Tannistha Samanta
FLAME University, Department of Social Sciences, Faculty Member
- I am an Associate Professor with the Department of Social Sciences, School of Liberal Education, FLAME University, Pu... moreI am an Associate Professor with the Department of Social Sciences, School of Liberal Education, FLAME University, Pune. Broadly, my research lies at the interdisciplinary crossroads of family sociology and gerontology where I focus on living arrangements, social capital & health, older adult sexualities and theory development in aging studies. In another line of inquiry, I am interested in examining the complex nexus of motherhood, sexual politics and the biomedical markets. Currently, I serve as an editor to the journal of Anthropology & Aging (the official journal of the Association for Anthropology, Gerontology & the Life Course). Prior to joining FLAME University, I was a faculty with the department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar. Originally from Kolkata, I hold Masters level degrees in applied economics and sociology from the University of Calcutta (M.Sc in Economics), Jawaharlal Nehru University (M.Phil in Applied Economics) and University of Maryland (M.A and Ph.D in Sociology/Social Demography).edit
In this piece, I use consumption as a lens to argue how urban, middle-class Indians in their middle and later ages are emerging as a distinctive consumer society while rewriting the scripts of growing old in India. This cultural shift is... more
In this piece, I use consumption as a lens to argue how urban, middle-class Indians in their middle and later ages are emerging as a distinctive consumer society while rewriting the scripts of growing old in India. This cultural shift is happening at a time when novel modes of ageing are imagined against the backdrop of transnational family arrangements, market-based care and a quest for vitality and autonomy among older Indians, altering the cultural continuities of intergenerational relationships. I show how consumption as a cultural force both expands the expressive capabilities of older persons but, at the same time, imposes disciplinary discourses around the family and social relationships. Overall, I critically reflect on what the ‘downward blurring’ of the ageing self does to the contemporary frameworks of intergenerational relationships in India. I conclude by discussing both the possibility and the (cultural) limit of theories developed in the industrialised West to capture the shifting realities of transitional societies.
Research Interests:
Given that the ontological origins of the Third Age lie in the cultural logics of social class, consumer society and "habitus," a majority of its gerontological examination is qualitative in nature. We utilize the recently released... more
Given that the ontological origins of the Third Age lie in the cultural logics of social class, consumer society and "habitus," a majority of its gerontological examination is qualitative in nature. We utilize the recently released Longitudinal Aging Study in India (2017-2018) and harness the time-use module to offer an empirical portrait of Third Agers in India. Considering that the aging scholarship in India has been often articulated in the empirical language of dependency, care regimes, and (economic) insecurity, we believe this examination allows us to shift the gerontological gaze from a risk perspective to one that is positive and affirmative. Following an exploratory factor analysis and nested linear regression, we corroborate the emergence of a "silver market" where educated, urban, affluent, and professionally qualified older Indians are the ones who are more likely to engage in active leisure pursuits. Noteworthy is the combined effects of wealth and professional education in determining who is ultimately able to "purchase" leisure in a highly segmented emerging senior market. In all, we conclude by discussing how these findings upend our cultural imagination around growing old in contemporary India.
Research Interests:
Recently, the plea to decolonise the university (or curriculum) has been an organising theme for conferences, special issues of journals and talk series in the academy. Although energetic discussions around the role of the academy in... more
Recently, the plea to decolonise the university (or curriculum) has been an organising theme for conferences, special issues of journals and talk series in the academy. Although energetic discussions around the role of the academy in postcolonial societies is gaining currency, gerontology’s reluctance to engage critically with the emancipatory politics of decolonisation is surprising. In fact, a quick search on gerontology-related journals reveals that while scholars do assert the significance of adopting a cultural frame to appreciate local particularities and meaning-makings, an attempt to decentre the pedagogical tradition remains stifled. For example, the precarious positionalities and histories of sexual, racial and caste minorities remain outside mainstream gerontological education even in postcolonial societies. India is no exception. Indian gerontological tradition, while empirically robust, remains ahistorical and theoretically mute especially in challenging the ‘certainties of Eurocentric models’. In this piece, I build on critical gerontology and scholarship on decolonisation to show (1) how the gerontological research and teaching in India are afflicted with the (neoliberal) obligation to amass and ‘measure’ gerontological ‘variables’ at large, (2) how can we rethink gerontological education that is free of co-optation (either by the ‘global’ higher education economy or prevailing ‘local’ powers) and instead reimagine the field as an intellectual practice that is historically and culturally rooted. Overall, the attempt will be to show the transformative promise of context-informed gerontology in recognising the socio-political nature of education interventions.
Research Interests:
This commentary explores how the material-nonmaterial transactions around reproduction among women raise paradoxical questions of reproductive autonomy and commercialization of reproduction. Drawing from medical anthropological studies on... more
This commentary explores how the material-nonmaterial transactions around reproduction among women raise paradoxical questions of reproductive autonomy and commercialization of reproduction. Drawing from medical anthropological studies on human reproduction, the technology around social egg freezing has been conceived to proffer ambivalent possibilities of hope, despair, and repair as mature women recalibrate their reproductive identities, especially in pronatalist contexts. Building on the material-discursive critique of the ‘material turn’, I ask if social egg freezing offers an empowering biological reprieve for women who have ‘chosen’ a non-normative (i.e., a departure from heterosexual conjugality) life-course. Subsequently, how does one “do age” when material entanglements (here, reproductive technologies) disrupt the symbolic performance of the life-course? Or, does this reproductive autonomy actualized through social egg freezing align well with the neoliberal prerogatives of “successful aging,” thereby intensifying the specter of the “Third Age”? Overall, through an analysis of (reproductive) technologies, as well as the question of choice and social bodies, I argue how new materialities and anxieties of growing old can undergird the material-cultural link in gerontology.
Research Interests:
Discussion: The direct and indirect e ects of social engagement suggest that depressive symptoms can be mitigated while enhancing overall wellbeing of older adults. This holds promise for social policy in redirecting e orts to develop... more
Discussion: The direct and indirect e ects of social engagement suggest that depressive symptoms can be mitigated while enhancing overall wellbeing of older adults. This holds promise for social policy in redirecting e orts to develop age-friendly initiatives and social infrastructure that enhance the link between engagement and wellbeing.
Research Interests:
In this paper, we contend that urban middle-class older Indians engaged in "serious leisure" as a way to reimagine and reconfigure the structure of everyday life during the pandemic-led epochal downtime. In particular,... more
In this paper, we contend that urban middle-class older Indians engaged in "serious leisure" as a way to reimagine and reconfigure the structure of everyday life during the pandemic-led epochal downtime. In particular, we heuristically show that leisure activity patterns and constraint negotiation strategies among older Indians followed conceptual semblances with the dominant leisure-based typology of Serious Leisure Perspective. By thematically analysing household surveys (n = 71), time-use diaries and in-depth interviews (n = 15) of middle to upper middle-class individuals (55-80 years), we show how both men and women distinguished between serious leisure that is marked by motivation, agency and perseverance with that of unstructured, routinized free-time (or causal leisure). Time-use diaries suggested that despite the changed realities of heightened domestic time available to both genders due to the pandemic, women recorded higher proportion of their daily hours in household management and caregiving. Although women were governed by moral-cultural self-descriptions in their engagement with leisure, it was often associated with an enhanced sense of self-actualisation, self-management and identity. Overall, we show how the social codes of age and gender were inextricably linked with the practice of leisure during the pandemic.
