Decrypting E‐Governance: Narratives, Power play and Participation in the Gyandoot Intranet

Abstract

AbstractThe central themes addressed in this paper relate to the critique of the notion of e‐governance as an essentially administrative innovation facilitated by ICTs. It argues the need to recognize e‐governance as a social process involving not only attitudinal change and transformation of traditional forms of governmentality, but also as a contested arena of social forces shaping the trajectory of the evolution of this technocratic innovation.The paper is based on the experiences of the Gyandoot Intranet in Madhyapradesh, India. One of the critical issues that emerge in the context of exploring the interrelationship between technology and governance is the questioning of the assumption of the neutrality of technological processes enmeshed in the notion of e‐governance. Technical processes defining contours of e‐governance are embedded in the structures of power that reinforces the power relations that e‐governance is expected to eliminate. This is particularly obvious when scrutinizing the consequences of the introduction of ICT‐based administrative projects like Gyandoot in villages where the local managers play key roles in its implementation while benefitting from its public good.The study shows that the projects are often implemented with the active support and participation of village elites and their collaboration becomes a major aspect in the survival of the project. It discuses how the idea of ICT as an inherently liberating technology and e‐governance as a new way of transcending inept and inefficient bureaucratic systems which empowers ‘end‐users’ appears to be completely inaccurate in the rural setting. Moreover, despite the claims of active networking of people in Dhar made in behalf of Gyandoot, its ability to connect to multiple social and economic domains was found to be extremely limited and ostensibly mediated by the social power equations that enveloped its institutional setting.