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Accepted Paper:
Putting the selfie to work: image making and work/time discipline in the margins of the Indian state
Martin Webb
(Goldsmiths, University of London)
Riad Azam
(Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology)
Farhat Salim
(Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi)
Our paper explores the use of selfies and other images in the everyday organization of accountability, work/time discipline and networks of visibility in projects and services delivered by remote workers operating in the margins of the 'hybrid' state in Delhi, India.
Paper long abstract:
In India the taking of "selfies" as a means of checking if workers or school children are present is becoming increasingly prevalent. Facial recognition software is used to log pupils into classrooms. Corporations offering "at home services" via digital platforms use selfies to confirm the identity of operatives. Workers in community facing roles, often working remotely in the margins of the neoliberal state, circulate selfies and other images as evidence of presence and tasks completed via WhatsApp groups set up by project managers. Drawing on fieldwork carried out in Delhi in 2021 this paper explores the everyday production of networks of visibility within projects by employers and workers, and the informal repurposing as organizational tools and 'transparency devices' of messaging and social media apps designed to facilitate participatory digital cultures of pleasure, leisure and self-making. By paying attention to these practices we begin to develop a grounded view of the ways in which technology, media, and image making practices play a key role in the everyday organization of projects and services and are becoming woven into regimes of transparency, accountability and work/time discipline.