About
Darja's research connects the economic, social and digital, and is particularly concerned with new locations and forms of working and doing business that are emerging through new technologies, economic restructuring and social change (homeworking, home-based businesses, digital platforms, coworking spaces and the gig economy). In interdisciplinary projects, she has studied the changing spatial and social boundaries of work in the context of urban and digital transformations and how this has reshaped spaces of economic activities. She has organised international seminars funded by the Urban Studies Foundation and the UK Economic and Social Research Council and co-edited books to facilitate new interdisciplinary insights into economic activities in cities challenging some conventional knowledge of gender inequality, workplaces and commutes, clustering and spatial proximity.
Research
Research groups
Research interests
- Economic Geography
- Employment, work and self-employment
- Cities, neighbourhoods and housing
Current research
I am currently researching worker wellbeing and the impact of the pandemic on workers, specifically the self-employed and how people adopted to work at home. My research concerns the quality of work and productivity at individual-level but also economic impact and prosperity at regional level.
Research projects
Completed projects
Publications
Supervision
Current PhD Students
Teaching
My teaching interests cut across sub-disciplines of Human Geography. I am currently teaching Economic Geography and Quantitative Methods. I use secondary data in my teaching and try to encourage students to use, analyse and present social data.
External roles and responsibilities
Biography
Economic Geography
Employment, work, self-employment
Cities, neighbourhoods, housing
Prizes
- Best Thesis Award, TU Dortmund (2009)