Bureaucratic Technologies and Political Subjects: Records in Indian Police Procedure and Corporate Customer Service

In 2013, the Indian state of Punjab contracted with a corporation to operate a new police phone helpline. The corporation call centre not only electronically logged complaints, but also monitored, directed and reported police responses to them. We can see in this arrangement two parallel tensions.Th...

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Published inContributions to Indian sociology Vol. 57; no. 3; pp. 215 - 247
Main Author Hull, Matthew S.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New Delhi, India SAGE Publications 01.10.2023
Sage Publications India Private Ltd
Subjects
Archives & records
Bureaucracy
Companies
Customer services
Police
India
police
electronic documents
bureaucracy
customer service
India
corporations
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN0069-9659
0973-0648
DOI10.1177/00699659241229355

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Abstract In 2013, the Indian state of Punjab contracted with a corporation to operate a new police phone helpline. The corporation call centre not only electronically logged complaints, but also monitored, directed and reported police responses to them. We can see in this arrangement two parallel tensions.The first tension is between two different forms of human and technological mediation: the paper-based records of police and the voice and electronic database records of the call centre. This parallels a tension between two constructions of a political subject in bureaucratic practices: (a) the first requires that a person be represented by an authoritative official of the state and is codified in police law, and (b) the second, enacted in customer service practices, requires that a person represent him or herself, that is, with minimal agential involvement of another person.
AbstractList In 2013, the Indian state of Punjab contracted with a corporation to operate a new police phone helpline. The corporation call centre not only electronically logged complaints, but also monitored, directed and reported police responses to them. We can see in this arrangement two parallel tensions.The first tension is between two different forms of human and technological mediation: the paper-based records of police and the voice and electronic database records of the call centre. This parallels a tension between two constructions of a political subject in bureaucratic practices: (a) the first requires that a person be represented by an authoritative official of the state and is codified in police law, and (b) the second, enacted in customer service practices, requires that a person represent him or herself, that is, with minimal agential involvement of another person.
Author Hull, Matthew S.
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SubjectTerms Archives & records
Bureaucracy
Companies
Customer services
Police
Title Bureaucratic Technologies and Political Subjects: Records in Indian Police Procedure and Corporate Customer Service
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