Dissertation Research: Understanding Technical Interventions to Improve Sanitation in Cities of India: A Technology Studies Perspective

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY

Investigators

Abstract

This Science and Society Dissertation Improvement Grant will support the gathering of empirical data in order to contribute to the literatures on expertise and urban infrastructures within Science and Technology studies (STS) through a study of the efforts to improve sanitation services within squatter settlements in urban India. The study will improve our understanding of technological expertise and contribute to the efforts of sanitary engineers and urban environmental policy makers to transform poorer cities into more inclusive and sustainable places. The research project has three main objectives: to assess the effectiveness of some recent sanitation interventions in squatter settlements in India in the context of a pervasive neglect of the issue; to understand how technical experts can best work with non-governmental organizations and the urban poor through deliberative and inclusive processes; and to improve the functioning of sanitary infrastructure in squatter settlements in urban India. The central research questions closely follow the study's objectives and research methodology. First, what is the relative effectiveness of contemporary sanitary efforts in squatter settlements in the context of a pervasive politics of insanitation? Second, what is the nature of interaction among users, NGO organizations, and municipal technical experts in creating more participatory and just sanitary infrastructures? Third, what general lessons does this study provide to improving sanitation infrastructures and engineering curriculum? The research project will have two components. The first part will analyze existing documents for four cases that represent the range of public sanitation system options in India: Nirmala pay-and-use toilets in Bangalore; the Slum Networking Project implemented in Ahmedabad; innovations initiated by the public utility in Bangalore; and a community driven toilet block in Pune. The analysis will compare the efforts to determine which interventions best actualize a positive politics of sanitation. The second stage will examine in detail the selected efforts to understand how the interaction among experts, users and intermediaries creates a culturally located space of technological change called the technological recess. The technological recess is examined through an empirical study of community-involved sanitation efforts at three sites selected to reflect three different technical approaches to meeting sanitation needs. The study will employ a combination of semi-structured interviews and direct observations to gather empirical data. NSF funding will support data gathering in India through interviews. Approximately 45 semi-structured interviews will be conducted of users, intermediaries, and expert groups. Two major intellectual contributions are envisaged in this study. The primary contribution is to understand the mechanics and means for transforming the ingrained structures of technical expertise in society by constituting the technological recess as a space for interaction among users, experts and intermediaries. The secondary aim of this study is to contribute to the technology studies literature on expertise and large technical systems by examining the linkages of the transformations within the technological recess to efforts by users in the recess to improve the inclusivity of city-wide infrastructure systems. The broader impact of the study centers on improving the practice of sanitation at an urban scale among desperately poor people in a developing country like India. A secondary impact of this study will be to grasp how engineering pedagogy can be altered to incorporate within it a positive politics. A final societal relevance of this study will be to recommend how policies for technological development for social infrastructures need to be socially situated.