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Books by Sandeep Mertia

Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2020

Theory on Demand #39 Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India Edited by Sand... more Theory on Demand #39
Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India
Edited by Sandeep Mertia
Foreword by Ravi Sundaram

Authors: Sandeep Mertia, Karl Mendonca, Sivakumar Arumugam, Ranjit Singh, Puthiya Purayil Sneha, Lilly Irani, Anumeha Yadav, Preeti Mudliar, Prerna Mukharya and Mahima Taneja, Guneet Narula, Gaurav Godhwani, Noopur Raval, Aakash Solanki, and Anirudh Raghavan.

This publication is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerrivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

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Reviews:
Chintan Girish Modi, Business Standard, 29 January 2021. “Data and the Indian State: A set of essays examines the interaction between the expansion of the digital economy and India’s socio-political framework.” https://www.business-standard.com/article/beyond-business/data-and-the-indian-state-121012901948_1.html

Nafis Hasan, The Wire, 06 February 2021. “Book Review: The Many Lives of Data in India: The book 'Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India', edited by Sandeep Mertia, delivers a fantastic range of meditations on how data lives, and how we, as individuals and collectives, are shaped by it.” https://thewire.in/books/book-review-the-many-lives-of-data-in-india

Vikas Pathe, “Book Review: Lives of Data (ed.) Sandeep Mertia.” Mainstream, Vol. LIX, No. 30, 10 July 2021, http://mainstreamweekly.net/article11184.html
Vikas Kumar, Book Review, “The Transition to Big Data in India.” Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 56, No. 47, 20 November 2021, https://www.epw.in/journal/2021/47/book-reviews/transition-big-data-india.html

Nimmi Rangaswamy, “Book review: Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India.” Online Information Review, Vol. 46 No. 3, 639-641. June 2022. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-06-2022-622

Kim Fernandes, “Review of Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India by Sandeep Mertia.” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 74-75, 1 April-June 2022, doi: 10.1109/MAHC.2022.3169868.

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Book talks and podcasts:

‘Lives of Data’ Book Launch and Discussion Panel with Jahnavi Phalkey, Nimmi Rangaswamy and Stefania Milan, Chaired by Ravi Sundaram, Sarai-CSDS, Delhi, 19 February 2021.

Technology / Society in Action, Alumni Lecture Series, DA-IICT Gandhinagar, 13 March 2021.

‘Lives of Data’ Book Discussion Panel with Sarah Sharma, Tong Lam and Marian Valverde, Chaired by Francis Cody, Asian Institute, University of Toronto, 09 April 2021.

‘Lives of Data’ Book Discussion Panel with Natasha Schüll, Ramesh Srinivasan and Sareeta Amrute, Chaired by Arjun Appadurai, New York University, 23 April 2021.

‘Lives of Data’ Book Discussion Panel with Jasmine Folz and Pradip N. Thomas, Chaired by Urvashi Aneja, Tandem Research Institute, Goa, 30 June 2021.

‘Lives of Data’ Book Discussion Podcast with Aakash Solanki, hosted by Noopur Raval, New Books Network – Science & Technology Studies, 05 July 2021. https://newbooksnetwork.com/lives-of-data

‘Lives of Data’ Book Discussion Podcast with Kathik Nachiappan, Lekh Review, 11 December 2021. https://lekhreview.com/2021/12/11/sandeep-mertia-lives-of-data/

Book Chapters by Sandeep Mertia

Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, 2016

English version of my essay on Open Data in India. It was translated to German and published by K... more English version of my essay on Open Data in India. It was translated to German and published by Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung as part of their collection on Open Data from an International Perspective, June 2016. URL: https://www.kas.de/en/single-title/-/content/open-data-aus-internationaler-perspektive
...
"Open Data aus internationaler Perspektive
Editor - Tobias Wangermann,
by
Patrick Bessler, Clémentine Desigaud, Emmanuel Garcia, Marcin Kaczmarczyk, Ronald U. Mendoza, Sandeep Mertia, Adil Morrison, Josh New, Dinita Andriani Putri, Raoul Sinner, Magnus Smidak, Fabro Steibel, Günther Tschabuschnig, Mario Viola, Tobias Wangermann
Länderberichte aus europäischen und asiatischen Ländern sowie den USA

Grundbaustein der Digitalisierung sind die Daten selbst. Ihre Anzahl, Qualität und der Zugang zu ihnen entscheiden darüber, welchen gesellschaftlichen Nutzen die digitale Transformation hervorbringen wird. Daten, die nicht personenbezogen sind oder anderen schutzwürdigen Belangen unterliegen, können als offene Daten (Open Data) bereitgestellt und von allen genutzt werden. Die Publikation bietet mit Berichten zum Stand von Open Data in zehn Staaten auf unterschiedlichen Kontinenten für Deutschland einen Referenzrahmen, zeigt alternative Wege auf, stellt Modelle vor und regt Fragestellungen an."

