Decoding Development in Digital South Asia

About

This course will examine how claims of development and digitisation have intersected, and been co-constituted in South Asia since the 1990s.The course offers a unique perspective through three modules on the encoding, decoding and recoding of the digital in South Asia. Building on conceptual readings from multiple disciplines and on cases focussed on the contemporary use of digital technologies in the domains of health, education, agriculture, governance and political advocacy, the course will examine how classical inequalities along the lines of caste, class and gender (and debates about them) are reproduced in the digital space and, second, how the digital space has opened up opportunities to challenge these divides.  

The course will enable the students to develop a robust knowledge, interpretation, and analytical understanding of the evolving intersection of development and digitisation in contemporary South Asia. 

By the end of this course, students will be able to: 

• Identify and critically engage with current theoretical and policy debates around digitisation and development in South Asia, and consider their wider applicability 
• Learn the set of debates, arguments, developments, and positions that will help understand and think though digital interventions with independence and originality. 
• Develop the ability to express thoughts and ideas effectively in written and oral mode. 
• Apply their learnings to write an essay examining the design and implications of a digital intervention of their choice in contemporary South Asia