Satish K. Puri

Towards a potential research agenda to guide the implementation of Spatial Data Infrastructures—A case study from India

Recently, Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) has been a rapidly expanding field and broadly assumed to underpin the development of information society and the knowledge economy. In this paper, we argue that the anticipated benefits of SDIs have largely not yet been generally realized in practice due to a lack of a robust theoretical framework as well as insufficient empirical research to guide the implementation efforts. We posit that learnings from the allied discipline of Information Infrastructures, which has matured during the 1990s in response to the proliferation of distributed, complex, and heterogeneous networked systems, can provide a useful theoretical lens to inform the emerging domain of SDIs. We focus on three key concepts identified in the domain of information infrastructure theory, viz. the installed base, reflexive standardization, and cultivation approach to design, to develop a theoretical framework, which is then applied to analyse the ongoing initiative to establish National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) in India. This analysis helps us to provide the basis to articulate a potential research agenda—for both theory and practice—which, we believe, offers the promise to better conceptualize and implement SDIs, particularly in developing country settings like India.

Role of ICTs in Participatory Development: An Indian Experience

Participation of local communities has been important at least in two domains: (a) rural development processes in developing countries and (b) information systems design. The issue of participation becomes especially important in the contemporary contexts in which the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is being integrated within rural development initiatives in developing countries, for example in e-governance. This article attempts to synthesize the issues around participation from both IS and development studies literature in order to identify four key problematic areas: viz., (a) who defines the participation agenda, (b) what capabilities do stakeholders have to participate and how can this be strengthened, (c) what is the role of institutional conditions in enabling effective participation, and (d) how do local participatory processes experiences get integrated into broader networks to become sustainable. These four themes provide a theoretical framework to analyze how the use of ICTs is reconfiguring the dynamics between participation, rural development, and ICTs. This framework is applied in the context of an ICT initiative for rural development in India. Implications for both theory and practice are developed based on the need to judiciously integrate both structural and behavioral approaches to participation.

Participation through communicative action: A case study of GIS for addressing land/water development in India

Attempts to alleviate land degradation and water scarcity in arid/semi-arid regions of India have historically been carried out within the ambit of government schemes implemented disparately by concerned departments. These sectoral methods are being increasingly replaced by a watershed-based approach in which local communities are encouraged to assume ownership of development programs, albeit within the governments overarching control. This decentralized model of governance has also in some cases had a positive impact on the more effective use of ICTs like Geographic Information System (GIS) in locally relevant applications. In this paper, the need for integrating disparate knowledge systems around GIS-based applications to mitigate land degradation, and the facilitating role of participation in achieving such integration, are discussed. It is argued that such participatory processes can be effectively enabled through communicative action whilst taking into consideration the historically existing power asymmetries. The Habermasian Ideal Speech Situation (IDS) provides a conceptual framework to argue how such communicative action can be enabled. This framework is applied to an empirical analysis of a GIS project for land management in India. The paper contributes to unpacking knowledge systems implicated in the use of GIS for addressing land degradation, foregrounding the importance of indigenous knowledge, and in espousing the crucial need to draw upon critical social perspectives in IS research.

Technological frames of stakeholders shaping the SDI implementation: a case study from India

The theory of technological frames provides a useful lens to analyze and understand diverse meanings and expectations attached by different stakeholder groups around information and communication technologies (ICTs) sought to be introduced in organizations. These differing perceptions have been found to variously problematize new IS design and implementation efforts. In this article, the key concepts articulated around technological frames are drawn upon to analyze the meanings, assumptions, and expectations espoused by different stakeholders in context of the development of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) in India. It is argued that the theory of technological frames, with its roots in socio-cognitive and social construction of technology (SCOT) research arenas, helps improve our understanding of the aspects. It is further argued that IS/GIS-related research needs to move beyond merely diagnosing the diversity of interpretations towards suggesting how these may be negotiated and resolved. The Indian NSDI setting is accordingly discussed and analyzed in this article. The research findings, however, have a wider applicability, being also germane to similar ICT initiatives being taken in other developing countries.

