A mission to converge for inclusion? The smart city and the women of Seelampur

Abstract

Based on ethnographic research in New Delhi, this article critically examines the promise of inclusion of the smart city, new governance program Mission Convergence for marginalized residents, especially minority women in the urban periphery of Seelampur. Drawing from transdisciplinary debates, I argue that this smart city program must be globally located in institutional shifts in New Public Management approaches that advocate the hybrid and networked state, entrepreneurial citizens, and self-regulated workers in the global economy. Program practices of counting the poor revealed structural inequities that were concealed behind the smooth interface of Convergence. Furthermore, subaltern women formed the nurturing interface of the networked state which was a hollow position without power. Finally, Seelampur women were trained in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and other skills as precarious labor for the global economy. My research highlights contradictory experiences of marginalized women in the context of optimism about ICT-enabled inclusion.