Icts and Development in India: Perspectives on the Rural Network Society

ICTs and Development in India provides a critical account of the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in development projects in India, focusing particularly on e-governance and ICT development programmes initiated by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). T. T. Sreekumar challenges the conventional wisdom concerning the potential of ICTs to provide unprecedented social and economic opportunities for vulnerable and marginalized groups, highlighting their failure to bridge social divides. He argues that in addition to reinforcing existing social differences, the patterns of ICT deployment and control have in certain cases created new divisions. Given such tensions and contradictions, ICTs and Development in India questions whether it is appropriate to consider civil society as an independent realm of social action, separate from that of the state and market.

Sreekumar offers a fresh perspective on the social impact of new technologies in rural areas, especially in terms of his methods, analytics and approach. His recognition of the shortcomings of CSO initiatives plays an important part in redefining the role of civil society and understanding its fractured relations with the state and market. Sreekumar therefore creates a powerful critique of the present interpretation of agency and the structure of rural transformation as mediated by new technologies in the context of India's social and economic transition.

T. T. Sreekumar is Assistant Professor at the Department of Communications and New Media at the National University of Singapore. His research interests focus on the social impact of ICTs, the impact of mobile phones in developing countries, and the social impacts of tourism, civil society and new social movements and youth techno-culture in Asia.