With each new technology come new kinds of challenges and opportunities. These challenges range from scientific to socio-economic. The nature of production, who the surplus goes to, and how it is appropriated, as well as the relationships between various institutions and hierarchies/inequalities existing in contemporary society, determine the degree of unification or division that technologies bring. The impacts of these transformations are broadly evident across the world, specifically in cities, and especially in cities aspiring to be ‘global’.
Information technology stands out as a paradigm shift in how technological transformations occur, in the sense that it has both input—raw material—and output in similar forms. Simply put, information technology relies on information for input and also produces information as output, which makes it different from earlier transformations that were based on knowledge (Susser 2002). Information technology makes trade and transactions easy, creates a virtual world that transcends boundaries, catalyzes deals and negotiations, business decisions, and communication between two or more parties.
David Brown stated that:
“Cyberspace is not a single integrated and ubiquitous entity revolving around the internet. It is a place fractured into multiple spheres of influence” (p. 190).
While these seem like significant signs of movement towards the so-called ‘advanced/developed’ world, the socio-economic repercussions and questions of achieving equity and inclusivity remain unanswered. With the advent of finance and increasing emphasis thereof, supported by the ubiquitousness of information technology, the equations among various groups in the cities began to change and continue to do so. Job polarization, increased distance between producers, labor, and consumers, appropriation of surplus, rapid investments, growing institutional investments and FIIs, gentrification, skill-job mismatch, and limited role of the state or merely regulatory/facilitating nature of the state have been externalities or probably intended externalities of information technologies.
1. Rise of Information Technology
The change in the mode of production over time has eventually caused different kinds of agglomeration, different visualization, and conceptualization of a city by planners and policymakers. From the latter half of the 20th century, there was a shift from industrial mode of production to informational mode of production, with its deeper roots in microelectronics, integrated circuits, etc., in the first half of the 20th century.
The trend of increasing role of information is a result of numerous developments in the series of production, consumption, and the role of the state (Susser 2002). On the production front, as there was a growing decentralization of functions and large scale production, there was an increasing necessity for centralized top management, which demanded large amounts of information flows for efficient management and articulation (Susser 2002). With increasing distance between producers and buyers, the role of data, treated in recent times as the ‘new oil’, has become extremely important. Data analysis, analytics, data warehouses, cloud networks, and virtual connections gained significance.
The communication between producers and buyers, as well as service providers and consumers, is being minimized with growing automation, which again primarily operates on information. All these factors have led to growing speculations and rapid transactions on the financial market. The state, on the other hand, has a regulatory nature in this mode of development. It now creates a framework within which parties operate, acting more like a facilitator of erasing geographical boundaries. Regulatory frameworks by the state control and manipulate the network of information flows that penetrate into activities (Susser 2002).
These are broadly the structural trends that appear in an informational mode of development. The convergence of information technology and changes in production, consumption, and mode of state intervention gave rise to this kind of development (Susser 2002).
The 1980s was also a time in India when there was a growing emphasis on information technology, which is known to be one of the incredible achievements of Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister (1984). It is noteworthy that the sixth five-year plan was also during the 1980s, which shifted focus from decentralizing urbanization to growing/expanding existing big cities. The kind of network that existed in the already characteristic cities catalyzed rapid transformation into what many policymakers and urban planners envisioned—a global city with vibrant trade and finance, as Saskia Sassen points out in the seven hypotheses for a global city.
These were followed by a series of policies such as the opening of markets, liberalization, privatization, globalization, the 73rd and 74th amendments, forming local self-governing bodies, and states like Andhra Pradesh with Hyderabad quickly aspiring to make a mark on the global platform as pioneers of information technology. All these changes engendered a new level of dynamics on the socio-economic front in the cities and changed the relationship between various classes as well as between the state and the citizens. The impact of these changes is tangible even in today’s world, in cities like Hyderabad, Bangalore, and San Francisco, to name a few.
2. Impact/Link Between Information Technologies and Cities
Information technology is perceived as an enabler of transcending boundaries, erasing inequalities, and of last-mile delivery for the policy implementation agencies. However, IT should be viewed as more than merely an agent of speed; it is a vital player in altering structures in society, inter- or intra-city.
The rise of information technology comes with an attempt by planners and policymakers in developing countries to mimic the developed world in terms of aesthetics, apart from easing trade and governance. Cities are also sites of increasing informal economies and growth termed as ‘jobless growth’. With a shift from industrial to informational mode of development and consequently a decline in public sector jobs, middle-layer manufacturing jobs are almost vanishing, and the rising middle class aspires to be part of the information technology ecosystem.
The increasing inequality in these cities is primarily caused by rising job polarization, with highly paid jobs in top-level management and technical domains on one end and menial work on the other. While this can be contested by the fact that informality is not always a sign of poverty, the evidence indicates a skill mismatch between those needing jobs and those that are offered. The new expanding jobs in the labor market are primarily knowledge-intensive, demanding high-end skills and easy adaptability to the ever-changing nature of information usage and storage. Access to the education that caters to these needs is, by virtue of merit or class affiliations, a cause for intergenerational inequalities.
