The book is also important becau…
Through the Optics of Finance: Speculative Urbanism and the Transformation of Markets
Platform capitalism and cloud infrastructure: Theorizing a hyper-scalable computing regime
There has been an explosion of scholarship on platform capitalism, with scholars identifying emergent labor practices, organizational forms, and business models. There is broad agreement that successful platform companies quickly dominate their markets, and winner-takes-all scenarios are common. However, market domination should not only be viewed as a condition but also as a process that is defined by specific drivers and practices. With regard …
Erin L. Kelly and Phyllis Moen. Overload: How Good Jobs Went Bad and What We Can Do About It
Monopolization and competition under platform capitalism: Analyzing transformations in the computing industry
Cross-disciplinary scholarship on platform-mediated transformations is growing rapidly. Large-scale data centers that aggregate hardware resources are an important element shaping the expansion of platform economies. The impact of this configuration of hardware on the dynamics of software development is still unclear. Data centers aggregate and centralize computing capacity and in turn enable the growth of globally distributed and organizationall…
Cloud as Infrastructure: Theorising the Links Between ‘Big’ Tech and ‘Small’ Tech
Cloud providers, by creating and owning massive computing assets, produce new internet infrastructure. Large-scale data centres that aggregate hardware resources are an important element shaping the expansion of platform economies. The impact of this configuration of hardware on the dynamics of software development is still unclear. There is growing scholarship on data centres, however the aggregation of a highly scalable hardware system has a pr…
Decoding the aid-poverty trap: A comprehensive review of theories and evidence
Purpose This paper offers a review of theoretical and empirical literature on the effectiveness of development aid on aid recipients’ economic development. Design/methodology/approach The study employs an integrative literature review framework, combining conceptual and thematic synthesis. It focuses on two strands: the theories and empirics of indirect and direct effects of development aid and evolving discussions on blended finance and results …
A conjunctural approach to global production networks: The case of India’s software services industry
Global production networks (GPNs) are a ubiquitous mode of industrial organization. This article advances the theorization of GPN formation. By focusing on the catalytic effect of seemingly unrelated crises that occur in different fields, it demonstrates the value of a conjunctural approach. Situated crises generate a mid-level thrust toward GPN formation, spurring new inter-regional and inter-firm relations. The study makes this point by using a…
Exploring the effect of ODA on poverty: Insights From Least Developed Countries
Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the long run impact of official development assistance (ODA) on Poverty levels in a sample of 33 least developed countries (LDCs) from 1991 to 2018. Design/methodology/approach This study employed second-generation panel econometric techniques like Westerlund (2007), Pedroni (2004) cointegration tests and the augmented mean group (Eberhardt and Bond, 2009); (Eberhardt and Teal, 2010) and fully modif…
Making sense of the digital growth machine
I respond here to the ‘digital growth machine’ and its five sites of extraction, or hinterland types, as proposed by Jovanna Rosen and Luis Alvarez Leon. The five dimensions they outline cover both the domains of production and consumption. This is refreshing as contemporary scholarship too often focuses on one or the other, rarely combining the two. The five sites capture a wide array of practices defining digital capitalism. Here I raise questi…
Cloud capitalism and the rise of scalable digital assets
This article conceptualizes the nature, form, and organization of digital assets–the algorithms, data, and computing infrastructure used by capitalist firms toward various ends. Historically, creating or using machines has involved long-term fixed investments and fixed organizational practices of asset use. This article argues that the rise of Big Cloud introduces hyper-flexibility in the domain of assets and upends this source of fixity for the …
Economics (15 works) · Business (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Economic growth (8 works) · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare (8 works) · Social Capital and Networks (8 works) · Geography (7 works) · Social capital (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works)