Research Interests:
In this paper, we contend that urban middle-class older Indians engaged in "serious leisure" as a way to reimagine and reconfigure the structure of everyday life during the pandemic-led epochal downtime. In particular, we heuristically... more
In this paper, we contend that urban middle-class older Indians engaged in "serious leisure" as a way to reimagine and reconfigure the structure of everyday life during the pandemic-led epochal downtime. In particular, we heuristically show that leisure activity patterns and constraint negotiation strategies among older Indians followed conceptual semblances with the dominant leisure-based typology of Serious Leisure Perspective. By thematically analysing household surveys (n = 71), time-use diaries and in-depth interviews (n = 15) of middle to upper middle-class individuals (55-80 years), we show how both men and women distinguished between serious leisure that is marked by motivation, agency and perseverance with that of unstructured, routinized free-time (or causal leisure). Time-use diaries suggested that despite the changed realities of heightened domestic time available to both genders due to the pandemic, women recorded higher proportion of their daily hours in household management and caregiving. Although women were governed by moral-cultural self-descriptions in their engagement with leisure, it was often associated with an enhanced sense of self-actualisation, self-management and identity. Overall, we show how the social codes of age and gender were inextricably linked with the practice of leisure during the pandemic.
Research Interests:
Globally, a gender gap in COVID-19 has been noted with men reporting higher share of both morbidity and deaths compared to women. While the gender gap in fatalities has been similar across the globe, there have been interesting... more
Globally, a gender gap in COVID-19 has been noted with men reporting higher share of both morbidity and deaths compared to women. While the gender gap in fatalities has been similar across the globe, there have been interesting disparities in the detection of COVID-19 cases in men and women. While wealthier, more developed nations have generally seen similar case detection in men and women, LMICs especially in Asia have seen far greater proportion of COVID-19 cases among men than women. We utilize age and sex-disaggregated data from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu across two waves of the pandemic (May 2020 – Nov 2020, and March 2021, to June 2021) and find that there were only ~70% as many detected COVID-19 cases among women as there were among men. Our initial reading suggested that this might be a protective effect of lower labor force participation rates among women across much of South Asia. However, subsequent sero-prevalence results from Tamil Nadu conducted on October...
Research Interests:
In this research note, we discuss how the pandemic forged a renewed interest in self-care among urban older Indians. A reflexive thematic analysis of time-use diaries (N = 15) allows us to examine leisure patterns and everyday... more
In this research note, we discuss how the pandemic forged a renewed interest in self-care among urban older Indians. A reflexive thematic analysis of time-use diaries (N = 15) allows us to examine leisure patterns and everyday subjectivities of middle-class older Indians. In particular, time-diaries reveal a heightened focus on leisure-based enacted self-care practices including meditation, online activity/learning, and socialising. Consistent with previous scholarship of an unequivocal gender inequality in leisure as self-care, we observe distinct differences among men and women in their engagement with self-care. Specifically, while men engaged in outdoor activities as a way to cope with the stress and uncertainties of the pandemic, women’s everyday lives continued to be defined by domesticity and household management. Additionally, we show that while immediately uplifting, the ethics of self-care embodies the neoliberal logic of the entrepreneurial subject that makes self-reliance a necessity to practice responsible citizenship in times of the pandemic. Overall, by shifting the logics of care to the self, we depart from the more commonly held notion of older adults being recipients of care to the crafting of autonomous subjects through the pandemic-led public health practices of committed citizenship and civic virtue.
Research Interests:
Globally, a gender gap in COVID-19 has been noted with men reporting higher share of both morbidity and deaths compared to women. While the gender gap in fatalities has been similar across the globe, there have been interesting... more
Globally, a gender gap in COVID-19 has been noted with men reporting higher share of both morbidity and deaths compared to women. While the gender gap in fatalities has been similar across the globe, there have been interesting disparities in the detection of COVID-19 cases in men and women. While wealthier, more developed nations have generally seen similar case detection in men and women, LMICs especially in Asia have seen far greater proportion of COVID-19 cases among men than women. We utilize age and sex-disaggregated data from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu across two waves of the pandemic (May 2020 – Nov 2020, and March 2021, to June 2021) and find that there were only ~70% as many detected COVID-19 cases among women as there were among men. Our initial reading suggested that this might be a protective effect of lower labor force participation rates among women across much of South Asia. However, subsequent sero-prevalence results from Tamil Nadu conducted on October-November 2020, and June-July, 2021 suggest that infection incidence has been similar among men and women; as is the case in countries with better health infrastructure. This empirical puzzle suggests that reduced case detection among women cannot be immediately associated with limited public exposure, but rather an evidence of a chronic neglect of women in healthcare access. Overall, we contend that an attention to the gender context holds promise to effective interventions in detection and prevention that goes beyond the traditional epidemiological logic of diseases.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Gyllenhaal's The Lost Daughter with its deeply troubling, turbulent and yet unwavering chaos allows us to rethink how the past is never really lost. It is in the uneasy dialectic between individual lives, social structures, and... more
Gyllenhaal's The Lost Daughter with its deeply troubling, turbulent and yet unwavering chaos allows us to rethink how the past is never really lost. It is in the uneasy dialectic between individual lives, social structures, and emotional states that The Lost Daughter finds an unexpected gerontological articulation. Specifically, this article utilizes one of the assured tools of gerontology- the life course perspective- to argue that the persisting effects of social-psychological states (e.g. guilt, reprieve, and resentment) experienced earlier in life have been overlooked in this paradigm due to its empirical emphasis on macro processes of cohorts, trajectories and family transitions. The article concludes with reflections on how this intersubjective reading of the life course contributes to the practice of gerontological social work.
Research Interests:
Support for older adults in developing countries is becoming an increasingly important issue in the face of accelerated population aging including India that has now second largest (around 80 million) elderly population in the world. This... more
Support for older adults in developing countries is becoming an increasingly important issue in the face of accelerated population aging including India that has now second largest (around 80 million) elderly population in the world. This paper investigates the importance of living arrangement on the health of the elderly in India at a time when the country is also experiencing rapid socioeconomic changes including globalization, urbanization, occupational mobility and outmigration of young people. Notably, family still remains the central source of support for elderly as institutional systems of care are largely inadequate in the country. Using data from the India Human Development Survey (2004-05), a nationally representative survey of 41,554 households, the current study examines the association between household context (especially co-residence with adult children) and elderly health (short term morbidity-cough, diarrhea and fever). Preliminary results from logistic regression a...
Research Interests:
In this commentary, I contend that in a context marked by a slow but steady rise in sexual liberalism around the ideals of female sexuality and desire, the pressure to remain virginal is manifested through a potent nexus of markets and... more
In this commentary, I contend that in a context marked by a slow but steady rise in sexual liberalism around the ideals of female sexuality and desire, the pressure to remain virginal is manifested through a potent nexus of markets and moral economies associated with gender and intimacy. Drawing on qualitative interviews with surgeons specialising in female genital aesthetic surgeries, particularly hymenoplasty, in New Delhi, Ahmedabad, and Bangalore, I show how restorative cosmetic surgeries on healthy bodies are proffered through the language of duty, autonomous choice, and the (neoliberal) market. Further, building on the sociological concepts of “moral consumption” and “progress through pleasure”, I show how consumerism-led modernity makes pleasure a ‘biopolitical burden’, and the cosmetic industry, a regulatory vehicle, disciplining female sexuality to conform with male honour codes. I question what this holds for the sexual and reproductive health politics of young people in I...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Gyllenhaal's The Lost Daughter with its deeply troubling, turbulent and yet unwavering chaos allows us to rethink how the past is never really lost. It is in the uneasy dialectic between individual lives, social structures, and emotional... more
Gyllenhaal's The Lost Daughter with its deeply troubling, turbulent and yet unwavering chaos allows us to rethink how the past is never really lost. It is in the uneasy dialectic between individual lives, social structures, and emotional states that The Lost Daughter finds an unexpected gerontological articulation. Specifically, this article utilizes one of the assured tools of gerontology-the life course perspective-to argue that the persisting effects of social-psychological states (e.g. guilt, reprieve, and resentment) experienced earlier in life have been overlooked in this paradigm due to its empirical emphasis on macro processes of cohorts, trajectories and family transitions. The article concludes with reflections on how this intersubjective reading of the life course contributes to the practice of gerontological social work.
