Papers by Anita Gurumurthy
CDS Thiruvananthpuram, 2018
IT for Change, 2018
| This is the first piece in a series of issue papers that traces the contours of a feminist deve... more | This is the first piece in a series of issue papers that traces the contours of a feminist development agenda for the digital economy.
IT for Change, 2018
This report compiles emerging reflections and insights from the
research project ‘Policy framewor... more This report compiles emerging reflections and insights from the
research project ‘Policy frameworks for digital platforms - Moving from
openness to inclusion’. The project seeks to explore and articulate
institutional-legal arrangements that are adequate to a future economy
that best serves the ideas of development justice.This work is drawn
from preliminary research being undertaken by an interdisciplinary
research network from the global South and North. The initiative is led
by IT for Change, India, and supported by the International
Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada.
Global Media and Communication, 2018
The future of human society and its radical reorganization is contingent upon how the right to cu... more The future of human society and its radical reorganization is contingent upon how the right to cultural autonomy and cognitive justice can be realized. Definitions of social progress must therefore pay close attention to the contradictions of contemporary information–communication structures. Our datafied subject positions need to be unpacked for an understanding of why privacy is a social, and not just individual, concern. The proprietization of social interactions data and marketization of digital intelligence exhort a critical examination not only of data practices but also of data ownership. Also, the contemporary public sphere seems to promote voice, but without agency. To participate, therefore, does not seem to necessarily imply political equality. An urgent reorientation of technology governance – away from the rhetoric of openness and transparency and towards citizen accountability – is needed. Institutional norms for the digital age must explore commons-based ownership frameworks for data and promote the conditions where free expression is seen as the ability of communities to self-define their ideas of social, cultural, economic and political progress.
In the current moment of democratic upheaval, the role of technology has been gaining increasing ... more In the current moment of democratic upheaval, the role of technology has been gaining increasing space in the democratic debate due to its role both in facilitating political debates, as well as how users' data is gathered and used. This article aims to discuss the relationship between democracy and the " algorithmic turn " – which the authors define as the " central and strategic role of data processing and automated reasoning in electoral processes, governance and decision making. " In doing so the authors help us understand how this phenomenon is influencing society – both positively and negatively – and what are the practical implications we see as a result.
This research paper seeks to analyse Digital India from a gender perspective, evaluating its impl... more This research paper seeks to analyse Digital India from a gender perspective, evaluating its implications for women’s empowerment and gender equality. Digital India, as acommonplace terminology has attained the status of a boundary object: a concept that is highly plastic, allowing diverse interpretations, but still recognisable to actors from very
different socio-structural locations for a certain common core. In the different discursive universes of public policy, political performance and mainstream public debate, the idea of Digital India occurs frequently. For policymakers, it is a flagship programme; for members of the political class, it is emblematic of a resurgent Indian nation that is transforming into a powerhouse in the global digital economy; while for citizens, it may
be an aspirational ideal of upward social mobility or a paradigm shift in transacting with the state.
An uncritical, bandwagon approach to policy and practice has, unfortunately, upstaged deeper expl... more An uncritical, bandwagon approach to policy and practice has, unfortunately, upstaged deeper explorations that connect the social theories of ICTs with the experience and values of development. This essay critiques the afªnity the ICTD discourse holds for technodeterminism and neoliberalism. It is largely based on what was originally a reºective input into the Harvard Forum II on ICTs, a stock-taking exercise about ICTD that also examined possible directions for the future. It draws mainly from the Indian context, which is not only home to many an experiment in ICTD, but is also a relevant case study for discussions around poverty and human development, topics that were in focus at the Harvard Forum II.
In order to protect the right to privacy, we must have legislation for the material design of our... more In order to protect the right to privacy, we must have legislation for the material design of our digital services.
The paper examines the recent Free Basics controversy in India, which triggered a national level ... more The paper examines the recent Free Basics controversy in India, which triggered a national level policy debate on the appropriate regulatory response to differential pricing of data services, employing the theoretical framework of 'ideology in practice'. Unpacking 'openness' in design, 'inclusion' in provisioning and 'empowerment' in use as contested concepts in the policy process, the paper demonstrates a paradoxical conflation of oppositional interpretations of access. Tracing the material-discursive practices of actors in the debate and scrutinising everyday practices of the internet for their moral claims, the paper examines if and how hegemonic discourses of economic globalisation are challenged, and alternative meanings of the internet etched in contemporary political agenda on internet governance in India.
