Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · 22d

To be fair, Coates wrote this piece because very few others who could do it, did. I see this as basic truth telling with journalist skills that others refused to employ.

1

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · 23d

Note: the above article piece is not completely about our research but includes some aspects and link to it. There are things here that do not completely reflect our position -

Link to our original paper here - doi.org/10.1177/1024...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

doi.org

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · 23d

🚨 Our research on unions and organising in India's platform society covered in the media, for which both me and my co-author @islandexpress.bsky.social were also interviewed:

"Why unions find it hard to forge worker solidarity in the platform economy".

behanbox.com/2025/09/05/w...

Why Unions Find It Hard To Forge Worker Solidarity In Platform Companies

In the platform economy, time is scarce, worker interactions are discouraged, and protests met with punishment. The idea of both union and unity are threatened

behanbox.com

1 1 6

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · Jun 13

sounds good! will look forward.

1

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · Jun 13

Thanks Lin! Excited to see the special issue(s) coming out.
I really wanted to attend the GCEG but had to pull out.The sessions looked great. Will love to do more work on innovation/tech development and leapfrogging in/from the global South. Be in touch :)

1 1

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · Jun 13

#leapfrogging #digitalAsia #politicaleconomy #services-led-development, #growthmodels #Asiandevelopmentmodels

Reposted by Aditya Ray

Josh Spero @joshspero.ft.com · Jun 12

You wait years for a headline like this on.ft.com/3Tmw16o

Poundland sold for less than £1

[FREE TO READ] US private equity group Gordon Brothers acquires struggling discount retailer ahead of restructuring plan

on.ft.com

1 13 43

Reposted by Aditya Ray

Lin Zhang @linzhang.bsky.social · Jun 9

Please check out @adiray.bsky.social's very timely piece proposing a post colonial critical political economy approach to studying platforms and digital technologies, contesting the Asian developmental model of leapfrogging. Another wonderful article from our social media+society special issue.

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · Jun 9

Interrogating Technological Leapfrogging in Asian Development and Growth Models.

Happey to see this piece out in Social Media + Society!

Began life as 20K draft (another story..), with nudging I shaped part of it into a conceptual intervention. Open access 🔗 doi.org/10.1177/2056...

1 2 4

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · Jun 9

I will be expanding on this work in the future from a more empirical national historical perspective of India's (digital) tech development. Promise I have it wirtten already 😂

1

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · Jun 9

Published in the special issue Platform Economies in Digital Asia thanks to @elainejyuan.bsky.social & @linzhang.bsky.social, who persisted.

1 1

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · Jun 9

📌 "Conjunctural thinking" Shifts emerge from crisis, contingency, and agency

Rather than another grand model, CPPE is a decolonizing analytical praxis.

Give it a read:
🔗 doi.org/10.1177/2056...
#CPPE #DigitalAsia #CriticalGeography #PostcolonialStudies #TechPolitics #DevTheory

Interrogating Technological Leapfrogging in Asian Development and Growth Models: Toward a Critical Postcolonial Political Economy Approach - Aditya Ray, 2025

This article examines the discourse of technological leapfrogging within dominant Asian development models—namely, the earlier manufacturing-led development (ML...

doi.org

1

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · Jun 9

CPPE pivots on three core concepts:

📌 "Social blocs" - Tech development is shaped by shifting coalitions of state- society actors
📌 "Plural temporalities" Instead of linear stages, CPPE sees overlapping historical-political rhythms

&...

1

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · Jun 9

To challenge these assumptions, I propose Critical Postcolonial Political Economy (CPPE) approach.
A pluralist confluence of known frames in:

- Critical political economy
- Postcolonial / heterdox economic geographies
- Conjunctural analysis

1

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · Jun 9

Enter postcolonial critique: e.g. Raghuram et al. 2013 Chakravartty (2004), Jazeel (2019) etc. who show development outcomes are ongoing shaped by uneven social and spatial power relations, but also resistance (agency), contingency, crisis and coalitions or social blocs.

1

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · Jun 9

Growth models presume linear, teleological, technocratic progress, undermining asymmetric regional integration,histories & socio-political contestations that continously shape tech transformations. Developmental models essentialize state (&society) ignoring contested alliances/ subaltern agency.

1

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · Jun 9

The piece challenges mainstream models framing Asia’s rise through familiar lens: tech-led growth, rational institutions, state-managed 🌏 integration ("Asian Miracle”, “Asian Century”). Instead it foregrounds conflict contradictions, context in how tech leapfrogging is imagined, governed, resisted.

1

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · Jun 9

Interrogating Technological Leapfrogging in Asian Development and Growth Models.

Happey to see this piece out in Social Media + Society!

Began life as 20K draft (another story..), with nudging I shaped part of it into a conceptual intervention. Open access 🔗 doi.org/10.1177/2056...

2 6

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · Jun 6

Yup the blunders within the show and bluster was all too visible.

Nick Bednar @nicholasbednar.bsky.social · Jun 6

This article is rather strong evidence of what many of us have feared: They broke the agencies and need to rehire. (Some don't even have people to process payroll.) But a significant number of former employees have found new jobs or refuse to return. For those who return, morale is terrible.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · Jun 6

Across the government, the Trump administration is scrambling to rehire many federal employees dismissed under DOGE’s staff-slashing initiatives after wiping out entire offices, in some cases imperiling key services such as weather forecasting and the drug approval process.

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · Jun 5

Musk vs Trump (X vs TS)

3

Reposted by Aditya Ray

AI Now Institute @ainowinstitute.bsky.social · Jun 3

NEW REPORT: Artificial Power, our 2025 Landscape Report, is out.

Today’s AI isn’t just being used by us, it’s being used on us. We urgently need to reclaim public power over the future trajectory of AI. Another path is possible.

Read the report: ainowinstitute.org/2025-landscape

12 160 360

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · Jun 4

could be of interest... @pcc-global.bsky.social @platformsnsociety.bsky.social @karengregory.bsky.social @towardsfairwork.bsky.social

1 1

Reposted by Aditya Ray

Alex Wood @alexjwoodsociology.bsky.social · Jun 3

Our article "Beyond the ‘Gig Economy’: Towards Variable Experiences of Job Quality in Platform Work" has been published by 'Work, Employment and Society'. With Nick Martindale and @brendanburchell.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1177/0950...

1 9 16

Reposted by Aditya Ray

Karen Gregory @karengregory.bsky.social · May 24

Very much looking forward to this talk from @wstronge.bsky.social on June 2nd in @uoe-sps.bsky.social

Space, service and identity: thinking through a progressive vision of work
June 2nd 2:30

5 12

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · May 22

Thanks @floriangrant.bsky.social for the engagement. Good to connect. We have focussed on informal labour organising in context of india gig economy movements quite directly - tracing back to other informal workers movements in India and globally (like WIEGO) - would be good to have reflections.

3

Aditya Ray @adiray.bsky.social · May 22

Follow the co-author of the paper and collaborator - Aju @islandexpress.bsky.social

2