The urban glimmer
It shimmers
The sea and sky
E(merge) in a flicker

#spokenword

A ritual that keeps the writer in me accountable, this year has been a time to realize why I write, and it is for impact, to create narratives that aid change. A couple for Tatvita-Analysts and one for IHRB with Adrian Pereira Sir.

Three academic conference acceptances from HKU, Sunway University and Manipal on good topics related to labor. I have also submitted a book chapter currently under review. There were missed deadlines due to geographical transitions and family emergencies which caused stress and a block, which took some time to reflect reconcile and negotiate.

I hope to contribute more to the practitioner-policy literature and hope along the way theory is built from praxis. I thank sponsors, supervisors and mentors who supported me and those pulled the plug on me despite doing everything, however the mosaic of life falls into place, so each tough step is imbued with meaning and purpose. So grateful for the setbacks as those teach us more than the good times.

A special mention to Adrian Pereira Vaibhavi Pingale Guna Subramaniam Junice Yeo for the writing opportunities that I treasure as each feedback loop is a precious learning curve.

I blogged each day this year, and have plenty of ideas on ESG, labor and the human side of the emissions transition to write in the coming year.

In Gratitude.

#writing#research#esg#migration#labour

Innovation often emerges at the frayed edges of established disciplines and where there are problems to solve, often at the intersection of both. ESG is a domain ripe for innovation as it is a fast-moving target. The intersectionality’s between the three alphabets and its relationships are not yet explored and fleshed out. Risk is a dynamic entity, and a puritanical approach serves no purpose at best.

S needs context and a provision for thick description of small data is needed, as the just transition will be navigated through human actors with a politics, culture, and a history rather than carbon, which is welcome as a pollutant that impacts air quality over the neighborhood airshed rather than freak extreme weather events.

Disclosures for compliance will make sense if the context is integrated rather than pure numbers, which do not entail much without the operating milieu.

A crucial part of growth comes with learning and the kind of learning which makes oneself uncomfortable, vulnerable, and open to ridicule as learning is embedded with circuits of knowledge production and performance metrics which is unforgiving.

The inability to learn with dignity and patience stifles innovation and risk taking which prevents growth. Learning and risk-taking go together. Growth is about pushing the envelope.

For me writing is sacred, and I enjoy the craft, and I like telling narratives that are muted, erased, and do not neatly fit within the neat contours of the publication model. I have been dismissed by literary agents, academic supervisors and have been told the nastiest of epithets. Yet I write, as when I do I exist as despite attempts to write me off, I am here scribbling on digital feeds, my blog and author research papers. I shall leave behind my own archive.

The Net Positive Transition has many layers built on the foundation of quality of living (carbon is about clear air too) and thus essential services, something we learnt well during the dreaded lockdowns. We are in a climate lockdown. We face flooding and heat events each year.

Shopping malls are the cathedrals of global capitalism as one finds uniformity and familiarity in common brands.

Jio World Drive in Mumbai is on par with Ion Orchard and Dubai Mall.

It was great to find Bateel Dates here after Dubai Marina and The Wave in Muscat.

Global spaces are comforting for the certain set of values they evoke. Exclusionary yet the target audience needs that very exclusion.

Decarbonization conversations need to account for energy access and food security as carbon tunnel vision is part of the story. Each sector will have its own peculiarities in their respective geographies. The drive for datafication creates the baseline, however local context and requisite allocation of capital is needed for impact.

Brokers, mediators, facilitators or the quintessential Dalal is a mildly valued negative notion as we presume that systems work as we are rational human actors with no force field to navigate. One of the greatest skills in life is to convince people that helping us is helping themselves or the art of the sale which consultants often preach. We need to convince stakeholders at all levels from the home boss to the work boss.

In low trust societies the figure of the man Friday who will negotiate the quotidian for you so that you can do work normally is a superpower. Countries like Singapore with seamless systems have eliminated the need for such actors, although SME business consultants do exist.

Reminds me of Prof Lisa Björkman ‘s Bombay Brokers, an ethnographic work which shows the role which everyday intermediary actors play.