Visiting Speaker Seminar Series: The Innovation Paradigm: Making Technology, Morality, and Citizenship in Aspirational India and Beyond

In recent decades, there have been numerous efforts to deploy technological innovation “for good”, to address the world’s most intractable problems, from information and communication technology for development to, most recently, AI for social good. And yet, despite the good intentions, these technologies rarely achieve their intended purposes. Further, they often create problems, including increased surveillance, algorithmic bias, and environmental degradation. So why do societies continue to invest in technological innovation to solve social challenges, and specifically poverty, inequality, and in justice? And what are the systemic political and moral impacts, especially for marginalized communities? In this talk, I argue that the answer lies in what I call the “innovation paradigm”. The expanding innovation economy doesn’t just shape technologies and markets, but also how societies understand, structure, and value the world. This includes how governments know and resolve public problems, what people prioritize and value, how the responsibilities of the state are understood, and who counts as a good, valued citizen. I examine this paradigm by analyzing the rise of inclusive innovation—the idea that new technology, circulated through the marketplace, can alleviate poverty, inequality, and injustice—and its institutionalization and impacts on sanitation and menstruation in India.