Margarita Maria’s research aims to study the intricacies of state-society relations in poverty governance settings when technology takes a leading role.

Margarita Maria Rodriguez Morales is a 6th-year PhD candidate in Sociology and Public Policy, and she expects to graduate in Fall 2027. Her dissertation ethnographically explores the design and implementation of Sisbén, the algorithmic decision-making system for social program allocation in Colombia. Margarita Maria examines how Sisbén reconfigures specific understandings of poverty while (re)producing societal values, and she is particularly interested in the system’s differentiated effects on women. Because households are Sisbén’s primary unit of analysis, the system reinforces liberal patriarchal elites’ visions of how households should function and conform. Specifically, it promotes the idea that women’s lives and households should accommodate and fit within the state’s gaze. Accordingly, Margarita Maria’s research aims to study the intricacies of state-society relations in poverty governance settings when technology takes a leading role.

On a CEW+ Fellowship, Margarita Maria traveled to Colombia for a project entitled “Classifying the poor, shaping how women live: The Techno-politics of Poverty Targeting in Colombia.” Margarita Maria performed ethnographic fieldwork where she conducted interviews with national-level technocrats and bureaucrats in Bogotá and collected documents from the national operation of Sisbén. She also performed a case study of regional bureaucracies that interact with citizens in their respective town offices in the Valle del Cauca region. Because this research is part of Margarita Maria’s doctoral dissertation project, she sees it as a direct advancement toward fulfilling her educational and career goals. She notes that this project connects her theoretical interests with her interest in the design of responsible policymaking tools. Margarita Maria deeply believes in the power of academic research to act as a bridge that connects interdisciplinary and quantitative-qualitative dialogues with state agencies.

CEW+ commends Margarita Maria for her efforts to remove barriers and advocate for Colombian women and names her a Gutsy Broad Fellow.