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SUMMARY:South Asia-Africa Seminar Series: The Politics of Digital Interven
 tions                                    - Tom Neumark (University of Oslo
 )\, Nafis Aziz (University of Amsterdam)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260224T140000Z
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260224T153000Z
UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/4b9f27b8-5c3d-4318-b5d1-5e0f8870b47f/
DESCRIPTION:Digitization in ‘New India’: A Material and Moral Technolo
 gy\nDr Nafis Aziz Hasan (University of Amsterdam)\n\nAs a material\, ideol
 ogical\, aesthetic and moral force\, digitization of public administration
  in India\, has\, over the past four decades\, intervened in the social\, 
 political and technological life of the state\, broadly conceived. In this
  talk\, drawing on an ethnography of public bureaucracy as it encounters t
 he multiple infrastructures of mobile apps\, dashboards and databases as t
 he interfaces through which forms of algorithmic software and now AI meet 
 prior writing and documentary technologies\, I describe some key effects o
 f the charisma of new technology on a diverse constituency of actors and i
 nstitutions – local bureaucrats and their offices\, senior bureaucrats a
 nd new forms of expertise and national pride and the everyday hopes and de
 spairs of people interacting with a digitizing state. Undergirding these d
 escriptions are anthropological concerns about the shaping and re-shaping 
 of collective and individual identities in ‘New India’.\n \nDr. Nafis 
 Aziz Hasan is an assistant professor in the department of Anthropology at 
 the University of Amsterdam (UvA) specializing in the human and organizati
 onal effects of digitization in the Global South. Prior to joining the UvA
 \, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for the Advanced St
 udy of India at the University of Pennsylvania. His articles have appeared
  in American Ethnologist\, Science Technology and Human Values and South A
 sia: Journal of South Asian Studies\, among other venues. Along with Ashis
 h Rajadhyaksha and Nishant Shah\, he is also the author of the open access
  book Overload\, Creep\, Excess: An Internet from India.\n\nDwelling in Am
 biguity: Tanzanian-led AI Innovation and the Technological Otherwise\nTom 
 Neumark (University of Oslo) \n\nThis talk draws on my ethnographic resear
 ch among Tanzanian computer and data scientists working on healthcare and 
 medical technologies. I begin by posing a simple question: should Tanzania
 n-led digital technological innovation fill us with despair or inspire us?
  Debates that hinge on the idea of a technological otherwise often polaris
 e. Critics see sameness in a derivative Silicon Valley solutionism\, techn
 o-fixing\, and neoliberal capture. In contrast\, others emphasise differen
 ce\, pointing to local\, situated knowledge\, forms of care\, or technolog
 ical self-determination. I argue that both perspectives are as problematic
  as they are illuminating\, and we must focus more consistently on ambigui
 ty. My argument is not simply descriptive – that ambiguity exists in pra
 ctice – but normative and methodological: we should retain and centre it
  in our explanations and political response. I show how centring ambiguity
  potentially offers new opportunities for learning with not only our inter
 locutors but also other disciplines. \n\nTom Neumark is a social anthropol
 ogist whose research focuses on interventions to alleviate poverty and ill
  health in East Africa. He is the author of Caring Cash: Free Money and th
 e Ethics of Solidarity in Kenya\, published by Pluto Press\, and holds a P
 hD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge. \nSpeakers:\nT
 om Neumark (University of Oslo)\, Nafis Aziz (University of Amsterdam)
LOCATION:St Antony's College (Pavilion Room)\, 62 Woodstock Road OX2 6JF
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/4b9f27b8-5c3d-4318-b5d1-5e0f8870b47f/
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DESCRIPTION:Talk:South Asia-Africa Seminar Series: The Politics of Digital
  Interventions                                    - Tom Neumark (Universit
 y of Oslo)\, Nafis Aziz (University of Amsterdam)
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