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

这是一项科学与技术研究论文改进基金。该项目是在全球资本主义的背景下考察印度最近信息技术(IT)发展所产生的社会文化影响。赠款的资金将用于购买一些设备，以及与班加罗尔和新德里的旅行和住房有关的费用。研究人员将探索IT作为技术理性的一种形式是如何与其代理人(专业人士和企业家)和印度政府处于辩证关系及其影响的。这项研究预计将展示西方技术理性和传统生活方式是如何相互构成的。该项目将以在南部卡纳塔克邦班加罗尔市两个地点进行的历时12个月的人种学实地工作为基础：软件开发和咨询公司印孚瑟斯技术有限公司和卡纳塔克邦政府信息技术部。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(NASSCOM)总部的合作。所涉及的研究方法包括商业交易和技术工作层面的参与者观察、制定国家IT行业政策的政治辩论、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发布的和内部官方文件的分析。该项目将提供关于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构成和后殖民国家的作用将是重要的。

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.