We Only Hack Electronics Now by Zeenath Hasan

SYNOPSIS
Since the enactment of the Right to Information Act 2005 in India, a vast number of information and communication technology based projects have been initiated in a well-meaning effort to extend this fundamental right to most levels of society. In meeting the categorical demand for transparency and accountability, these 'e-governance' projects deploy a logic of efficiency that relegates power to the 'E' thus rendering technology as benefactor to the practical ills of governance in practice. What consequences can be expected with a predominantly 'e'fficiency based value-rational in the context of the fundamental right to information? Zeenath Hasan, media researcher and practitioner, will present her work on the ambivalence of rationalities underlying the deployment of technology in governance based on field interviews she conducted with stakeholders of e-governance projects earlier this year in India and offer insights on instrumentality and the concept of the tool while reflecting on her own experience of working with alternative digital communities.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Zeenath Hasan is currently a research associate at I+I in LKYSPP (January to April 2010). Her research work interfaces technological materiality with sociological existence in the context of media design for social change. She is a PhD candidate in Media and Communication Studies at K3, Malmö University, Sweden where her doctoral tenure is funded by a five year scholarship from the Wahlgren Foundation. She has a masters degree in Communications from the Manipal Institute of Communication in Manipal, India and a masters of arts degree in New Media Studies from the Media Lab at the University of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland. Zeenath has over 8 years of experience as a corporate ethnographer having worked in China, Finland, Indonesia, India, Iran, West Africa, and Malaysia for multinational manufacturers of telecom products.