Research Interests:
In this piece, I outline the possibility of understanding old age through the lens of cultural gerontology highlighting the intersecting logics of age with consumption, leisure and identity. I argue that with rising affluence and... more
In this piece, I outline the possibility of understanding old age through the lens of cultural gerontology highlighting the intersecting logics of age with consumption, leisure and identity. I argue that with rising affluence and demographic aging, India is poised to experience an emergent cultural movement, the Third Age (Laslett, 1989), wherein access to cultural capital and an active participation in a leisure culture will guarantee social membership among upper middle class older adults. Using examples from luxury senior housing projects and travel/holiday packages, I reflect how this process of agentic consumerism with a focus on the ideals of youthfulness, choice, self-expression and pleasure is turning the decline narrative (typically associated with “natural” aging) on its head. The success of this market-driven cultural model, I argue, lies in the celebration of a project on the self where the responsibility to “age well” rests with the individual-a key political economy of...
Research Interests:
Although ICPD brought about an international consensus on the centrality of women's empowerment and gender equity as desired national goals, the conceptualization and measurement of empowerment in demography and economics have been... more
Although ICPD brought about an international consensus on the centrality of women's empowerment and gender equity as desired national goals, the conceptualization and measurement of empowerment in demography and economics have been largely understood in a relational and in a family welfare context where women's altruistic behaviour within the household is tied either to developmental or child health outcomes. The goals of this study were twofold: (1) to offer an empirical examination of the household level empowerment measure through the theoretical construct of self-compassion and investigate its association with antenatal health, and (2) to ensure robust psychometric quality for this new measure. Drawing data from the nationally representative, multi-topic dataset of 42, 152 households, India Human Development Survey, IHDS II (2011-2012), the study performed a confirma-tory factor analysis followed by an OLS estimation to investigate the association between a self-compassi...
Research Interests:
As the population of older adults in India grows, research is needed to plan a sustainable future for India’s older adults. This paper reports results from a GPS (Global Positioning System) based pilot study that examined the mobility of... more
As the population of older adults in India grows, research is needed to plan a sustainable future for India’s older adults. This paper reports results from a GPS (Global Positioning System) based pilot study that examined the mobility of middle class, older adults living in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Using mobility as a lens through which to examine the lives of older adults, we map potential research and identify policy areas of interest considering older adults in urban India. The study explores the role of life stage in mobility as well as the effects of gender and urban environment on mobility. Using this distinctive perspective on day-to-day life, we propose themes through which, using policy and planning tools, the living environments of older adults in Indian cities can be improved. These policy measures include: focusing on walkability and pedestrian safety in residential areas, building on existing mixed land use to create high accessibility to goods and services in urban e...
Research Interests: Health Promotion, GPS Applications, Family, Aging, Population Dynamics, and 15 moreIndia, Cities, Humans, Healthy Aging, Female, Male, Intergenerational Relations, Aged, Middle Aged, Pilot Projects, Environment, Geographic Information Systems, Life Change Events, Multigenerational Families, and Age friendly city
Research Interests:
This study explores how South Asian Indian Gujarati older adults in Canada (Greater Vancouver area) strive to maintain personal continuity, citizenship, and selfhood through everyday body management practices (exercise/yoga,... more
This study explores how South Asian Indian Gujarati older adults in Canada (Greater Vancouver area) strive to maintain personal continuity, citizenship, and selfhood through everyday body management practices (exercise/yoga, medication/health supplements, skin, and hair care routines) and cultural markers such as food, sartorial choices, and community engagement. This examination, we contend, is noteworthy against the backdrop of contemporary North American academic and popular discourses of a burgeoning consumerist movement around the medicalization of bodies and anti-aging technologies. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews of 26 older adults, we discuss how growing old in the diaspora is marked with moral ambivalence between 'successful aging' and 'aging gracefully.' Based on an inductive thematic analysis, we identify four major themes in how the older diaspora negotiate aging and reorganise their lives through changing social relations and shifting cultural institutions. The first theme is the growing salience of both bodily and social changes in conceptualizing "old age," and how the experiences of aging vary by gender. Specifically, while most of the female participants visualized old age in terms of a loss of physical functionality, the male participants described agedness in terms of a loss of economic and social worth. The second major theme encapsulates the acceptable coping strategies for dealing with bodily changes and the associated reconfigurations of social roles. While a fit body and functionality were regarded as foundational traits for aging well by all participants, corrective measures or anti-aging products were not espoused as the most culturally appropriate "Indian" way of growing old. The third theme highlights the apprehensions regarding growing old in a foreign country, including a foreboding anxiety of dependence and frailty in the absence of traditional familial care networks. The final theme, explores how for most participants, the notion of home evoked ambivalence in constructing their sense of belonging and identity, often expressed through everyday practices and memory-keeping. Taken together, we ultimately show how age and embodiment are inextricably linked in the experience of growing old in the diaspora.
Research Interests:
Drawing from a group of older and middle-aged (50 years above) women and men who have re-partnered (includes both marriage and cohabitation) through the assistance of a marriage bureau based in the city of Ahmedabad (Gujarat, India), we... more
Drawing from a group of older and middle-aged (50 years above) women and men who
have re-partnered (includes both marriage and cohabitation) through the assistance of a
marriage bureau based in the city of Ahmedabad (Gujarat, India), we examine the
sociological notions of relatedness and the “practices” of family and intimacy. We ask
whether this “non-normative” process of becoming kin in the post-reproductive lives of
these participants, holds promise for a democratization of the private sphere as noted by
Giddens (1992) where the social process of relatedness is privileged over its biological/
procreational forms. In the process, we examine how our study participants tend to
organize their newly established relationships through contradictory tensions of negotiations, commitment, social obligation and personal autonomy. In-depth interviews
conducted in a dyadic format revealed gendered expressions of personhood, intimacy
and sociality. For example, men expected their relationship to bring in nostalgic ideals
of domesticity, whereas women associated re-partnering with increased social status,
kinship support and economic security underscoring the expected social benefits
associated with caste-endogamous idealized heterosexual unions. Significantly, caste
relations were instrumental in determining partner preferences and relationship formation with family members among older couples. We show that despite being
circumscribed by conventional social scripts, women in these relationships use their
(post-reproductive) age to an emancipatory advantage by bargaining with patriarchal
compulsions of verilocality and lack of say in partner decisions. In a context where
cultural norms prescribe a social pathology of asexuality and familial dependence in
later life, this new form of relatedness offers an uplifting narrative of self-disclosure and
intimacy, although ultimately reproducing social, economic and symbolic hierarchies of
gender and generation.
have re-partnered (includes both marriage and cohabitation) through the assistance of a
marriage bureau based in the city of Ahmedabad (Gujarat, India), we examine the
sociological notions of relatedness and the “practices” of family and intimacy. We ask
whether this “non-normative” process of becoming kin in the post-reproductive lives of
these participants, holds promise for a democratization of the private sphere as noted by
Giddens (1992) where the social process of relatedness is privileged over its biological/
procreational forms. In the process, we examine how our study participants tend to
organize their newly established relationships through contradictory tensions of negotiations, commitment, social obligation and personal autonomy. In-depth interviews
conducted in a dyadic format revealed gendered expressions of personhood, intimacy
and sociality. For example, men expected their relationship to bring in nostalgic ideals
of domesticity, whereas women associated re-partnering with increased social status,
kinship support and economic security underscoring the expected social benefits
associated with caste-endogamous idealized heterosexual unions. Significantly, caste
relations were instrumental in determining partner preferences and relationship formation with family members among older couples. We show that despite being
circumscribed by conventional social scripts, women in these relationships use their
(post-reproductive) age to an emancipatory advantage by bargaining with patriarchal
compulsions of verilocality and lack of say in partner decisions. In a context where
cultural norms prescribe a social pathology of asexuality and familial dependence in
later life, this new form of relatedness offers an uplifting narrative of self-disclosure and
intimacy, although ultimately reproducing social, economic and symbolic hierarchies of
gender and generation.
