Dear Colleagues,

We have a very interesting (online) talk next week by Rajesh Verraraghavan on his new book, “*Patching Development: Information Politics and Social Change in India*”, on *Wednesday, April 27, 2pm to 3:30pm EST. *

Please find the details below to register for the talk.

Best Regards, Ishtiaque

== Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science Faculty Fellow, Schwartz Reisman Institute https://www.torontosri.ca/ The University of Toronto Program Committee Chair, ICTD 2022 https://ictd.org/ictd2022/

Bahen Centre for Information Technology, Room 5262 Saint George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4, Canada Ph: +1 647 220 3482 web: https://www.ishtiaque.net/ My Availability: Google Calendar Link https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ishtiaque.uoft%40gmail.com&ctz=America%2FToronto&mode=WEEK ==

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Priyank Chandra priyank.chandra@utoronto.ca Date: Thu, Apr 21, 2022 at 10:59 AM Subject: Critical Computing Seminar (April 27): "Patching Development: Information Politics and Social Change in India" To: ISCHOOL-FAC-REG-L@LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA < ISCHOOL-FAC-REG-L@listserv.utoronto.ca> Cc: Ishtiaque Ahmed ishtiaque@cs.toronto.edu, Robert Soden < robert.soden@utoronto.ca>

Dear All,

We are happy to announce the *April* edition of the Critical Computing seminar series. This a monthly online seminar where we invite scholars to discuss topics in critical computing. The objective of the seminar is to create a broader understanding of computing from different ethical, social, and cultural perspectives. You will find more information about this seminar series and upcoming speakers by following the link: https://sites.google.com/view/uoft-critical-computing/seminar-series

This month (April, 2022), *Rajesh Veeraraghavan*, an assistant professor from Georgetown University will give a book talk “*Patching Development: Information Politics and Social Change in India*” on *Wednesday, April 27, 2pm to 3:30pm EST.*

We invite you all to join the seminar. Please check the following link for more details about the seminar at: https://sites.google.com/view/uoft-critical-computing/seminar-series/rajesh-.... The registration link is at: https://bit.ly/CCS_RajeshVeeraghavan

A flyer is also attached to this email, and 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

*Book Title: Patching Development: Information Politics and Social Change in India*

Rajesh Veeraghavan, Science, Technology and International Affairs, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

Website: www.rajeshveera.org

Twitter: @RajeshVeeraa

*Time:* 27 April, 2022 from 2 PM - 3.30 PM, EST

*Abstract: *

How can development programs deliver benefits to marginalized citizens in ways that expand their rights and freedoms? Political will and good policy design are critical but often insufficient due to resistance from entrenched local power systems. The book is an ethnography of one of the largest development programs in the world, the Indian National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), and examines in detail NREGA’s implementation in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It finds that the local system of power is extremely difficult to transform, not because of inertia, but because of coercive counter strategy from actors at the last mile and their ability to exploit information asymmetries. Upper-level NREGA bureaucrats in Andhra Pradesh do not possess the capacity to change the power axis through direct confrontation with local elites, but instead have relied on a continuous series of responses that react to local implementation and information, a process of patching development. Patching development is a top-down, fine-grained, iterative socio-technical process that makes local information about implementation visible through technology and enlists participation from marginalized citizens through social audits. These processes are neither neat nor orderly and have led to a contentious sphere where the exercise of power over documents, institutions and technology is intricate, fluid and highly situated. The book throws new light on the challenges and benefits of using information and technology in novel ways to implement development programs. While focused on one Indian state, the implications for increasing citizen participation and government transparency have global relevance.

*Bio:*

Rajesh Veeraraghavan's research combines bodies of scholarship and practice that come together in the field of Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICT4D), which embraces the ethos of marginalized citizen-centered design and applies it to global human development. He has leveraged his technical and sociological training to develop technology-enabled information interventions, employing a method that is half-participant observation, half-interventionist activism. First, he is interested in developing digital technology-enabled interventions to address inequality that respects the potential and limits of such designs within particular social contexts. Second, he is interested in critically examining the role of algorithms and technology and its potential harms for marginalized people. He seeks to engage in critique both through a sociological lens as well as constructive design using data and communicative technologies.

Veeraraghavan is currently an assistant professor in the Science Technology and International Affairs (STIA) Program at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University and was previously a Fellow at the Berkman Center at Harvard University. He consulted for the Gates Foundation and Open Society Foundation. Previously, he worked as an associate researcher at the Technology for Emerging Markets group at Microsoft Research, India. In his prior life, he was a software developer at Microsoft. He has a PhD from University of California, Berkeley’s School of Information, a master’s degree in computer science from Clemson University, a master’s degree in economics from Cleveland State University, and a bachelor’s degrees in economics and management from Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, India.