Guest Speaker - Dr. Janaki Srinivasan

“The Political Lives of Information: Information and the Production of Development in India”

Abstract

Information has fundamentally reshaped development discourse and practice. This talk will examine the political implications ofthe ideaof informationfor poverty alleviation. Drawing on ethnographic and archival research on threecases from India—the circulation of price information in a fish market in Kerala, government information in information kiosks operated by a nonprofit in Puducherry, and a political campaign demanding a right to information in Rajasthan—the talk will counter claims that information is naturally and universally empowering. It will demonstrate, instead, how the definition, production, and leveraging of information are alwaysbeen shapedby caste, class, and gender.

Bio

Janaki Srinivasan is associate professor at the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB) and the convenerof the Institute’s Centre for Information Technology and Public Policy (CITAPP). Her research examines the politics of information technology-based development. Currently, she is exploring privacy, algorithmic control and fairness in platform work. Janaki earned her Ph.D. from the UC Berkeley School of Information.