Niti's research interests lie in the intersection between design methods, knowledge systems particularly local, traditional and indigenous knowledges, and participatory social design-driven transformation. She is currently exploring the relationship between post-colonial indigenous research paradigms (Chilisa 2019) and integrated product development strategies for holistic knowledge production that implements cognitive justice (Visvanathan 1997; 2021) for research at the Cultural Interface (Nakata 1997, 2007; Durie 2005). Over 30 years of professional creative practice in design and innovation. This includes 15 years of leading interdisciplinary teams for fieldwork using design anthropology methodologies (rapid ethnography, indepth interviews, day in the life, observations and shadowing in markets, farms, villages, borderlands and more). Fieldwork personally completed in South Africa, The Philippines, India, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and with local assistance in Benin and Malawi. Networks span the African continent. Public recognition of original knowledge production includes Invitation to mainstage of TED Global 2017 in Arusha Tanzania TEDTalk video https://www.ted.com/talks/niti_bhan_the_hidden_opportunities_of_the_informal_economy

Projects

The Politics of Corporate Resource Exploitation: Social Movement Influence on Paper- and Metal Industry Investments in Brazil and India

I am starting the Doctorate Program at Aalto University in 2021. My research project aims at investigating how frugal social innovations from the Global South might create alternative concepts and appropriated meanings of quality, well-being, social change, consequently, development. This proposal is aligned with contemporary efforts to link management research to Grand Challenges such as poverty alleviation (Kistruck & Shulist, 2020), positioned at the emergent and interdisciplinary field of Business and Development (Lund-Thomsen et al., 2020). I believe that being part of the UniPID DocNet will be an excellent opportunity to expand my training opportunities, exchange and partnerships, while also collaborating with the network, bringing a different background and commitment to discuss the grand societal challenges and development issues in the world. To embark on such an endeavor, I bring an interdisciplinary and multifaceted background, as a researcher and educator from Latin America, working with topics related to social innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainable development, including significant experience in international collaborations in Brazil, the USA, Uganda, India, and other countries in Latin America and Europe.

Dr. Tiina Seppälä is a university lecturer in Global Development Studies at the University of Helsinki and adjunct professor of International Development Studies at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She has engaged with women’s rights and slum activists in Nepal and Bangladesh, anti-eviction movements in India, asylum seekers in Finland and anti-war activists in the UK. She is interested in development, displacement, social movements, post/decolonial and feminist theory, ethnographic research and arts-based methods.

Projects

Governance, Resistance and Neoliberal Development: Struggles against Development-Induced Displacement and Forced Evictions in South Asia

Prof, Ph.D., Laura Stark’s research focuses on gender, sexuality, mobile telephony, urban poverty and early marriage in Tanzania. She is co-editor of the journal Ethnologia Europaea. She has edited the Bloomsbury volume Power and Informality in Urban Africa with Annika Björnsdotter Teppo (2022); and the Routledge volume Gendered Power and Mobile Technology: Intersections in the Global South (2019) with Caroline Wamala Larsson. She has led four major funded research projects, including Mobile Technology, Gender and Development in Africa and India (2010–2013); and Urban Renewal and Income-Generating Spaces for Youth and Women in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (2013–2017). Email: laura.stark@jyu.fi; Home pages: www.jyu.fi/hytk/fi/laitokset/hela/en/hela-staff/stark-laura www.laurastark.fi

Projects

Urban Poverty, Urban Renewal and Income-Generating Spaces in Ethiopia and Tanzania