The Statecraft of Digital IDs



Originally published on Data & Society: Points on 30th November 2021. By:  Kim Fernandes and Ranjit Singh. The annotated bibliography below represents ongoing conversations on emerging debates around digital identification, the state, and citizenship between Kim Fernandes,PhD candidate in Anthropology and Education at the University of Pennsylvania, and Data & Society Postdoctoral Scholar Ranjit Singh. How do digital IDs mediate […]

Featured: The Good Robot Podcast



At The Good Robot Podcast, Eleanor Drage and Kerry Mackereth at the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies ask the experts: what is good technology? Is ‘good’ technology even possible? And what does feminism have to say about it? Each week, they invite scholars, industry practitioners, activists, and more to provide their unique perspective on what feminism […]

Featured: Cornell Chronicle



Below is a copy of a news story, “Big data can render some as ‘low-resolution citizens,’” by Tom Fleischman published on 28th October 2021 in the Cornell Chronicle about my co-authored paper on Seeing like an Infrastructure. In India, a government database where 1.25 billion residents are identified with fingerprints and photographs has created a […]

Parables of AI in/from the Global South



Originally published in 4S Backchannels on 17th September 2021. By: Ranjit Singh and Rigoberto Lara Guzmán The possibilities of leveraging Big Data and AI-based interventions are often poised to flow as innovations that emerge from the Global North to the rest of the world. Such flows tend to position the Global North as the active center […]

Resolution



Originally published on A New AI Lexicon on 18th August 2021. ˌre-zə-ˈlü-shən  Definition: the act or process of resolving: such as the act of analyzing a complex notion into simpler ones the act of determining the process or capability of making distinguishable the individual parts of an object, closely adjacent optical images, or sources of […]

Imbrication



Originally published on A New AI Lexicon on 13th July 2021. ˌim-brə-ˈkā-shən Definition: an overlapping of edges (as of tiles or scales) The tribal areas of Rajasthan [a state in the west of India] are very hilly. How would you get network [internet] there? Let me give you an example. The Fair Price Shop is […]

Featured: Becoming Data Podcast



“Becoming Data” is a podcast produced by Public Books in partnership with Data & Society, a research institute that studies the social implications of data-centric technologies and automation. Their host is Natalie Kerby, a media producer, editor, researcher, and currently, the digital content associate at Data & Society. She explores: How long has human life been quantified […]

Mapping AI in/from the Global South



Originally published on Data & Society: Points on 26th January 2021. The possibilities of leveraging Big Data and AI-based interventions are often poised to flow as innovations emerging from the Global North to the rest of the world. Such flows tend to position the Global North as the active center and the Global South as […]

Orphaning



Paper Title: “The Living Dead”: Orphaning in Aadhaar-enabled Distribution of Welfare Pensions in RajasthanAuthors: Ranjit SinghJournal: PUBLIC Journal: Art Culture IdeasVolume: 30Issue: 60Pages: 92-104Year: 2020 Abstract:  This paper follows the mutual shaping of the lives of citizens and their data records to illustrate how precarious forms of citizenship emerge in the use of biometrics-based data infrastructures for governance. It presents a case […]