Teaching by Sandeep Mertia

This course gives students the conceptual tools to understand diverse technologies, media, and te... more This course gives students the conceptual tools to understand diverse technologies, media, and techniques in relation to their different historical, geo-political, and social contexts; their different infrastructures and experts; and their different designs and uses. Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have witnessed a dramatic increase in the use of digital technologies for remote work, education, health, and leisure in large parts of the world where they are accessible. How do we make sense of the difference between the "old" and the "new normal" of our technologically mediated lives? How should we examine the social significance of electricity-a 150+ year old technology and still inaccessible in large parts of the world-in relation with different engineering practices, political imperatives, electronic media devices, and infrastructures? How should we understand processes of technological "innovation" when users' creativity can seem as important as platform design? How do algorithms learn about us and vice versa?

To engage with these and other questions, we will draw upon some of the key concepts and debates at the intersections of Science and Technology Studies (STS), Media Studies, History, Anthropology, Information Science, and Software Studies. We will focus on different ways to understand how technology and media — mechanical, electronic, and digital — shapes and is shaped by cultural, political, and social values. Students will become acquainted with different conceptual approaches to understanding the interplay of technology and society (e.g. technological determinism, social construction of technology, actor networks, affordances) and how these have been applied to various media technologies.

In this course you will develop a critical understanding of the many historical, socio-cultural, ... more In this course you will develop a critical understanding of the many historical, socio-cultural, political economic, and techno-scientific dimensions of contemporary global computational cultures. Instead of taking a strictly chronological approach, we will traverse the history of computing by crisscrossing the official "timeline" of shrinking sizes or increasing functionalities of computers with non-linear genealogies of human-machine relations.

Examining a wide range of “revolutionary” technologies and discourses associated with modern computing from the late 19th century to the present, we will ask: a) what or who has been envisioned and operated as a “computer” at different moments, and how did it / they work? b) why is the study and development of computing (still) largely centered on the modern West? and c) how have new computational inventions and innovations emerged alongside various social and political shifts in the world in roughly the last hundred years?

Students will learn how to approach the interdisciplinary and intersectional histories of mechanical and electronic computing, colonialism, cybernetics, cold war, software programming, labor, race, caste, gender, internet, digital mediation, and automation.

Office location: 239 Greene St, room 236 Office hours: Tuesday 12-2pm or by appointment

Papers by Sandeep Mertia

The Fibreculture Journal, special issue on "Computing the City", 2017

As an imagination, the 'smart city' is rapidly becoming an integral part of our urban futures. Si... more As an imagination, the 'smart city' is rapidly becoming an integral part of our urban futures. Situated in the contemporary moment of 'data revolution' and India's techno-urban context, this paper is an attempt to reflect upon the socio-technical imaginaries of data-driven urbanism and the incumbent reconfigurations of how we know, experience and govern a city. The author provides ethnographic vignettes of five little traditions of data-driven urbanism in Delhi pertaining to: the new 'image of the city', the changing nature of expertise, civic data activism, data-driven consumer applications and political communication and analytics. Foregrounding the generative potentials of each of these socio-technical sites, the paper argues for a meta-analytics of data.

Economic & Political Weekly, Nov 25, 2017

Significant empirical gaps between the technocratic discourse and the grassroots experiences of t... more Significant empirical gaps between the technocratic discourse and the grassroots experiences of technology are exemplified by the growing usage of social and digital media in rural areas where Information and Communications Technologies for Development and e-governance pilot projects have failed to meet their goals. Based on an ethnographic study of information and communication technologies in two villages of Rajasthan, the paper aims to situate social and digital media in the complex rural society and media ecology using co-constructivist approaches. Focusing on context-sensitive meaning-making of ICTs, the paper seeks to contribute to an empirically sound discourse on media, technology and rural society in India.

Rural Education (by Midpoint Publishing and Nanjing University), ISSN 2200-2383, Jan 2015

India, which has the largest rural population and the second largest education system in the worl... more India, which has the largest rural population and the second largest education system in the world, is also one of the leading nations in investment in ICT4D. Technological optimism of ICT4D has stirred hopes for ICT based solutions to structural problems of rural education in India. ‘Digital Literacy’, in particular, is now considered essential for students in rural areas. However, emic meanings of digital literacy are largely unknown. Despite its vast developmental failures, ICT4D in India has enabled new socio-technical emergences, especially in rural areas. One such emergence is non-instrumental usage of ICTs, including educational technology, in rural areas. Contextual adoption and cultural appropriation of technology has led to new local meanings of digital literacy, which are yet to be studied. Based on a co-constructivist ethnographic case study of an ICT for education project in a remote village in Rajasthan, this paper aims to contribute to a grounded understanding of educational technology in rural areas.

'Lives of Data' Workshop by Sandeep Mertia

We are excited to announce the 'Lives of Data v2.0: Computing, Money, Media' Workshop, on 05-06 J... more We are excited to announce the 'Lives of Data v2.0: Computing, Money, Media' Workshop, on 05-06 January 2018.

The Sarai Programme organised the 'Lives of Data' workshop on 05-07 January 2017. The workshop br... more The Sarai Programme organised the 'Lives of Data' workshop on 05-07 January 2017. The workshop brought together a diverse group of interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners to reflect upon the historical and emergent conditions of data-driven knowledge production in India and South Asia.

