About Pranav Kuttaiah
About
I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate interested in comparative political economy, labor, governance, and technology. My doctoral dissertation drew on long-term ethnographic work in my hometown of Bengaluru, India and studied how digital technologies intersect with social institutions such as caste, religion and kinship to structure labor-market access.
I have previously worked as an interdisciplinary researcher at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, India as well as an Urban Fellow at the Indian Institute for Human Settlement in Bengaluru, India, focusing on topics such as migration, employment, housing, small-town urbanization, and electoral politics. I am a digital humanities practitioner and helped co-found The Missing Basti Project, a community-driven anti-eviction mapping project in New Delhi and also have over a decade of experience as a freelance writer and journalist in the popular press on politics, economy, and culture.
Education
- Ph.D., City and Regional Planning and Political Economy, University of California, Berkeley
- MS, Urban Governance and Sociology, Sciences Po, Paris, France
- BA, Mass Media and Journalism, St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, India
Research and publications
Ongoing and upcoming research
Research and Publications
I am currently pursuing research on three major themes. The first, drawing on my doctoral work in India, is a comparative investigation of the rapidly evolving institutions of information-sharing and transfer within informal urban economies. The second looks at questions of governance and public administration, revisiting classic urban debates of consolidationism and polycentricity in light of proliferating technological tools. Finally, in collaboration with scholars across the Global South, I study the effects of new welfare regimes and practices of work on household formation in cities.
In addition to my work in India, I have also participated in and maintain urban research projects in countries including Brazil (on new household formations and urban mobility), Mexico (on urban governance), France (on transit-oriented development and land-use planning), South Korea (on the politics of urban renewal projects), and the United States (on redlining and segregation in Oakland, CA).
A full list of my publications, research awards, and conference presentations are available on my CV.