"Instead of looking at information as a thing that floats around in the world doing things, if we look at it as embedded in social relations and materialities on the ground, how does that change the way we think about information?", asks Dr. Janaki Srinivasan (IIIT Bangalore) in her book, 'The Political Lives of Information: Information and the Production of Development in India' (MIT Press, 2022). At a book talk that Humanities and Social Sciences, DA-IICT, organised on April 8, Dr. Srinivasan talked about how the reification of information can often deny and bracket politics. She talked about the case studies she conducted for the book in Kerala, Pudicherry and Rajasthan, which helps us understand the political struggles around the meaning of information as a category today.

Prof. Madhumita Mazumdar (DA-IICT) moderated the talk as well as the discussion that followed with students and faculty members who attended the session.

Dr. Srinivasan's book is open access: https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5397/The-Political-Lives-of-InformationInformation-and