Research Interests:
We investigate the association between the multigenerational household context and health of older adults in India, taking into account potential selection effects. Using data from the India Human Development Survey (2004-05), a... more
We investigate the association between the multigenerational household context and health of older adults in India, taking into account potential selection effects. Using data from the India Human Development Survey (2004-05), a nationally representative multitopic data set, we employed a two-step analytical strategy-logistic regression followed by propensity score stratification method-to model the effect of contrasting living arrangement types on short-term illness. Overall, older adults living in multigenerational households have the lowest levels of short-term illness. Among them, those who live with their spouse, adult children, and young grandchildren experience the highest health gains. Health advantage diminishes when older adults live only with a spouse and adult children, and further diminishes when they live only with their spouse. Solitary living is associated with the highest likelihood of short-term morbidity. Good health is also shown to be associated with household wealth, gender, household size, and urban residence. Our study demonstrates that multigenerational households-the traditional and the most dominant form of living arrangement in India-have protective health benefits for older adults, while taking into account potential selection mechanisms. On Contrary to some epidemiological studies, we do not find any elevated risk of exposure to short-term illness, when older adults are living in households with young grandchildren.
Research Interests:
We investigate the association between the multigenerational household context and health of older adults in India, taking into account potential selection effects. Using data from the India Human Development Survey (2004-05), a... more
We investigate the association between the multigenerational household context and health of older adults in India, taking into account potential selection effects. Using data from the India Human Development Survey (2004-05), a nationally representative multitopic data set, we employed a two-step analytical strategy-logistic regression followed by propensity score stratification method-to model the effect of contrasting living arrangement types on short-term illness. Overall, older adults living in multigenerational households have the lowest levels of short-term illness. Among them, those who live with their spouse, adult children, and young grandchildren experience the highest health gains. Health advantage diminishes when older adults live only with a spouse and adult children, and further diminishes when they live only with their spouse. Solitary living is associated with the highest likelihood of short-term morbidity. Good health is also shown to be associated with household wealth, gender, household size, and urban residence. Our study demonstrates that multigenerational households-the traditional and the most dominant form of living arrangement in India-have protective health benefits for older adults, while taking into account potential selection mechanisms. On Contrary to some epidemiological studies, we do not find any elevated risk of exposure to short-term illness, when older adults are living in households with young grandchildren.
Research Interests:
This article aims to understand the complex interactions of family and intergenerational relationships in an emerging city in India. Demographic work on population ageing in India has primarily focused on family structure, health outcomes... more
This article aims to understand the complex interactions of family and intergenerational relationships in an emerging city in India. Demographic work on population ageing in India has primarily focused on family structure, health outcomes and institutional living. Though the focus of these studies has been on the Indian family, surprisingly, an in-depth study of the complex dialectic of the intergenerational relationships is often missing from the gerontological literature. Drawing from in-depth qualitative interviews in the city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, this article unsettles the assumptions around filial obligation and intergenerational support. In particular, the study shows that the intergenerational social contract is mediated by the economic dependence of the ageing parents on their adult children. Our observations lend support to the construct of ambivalence (coexistence of conflict and affection) that is suggested by the dominant social-psychological paradigm of intergeneratio...
Gerontological scholarship has long seen the environment to be a silent partner in aging. Environmental Gerontology, an established approach in Social Gerontology, has shown how the everyday lives of older adults are deeply entangled in... more
Gerontological scholarship has long seen the environment to be a silent partner in aging. Environmental Gerontology, an established approach in Social Gerontology, has shown how the everyday lives of older adults are deeply entangled in socio-spatial environments. Adopting an Environmental Gerontology approach, we explore social and cultural dimensions of the association between out-of-home mobility and wellbeing among older adults in a north western city of India. This was established by combining high resolution time-space data collected using GPS receivers, questionnaire data and time diaries. Following a multi-staged analytical strategy, we first examine the correlation between out-of-home mobility and wellbeing using bivariate correlation. Second, we introduce gender and family structure into regression models as moderating variables to improve the models’ explanatory power. Finally, we use our results to reinterpret the Ecological Press Model of Aging to include familial struc...
Research Interests:
Objectives: We investigate the association between the multigenerational household context and health of older adults in India, taking into account potential selection effects. Methods: Using data from the India Human Development Survey... more
Objectives: We investigate the association between the multigenerational household context and health of older adults in India, taking into account potential selection effects. Methods: Using data from the India Human Development Survey (2004-05), a nationally representative multi-topic data set, we employed a two-step analytical strategy- logistic regression followed by propensity score stratification method- to model the effect of contrasting living arrangement types on short term illness. Results: Overall, older adults living in multigenerational households have the lowest levels of short term illness. Among them, those who live with their spouse, adult children and young grandchildren experience the highest health gains. Health advantage diminishes when older adults live only with a spouse and adult children, and further diminishes when they live only with their spouse. Solitary living is associated with the highest likelihood of short term morbidity. Good health is also shown t...
Research Interests:
Using similar themes from the noted Korean documentary, My Love, Don’t Cross the River (2013: director Jin Moyoung), Netflix’s docuseries My Love: Six Stories of True Love (2021) follows six couples in long-term companionship across six... more
Using similar themes from the noted Korean documentary, My Love, Don’t Cross the River (2013: director Jin Moyoung), Netflix’s docuseries My Love: Six Stories of True Love (2021) follows six couples in long-term companionship across six countries (the United States, Spain, Japan, Korea, Brazil, and India) with narratives that interweave memory, nostalgia, mortality, and conjugal friendship. A local director in each country followed these couples going about their daily routines for about a year (pre-pandemic). The result of this innovative, cross-cultural collaboration is an excellent and seemingly effortless cinematic rendition of the often troubled gerontological question--“what makes for a good old age?”. Gerontology’s response to this question is not new. Like the empirical studies on this question, this docuseries echoes similar factors--good health, physical functionality, material security, family, social networks, and environmental conditions are all relevant to later life well-being. The series, however, brings into sharp relief an often ignored and taken-for-granted perspective that sits comfortably within the life stories of hardships and grit. That perspective is called love.
