Ieva Zumbyte

Ieva Zumbyte holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Brown University and is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin. Her research focuses on how state, market, and family institutions and their interplay shape gender relations. Currently, she works on two main projects. First, she examines work-life balance policy implementation in Europe for the TransEuroWorks project funded by Horizon Europe (Transforming European Work and Social Protection – A New Proactive Welfare State Fit for The Future World of Work). Second, she is working on a book project, “Adapted Delivery: How Childcare Workers and Parents Produce Care in the Neighborhoods of Chennai”. Drawing on participant observations and over 200 interviews with teachers and parents in 15 neighborhoods in Chennai, India, the book examines how teachers differentiate childcare standards and quality to residents based on their class and caste distinctions. Adapted Delivery argues that the coupling of teachers’ professional identities with their perceptions of parents’ expectations and pressure leads to uneven childcare quality across neighborhoods. These findings offer a new theory of public service provision in settings with limited state capacity and highly segregated social spaces.