The Political Lives of Information

How the definition, production, and leveraging of information are shaped by caste, class, and gender, and the implications for development.

Information, says Janaki Srinivasan, has fundamentally reshaped development discourse and practice. In this study, she examines the history of the idea of “information” and its political implications for poverty alleviation. She presents three cases in 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—to explore three uses of information to support goals of social change. Countering claims that information is naturally and universally empowering, Srinivasan shows how the definition, production, and leveraging of information are shaped by caste, class, and gender.

Srinivasan draws on archival and ethnographic research to challenge the idea of information as objective and factual. Using the concept of an “information order,” she examines how the meaning and value of information reflect the social relations in which it is embedded. She asks why casting information as a tool of development and solution to poverty appeals to actors across the political spectrum. She also shows how the power to label some things information and others not is at least as significant as the capacity to subsequently produce, access, and leverage information. The more faith we place in what information can do, she cautions, the less attention we pay to its political lives and to the role of specific social structures, individual agency, and material form in the defining, production, and use of that information.List of Figures vii
Abbreviations and Acronyms in the Text ix
Terms for Information and Related Concepts in Indian Languages xi
Maps of Fieldwork Regions xiii
Acknowledgments xvii
1 The Power of Information 1
2 Of Frameworks, Methods, and Sites 23
3 Framing Information: Origins and Conceptions 35
4 Politics Denied: Constructing Efficient Markets with Mobile Phones and Price Information 61
5 Politics Bracketed: Crafting Informed Citizens at Village Information Centers 87
6 Politics Made Explicit: Creating an Accountable State with Right to Information Campaigns 113
7 Understanding Information with Information Orders 141
8 The Political Lives of Information 159
Appendix 1: Announcements at Kilipet VKC 173
Notes on Sources 179
Notes on Anonymizing and Pseudonyms 181
Notes 183
References 221
Index 239“Srinivasan provides a convincing demonstration that information, far from a neutral decision-making tool, is saturated with politics. With governments relying increasingly on data-driven algorithms to make policy, her book could not be more timely or essential.”
—Vincent Mosco, Queen’s University, author of The Smart City in a Digital World
 
"A must-read for anyone who hopes that information is inherently valuable.  Srinivasan analyzes information beyond ideology, showing us that sometimes information is useless and yet at other times it can be powerful enough to influence politics.”
—Lilly Irani, Associate Professor, UC San Diego, author of Chasing Innovation: Making Entrepreneurial Citizens in Modern IndiaJanaki Srinivasan is Associate Professor at the International Institute of Information Technology, in Bangalore, India.