Dear All,

We are happy to announce the November edition of the Critical Computing seminar series. This month Dr. Janaki Srinivasan, Associate Professor at the International Institute of Technology Bangalore, will present a talk about their book: “The Political Lives of Information: Information and the Production of Development in India”, on Wednesday, November 30, 10am to 11:30am EST.

We invite you all to join the seminar. Please check the following link for more details about the seminar:  https://sites.google.com/view/uoft-critical-computing/seminar-series/janaki-srinivasan. The registration link is at: http://tinyurl.com/JanakiSrinivasan

I have appended the seminar details at the bottom of this email. Please feel free to forward this invitation to anyone interested (within and outside UofT).

We look forward to seeing you all at the seminar.

Best Regards,

Priyank Chandra (On behalf of the Organizers)

Assistant Professor

Faculty of Information

University of Toronto

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

Janaki Srinivasan, Associate Professor, International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB), India

Website: https://janakisrinivasan.wordpress.com/

Twitter: @ janasrin

Time: November 30, 10am to 11:30am EST

Abstract: Information has fundamentally reshaped development discourse and practice. This talk will examine the political implications of the idea of information for poverty alleviation. Drawing on ethnographic and archival research on three cases from India—the circulation of price information in a fish market in Kerala, the provision of government information in computer 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 production and leveraging of information -- and its very definition -- are shaped by caste, class, and gender.

Bio: Janaki Srinivasan is Associate Professor, International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB), and the convenor of the Institute’s Centre for Information Technology and Public Policy (CITAPP). Her research examines the politics of information technology-based development. Her work has shown how gender, class and caste shape Indian digital inclusion initiatives focussed on community computer centres, mobile phones, identity systems and open information systems. Currently, she is exploring privacy, algorithmic control and fairness in platform work. Janaki earned her PhD in Information Management and Systems from the University of California Berkeley. The Political Lives of Information is her first book.