The workshop initiated wide-ranging conversations on history of statistics, media and computational cultures, politics and practices of data-driven governance, and Big Data infrastructures and imaginaries.

A detailed report and audio recordings from the workshop are available on this link - http://sarai.net/lives-of-data-workshop-report-recordings/

The ‘Lives of Data’ workshop hopes to bring together interdisciplinary researchers and practition... more The ‘Lives of Data’ workshop hopes to bring together interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners to examine the historical and emergent conditions of data-driven knowledge production and circulation in Indian and South Asian contexts. We are interested in a conversation which dynamically moves back and forth in science, technology and media history and anthropology to reflect upon the many layered abstractions and materialisations of data, information and knowledge.

Book Reviews by Sandeep Mertia

Computational Culture, 2017

Articles by Sandeep Mertia

The Wire, 2021

An excerpt from the Introduction to the book 'Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures fro... more An excerpt from the Introduction to the book 'Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India'.

LSE Impact Blog, Apr 8, 2016

"The social and material conditions of data collection have a significant bearing on how we think... more "The social and material conditions of data collection have a significant bearing on how we think about and understand data. Sandeep Mertia looks at the history of data collection in India and how the conditions have changed over time. From the work of the eminent statistician and founder of the Indian Statistical Institute, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, to the now large scale surveys conducted through tablets and Android apps, various mechanisms have shaped the material lives of survey data."

The Sarai Programme, CSDS, 2014

Research Note #4, Social Media Research Fellowship 2014, The Sarai Programme, CSDS. "I have co... more Research Note #4, Social Media Research Fellowship 2014, The Sarai Programme, CSDS.

"I have consistently found, through my fieldwork and those of other scholars, that ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development) projects in rural areas are context insensitive. However, I am yet to come across a sound description of the invoked rural ‘context’. The ethnographic studies on ICTs in rural areas, including my own earlier work, have often focused only on those factors which seem to most directly affect success or failure of technology led development. This was perhaps for a good reason, given the millennial euphoria of ICT4D. Moving forward however, one needs a broader understanding of socio-technical changes in rural life, which have outpaced scholarship [1]. In this final research note, I would like to introduce some important features of the ‘rural’ socio-technical context by presenting a comparative picture of my two field sites, briefly discussing the emerging discursive practices of social and digital media access and uncertainties which characterise ICT ecologies in the villages."

The Sarai Programme, CSDS, 2014

Research Note #3, Social Media Research Fellowship 2014, Sarai-CSDS. "Many scholars have tried... more Research Note #3, Social Media Research Fellowship 2014, Sarai-CSDS.

"Many scholars have tried to reconceptualise digital divide as a socio-technical problem, by pointing out the continuum of gradations between the information haves and have-nots [1], still there are several nuances left to be grasped. One such subtlety which I have come across in my fieldwork is that of an intra-technological divide between telecentre’s computers and individuals’ mobile phones.

As I mentioned in my previous post [2], the dominant mode of Internet access in Rampur is through mobile phones, rather than the telecentre’s computers, which have optical fibre based high speed Internet facility. Such technological choices are hard to understand. Why would anyone in a resource constrained environment pay from his pocket for a mobile Internet pack rather than avail the free and much faster Internet service at the telecentre? A major part of the answer lies in the social and political positioning of the two technologies in the village.

The Sarai Programme, CSDS, 2014

Research Note #2, Social Media Research Fellowship 2014, Sarai-CSDS. "Q. So, which one do you... more Research Note #2, Social Media Research Fellowship 2014, Sarai-CSDS.

"Q. So, which one do you like more, your school classes or the digital literacy class here at the telecentre?
A. Yeh toh timepass hai, school mein toh padhai hoti hai! (Translation: This is just a time pass (fad), real learning happens in school)"

This is an excerpt from one my field interviews with a boy studying in secondary school, who visits the telecentre (or Kiosk) regularly.

His response, similar to many other Internet users in the tehsil (block) village Rampur [1] in Rajasthan, suggests that using social media in particular is not really considered to be a productive thing in the village. However, this inference is not as simple as it seems. As I spent more time in the field following the actors [2], the fairly visible interest in digital media, especially the ones accessible via mobile phones, moved me to question the authenticity, and thus the layered complexity, of what so many of my field respondents consider ‘timepass’.

The Sarai Programme, CSDS, 2014

Research Note #1, Social Media Research Fellowship 2014, Sarai-CSDS. In this post, Sandeep Mer... more Research Note #1, Social Media Research Fellowship 2014, Sarai-CSDS.

In this post, Sandeep Mertia, one of the researchers who received the Social Media Research grant for 2014, introduces his proposed work.

"Why rural people, especially the youth, are attracted to social media and how do they use it?

Why would an ICT engineer-cum-STS (Science & Technology Studies) researcher be interested in asking this question which perhaps has obvious responses such as – a natural stage of technological development, progress towards becoming an ‘information society’, pervasiveness of social networking sites, improved infrastructure in rural areas, etc.?

My problem begins with these responses."