Use of Locally Valued Non-state ICTs by Market Actors: A Case of Transforming Agriculture Marketing in Karnataka, India

Abstract

State-mandated ICTD programmes are driven by strong aspirations of modernity where morality is associated with development, and technology is the force to enable that. These aspirations drive the state’s attempt to transform agriculture markets into E-Markets in India. While the state’s narrative claims economic welfare gains for the end beneficiary through technological intervention, our study shows that state-mandated ICTD initiative is poorly adopted by the local actors. In contrast, locally enabled non-state ICT apps find deep use by the same actors for managing various market operations. The novelty is in the ingenious use of common ICT apps in a self-actuated mode, achieving micro efficiencies. Situating this study in state-society dissonance and lensing it through James Scott’s work, Seeing Like a State, shows that vantage matters in development and its consequences on adopting ICTD platforms in the societal systems. In a sort of juxtaposition, the success of non-state ICTs is insightful about what is of value at the local and informs the state that technology adoption and use is not just about the quality or comprehensiveness of the artefact or who is pushing for the change; instead, more about the values that it carries, the appropriateness, and finally how it fits and finds acceptance at the local.