Research Interests:
In this piece, I draw attention on how the booming real estate market in India is patterned around the axes of social inequality. Specifically, it argues that in a socio-economic context of depressed later life incomes with declining... more
In this piece, I draw attention on how the booming real estate market in India is patterned around the axes of social inequality. Specifically, it argues that in a socio-economic context of depressed later life incomes with declining familial support, a singular focus on (upper) middle class niche senior living market is both exclusionary and misguided. The empirical basis for this argument comes from a range of press coverage on the inviting market for seniors as well as the recently released Government of India report (Model Guidelines for Development and Regulation of Retirement Homes, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, 2019) on the regulatory framework for privately managed ‘retirement homes’ for the ‘urban upper and middle income elderly’. I ask if the Report with its orchestration of an upper middleclass lifestyle and aesthetic governmentality is a deliberate neglect of the economic precariousness of a vast majority of lower-income households that lie at the margins of the urban-focused neoliberal State. I reflect what this erasure holds for questions of equity and social justice under neoliberalism and conclude on the intellectual possibilities of environmental gerontology by privileging the anthropological dimensions of housing and property regimes.
Research Interests:
In this commentary, I contend that in a context marked by a slow but steady rise in sexual liberalism around the ideals of female sexuality and desire, the pressure to remain virginal is manifested through a potent nexus of markets and... more
In this commentary, I contend that in a context marked by a slow but steady rise in sexual liberalism around the ideals of female sexuality and desire, the pressure to remain virginal is manifested through a potent nexus of markets and moral economies associated with gender and intimacy. Drawing on qualitative interviews with surgeons specialising in female genital aesthetic surgeries, particularly hymenoplasty, in New Delhi, Ahmedabad, and Bangalore, I show how restorative cosmetic surgeries on healthy bodies are proffered through the language of duty, autonomous choice, and the (neoliberal) market. Further, building on the sociological concepts of "moral consumption" and "progress through pleasure", I show how consumerismled modernity makes pleasure a 'biopolitical burden' , and the cosmetic industry, a regulatory vehicle, disciplining female sexuality to conform with male codes of honor. I question what this holds for the sexual and reproductive health politics of young people in India, in a context marked by pervasive asymmetries of socialisation, gender relations, and sexual experience. I conclude with a call to unsettle the social-moral ideals around female sexuality and to rethink the medical-legal frameworks around the cosmetic industry so that young people are not unwittingly co-opted into its production of ideal, patriarchal subjects.
Research Interests:
Friendships that are forged through ‘routinization’ (e.g. daily walks and unfocussed interactions) have received sparse attention in the gerontological scholarship in India. Drawing from a rich but neglected body of work on friendships... more
Friendships that are forged through ‘routinization’ (e.g. daily walks and unfocussed interactions) have received sparse attention in the gerontological scholarship in India. Drawing from a rich but neglected body of work on friendships and later-life entanglements with public spaces, this piece looks into the quotidian ties of non-kin friendships against the backdrop of a pandemic-led shrinking community life. In particular, I use Bourdieu’s (1977) concept of “habitus” to approach the practice of adda (casual conversations among men, often perceived as a compulsory hallmark trait of bourgeois conviviality) in understanding how COVID-19 unwittingly disrupts as well reconfigures practices that are routinized. Further, by utilizing the embodied process of habitus as an urban place-making project, I contend how the plebeian practice of walking and everyday sociality reifies the fault lines of gender, social class, and age. I conclude by reflecting on gerontology’s unique role in proffering a language of agency and embodiment for crafting age-sensitive post-pandemic futures.
Research Interests:
In this piece I argue that the pandemic with its emphasis on social distancing as a desirable civic norm can reconfigure popular understanding of mature female singlehood in India- a condition that is often described in the language of... more
In this piece I argue that the pandemic with its emphasis on social distancing as a desirable civic norm can reconfigure popular understanding of mature female singlehood in India- a condition that is often described in the language of lacks and social failures. The pandemic, I argue, has reaffirmed the everyday practices of upper middle-class professional women (ages 50–60 years) lending them as positive agentic subjects who are invested in self-actualization and an appreciation of intimate solitude. Overall, by specifically focusing on subjectivities and social aspirations of my interlocutors during the pandemic, I illuminate ways in which middle aged selfhood is lived in all its fragility, ambivalence and emergent possibilities.
Research Interests:
Gerontological scholarship has long seen the environment to be a silent partner in aging. Environmental Gerontology, an established approach in Social Gerontology, has shown how the everyday lives of older adults are deeply entangled in... more
Gerontological scholarship has long seen the environment to be a silent partner in aging. Environmental Gerontology, an established approach in Social Gerontology, has shown how the everyday lives of older adults are deeply entangled in socio-spatial environments. Adopting an Environmental Gerontology approach, we explore social and cultural dimensions of the association between out-of-home mobility and wellbeing among older adults in a north western city of India. This was established by combining high resolution time-space data collected using GPS receivers, questionnaire data and time diaries. Following a multi-staged analytical strategy, we first examine the correlation between out-of-home mobility and wellbeing using bivariate correlation. Second, we introduce gender and family structure into regression models as moderating variables to improve the models' explanatory power. Finally, we use our results to reinterpret the Ecological Press Model of Aging to include familial structure as a factor that moderates environmental stress. Findings emphasize the central role that social constructs play in the long-established relationship between the environment and the wellbeing of older adults.
Research Interests:
Contrary to the standard understanding of a “motherhood penalty” in terms of a gender-based wage-gap, the authors argue that penalties associated with motherhood exist in non-material terms in a context where professional women’s... more
Contrary to the standard understanding of a “motherhood penalty” in terms of a gender-based wage-gap, the authors argue that penalties associated with motherhood exist in non-material terms in a context where professional women’s “productive” experience remains caught in the uneasy alliance between individual ambitions, compulsory motherhood, and the practice of middle-classness. Based on qualitative interviews with nineteen professionals in a top science research organization in Ahmedabad (India), the authors examine how gender roles and patrifocal prescriptive codes create unequal outcomes among middle class women and men in science careers. The authors contend that organizational factors such as the “glass ceiling” offer inadequate explanations for the empirical contradictions in higher education research contexts in India where gender scripts around marriage, motherhood and (women’s) productive labor remain immutable. In the process this article shows how scientific “merit” and academic worth are constructed resulting in gendered differentials in positions of power, funding decisions and post-maternity service.
Research Interests:
Although ICPD brought about an international consensus on the centrality of women's empowerment and gender equity as desired national goals, the conceptualization and measurement of empowerment in demography and economics have been... more
Although ICPD brought about an international consensus on the centrality of women's empowerment and gender equity as desired national goals, the conceptualization and measurement of empowerment in demography and economics have been largely understood in a relational and in a family welfare context where women's altruistic behaviour within the household is tied either to developmental or child health outcomes. The goals of this study were twofold: (1) to offer an empirical examination of the household level empowerment measure through the theoretical construct of self-compassion and investigate its association with antenatal health, and (2) to ensure robust psychometric quality for this new measure. Drawing data from the nationally representative, multi-topic dataset of 42, 152 households, India Human Development Survey, IHDS II (2011-2012), the study performed a confirma-tory factor analysis followed by an OLS estimation to investigate the association between a self-compassionate based empowerment and antenatal care. Empowerment was shown to be positively and significantly associated with antenatal care with significant age and education gradient. A woman's married status, her relation to the household head and joint family residence created conditions of restricted freedom in terms of her mobility, decision making and sociality. The empowerment measure showed inconsistent associations with social group affiliations and household wealth. The study provided an intellectual starting point to rethink the traditional formulations of empowerment by foregrounding its empirical measure within the relatively unexplored area of social psychology. In the process it addressed measurement gaps in the empowerment-health debate in India and beyond.
