{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,16]],"date-time":"2026-06-16T02:52:37Z","timestamp":1781578357372,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,1]],"date-time":"2022-04-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1648771200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["New Media &amp; Society"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2022,4]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Although considered to be fixed sequence of computational procedures, the actual nature of algorithms emerges only in practice through its performative agency enacted within a network of human and non-human actors. In this article, I trace this agency in the everyday practices of the algorithmic system of welfare distribution, namely, the Aadhaar-enabled Public Distribution System (AePDS), through ethnographic fieldwork across three states in India. Conceptualising the AePDS as a programmed welfare system, I unpack its underlying assemblages to show that far from being objective technologies of governance, algorithmic sorting for targeted welfare is enacted in relation to a multitude of human actors, databases, machines, documents and shifting institutional contexts, in ways that are markedly different from its fixed computation properties. This mode of enquiry, I argue, makes the process of algorithmic enactment more transparent and comprehensible, which in turn will aid in better design and governance of such systems.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/14614448221079034","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,11]],"date-time":"2022-04-11T09:03:55Z","timestamp":1649667835000},"page":"887-902","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Programmed welfare: An ethnographic account of algorithmic practices in the public distribution system in India"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"24","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5444-3147","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bidisha","family":"Chaudhuri","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB), India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-14614448221079034","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1057\/9781137290755"},{"key":"bibr2-14614448221079034","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0162243915606523"},{"key":"bibr3-14614448221079034","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/2053951718819569"},{"key":"bibr4-14614448221079034","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/oso\/9780190493028.001.0001"},{"key":"bibr5-14614448221079034","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/00856401.2019.1598671"},{"key":"bibr6-14614448221079034","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/02681102.2020.1789037"},{"key":"bibr7-14614448221079034","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4135\/9789353287801.n8"},{"key":"bibr8-14614448221079034","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/2053951717726554"},{"key":"bibr9-14614448221079034","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/area.12579"},{"key":"bibr10-14614448221079034","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.3275130"},{"key":"bibr11-14614448221079034","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/2053951716665128"},{"issue":"50","key":"bibr12-14614448221079034","first-page":"51","volume":"52","author":"Dr\u00e8ze J","year":"2017","journal-title":"Economic & Political Weekly"},{"key":"bibr13-14614448221079034","volume-title":"Automating Inequality: How High-tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor","author":"Eubanks V","year":"2018"},{"key":"bibr14-14614448221079034","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3449114"},{"key":"bibr15-14614448221079034","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444809342738"},{"key":"bibr16-14614448221079034","unstructured":"Government of India (2014) Ministry of consumer affair, food and public distribution notification. 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