Understanding the consequences of identity category change in government information infrastructures

India’s transgender category 2014-2024

Katherine Wyers, Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo

From a technical perspective, information infrastructures (IIs) are composed of various classification systems, protocols, and technical specifications that codify the rules and procedures for interaction between a system’s elements (Turner et al., 2006, p. 94). However, IIs are fundamentally a relational concept (Star & Ruhleder, 1996). They are ‘engines of ontological change … standing between people, technology, and nature, and in doing so reinforce each simultaneously’ (Karasti et al., 2018, p. 271). These classification systems, and technical specifications need constant processes of fixing, reconfiguration, and reassembly. Without this ongoing repair and maintenance, the systems relying on them would seize up, and our sociotechnical worlds would become ‘stiff, arthritic, and unworkable’ (Jackson, 2014, p. 223).

Identity categories are not merely neutral, objective representations of reality. They are often sites of political and social struggles (Bowker & Star, 1999, p. 196). When the maintenance of an II involves a change of an identity category, this can firmly entrench the political struggle into the working infrastructure, with moral and ethical implications. Identity categories have material effects on the lives of the people they target (Beaudevin & Schramm, 2019). When they are created or changed by the State, identity claims by individuals or groups may be subverted, or individuals may feel that their powers of, or rights to, self-definition are impinged upon (Yanow, 2003). For individuals who are disadvantaged by changes to an identity category, the infrastructure can have a detrimental impact on their lives (Bowker & Star, 1999, p. 225).

This study seeks to understand the consequences of making changes to an identity category in the repair and maintenance of IIs. It explores the case of India’s gender category, which in 2014 was expanded from legally recognizing two genders, (male and female), to recognizing three genders, (male, female and transgender). This change was introduced by the Indian Supreme Court to legally recognize India’s transgender community. The expansion of the recognized gender category came with concomitant repairs to the II.  

The methodology of this study was inspired by calls for a ‘queer turn’, where research related to the lives of LGBTQ+ people must center on the lived experiences of members of the communities, apply decolonial qualitative inquiry, participatory methods, and be conducted from, for, and with low- and middle-income countries (Pillay et al., 2022). The study drew on four months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the rural north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, and the urban center of Delhi. The data comprised of 28 semi-structured interviews with transgender and gender diverse people, bureaucrats, and members of civil society, together with document analysis from the period 2014 to 2024. The findings were triangulated with fieldnotes from the four months of fieldwork.

The study first explores the distributed work of repair and maintenance (Timmermans & Berg, 1997) that has taken place during the period 2014 to 2024. It then explores the impact of the II maintenance on policy implementation by street level bureaucrats, investigating how discretion (Lipsky, 2010) can shape deservingness when government policies seeks to reach members of a specific identity category. Next, it explores how meaning-making takes place around the ‘transgender’ term (Laclau & Mouffe, 1985), and how it impacts on social inclusion (Trauth, 2013). Finally, the study asks how this process impacts on the lived experiences of transgender and gender diverse people, their strategies for navigating the changing infrastructure, and the burden that the repair and maintenance process places on their daily lives (Crenshaw, 2017; Farmer et al., 2006).

A key theme emerging from this study is the invisible work carried out by non-state actors in the maintenance of identity categories in IIs. Civil society members are instrumental in progressing the repair process, in sensitizing the street-level bureaucrats, and in providing support for the transgender and gender diverse communities to navigate the changing infrastructure. 

This study makes several theoretical and practical contributions. It makes theoretical contributions by presenting an empirically-grounded analysis of the maintenance of II, applying a social equity perspective to engage critically with the consequences of the process. Furthermore, it shows the high level of invisible work that takes place when an identity category is changed in an II. The study makes practical contributions by showing the potential negative consequences of a change to an identity category, and highlights key areas where plans can be made to mitigate these consequences during the process of identity category change. The study contributes to the communities of the participants by amplifying the voices of India’s transgender and gender diverse communities from a wide range of gender identities and expressions. It also highlights the crucial work performed by advocacy groups and civil society members during the repair and maintenance process.

References

Beaudevin, C., & Schramm, K. (2019). Sorting, typing, classifying. Medicine Anthropology Theory, 6(4). https://doi.org/10.17157/mat.6.4.767

Bowker, G. C., & Star, S. L. (1999). Sorting things out: Classification and its consequences (Inside Technology). MIT Press.

Crenshaw, K. W. (2017). On Intersectionality: Essential Writings. The New Press.

Farmer, P. E., Nizeye, B., Stulac, S., & Keshavjee, S. (2006). Structural Violence and Clinical Medicine. PLoS Medicine, 3(10), e449. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030449

Jackson, S. J. (2014). Rethinking Repair. In Media Technologies: Essays on Communication, Materiality, and Society. MIT Press.

Karasti, H., Pipek, V., & Bowker, G. C. (2018). An Afterword to ‘Infrastructuring and Collaborative Design’. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), 27(2), 267–289. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-017-9305-x

Laclau, E., & Mouffe, C. (1985). Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics. Verso.

Lipsky, M. (2010). Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services (2nd ed.). Russell Sage Foundation.

Pillay, S. R., Ntetmen, J. M., & Nel, J. A. (2022). Queering global health: An urgent call for LGBT+ affirmative practices. The Lancet Global Health, 10(4), e574–e578. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(22)00001-8

Star, S. L., & Ruhleder, K. (1996). Steps Toward an Ecology of Infrastructure: Design and Access for Large Information Spaces. INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH, 7(1).

Timmermans, S., & Berg, M. (1997). Standardization in Action: Achieving Local Universality through Medical Protocols. Social Studies of Science, 27(2), 273–305.

Trauth, E. M. (2013). The role of theory in gender and information systems research. Information and Organization, 23(4), 277–293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2013.08.003

Turner, W., Bowker, G., Gasser, L., & Zacklad, M. (2006). Information Infrastructures for Distributed Collective Practices. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), 15(2–3), 93–110. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-006-9014-3

Yanow, D. (2003). Constructing ‘Race’ and ‘Ethnicity’ in America: Category-Making in Public Policy and Administration (1st ed.). Routledge.