Dr Kavita Datta

Dr Kavita Datta, B.A., Botswana; PhD, Cambridge
Senior Lecturer in Geography

School of Geography
Queen Mary, University of London
Mile End Road, London E1 4NS
Phone: 020 7882 5398
Fax: 020 7882 7479
Email: k.datta@qmul.ac.uk

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Research interests:

Development geography, gender and development.
Kavita Datta’s research interests span a number of areas of development, gender and migration, and she has conducted research in both the global South (Botswana and South Africa) and North (London).

Her most recent research focuses upon the role and experiences of low paid migrant workers in London. A collaborative project with colleagues at Queen Mary, Global Cities at Work, has explored the changing nature, politics and sensibility of work in global cities like London; how and why ‘new’ migrants have come to dominate low-paid work here and the household strategies that they employ in order to survive. Kavita is also interested in geographies of finance, and specifically financial exclusion among low paid migrant workers. These interests are being developed in a project, Migrants and their Money, which adopts a holistic focus on migrant workers financial lives; links financial histories to practises and identifies the key challenges that diverse migrant communities in London face in accessing financial services.

This research builds upon her broader interests which has included work on issues relating to rental and home ownership housing markets; the role of housing finance in resolving the housing crisis in the global South; and the links between formal and micro-finance. Gender remains a critical focus of Kavita’s research and her work has focused specifically on gendered access to housing markets and migration processes as well as men and masculinities. She has also explored the interconnections between generation and gender in the context of the HIV/AIDS crisis in Southern Africa.

Kavita’s research has been funded by the ESRC, Friends Provident, Department for International Development (DfID), Nuffield Foundation, and Central London Research Fund. She has worked as a consultant for the United Nations Centre for Human Settlement (UNHCS).

See more about Kavita’s work on the Global Cities at Work page

Publications:

Books

Wills, J., Datta, K., Evans, Y., Herbert, J., May, J.,and McIlwaine, C. (2010) Global cities at work: Migrant labour in an uneven world. London: Pluto.

Datta, K. and Jones, G.A. (1999) Housing and Finance in Developing Countries. Routledge, London.

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

  • Datta, K., McIlwaine, C., Evans, Y., Herbert, J., May, J. and Wills, J. (2010) A migrant ethic of care? Negotiating care and caring among migrant workers in London’s low pay economy, Feminist Review
  • Wills, J., McIlwaine, C., Datta, K.,, May, J., Herbert, J. and Evans, Y. (2010) New Migrant Divisions of Labour in N. Coe and A. Jones (eds) The Economic Geography of the UK. London: Sage.
  • Wills J., Datta, K., May, J., McIlwaine, C., Evans, Y. and Herbert, J. (2010) (Im)migration, local regional and uneven development, in A. Pike, A Rodriguez-Pose and J. Tomaney (eds) Routledge Handbook of Local and Regional Development. London: Routledge.
  • Datta, K. (2009) Risky migrants? Low paid migrant workers coping with financial exclusion in London, European Urban and Regional Studies, 16 (4): 331–344.
  • Datta, K., (2009) The trust gap, European Voice.com
  • Datta, K. (2009) Transforming South-North relations? International migration and development Geography Compass. pp.1–34.
  • Wills, J., Datta, K., Evans, Y., Herbert, J. May, J. and McIlwaine, C. (2009) Religion at work: The role of faith-based organisations in living wage campaigns for immigrant workers in London. Special issue entitled Transforming Work, The Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 1–19.
  • Wills, J., May, J., Datta, K., Evans, Y., Herbert, J. and McIlwaine C. (2009) London’s Migrant Division of Labour. European Urban and Regional Studies special issue on Regions and migration, 2009, 3: 257–271.
  • Datta, K., McIlwaine, C., Herbert, J., Evans, Y., May, J. and Wills, J. (2009) Men on the move: narratives of migration and work among low-paid migrant men in London. Social & Cultural Geography, 10 (8): 853–873.
  • May, J., Datta, K., Evans, Y., Herbert, J., McIlwaine, C. and Wills, J. (2008) Travelling neoliberalism: Polish and Ghanaian migrant workers in London, in Smith, A., Stenning, A. and Willis, K. (eds) Social Justice and Neoliberalism: Global perspectives. London: Zed Books.
  • Herbert, J., May, J., Wills, J, Datta, K., Evans, Y. and McIlwaine, C. (2008) Multicultural living? Experiences of everyday racism amongst Ghanaian migrants in London, European Urban and Regional Studies, 15 (2) pp. 103-117.
  • Evans, Y., Wills, J., Datta, K., Herbert, J., McIlwaine, C. and May, J. (2007) “Subcontracting by Stealth” in London’s hotels: impacts and implications for labour organising. Just Labor: A Canadian Journal of Work and Society, 10, 85–97. (Published online: www.justlabor.yorku.ca/)
  • Datta, K., (2007) Sons and fathers: Changing constructions of fatherhood in urban Botswana. Women’s Studies International Forum, Volume 30 (2), pp. 97-113.
  • Datta K. (2007) In search of justice? Gender and generation in a globalizing world in Mapetla, M.; Schlyter, A. and Bless, B. (eds) Urban Experiences of Gender, Generation and Social Justice. Institute of Southern African Studies, National University of Lesotho, Pages19-44.
  • Datta, K., McIlwaine, C.J., Wills, J.; Evans, Y., Herbert and J., May (2007) The new development finance or exploiting migrant labour? Remittance sending among low-paid migrant workers in London. International Development Planning Review. Vol 29 (1): 43-67.
  • Datta, K., McIlwaine, C.J., Evans, Y., Herbert, J., May, J. and Wills, J. (2007) From coping strategies to tactics: London’s low-pay economy and migrant labour. British Journal of Industrial Relations. 45 (2): 409-438.
  • May, J., Wills, J., Datta, K., Evans, Y., Herbert, J. and McIlwaine, C.J. (2007) Keeping London working: Global cities, the British state and London’s migrant division of labour. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 32: 151-167
  • Datta, K. (2007) Gender and micro-finance, Habitat Debate. Special issue on Financing for the Urban Poor, 13 (1): 8.
  • Datta, K. (2007) Housing, Finance and Development. Report for the UNHCS.
  • Datta, K. (2007) Money matters: exploring financial exclusion among low paid migrant workers in London. Working Paper, Department of Geography, Queen Mary, University of London.
  • C.J. McIlwaine, C.J. and Datta, K. (2004) ‘Endangered youth? Youth, gender and sexualities in urban Botswana.’, Gender, Place and Culture, 11 (4): 483-512.
  • Datta, K. (2004) ‘A coming of age? From WID to GAD to ‘add-men-and-stir’ in urban Botswana,’ Journal of Southern African Studies, 30 (2): 271-288.
  • C.J. McIlwaine, C.J. and Datta, K. (2003) ‘From feminising to engendering development,’ Gender, Place and Culture, 10 (4): 369-382.
  • Datta, K. and Jones, G.A. (2001) ‘Housing and finance in developing countries: invisible issues on the new agenda,’ Habitat International, 25: 333-357.
  • Jones, G.A. and Datta, K. (2000) ‘Enabling markets to work: how close is South Africa to best practice?’ International Planning Review 5 (3): 393-416.