"The machine to aspire to: The computer in rural south India" is a nice article in First Monday by Joyojeet Pal. I've put the abstract below and you can find it at http://www.firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3... Abstract: This study examined the perception of technology from the frame of aspiration in rural India. We argue here that the idea of technology as a critical part of modernity has been deeply tied to India’s discourse of development, and that this was in turn a portrayal of technology in a range of outlets in the public sphere. In villages of rural south India, we found an environment of great expectations from technology to reduce poverty and open urban opportunities, including from those who had never used a computer before. Specifically in schools, where this research was conducted, we found that computers played a much larger role than just as a delivery mechanism for digital educational material since they represented an aspirational artifact to children and parents alike. With historically low performance records at public schools, the computer frequently has been seen as a device offering a cure to systemic educational problems. Children, in part imbibing a discourse of technology from their own parents and media, have seen the computer as a critical part of their schooling experience. The device, and its mastery, then became an affirmation of pecking order among children themselves, and influenced the way that they interacted with fellow students. Joyojeet has been doing some deep thinking in this space for some time. If you like this article, it'd be a good idea to also check out "My Child Will Be Respected": Parental Perspectives on Computers in Rural India at http://tier.cs.berkeley.edu/docs/Parent-final.pdf. Joyojeet is on this list and I know he'd love to hear what you all think...