De-Sanitising the ‘New Normal’: The Lived Experiences of ‘Digital Re-search’ in context of the COVID-19 India

Abstract

This paper examines the lived experiences and intricacies of the ‘new normal’ and digital research among social researchers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic India and its North-East Indian state of Assam. While the pandemic erupted a crisis around the globe, the developing nation of India encountered its bitter effects in the form of the lack of potent infrastructures to contain it. Besides, swift propagation of digital research by educational institutions emerged as a workable alternative for some scholars but posed graver consequences for others belonging to marginalised groups. Reflecting upon this, three themes emerged; the digital monolith, voices and its checkpoints, spacing and (de)spacing. The themes portrayed the complexities in the practises of research, the critical reflexive spaces of research actors and their social categorisation such as gender and class within the reality of digital research. Lastly, the themes paved the concept of ‘academic non-membership’ as a situation where researchers are often excluded from the nexus of academic communities on one hand and are powerless in conforming to digital research standards and technical institutional orders on the other hand