| Infrastructure Type | Descriptiona |
Control point for access to or useb For example, identify the owner, regulator, manager, etc. as appropriate |
Open Source, Open Access, or Public Resource/Utilityc | Proprietaryc | How heavily used?d | Reliabilityd | Satisfaction for Userd | Ethical concerns (known or possible) | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Land infrastructure For example, properties ceded, unceded, public, private, etc. Include only principal land infrastructures. |
|
|
Not Applicable | Yes | 10 | 9 | 10 | The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the reliability of the office space as it had to be shut down during the lockdown periods. | |
|
Materials infrastructure For example, notable common or rare extracted or other materials used in research, production, and communication. Break down by notable materials used in devices or tools if appropriate. |
Key materials used for working on this chapter include: Materials in Laptops
The Macbook Air uses recycled aluminum in the enclosure, recycled tin in the solder of the main logic board, and recycled plastic in various components of the laptop. More details can be seen here: https://www.apple.com/environment/pdf/products/notebooks/13-inch_MacBookAir_PER_Nov2020.pdf. Materials in Mobile Phones
Some of the raw materials used in a smartphone are aluminium and polycarbonate plastic in the casing, copper in the circuitry, gold in connectors, Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) for various structural components and accessories, Gorilla Glass for screens, neodymium in speakers, lithium in batteries, silicon in integrated circuits (chips), and ceramics. For further details, https://cacermdi.ca/2024/05/21787/. Materials used for notetaking, research analysis, and visual conceptualization
Some of the materials used through notebooks, pens, pencils, sticky notes include wood, graphite, plastic, ink. Materials in office furniture
This comprises of particle board and paint used in table, and a metal frame and foam cushions in chair, metal and plastic used in white board. |
Not Applicable | Yes | 10 | 8 | 9 | The ethical concerns include the environmental impact of materials and related processes being used. The extraction and manufacturing could also have a social impact in terms of labour. | ||
|
Energy infrastructure For example, principal energy sources and infrastructure used in research, production, and communication |
|
Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESCOM) | Yes | Yes | 8 | 9 | 10 | Environmental impact of energy consumption is the key ethical concern. | |
|
Transportation infrastructure For example, private or public transportation needed for daily or research trips |
Cabs were occasionally used for the commute to CIS office for meetings and discussions. | Private owned ride-hailing companies | Not Applicable | Yes | 5 | 9 | 9 | The ethical concern again is the environmental impact of vehicular emissions. There are also social concerns related to labour in terms of fair pay and working conditions. | |
|
Architectural infrastructure For example, buildings, labs, rooms |
|
Private owner of the rented property | Not Applicable | Yes | 9 | 9 | 8 | ||
|
Civic, community, national, or regional infrastructure For example, provided by cities, communities, governments, etc. |
Roads used for transportation, and pavements for walking to routinely commute to office. | The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in Bengaluru city, Karnataka state, and the government of Karnataka are the points of control. | Yes | Not Applicable | 7 | 7 | 8 | ||
|
Institutional infrastructure For example, equipment, services, and “overhead” or “indirect cost recovery” items for grants to universities |
The CIS office internet, printer, stationery, utilities, and pantry were used in the process of producing this research. | CIS, a non-profit organisation in Bengaluru, India. | Yes | Not Applicable | 8 | 8 | 9 | ||
|
Labor infrastructure For example, type and amount of labor from collaborators, staff, research assistants; include any attributes that seem important, such as unrecognized, unpaid, low-paid, outsourced, or other attributes of labor |
|
Not Applicable | Not Applicable | 6 | 10 | 10 | Some of the ethical concerns here are the unfair pay and lack of benefits for domestic workers. | ||
|
Research-content infrastructure For example, physical libraries and archives, online research materials, shadow libraries, etc. |
|
Point of control are publications, research aggregators. | Yes | Yes | 9 | 7 | 7 | The primary ethical concern was data collection by various portals and websites. | |
|
Tools infrastructure For example, principal analog tools and digital tools, scripts, or protocols used for research, writing, communication, production (excluding high-performance computing, for which see below) |
Analog tools
Computers
Used for interviews, recording, and internal communication
Operating system
Word processors
Spreadsheet tools
Image and graphics editing tools
Email client
Chat Tool
Approximately 80% of the listed tools are proprietary. |
Personal point of control and access. | Not Applicable | Yes | 9 | 9 | 9 | ||
|
Networked Platforms infrastructure For example, major networked or cloud platforms used for research, storage, analysis, sharing, communication, publication—Google Drive, Dropbox, AWS, etc. (excluding high-performance computing, for which see below) |
Storage
Productivity software in cloud
Collaboration platforms and services
Social media
|
Control points are with the platform providers. Intermediary control points for platforms used on institutional subscriptions are with the research institution. | Not Applicable | Yes | 9 | 9 | 9 | ||
|
High-performance computing infrastructure Here defined expansively to include the use not just of supercomputers and computer clusters or grids but any high-performance computing infrastructure or special GPU and other processors exceeding the capabilities of an individual workstation, laptop, or server. |
None | Not Applicable | Not Applicable | ||||||
| Other infrastructure | Not Applicable | Not Applicable |
This infrastructure manifest was completed by Saumyaa Naidu and reports on Chapter 16, “Online Feminist Publishing and Content Creation as Feminist Infrastructure in India.”