Ruchira Sen
"I was interested in coming to Estonia because the Tallinn University of Technology has one of the few heterodox social science departments that concentrate on thinking about social science from a technology perspective.
The DoRa 5 grant made it possible for me to work under Prof. Rainer Kattel at the Technology Governance faculty at the Department of Public Administration, TUT. Researching at the TG department helped me get a theoretical basis for my research. Studying at TUT was useful because it helped me get an idea about why India would like to pursue an export led growth strategy and why such a strategy is problemmatic from a technology perspective.
From classes with Prof. Erik Reinert, I learnt that specialising in low productivity activities with wage competition is hazardous as nations begin to specialise in remaining poor and that there is always an incentive to keep wages down. From classes with Prof. Jan Kregel, I learnt about the influence of unbridled capital flows into developing countries like India and how these influence policy.
At Tallinn, I was also privileged to attend seminars by other research scholars and to think and grow with them. I was able to develop an understanding of technology governance from classes with Prof. Carlota Perez who is famous for her theorisation of techno-economic paradigms as a way of looking at the world and Prof. Wolfgang Drechsler’s class took me through a theory of the State in Western political thought from Aristotle to Hegel.
On a personal level, I was really privileged to come to Europe. Estonia is a beautiful and a brave country with its strong spirit of survival and its inspiring infrastructure. I spent some happy hours wandering around museums at the Old Town, visiting the Opera and getting to know more about Estonia and its people. Thank you."
Ruchira Sen (Jawaharlal Nehru University, India), visiting PhD student (2011), DoRa 5 scolarship recipient.