Research Interests:
This study utilizes queer gerontology as a framework to raise questions and rethink theoretical tools by weaving personal biographies and intimate histories of queer men in Mumbai, India. In particular, drawing on narratives and... more
This study utilizes queer gerontology as a framework to raise questions and rethink theoretical tools by weaving personal biographies and intimate histories of queer men in Mumbai, India. In particular, drawing on narratives and self-presentation aesthetics of 30 middle-aged to older men in the online dating app, Grindr, as well as face-to-face interviews, this study harnesses the somatic turn in gerontology to show how the (neoliberal) triad of self-care, stylistic consumption and an invocation of "metrosexual" masculinity become critical signifiers of the never-aging cultural enterprise of the Third Age (Laslett 1989). In the process it shows how the putative marginality of the homosexual aged body both destabilizes and strengthens the rationality of normative heterosexuality through its enduring emphasis on (sexual) functionality and moral duty. The men's narratives allow us to question the limits of "western" cultural anxieties of "coming out" in a context where homosociality offers reticent acceptance without threatening the heteronormative matrix. All in all, this study with its focus on men's bodies as erotic capital allows us to reimagine aging where desire remains socially and culturally meaningful for most men across their lives, thereby de-centering the heteronormative and asexual gaze of mainstream gerontology in India.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In this short piece, I offer a reconfiguration of the term “aging in place” by analyzing media content of web-based senior-focused portals while demonstrating how these online consumer-driven spaces unwittingly re-create new social... more
In this short piece, I offer a reconfiguration of the term “aging in place” by analyzing media content of web-based senior-focused portals while demonstrating how these online consumer-driven spaces unwittingly re-create new social relations and imagined communities. Building on the sparse body of scholarship on extra-familial, kin-like networks, I reflect on the cultural possibility of internet spaces as surrogate “places” for later life non-kin sociality. In this exploration, I privilege the possibility of enriched selfhood of older Indians by moving away from the conventional gerontological trope of the (Indian) elderly as indivisible familial subjects, as a deliberate process of decolonizing the field of gerontology.
Research Interests: Aging and Aging-In-Place
This study examines the representation of older adults in print advertisements in an English-language magazine in post-reform India. Employing content analysis, this study finds a growing disenchantment of the Indian media with the image... more
This study examines the representation of older adults in print advertisements in an English-language magazine in post-reform India. Employing content analysis, this study finds a growing disenchantment of the Indian media with the image of a “happy joint family.” A higher proportion of older adults are now portrayed alone or with younger adults compared to earlier portrayals with people of all age groups in an ad. Further, the portrayal of older adults as both parent and grandparent in the same ad has also reduced over the years, hinting at the restructured ideas of time, successful aging, and later life identities.
Drawing from an interview based household survey of 453 older parent(s) and adult children (sons and daughters-in-law) in the Ahmedabad district, this study utilised the solidarity-conflict-ambivalence models to understand both the... more
Drawing from an interview based household survey of 453 older parent(s) and adult children (sons and daughters-in-law) in the Ahmedabad district, this study utilised the solidarity-conflict-ambivalence models to understand both the perceptions and experience of joint living. Overall, findings reinforce popular imagination of the socially-sanctioned joint family as a site of reassuring continuity with high levels of congruence in reporting relational sentiments. Evidence of intergenerational stake phenomenon was observed in responses of older adults when compared with the mature child. In addition to examining normative ambivalence, I contend that joint family relations embody a concept of ‘ambiguity’ – an uncertain, somewhat conflictual emotive space that offers members a temporary escape without confronting the contradictions in the objective demands of expected roles. In conclusion, I assert the need to go beyond the western tools of measurement to capture a deeply complex emotive space with its regularities, irrationalities and incoherences in the experience of everyday life.
In this piece, I outline the possibility of understanding old age through the lens of cultural gerontology highlighting the intersecting logics of age with consumption, leisure and identity. I argue that with rising affluence and... more
In this piece, I outline the possibility of understanding old age through the lens of cultural gerontology highlighting the intersecting logics of age with consumption, leisure and identity. I argue that with rising affluence and demographic aging, India is poised to experience an emergent cultural movement, the Third Age (Laslett, 1989), wherein access to cultural capital and an active participation in a leisure culture will guarantee social membership among upper middle class older adults. Using examples from luxury senior housing projects and travel/holiday packages, I reflect how this process of agentic consumerism with a focus on the ideals of youthfulness, choice, self-expression and pleasure is turning the decline narrative (typically associated with “natural” aging) on its head. The success of this market-driven cultural model, I argue, lies in the celebration of a project on the self where the responsibility to “age well” rests with the individual-a key political economy of the neoliberal regime-absolving the state of public provisions and social security. In the process I show how through a carefully crafted Brand Modi, a potent vision of active and age-ambiguous consumer citizenry, life-stage has been suitably marketed to match the aspirations of a greying cohort marking a new stage in the cultural constitution of age in urban India.
Drawing from a group of older and middle-aged (50 years above) women and men who have re-partnered (includes both marriage and cohabitation) through the assistance of a marriage bureau based in the city of Ahmedabad (Gujarat, India), we... more
Drawing from a group of older and middle-aged (50 years above) women and men who have re-partnered (includes both marriage and cohabitation) through the assistance of a marriage bureau based in the city of Ahmedabad (Gujarat, India), we examine the sociological notions of relatedness and the “practices” of family and intimacy. We ask whether this “non-normative” process of becoming kin in the post-reproductive lives of these participants, holds promise for a democratization of the private sphere as noted by Giddens (1992) where the social process of relatedness is privileged over its biological/procreational forms. In the process, we examine how our study participants tend to organize their newly established relationships through contradictory tensions of negotiations, commitment, social obligation and personal autonomy. In-depth interviews conducted in a dyadic format revealed gendered expressions of personhood, intimacy and sociality. For example, men expected their relationship to bring in nostalgic ideals of domesticity, whereas women associated re-partnering with increased social status, kinship support and economic security underscoring the expected social benefits associated with caste-endogamous idealized heterosexual unions. Significantly, caste relations were instrumental in determining partner preferences and relationship formation with family members among older couples. We show that despite being circumscribed by conventional social scripts, women in these relationships use their (post-reproductive) age to an emancipatory advantage by bargaining with patriarchal compulsions of verilocality and lack of say in partner decisions. In a context where cultural norms prescribe a social pathology of asexuality and familial dependence in later life, this new form of relatedness offers an uplifting narrative of self-disclosure and intimacy, although ultimately reproducing social, economic and symbolic hierarchies of gender and generation
This study aims to understand how aging Indian immigrants in Canada are reconstructing and (re)negotiating the cultural logics of aging, intergenerational relationships, later life roles and traditional norms. While there is a growing... more
This study aims to understand how aging Indian immigrants in Canada are reconstructing and (re)negotiating the cultural logics of aging, intergenerational relationships, later life roles and traditional norms. While there is a growing body of scholarship on immigration, transnational identity and family dynamics, older women and men have not always emerged as active actors in this literature; rather, they continue to remain on the backstage with their scripts unwritten. This omission however is serious, as “overlooking age entails erasure of existential issues encapsulated in lived reality” (Dossa, 1999). Part of this omission may be explained by the overly simplified assumptions that older persons are keepers of ethnic traditions in transnational families and are dependent on the younger generations for care and support. We argue that these assumptions not only undermine the agency of older people to reconstruct social practices and cultural expectations around caregiving and intergenerational relationships and but also mask older adults’ ability to reconcile the tension between normative traditions and modernity. In fact, recent studies have shown that older persons in immigrant households actively participate in reciprocal relationships with the younger generation through grandparenting and housework (Sun, 2014; Treas, 2009; Kalavar & Willigen, 2005; Lamb, 2002). This “reconfigured reciprocity” (Sun, 2014) is fast altering the Asian tradition of generational hierarchy allowing older persons to transform and attach new cultural meanings to relationships, roles and traditions. Through in-depth interviews and narratives of older adults in transnational arrangements, the proposed study will serve as a living metaphor of lives engaged in reconstructing and reimagining the social process of aging in a transnational setting. The study thus expands the literature on transnationalism to include cultural anthropology of aging and adaptability-an area that remains substantively unexplored in diaspora studies.
