Citizenship by Design Part IV

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Human life, at least after the industrial era, runs on two commodities: energy and information. Any quickening in their production, whether in intensity or in absolute quantity, has enormous consequences. I am using those terms in the singular, but of course, both energy and information use are deeply differentiated, from muscle to wind and firewood for energy, to paper, posters and books for information. However, as a matter of historical fact:

1. Most energy consumption in the industrial era, starting with coal, is of the fossil fuel kind and
2. Most data consumption in the information era, starting with mainframes, is of the computational kind.

Carbon and computing drive the march of mechanization and automation, bringing comforts as well as catastrophes. Both climate and computing are human-origin (anthropogenic, to use the technical term) planetary transformations where the non-human world has its own agency. Whether it's glaciers melting or robots taking our jobs, humans are now entangled in a more than human world.

That’s a pretty abstract line of reasoning, but if we look closer to the ground, we’ll see that energy-information use has consequences wherever we look. That’s as true of India as anywhere else.

As a young country (both as a nation and in the median age of its citizens), most Indians will only know the world disrupted by climate and computing. And as we keep saying, much of India remains to be built - its material infrastructure, its basic institutions, its culture, its outlook towards the world, all of these are in flux.

How do we become skillful navigators of this turbulent age?

As you might imagine, Socratus’ answer to that question leans heavily on the practice of citizenship. There was a time - not too long ago - when it appeared as if the appropriate types of citizenship are emerging naturally across the world because of the new technologies of globalization. Around the ferment of the Arab Spring, I wrote in a fit of optimism:

Scientific and social structures are influenced by the technologies of the time. Modern democracy is unimaginable without print newspapers and other mass media. It isn’t surprising that the one way, creator to consumer nature of newspapers, radio and TV is mirrored by the one way, politician to citizen nature of modern democracy.

This was written with the hope that organic citizen led organizing using social media would create new democratic possibilities. India Against Corruption was our version of that spring.

Boy, was I wrong

Not entirely wrong, for it's still the case that 'scientific and social structures are influenced by the technologies of the time; there's no doubt that politics in 2023 is online in a way we couldn't have predicted in 2013, let alone 2003. But all the evidence in the intervening years suggests digital politics are authoritarian, shot through with hatred, peddling falsehoods and backed by massive surveillance. And of course, the by-products of fossil fuel use are visible across India: the pollution in the air and the plastic bags on the ground. While invisible, carbon is also making its presence felt in the heat waves and ocean rise.

Can the same technologies spawn different politics, planetary rather than parochial?

t's very hard to predict, especially the future, but at Socratus we strongly believe the 'citizen-mode' can be evoked in any community, whether farming or tribal communities, and that the citizen-mode is the best response to climate-computing-chaos. Let me end today’s essay with a glimpse into two exercises Socratus conducted over the last few months; we will be covering these two in greater detail in the next two weeks.

Climate Citizenship with Vaagdhara

India’s quest for dignity and prosperity will largely coincide with humanity’s response to climate change. We have a large population that is young and mostly poor. Many Indians await prosperity. This India of the future is yet to be built. However, the engines of India’s growth are deeply embedded in the carbon economy. Neither India nor the world has the luxury of following that path.

"Climate Citizenship" is our name for the cluster of ideas and actions that are necessary for such a deep and just reimagination and transformation of societies across the world, including measures for innovation, adaptation and resilience.

Starting with India, our goal is to change climate discourse from a peripheral, elite policy debate to one that is visceral and central to addressing those societies’ futures. Climate Citizenship is particularly important in communities that are yet to see the benefits of our current (carbon-based) economic system.

In our recent partnership with Vaagdhara, an over 20-year-old grassroots organization working with indigenous Bhil communities of three states in India, we saw this Climate Citizenry come to life in a co-designed Citizen Jury format we named Jan Manch (The Citizen’s Stage). Vaagdhara works in 1000 villages across the western states of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh with 100,000 families. One hundred and four representatives of this community came together to deliberate, first with experts, then with their community and then amongst themselves, on the various aspects of the climate crisis in a day-long process and made a list of recommendations that they deemed fit to respond to this ongoing crisis.

Rural Agenda with Rural Voice

The agricultural sector in India is confronting a profound crisis, impacting the entire rural environment due to societal and environmental difficulties. This is happening despite noticeable advancements in infrastructure such as roads, sanitation, and mobile connectivity. The romanticized vision of a tranquil, pollution-free village where everyone is gainfully employed starkly contrasts with the actual state of rural life. Far from this ideal, many rural regions are still deprived of essential amenities such as consistent electricity, proper roads, potable water, quality education, and healthcare services. The local populace is enduring hardships, with agriculture becoming an increasingly unsustainable livelihood in terms of both income and social prestige. Additionally, rural residents are now confronting challenges traditionally associated with urban areas, including climate change, pollution, lifestyle-related diseases, joblessness, and substance abuse issues. This shift in rural dynamics marks a significant departure from past perceptions.

To understand these developments, Rural Voice and Socratus collaborated on a nationwide initiative called the 'Agenda for Rural India' to capture the challenges & aspirations of rural citizens. These interactions did not occur in metropolises like New Delhi, but at the grassroots level in smaller towns across five states: UttarPradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, TamilNadu, & Meghalaya. As you might imagine, each state has its own agricultural climate, economic capacity, and cropping practices. After engaging for six months with key stakeholders - including farmers' groups, civil society members, policymakers, and market intermediaries - Rural Voice and Socratus have a better sense of what rural citizens want. More in a couple of weeks, but if you’re in a hurry, you can read the full report here.