RESEARCH
My research focuses on the socialities around digital money and finance in India. In previous work, I have contrasted the broadness of the scope of digital money as it understood in India with how social ties shape its use in a variety of everyday contexts. I have also examined the institutional and market aspects of digital money, specifically the role of supply side actors during the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Apart from this, I have also explored the concept and varied dimensions of an emerging platform society. Here, I specifically examine the platform society from the perspective of economic sociology.
Journal Articles
Ray, Rajorshi and Jillet Sarah Sam. 2023. "Off-platform social networks and gig work during the COVID-19 pandemic in India." Journal of South Asian Development. 18(3): 359-382. Link
Sam, Jillet Sarah, Rajorshi Ray and Anwesha Chakraborty. 2022. “Digital payments on the agenda: How Indian actor groups framed cash and digital payments during the COVID-19 pandemic.” Asian Studies Review. Link
Gomes, Brian and Jillet Sarah Sam. 2022. “Care systems for community-dwelling elderly Anglo-Indians: Evidence from two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Calcutta.” International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies. 21(2): 4-26 Link
Sam, Jillet Sarah, Esposti, Piergiorgio Degli and Brian Gomes. 2021 . “The elderly collaborative user in platform societies – a comparative study between India and Italy.” Ocula. Link
Sam, Jillet Sarah and Anwesha Chakraborty. 2019. “Sense-making of digital money among female peripheral agents: a short ethnographic study of informal workers in North India.” Sociologia del Lavoro. 154 : 60-78 Link
Sam, Jillet Sarah. 2017. “Caste Diasporas beyond National Boundaries: Digital Caste Networks.” Perspectives on Global Development and Technology. 16 (1-3): 145-159 Link
Sam, Jillet Sarah. 2012. “Globalization and Layered Spaces: The Case of Hitec City in India.” Perspectives on Global Development and Technology. 11(4): 480-512 Link
Books
Sam, Jillet Sarah, Shriram Venkatraman and Rajorshi Ray. (forthcoming). An Introduction to Platform Economy in India: Exploring Relationality and Embeddedness. Series Title: Diverse Perspectives on Creating a Fairer Society. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Brolos, Annette, Erin Taylor, Shriram Venkatraman and Jillet Sarah Sam. (forthcoming). Digital Human Finance: Exploring Embeddedness, Inclusion, and Social Realities. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Special Issues
Sam, Jillet, Janaki Srinivasan and Anwesha Chakraborty. 2021. “Cashlessness in India: Vision, Policy and Practices.” Telecommunications Policy. 45(8):1-6 Link
Book Reviews
Sam, Jillet. 2020. “Book Review of Shoshana Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power.” Internet Histories. 4(2): 242-244 Link
Sam, Jillet. 2016. “Book Review of Christine Hine’s Ethnography for the Internet: Embedded, Embodied and Everyday.” International Sociology. 31(5): 621-623 Link
Grants and Fellowships
2024-2026: ICSSR Major Research Grant 2023-2024. PI. Grant Amount: INR 16,00,000
2022: Visiting Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Business Law, University of Bologna
2018-2019: FORMAS STINT Mobility Grant. (with Dr Anna Aberg (PI) and Dr Anwesha Chakraborty, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden)
2015-2020: Initiation Grant, IIT Kanpur. Grant Amount: INR 25,00,000
2012: Summer Research Fellowship, University of Maryland College Park
2008: Presidential Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Virginia (declined)
Research Projects
2024-2026: "Money cultures in the city: How do cities shape participation in blockchain based currencies?" ICSSR Major Research Grant 2023-2024. PI. Grant Amount: INR 16,00,000
2020-2022: “Evolution of Consumer Behaviour: The Impact of Digitalization and Cryptocurrency upon Consumption Practices, a Comparative study between Italy and India.”
Collaborator: Dr Piergiorgio Degli Esposti (University of Bologna, Italy)
2018-2019: Women and Monetary Digitzation in North India
FORMAS STINT Mobility Grant. Collaborators: Dr Anna Aberg and Dr Anwesha Chakraborty (Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden)
2015-2020: Women and Monetary Digitization in North India
PI, Initiation Grant, IIT Kanpur
2014- 2017: Assessing impact of tele-education on learning outcomes in rural schools of Karnataka.
with Dr G Naik (IIM Bangalore) and Dr Amit Prakash (CITAPP, IIIT Bangalore)
2011. Research Assistant to Dr Patricia Hill Collins, University of Maryland, College Park
2010. Associate Managing Editor. Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization.
2008- 2009. Research Assistant to Dr George Ritzer, University of Maryland, College Park
Projects
Spring 2009. Researching and editing of Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Continuity and Change in the Cathedrals of Consumption (ed 3). George Ritzer. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press.
Fall 2008. Researching and editing of McDonaldization: The Reader (ed 3). George Ritzer. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press.
Fall 2008. Researching and editing of Globalization: a Basic Text. George Ritzer. Malden, MA : Wiley-Blackwell.
2008. Field Research, Centre for Study of Indian Diaspora, University of Hyderabad. Project Title: “Familial Bonds of Indians in the United States: A study of visiting parents”.