On the other end of the labor market are menial jobs performed by those unable to match the skills required for high-end jobs, ultimately depending primarily on agglomeration economies or finding work in construction or small food joints. Access to education or resources is not merely a class phenomenon; the disadvantaged remain not just economically deprived but also locationally deprived.
With the expansion of cities around areas concentrated with infrastructure favoring investors and IT hubs, people residing in slums or informal settlements continue to be pushed to the periphery, as they are seen as incompatible with the aesthetics of the envisioned ‘world cities’ by planners. Additionally, the affordability of real estate prices and the cost of living around these hubs is a privilege only for the active participants of the information technology ecosystem. The quality of education and services continues to be a function of those residing in areas surrounding these hubs.
As urban scholar Sanyal terms it, there is a growing ‘immaterial labor’ constituting high-end skilled labor and domestic help/care work performed by those left out of the IT revolution. This nature of work is also perceived as a coping mechanism by those not in the highly paid labor market, serving as a means of livelihood. In Indian cities, a mixture of gentrification and ‘enclave urbanism’ exists, surrounded by shanty settlements catering to the needs of residents in gated communities.
3. Growing ICT and Capital-Labor Relationships
The growing ICT has also weakened capital-labor relationships, increased capital-intensive investments in the form of FIIs and FPIs, and caused the deterioration of the ability of labor to organize into unions. From access to education to access to resources, which now include equipment working with the support of information technology, information asymmetry has become a matter of concern, further degrading the situation of those left out of this transition.
For a market that assumes individuals are informed of all available choices and making rational decisions, information asymmetry poses a significant setback. It also deprives the disadvantaged of active political participation, as most communication—from enrollment in schemes to grievance redressal—occurs on digital platforms.
4. Implications of Policies Based on Governance and Smart Technologies
The pattern of policies and schemes introduced in India in recent years, such as Aadhar authentication being made compulsory for PDS in some states, demonetization as a step towards financial inclusion, increasing emphasis on e-wallets for payments, and smart cities, are manifestations of policymakers’ desire to position India on the global platform as a pioneer of ICT among developing countries.
Hyderabad, which began its transition to ICT much earlier than many other cities around the 1980s, is a typical example of urbanization centered around information technology. During the TDP regime led by then Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, a $350 million knowledge enclave, HITEC City (Hyderabad Information Technology and Information Consultancy City), was initiated, taking inspiration from Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur. The ‘intelligent buildings’ were completed in phases, the first one being inaugurated in 1998, now being called the IT hotspot of India (Das, 2015).
This was followed by residential colonies, townships, and shopping malls. The Hyderabad Urban Development Authority, followed by HMDA, systematically planned the development of the city and its periphery, paving the way for special residential zones along growth corridors (Das, 2015). Hyderabad pioneered the usage of e-governance for efficient service delivery, from the collection of property taxes to grievance redressal, land records, and introducing applications for women’s safety, resulting in increased digital presence.
The Ayushman Bharat program, which includes a component on prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, requires paramedical staff and Accredited Social Health Activists to enter data into gadgets allotted to them in English. Although this procedure aims to digitize health records of residents in corresponding localities, the adaptability of grassroots workers to this technology seems not to be adequately considered, potentially leading to serious repercussions from incorrect data entry.
Similarly, Aadhar authentication for PDS has prevented many beneficiaries from receiving their rations. Many informal workers are excluded from the new ‘cashless transactions’ and have faced a setback for substantial durations.
The progress of schemes is now tracked over a digital platform, claiming to involve all citizens in active participation in democracy. The number of mee-seva kendras is seen as vital constituents of governance institutions. However, the number of participants with access to these digital media remains questionable. The inference that citizens can actively participate in democracy raises concerns about inclusivity.
With increasing privatization and e-governance, instances exist where corporations are taking over governance and service delivery, which is essentially the function of the state. This raises concerns about privacy, as does the state accumulating all details of citizens.
5. Conclusion
Though IT brings advantages in terms of easing transactions, communication, and record-keeping, there is an underlying exclusion of the deprived, keeping them further away from the process of policy-making/delivery and preventing active political participation. Thus, IT has also led to further commodification of services without apprehension, due to the ease of payment methods for the privileged, with incentivization mechanisms catalyzing it further. The socio-economic repercussions, questions of inclusion, and privacy seem to take a backseat in the race to champion the information game.
Note: This article was written towards partial fulfillment of an Advanced university degree.
References
Brown, D. (1998). Cybertrends: Chaos, power, and accountability in the information age. Penguin.
Das, D. (2015). Hyderabad: Visioning, restructuring and making of a high-tech city. Cities, 43, 48-58. doi:10.1016/j.cities.2014.11.008
Susser, I. (2002). The Castell reader on cities and social theory. Blackwell.
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