DOI: 10.14763/2016.3.431
This article is a feminist commentary on India's national digital agenda in the current political... more This article is a feminist commentary on India's national digital agenda in the current political context. The analysis pursues three main policy strands—social welfare, democracy, and economic growth, unpacking the meta-narrative of technology, gender, and development that characterizes the particular complexion of authoritarian neoliberalism reconstituting Indian democracy in digital times. The Indian case, the article submits, is reflective of the contemporary digital moment, not only marked by the evisceration of the transformative content of gender politics, but also constitutive of it. Under the circumstances, it is imperative to produce alternative feminist imaginaries of social, political, and economic discourse nationally and globally.
Published by: Penn State University Press
DOI: 10.5325/jinfopoli.6.2016.0371
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jinfopoli.6.2016.0371
Page Count: 32
he history of feminist engagement with digital technologies highlights one key takeaway: the need... more he history of feminist engagement with digital technologies highlights one key takeaway: the need to integrate gender justice and economic justice concerns in feminist political action. The vision of the internet as an enabler of the range of social, economic, cultural and political rights of women and gender minorities, individually and collectively, cannot be actualised in the absence of recognition of their right to communicate -to the agency it bestows, and the structures it contains. The history of the right to communicate reveals the contestation between powerful status quoist forces and those who seek transformative, global change for justice and equality.
hrough a feminist lens that brings together economic justice and gender justice concerns, this pa... more hrough a feminist lens that brings together economic justice and gender justice concerns, this paper traces the key elements of the right to access, right to knowledge and right to development in the network society context. It highlights how this three-pronged approach to scoping the "right to communicate" can serve as a guiding framework for feminist analysis and action at the intersections of gender, digital technologies and development. It also * anita Gurumurthy is deeply interested in conversations between feminist theory and practice. In her work at IT for Change, she engages with ideas on development, rights and the network society. Nandini Chami is a senior researcher with IT for Change, with a keen interest in the political economy of women's rights in the information society.
At current rates of diffusion, it is anticipated that mobile connectivity will cover the planet b... more At current rates of diffusion, it is anticipated that mobile connectivity will cover the planet by 2025. Network darkness will be a thing of the past. Then what? Personalisation software could take over our selves -desires, fears and secrets? The cloud may rule us from above? And Face Book would probably own more drones than military establishments do?
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Papers by Anita Gurumurthy
research project ‘Policy frameworks for digital platforms - Moving from
openness to inclusion’. The project seeks to explore and articulate
institutional-legal arrangements that are adequate to a future economy
that best serves the ideas of development justice.This work is drawn
from preliminary research being undertaken by an interdisciplinary
research network from the global South and North. The initiative is led
by IT for Change, India, and supported by the International
Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada.
different socio-structural locations for a certain common core. In the different discursive universes of public policy, political performance and mainstream public debate, the idea of Digital India occurs frequently. For policymakers, it is a flagship programme; for members of the political class, it is emblematic of a resurgent Indian nation that is transforming into a powerhouse in the global digital economy; while for citizens, it may
be an aspirational ideal of upward social mobility or a paradigm shift in transacting with the state.
DOI: 10.14763/2016.3.431
Published by: Penn State University Press
DOI: 10.5325/jinfopoli.6.2016.0371
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jinfopoli.6.2016.0371
Page Count: 32
research project ‘Policy frameworks for digital platforms - Moving from
openness to inclusion’. The project seeks to explore and articulate
institutional-legal arrangements that are adequate to a future economy
that best serves the ideas of development justice.This work is drawn
from preliminary research being undertaken by an interdisciplinary
research network from the global South and North. The initiative is led
by IT for Change, India, and supported by the International
Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada.
different socio-structural locations for a certain common core. In the different discursive universes of public policy, political performance and mainstream public debate, the idea of Digital India occurs frequently. For policymakers, it is a flagship programme; for members of the political class, it is emblematic of a resurgent Indian nation that is transforming into a powerhouse in the global digital economy; while for citizens, it may
be an aspirational ideal of upward social mobility or a paradigm shift in transacting with the state.
DOI: 10.14763/2016.3.431
Published by: Penn State University Press
DOI: 10.5325/jinfopoli.6.2016.0371
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jinfopoli.6.2016.0371
Page Count: 32