Dissertation Research: Technology and Postcolonial Belonging: A Study of Information Technology and the Indian Nation-State in the Context of Globalization

The New School, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

This is a Science and Technology Studies dissertation improvement grant. The project is an examination of the socio-cultural implications of the recent growth of Information Technology (IT) in India in the context of global capitalism. Funds from the grant will support some equipment purchases and expenses related to travel and housing in Bangalore and New Delhi. The researcher will explore how IT as a form of technological rationality is in a dialectical relationship with its agents (professionals and entrepreneurs) and the Indian state and its implications. The research is expected to show how western technological rationality and a traditional way of life constitute each other. The project will be based on an ethnographic fieldwork over 12 months conducted at two locations in the city of Bangalore situated in the southern state of Karnataka: Infosys Technologies Limited, a software development and consultation company and the IT Ministry of the Government of Karnataka. Part of this research also involves work with the headquarters of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) located in New Delhi. The research methods involved are participant observation at the levels of business transactions and technical work, following political debates framing state policies on the IT sector, open-ended interviews, archival work, and analyses of published and internal official documents of Infosys Technologies Limited, the IT Ministry and NASSCOM. This project will provide valuable information on a specific case of socio-cultural constitution of technology that will be important to understand similar socio-historical formations and the role of the postcolonial state.