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

这是一个科学和技术研究论文改进补助金。 该项目是在全球资本主义的背景下，对印度信息技术（IT）最近增长的社会文化影响的研究。 赠款中的资金将用于支持在班加罗尔和新德里购买一些设备以及与旅行和住房有关的费用。 研究人员将探讨IT作为技术理性的一种形式，如何与其代理人（专业人士和企业家）和印度国家及其影响形成辩证关系。本研究旨在揭示西方的技术理性与传统生活方式是如何相互构成的。 该项目将以在位于南部卡纳塔克邦的班加罗尔市的两个地点进行的为期12个月的人种学实地考察为基础：Infosys技术有限公司，一家软件开发和咨询公司和卡纳塔克邦政府的信息技术部。这项研究的一部分还涉及与位于新德里的全国软件和服务公司协会总部的合作。所涉及的研究方法是在商业交易和技术工作层面上的参与观察，遵循制定国家IT部门政策的政治辩论，开放式访谈，档案工作以及对Infosys Technologies Limited，IT部和NASSCOM的出版和内部官方文件的分析。 该项目将提供有关技术的社会文化构成的具体案例的宝贵信息，这对于理解类似的社会历史形成和后殖民国家的作用至关重要。

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.