Research Interests:
Through this research initiative on population aging, we hope to achieve the following goals: • Build collaborations of leading scholars who work on population aging and are committed to engage in social scientific inquiry that bridges... more
Through this research initiative on population aging, we hope to achieve the following goals:
• Build collaborations of leading scholars who work on population aging and are committed to engage in social scientific inquiry that bridges the gulf between theory and practice
• Build an intellectual archive of comparative evidence (drawing from different countries) for effective policy planning on aging
• To advance scholarship on social gerontology
The deliverables of this research initiative will include two related components:
An EDITED VOLUME that weaves together the contributions of the early career scholars and experts working on cross-cultural perspectives on population aging. The working title of the edited volume has been slated as: Bridging the Gulf: Theory and Research on Social Gerontology. The volume will be edited by Dr. Tannistha Samanta (Assistant Professor, Humanities & Social Sciences, IITGN).
A SYMPOSIUM that will bring contributors of the edited volume to share their work on population aging. The symposium will be held in IITGN, June 14/15, 2014 (tentative)
We hope this research initiative will stimulate interdisciplinary dialogue and encourage research that guides country level policies to plan our own futures.
• Build collaborations of leading scholars who work on population aging and are committed to engage in social scientific inquiry that bridges the gulf between theory and practice
• Build an intellectual archive of comparative evidence (drawing from different countries) for effective policy planning on aging
• To advance scholarship on social gerontology
The deliverables of this research initiative will include two related components:
An EDITED VOLUME that weaves together the contributions of the early career scholars and experts working on cross-cultural perspectives on population aging. The working title of the edited volume has been slated as: Bridging the Gulf: Theory and Research on Social Gerontology. The volume will be edited by Dr. Tannistha Samanta (Assistant Professor, Humanities & Social Sciences, IITGN).
A SYMPOSIUM that will bring contributors of the edited volume to share their work on population aging. The symposium will be held in IITGN, June 14/15, 2014 (tentative)
We hope this research initiative will stimulate interdisciplinary dialogue and encourage research that guides country level policies to plan our own futures.
Research Interests:
August 19, 2015| IIT Gandhinagar
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Demography and Data
India offers an interesting site to study the many contours of newly emerging aging societies as the country experiences globalization led contrasting socio-cultural shifts, such as urban transition, increased out-migration of young... more
India offers an interesting site to study the many contours of newly emerging aging societies as the country experiences globalization led contrasting socio-cultural shifts, such as urban transition, increased out-migration of young adults and a burgeoning middle class. Notably, the household still remains the central source of support for the aged, against a backdrop of limited institutional systems of care and social provisions.
In this talk, Dr. Samanta will build on the complementary theoretical orientations of social capital and subsequently adopt a structural-cognitive framework to examine the association between social capital and well-being of older adults in India. In particular, she will focus on how household context (e.g. living arrangement, socio-economic status) influence subjective well-being of older people in India. The study draws data from a newly collected household survey (BKPAI, United Nations, 2011) and follows a two-step analytical strategy. Results underscore the importance of social capital in promoting well-being of older adults; specifically social engagement, trust and participation override the overall effect of living arrangement (i.e. whether the elderly co-reside in a multi-generational household or not) on health. Dr. Samanta argues that a “rights based” policy framework based on participation and freedom of older people holds promise in promoting an inclusive aging society.
The talk will conclude with a brief description of ongoing projects on the broad areas of population health and family sociology to explore possibilities of collaboration with the research staff at U of S.
In this talk, Dr. Samanta will build on the complementary theoretical orientations of social capital and subsequently adopt a structural-cognitive framework to examine the association between social capital and well-being of older adults in India. In particular, she will focus on how household context (e.g. living arrangement, socio-economic status) influence subjective well-being of older people in India. The study draws data from a newly collected household survey (BKPAI, United Nations, 2011) and follows a two-step analytical strategy. Results underscore the importance of social capital in promoting well-being of older adults; specifically social engagement, trust and participation override the overall effect of living arrangement (i.e. whether the elderly co-reside in a multi-generational household or not) on health. Dr. Samanta argues that a “rights based” policy framework based on participation and freedom of older people holds promise in promoting an inclusive aging society.
The talk will conclude with a brief description of ongoing projects on the broad areas of population health and family sociology to explore possibilities of collaboration with the research staff at U of S.
Western donors and aid groups have consistently maintained that aid to poor countries is a vital way to help lift millions of people out of poverty. However in recent times, prominent academic critics have argued that much of the aid... more
Western donors and aid groups have consistently maintained that aid to poor countries is a vital way to help lift millions of people out of poverty. However in recent times, prominent academic critics have argued that much of the aid money has earned only meager returns and has led to slower growth, bad governance and corruption in many poor countries. Hence the question: is aid working? The backdrop of this question is a vigorous debate among economists and policy analysts about whether aid promotes economic development.
In the talk, I will critically review some of the major debates that have shaken up the aid establishment while drawing examples from Asia and Africa. The talk will demonstrate that while it is important to wrestle with the limits and pitfalls of aid in promoting economic development, it is equally important to acknowledge the many other ways how aid has significantly contributed to gains in human development, including global health, education and community empowerment.
In the talk, I will critically review some of the major debates that have shaken up the aid establishment while drawing examples from Asia and Africa. The talk will demonstrate that while it is important to wrestle with the limits and pitfalls of aid in promoting economic development, it is equally important to acknowledge the many other ways how aid has significantly contributed to gains in human development, including global health, education and community empowerment.
The talk will discuss the history of sexual behavior during the dawn of human civilization and its evolution through the ages. Drawing from the perspectives of history, evolutionary biology and social-psychology, the talk will discuss the... more
The talk will discuss the history of sexual behavior during the dawn of human civilization and its evolution through the ages. Drawing from the perspectives of history, evolutionary biology and social-psychology, the talk will discuss the tradition of monogamy. More specifically, whether monogamy is a natural tendency of the human race or is it a social construction. The talk hopes to draw attention and provide theoretical information from a neutral standpoint to the ongoing debates on the institution of marriage and monogamy.
School of Planning, Center for Planning and Environment Technology (CEPT), Ahmedebad
Research Interests:
This graduate level course analyzes sociological and cultural aspects of aging from a life course perspective. The course will adopt an intersectional and interdisciplinary approach to examine questions of gender, the body, family,... more
This graduate level course analyzes sociological and cultural aspects of aging from a life course perspective. The course will adopt an intersectional and interdisciplinary approach to examine questions of gender, the body, family, identity, social practices, medical and legal discourses surrounding aging. Specific topics include: Theorizing aging across disciplines (history, demography, economics, anthropology and feminist studies); cultural representations of age and aging (body, self-image advertising, consumer culture and ageism); family structure and intergenerational relationships (social networks, caregiving and grand parenting); later life in a transnational era (questions of identity, ethnicity, nation and transnationalism); the politics of aging; and social policy.
Research Interests:
This graduate level course will focus on the competing definitions and paradigms of globalization, drawing from a variety of disciplines including sociology, economics, political science and culture studies. It will include discussions on... more
This graduate level course will focus on the competing definitions and paradigms of globalization, drawing from a variety of disciplines including sociology, economics, political science and culture studies. It will include discussions on global production networks, development debates, role of global governance institutions and global inequalities. In addition, the course will analyze sources, consequences and modalities of transnational migrations and related issues of identity, belonging, citizenship and diaspora, with particular attention to how definitions of gender and sexuality are reproduced, deployed and negotiated in these processes. Overall, the course is open to myriad forms of economic, social and cultural globalization in our times.
