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<div style="direction: ltr;font-family: Tahoma;color: #000000;font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span><b style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size:24pt; color:rgb(102,0,0)">STS Circle at Harvard</span></b><br>
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<div style="font-style: normal;"><font face="Cambria, serif" size="4"><b>Rajesh Veeraraghaven</b></font></div>
<div style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;"><font face="Cambria, serif" size="4"><i>UC Berkeley/Harvard Berkman Center </i></font></div>
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<div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size:12pt; font-family:Cambria,serif"><b><span style="font-size:18pt; font-family:'Times New Roman',serif">The Politics of Openness: Technology, Corruption and Participation in Indian Public Employment </span></b><span style=""></span></div>
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<div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size:12pt; font-family:Cambria,serif"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif">Monday, April 20</span></span><span style="font-size:10pt; font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"></span></div>
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<div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size:12pt; font-family:Cambria,serif"><b><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif">Lunch is provided if you RSVP.</span></b><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></div>
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<div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size:12pt; font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif">Please RSVP<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-style:normal"> </span></span><a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1HbdY3j1fVcUeE-UqQ7pN5clAxQtaQX7Ux6Y0tRMM9E8/viewform" style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif" target="_blank"><b>via
our online</b></a><b style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1HbdY3j1fVcUeE-UqQ7pN5clAxQtaQX7Ux6Y0tRMM9E8/viewform" style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif" target="_blank"> form</a></b> before<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-size:12pt"> Thursday
morning, April 16.</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: left; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span class="apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;"><b><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-size:13.5pt">Abstract:</span><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"> </font></b></span><font face="Times New Roman" style="font-size: medium; font-family: Tahoma;"> </font><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;"><font> </font></font><font size="3"><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">This</span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> talk </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">examines
the attempted use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to eliminate corruption within a bureaucracy in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The government project takes place within the context of India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
(NREGA), which aims to support India's poorest citizens by guaranteeing a minimum level of employment for rural families. In this initiative, the senior bureaucrats built a digital network to curb corruption at the “last mile.” By increasing the visibility
and by controlling the “micro-practices” of the work done by lower-level bureaucrats, this digital system allowed higher-level bureaucrats to exercise more control remotely, bypassing the existing “chain of command” form of control and reducing corruption.
Ideally, the system was imagined to centralize power through technology in order to eliminate powers of discretion at the lower-levels of the bureaucracy. What my fieldwork revealed, however, was a constant struggle to control the digital system: the lower-level
bureaucrats found creative ways to thwart the intentions of the higher-level bureaucrats. Agency was not removed from local politics; instead it was constantly renegotiated through efforts by local politicians and local bureaucrats on the one side and higher-level
administrators on the other to control the technological instruments of surveillance. The struggle over surveillance is not the <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;">"Scottian" state against citizen but contestation within a divided state.
ICT did reduce corruption and created a more “Weberian” bureaucracy but only up to a point. Local actors managed to defend their power and some of their ability to extract rents in the last mile. The struggle continues, on the new digital terrain.</span></span></font></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span class="apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><font size="3">Biography: </font></span></b></span><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma; font-weight: normal;"><font><font size="2" style="font-family:Tahoma"> </font></font></font><font size="3"><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="il">Rajesh</span> Veeraraghavan </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">is
a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Information, UC Berkeley and a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet society at Harvard. He studies how information and communication technology (ICT) is used in practice to regulate economic, social and political relationships. </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="il">Rajesh</span> </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">questions
the widespread belief that information technology can be used to "solve" either development or governance "problems," both by engaging in activism involving technological interventions and by using empirical methods to critically examine claims about the impact
of ICT in governance. For more go to <a href="http://ischool.berkeley.edu/~rajesh" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">http://ischool.berkeley.edu/~<wbr><span class="il">rajesh</span></a></span></font></div>
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<div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size:12pt; font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif">A complete list of STS Circle at Harvard events can be found on our website:</span></div>
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<div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size:12pt; font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><a href="http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sts/events/sts_circle/" style="color:purple; text-decoration:underline" target="_blank"><span style="">http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sts/events/sts_circle/</span></a></span></div>
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<div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size:12pt; font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif">Follow us on Facebook:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/HarvardSTS" style="color:purple; text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">STS@Harvard</a></span></div>
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