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

这是一项科学技术研究论文改进资助。该项目是在全球资本主义背景下对印度信息技术（IT）近期增长的社会文化影响的研究。赠款的资金将用于购买一些设备以及在班加罗尔和新德里旅行和住房的相关费用。研究人员将探讨IT作为技术理性的一种形式是如何与它的代理人（专业人士和企业家）和印度政府及其影响形成辩证关系的。该研究旨在揭示西方技术理性与传统生活方式是如何相互构成的。该项目将基于在南部卡纳塔克邦班加罗尔市的两个地点进行的为期12个月的民族志实地调查：印孚瑟斯技术有限公司（一家软件开发和咨询公司）和卡纳塔克邦政府IT部。这项研究的一部分还涉及到与位于新德里的全国软件和服务公司协会（NASSCOM）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的参与性观察，跟踪制定国家信息技术部门政策的政治辩论，开放式访谈，档案工作以及对印孚瑟斯技术有限公司，IT部和NASSCOM的公开和内部官方文件的分析。该项目将为技术的社会文化构成的具体案例提供有价值的信息，这对于理解类似的社会历史形态和后殖民国家的作用非常重要。

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.