While acknowledging that most transnational development efforts are motivated by a well-intentioned aim to improve lives of impoverished people, this course will critically evaluate the enterprise of international development and aid.... more
While acknowledging that most transnational development efforts are motivated by a well-intentioned aim to improve lives of impoverished people, this course will critically evaluate the enterprise of international development and aid. Among topics for study are: Development and its discontents: Competing theories on “development” of the Third World; contemporary trends, challenges and “best practices” in the development of the global south; Economic aid and development: how are they related?; Debt and aid effectiveness: with special focus on structural adjustments, debt crisis and rise of conditionality; Concept of global social contract, specifically the role of global economic institutions (IMF, World Bank, bilateral aid programs) in addressing unequal opportunity and global market failures.
Course format will draw on both lectures and seminar-style group discussions of assigned readings and current world events. In addition to the assigned readings, the course will draw from editorials, blogs and opinion pieces from standard international publishing houses as well as videos/ted talks. Through presentations, debates and a final paper, the course will provide students the theoretical and conceptual tools to critically understand and engage in the politics and economics of development interventions in the Third World.
Course format will draw on both lectures and seminar-style group discussions of assigned readings and current world events. In addition to the assigned readings, the course will draw from editorials, blogs and opinion pieces from standard international publishing houses as well as videos/ted talks. Through presentations, debates and a final paper, the course will provide students the theoretical and conceptual tools to critically understand and engage in the politics and economics of development interventions in the Third World.
The course is intended to serve as a general introduction to the field of demography from a sociological perspective. Demography is a scientific study of the size, composition and spatial distribution of human populations. Social... more
The course is intended to serve as a general introduction to the field of demography from a sociological perspective. Demography is a scientific study of the size, composition and spatial distribution of human populations. Social demography examines how population processes (e.g. fertility, mortality, marriage, migration, etc.) interrelate with social institutions, such as family, society and economy. The primary goal of the course is to familiarize students with key demographic concepts, major debates and recent research by engaging in critical population issues from both the developed and developing worlds. The topics will be a balanced mix of academic research, contemporary relevance and policy concern. Students should come away with the course with an understanding of the range of global population issues in an informed and critical fashion.
FLAME University, Pune (Maharashtra), is one of the pioneers of liberal education in India. With a strong focus on interdisciplinary research and teaching, the School of Liberal Education has recognized strengths in the areas of... more
FLAME University, Pune (Maharashtra), is one of the pioneers of liberal education in India. With a strong focus on interdisciplinary research and teaching, the School of Liberal Education has recognized strengths in the areas of sociology, psychology, public policy, international studies, physical and natural sciences, literary and cultural studies. The School nurtures intellectual freedom, curiosity, and academic integrity.
At this time, we are holding a recruitment roundtable for future faculty who might be interested to be part of our journey. In this panel, we will be discussing the larger recruitment vision of FLAME, pedagogical innovations, research and our deep commitment to diversity, inclusivity and intellectual rigor. Please feel free to spread the word!
At this time, we are holding a recruitment roundtable for future faculty who might be interested to be part of our journey. In this panel, we will be discussing the larger recruitment vision of FLAME, pedagogical innovations, research and our deep commitment to diversity, inclusivity and intellectual rigor. Please feel free to spread the word!
Research Interests:
The Summer Institute on Global Health & Development is jointly convened by the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar and the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. Through pedagogy and research, the Institute will offer a unique... more
The Summer Institute on Global Health & Development is jointly convened by the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar and the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. Through pedagogy and research, the Institute will offer a unique opportunity to engage, empower and prepare young researchers in their global pursuit for a healthy, equitable and sustainable world for all. Through cutting edge research drawing from diverse social sciences and humanities disciplines and utilizing interdisciplinary methodologies, the Summer Institute will examine how the scientific community at large can contribute to a sharper understanding of the complex interlinkages of health and development, with a particular focus on the global South. The Institute aims to engage participants to successfully build professional networks, develop research programs and actively contribute to critical knowledge creation and exchange.
From an institutional perspective, through this Summer Institute, we intend to explore and build solid research programs that will consist of:
1. Research collaborations (e.g. comparative research, grants, publications and research staff exchanges)
2. Joint mentorship possibilities, and
3. Curriculum development
From an institutional perspective, through this Summer Institute, we intend to explore and build solid research programs that will consist of:
1. Research collaborations (e.g. comparative research, grants, publications and research staff exchanges)
2. Joint mentorship possibilities, and
3. Curriculum development
Research Interests:
Dahaad’s social messaging is not a timid one. In a way, it shows how the demographic landscape can be both an outcome and co-option of patriarchal violence against women. It is a powerful reminder that all the uproar about smashing the... more
Dahaad’s social messaging is not a timid one. In a way, it shows how the demographic landscape can be both an outcome and co-option of patriarchal violence against women. It is a powerful reminder that all the uproar about smashing the patriarchy in woke circles can be reduced to a whimper unless social institutions of marriage and family are adequately challenged.
Research Interests:
This piece uses the intensely complex recent HBO Mini Series, Scenes from a Marriage, to explore the social possibilities of mothers/women who leave their children/families in the pursuit of freedom and individual happiness. The piece... more
This piece uses the intensely complex recent HBO Mini Series, Scenes from a Marriage, to explore the social possibilities of mothers/women who leave their children/families in the pursuit of freedom and individual happiness. The piece draws from the feminist understanding of happiness (or lack thereof) and asks how this reconfigures our understanding of contemporary marriage and family. Specifically, by focusing on the female protagonist's decision to leave to pursue passion and professional success, it offers the possibility to question the promise and the limits of individual happiness. Above all, it allows us to ask whether the neoliberal triad of self-fulfillment, self-care and self-actualization- is a mindless consumerist distraction after all. Or, are marriages based on such purported ideals lay waste to relationships?
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In this commentary piece I use the recently released web series, Bombay Begums, to argue that despite the uplifting narrative of choice and sexual pluralism, OTT platforms are turning sex (and “sexiness”) into a consumer good which is... more
In this commentary piece I use the recently released web series, Bombay Begums, to argue that despite the uplifting narrative of choice and sexual pluralism, OTT platforms are turning sex (and “sexiness”) into a consumer good which is packaged to the female (sexual) entrepreneur in the upbeat language of choice, agency, and freedom. In the process, I contend, women are unwittingly molded as complaint subjects of neoliberalism. I ask if this shift in women’s representation democratizes desire or reproduces objectification? More generally, I wonder what are the dangers of combining a seemingly flexible sexual apparatus under neoliberalism?
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The relationship between social capital and health gains has been well established in the gerontological literature. In particular, indicators of social capital such as trust, networks, neighbourhood cohesion and norms of reciprocity have... more
The relationship between social capital and health gains has been well established in the gerontological literature. In particular, indicators of social capital such as trust, networks, neighbourhood cohesion and norms of reciprocity have been shown to be associated with longer life expectancies, reduced rates of non-communicable diseases (Kim, et al 2008), and a reduction in depression and substance abuse problems among older adults (Nyqvist, et al, 2006). More recently, the empirical validity of social capital as a public health maxim has also been examined in non-western settings (Webster, et al 2015; Norstand, & Xu, 2012). In the following, I draw on our research on older adults in urban Ahmedabad (a city in the western state of Gujarat, India) to outline how the idea of social capital as an unambiguous boon may be contested when one examines the experience of aging in context