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Book Cover
E-book
Author Veeraraghavan, Rajesh, author.

Title Patching development : information politics and social change in India / Rajesh Veeraraghavan
Published New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2022]
©2022

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Description 1 online resource : illustrations, maps
Series Modern South Asia
Modern South Asia series.
Summary "How can development programs deliver benefits to marginalized citizens in ways that expand their rights and freedoms? Political will and good policy design are critical but often insufficient due to resistance from entrenched local power systems. The book is an ethnography of one of the largest development programs in the world, the Indian National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), and examines in detail NREGA's implementation in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It finds that the local system of power is extremely difficult to transform, not because of inertia, but because of coercive counter strategy from actors at the last mile and their ability to exploit information asymmetries. Upper-level NREGA bureaucrats in Andhra Pradesh do not possess the capacity to change the power axis through direct confrontation with local elites, but instead have relied on a continuous series of responses that react to local implementation and information, a process of patching development. Patching development is a top-down, fine-grained, iterative socio-technical process that makes local information about implementation visible through technology and enlists participation from marginalized citizens through social audits. These processes are neither neat nor orderly and have led to a contentious sphere where the exercise of power over documents, institutions and technology is intricate, fluid and highly situated. The book throws new light on the challenges and benefits of using information and technology in novel ways to implement development programs. While focused on one Indian state, the implications for increasing citizen participation and government transparency have global relevance"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Description based on online resource; title from home page (Oxford Scholarship Online, viewed December 19, 2022)
Subject National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (India) -- Appropriations and expenditures
SUBJECT National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (India) fast
Subject Rural poor -- Employment -- India
Social accounting -- India
Expenditures, Public
Rural poor -- Employment
Social accounting
India
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2021034891
ISBN 9780197567852
0197567851
9780197567838
0197567835
0197567843
9780197567845