Building participatory HIS networks: A case study from Kerala, India

This paper addresses the challenge of developing participatory networks to support the design, development and implementation of Health Information Systems (HIS) in the context of public health in Kerala, India. It is argued given the nature and complexity of HIS, there is the need to bring together our understanding of participation from two streams of development theory and IS design and development. While development theory provides interesting insights on how to enable participatory processes, they tend to not consider technology. Further, traditional participatory design in Information Systems research has its origins in Western workplaces, often quite divorced from the context of public health in developing countries. In trying to combine these two streams of learning, we propose and develop the concept of participatory networks. Drawing upon an ongoing empirical analysis of an action research effort to introduce, scale and sustain Health Information Systems in Kerala, this paper elaborates on the nature of participatory networks that come into play, and the various mechanisms and purposes of participation with the different network partners. In the discussion section, four areas of re-conceptualization of participation in the context of HIS in developing countries are identified: (1) creation of participatory networks; (2) increased context sensitivity; (3) focus on outputs of participation, not just inputs and techniques; and, (4) focus on structural aspects of participation, not just behavioral issues.

The rainbow metaphor : spatial data infrastructure organization and implementation in India

The use of metaphors can provide useful insights into understanding the inherent technical and institutional complexities of spatial data infrastructures (SDI). In this paper, we examine how metaphors have been used in organization studies, information systems, and also in the information infrastructure domains. We examine some dominant metaphors being used to guide the research and practice of SDIs, including that of the “information superhighway,” “marketplace,” and the “rainbow.” We draw upon the rainbow metaphor, which has its origins in the analysis of information and communication infrastructure in Canada, adapt it to the Indian national SDI (NSDI) context, and develop implications to guide research and practice. We conclude that a judicious combination of metaphors can serve not only as a heuristic device for thinking about the development pattern of the emerging Indian NSDI infrastructure, but also as a culturally sensitive rhetorical argument for promoting the NSDI concept to political decision makers.

The Politics of Knowledge in Using GIS for Land Management in India

This paper focuses on understanding the knowledge politics that inhibit effective use of geographic information systems (GIS) for managing the land degradation problem in India. It is argued that the issues of power and politics of knowledge are ubiquitously embedded in representation of the problem domain and the technology itself. Addressing these issues is an inseparable part of the challenges to information systems design and implementation. Theoretical perspective is first developed around political considerations involved in the co-construction and use of knowledge domains relevant to the design of GIS applications to address land degradation. This theoretical framework is drawn upon to analyze the politics of representation, the politics of invisible work, and the politics of institutions observed in the case of a GIS implementation in rural India. The analysis also demonstrates how the insidious impacts of such politics may be somewhat mitigated by creating socio-material networks to cultivate communicative action that leads to better design and technology acceptance by the end users.

Institutional Structures and Participation

While participatory design in IS has found increasing acceptance, the role of participation in social arena has been lively debated in recent years. Development projects in the third world based on “western” assumptions have elicited sharp critiques, with consequent policy shift towards involving the poor people and local communities in these endeavours. In India, policies and programs aimed at reclamation of degraded lands, a priority thrust area which is directly linked to poverty alleviation, are typically controlled by central, state and local government bureaucracies, with little involvement, until recently, of the affected people. Some of these programs have attempted to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to model alternative development possibilities, and to then prepare action plans based on scientific knowledge for field implementation. These initiatives too have generally been bereft of end-user involvement. On the other hand, land development has been successfully carried out at several places in the country through community initiatives alone by harnessing indigenous knowledge. In this paper, we briefly present the continuum of participatory development through analysis of two contrasting case studies. The analysis leads to the challenge of integrating local knowledge within governmental institutional frameworks that can facilitate the larger spread of land reclamation efforts.