Professor Vandana Desai
Royal Holloway, University of London
Expertise on
Countries: India
Policy Areas & Themes: Climate & Environment, Development Policy, Gender, Governance, Politics, Strategic partnerships
Bio
Vandana Desai is a development geographer primarily interested in urban India. She has research experience of working with grassroot communities, non-governmental organisations, critical participatory methodology mainly in partnerships and collaborations with third sector organisations aimed at supporting evidence-based policy making. Her research has concentrated on challenging urban and gender politics and exploring issues surrounding inequality and social justice (e.g., informal housing, community participation, BAME staff & student at UK university, gig workers, ageing and intergenerational relationship in Indian urban poor communities), specialising in cities and everyday living, relationships between theory, policy processes and practice. She mainly carries out qualitative research capturing knowledge on lived experiences of the poor, which engages with a mixture of traditional and ethnographical techniques. Her research approach is based on understanding how power and structural inequalities (class, gender, race, age) interact to produce disparities.
special research expertise on
Urban
Cities
Infrastructural Development
Mumbai
Engagement experience includes
Worked in research partnership with NGOs in India and in the UK
Elected Councillor, Royal Geographical Society (RGS) with the Institute of British Geographers (IBG) and Research & Higher Education Committee (2021 -2024).
Read a sample of Vandana’s research outputs
Desai, V (2020) ‘Urban Widows: Living and negotiating gendered dispossession in speculative slum housing markets in Mumbai, Gender, Place and Culture, Vol: No: pg. 1-20. DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2020.1811642.
Desai, V. (2019) ‘Critical Issues in Ageing and Poverty in Urban India’ in Geography and You, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, Vol.19, Issues 19, July, pp. 22-27.
Desai, V. & Loftus, A. (2013) ‘Speculating on Slums: Infrastructural fixes in informal housing in the global South’ Antipode Volume 45, Issue 4, pg. 789-808. doi/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2012.01044.x
