Copyright by Preeti Mudliar 2013 The Dissertation Committee for Preeti Mudliar Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: The Curiosities of Participation: A Community’s Practice of Participatory Governance Committee: Larry D. Browning, Supervisor Dawna I. Ballard Keri K. Stephens Brenda Berkelaar Van Pelt Paromita Sanyal The Curiosities of Participation: A Community’s Practice of Participatory Governance by Preeti Mudliar, M.Comm.Studies., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2013 Dedication To India Where the rhythms of daily life both frustrate and exhilarate and inspire what I do. To The United States of America Thanks for everything – but above all, the opportunity to learn and to grow. Acknowledgements Starting at the very beginning, as is apt, I go back to the campus of the University of Pune and its sylvan serenity that houses the Department of Communication Studies (DCS). The seeds of structuring my curiosity about anything and everything into a more productive force called ‘research’ began here. To my teachers here – Vishram Dhole, Dr. K.R. Sanap, Samar Nakhate, M.Y. Thote, and Dr. E.V. Chitnis, I owe immense thanks for the foundations that they laid. It is a composite of thoughts and experiences both in and out of the classroom and forms part of much that I carry as valuable today. Any institute can take the cream of the crop and send them on their way to success, but it is the institute that takes in the ones who deserve a chance and allows them a fair shot at their dreams that needs to be lauded. DCS is that school. It gave me the chance to explore and the confidence to tread on to newer paths. My journey to the United States would not have been possible without the support I received from DCS both in my student and professional life. I write this acknowledgment to my Ph.D. dissertation today that caps the time spent in graduate school as a proud alumnus of this institute. Staying with DCS, I would also like to thank my fellow student and colleague, Rohit Pawar for his invaluable friendship through my time there and after. As supportive members of the office staff, Satyen More, Lokhande mama, and Nalawade mama were ever willing to print and stamp the many recommendation letters that Dr. Sanap would write for me with an enthusiasm that was deeply touching. I want to thank them for all their assistance in making it possible for me to come to the US. The other place in the University of Pune where I spent time was the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies. Here, Dr. Shrikant Paranjpe was encouraging of the many aspirations that I have discussed with him. My colleague in this department, Yogesh Thekade has always been v willing to extend a helping hand whenever I needed it. Acknowledgments are also due to another friend, Vinay Kumar for being an initial anchor in the bewildering process of applying, getting to, and surviving the early despair of graduate school in an alien land. At the University of Texas, Austin, I owe immense gratitude to my advisor – Prof. Larry Browning. I had the privilege of being his TA for four whole semesters. Each day of TA’ing over these two years has been full of stories and narratives crafted by a consummate storyteller whom I had the pleasure of witnessing in action. Thank you, Prof. Browning, for always being supportive of my ideas and my writing. You gave me the confidence to succeed in the program when I questioned myself. Your patience and willingness to sit down and discuss my need to journey into contexts that I held dear is what made this dissertation possible. Thanks for always being enthusiastic about my many ideas. Thanks also for the delightful trip to Madras Pavilion to celebrate my defense and for gamely braving the tangy spiciness of the fiery sambhar. You are a real mensch and your generosity of spirit is inspiring. To Dr. Keri Stephens, I owe thanks a thousand times over. Keri is about empathy and second chances without ever making it even remotely seem that way. Thank you, for being one of my most valued allies through my stint at UT. Every paper I ever submitted to you was always returned with extensive feedback on how it could be improved. Every time I have walked into your office with something weighing on my mind, I have always left with a better perspective. I can only hope that I have always managed to convey how much it has all meant to me. To Dr. Dawna Ballard, I owe thanks for offering one of the most interesting seminars in my coursework. Not only did she bring alive the many fascinating aspects of Time, but she also introduced me to the communities of practice literature which so beautifully worked as a theoretical construct to hold my dissertation in vi place. Thank you, Dr. Ballard for sitting down with me and explaining the ways in which I could improve my work and for the continued encouragement thereafter. Dr. Brenda Berkelaar always has a ready smile and encouraging words to offer. She helped me make sense of my methodologies and offered suggestions on refining them with valuable literature recommendations. To my outside committee member, Dr. Paromita Sanyal, who not only agreed to serve on my committee, but also willingly responded to my questions, I am grateful. The course of my time at UT ran smoothly because of everything that Susan Corbin, Deanna Matthews, and Jennifer Betancourt do. I could not have asked for more kinder and supportive administrative staff. Deanna was a backroom ally who quietly orchestrated many acts of support that I am very grateful for. Jennifer always has a warm smile and welcome words ready when anyone walks into the office. Susan has been the best sensor in safely navigating administrative time bombs that litter the paths of harried and absent-minded graduate students. Her counseling sessions on writing saw me through my final dissertation stage. I have benefited from many long conversations where she has listened patiently to my struggles and made me see the light. Susan helped ushered me into the land of the free. It is a land where when asked about the dissertation, one can finally say, “Done!” The data collection for this dissertation would not have been possible without Sumedh Gurjar and Pradnya Dasarwar at YASHADA, Pune. Not only did YASHADA offer me an incredible opportunity to travel through the length and breadth of rural Maharashtra to observe the processes of local self-governance, but it also made it possible for me to experience first hand the many ways in which governments act to push social change agendas and the immense challenges that they face in its execution. vii YASHADA facilitated my stay in villages and introduced me to families who were unstinting in their generosity in hosting me at their homes and making my stay comfortable. In particular, I would like to thank the residents of Akkalkua, Killemachindargad, Ateet, Nagalla, and Chandgad in the state of Maharashtra for all their assistance and support in bringing to me experiences that made this dissertation possible. For being a supportive and significant influence on my professional interests and development, I would like to thank Bill Thies and Jonathan Donner at Microsoft Research India. Bill offered me the opportunity to work on a project that combined technology, journalism, and participation all at once and it has proved to be a major force in what I now study. Collaborating with Jonathan meant that I was exposed to processes of thoughtful analysis and a stunning elegance in writing that pushed me to be more articulate with my own arguments. I owe them both grateful thanks for the many opportunities they brought to me. I also had the immense pleasure of collaborating with Joyojeet Pal at the University of Michigan’s iSchool on research activities of the extra- curricular kind. Joyojeet, a fellow film aficionado, catalyzed my cinephilia into a coherent form deserving of a research paper. His insistence that we examine Tamil films pushed me to immerse myself in a language that I did not know too well even though it was ostensibly my mother tongue. Joyojeet has also been a valuable sounding board for ideas and very generous with time whenever I have sought him out for advice. Most importantly he assured me that, “Rajni sir’s promise. It will all be alright.” The experience pushed me enough to take Tamil classes in my last semester at UT and I can now flaunt a degree of literacy in the language that I have always held dear to my heart, but could not read or write. Gratitude and many thanks to Dr. Sankaran Radhakrishnan at UT’s Department of Asian Studies for introducing me to the beauty of viii my mother tongue. Dr. Radhakrishnan’s deep love for the language translates into an amazingly fun learning experience for his students. His willingness to coach me even outside classroom hours was something I am truly grateful for. I greatly value the time spent in his class that equipped me with rudimentary skills in reading and writing Tamil. I only wish I had the time to take more of his classes and continue my learning. My time at UT would not have been half as smooth without the support of my dear friends.