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From Pessimism to Promise
A radical paradigm shift in the way we think about AI and tech, taking hope and inspiration from the aspirational users of new technologies around the world. When it comes to tech, the mainstream headlines are bleak: Algorithms control and oppress. AI will destroy democracy and our social fabric, and possibly even drive us to extinction. While legitimate concerns drive these fears, we need to equally account for the fact that tech affords young people something incredibly valuable—a rare space for self-actualization. In From Pessimism to Promise, award-winning author Payal Arora explains that, outside the West, where most of the world’s youth reside, there is a significant different outl...
The Next Billion Users
Why do citizens of states with strict surveillance care so little about their digital privacy? Why do Brazilians eschew geo-tagging on social media? What drives young Indians to friend “foreign” strangers on Facebook and give “missed calls” to people? Payal Arora answers these questions and many more about the internet’s next billion users.
The Transsion Approach
How do we explain China’s tech rise in Africa? As Africa’s top phone seller, the Shenzhen-based company Transsion has profoundly shaped the continent’s digital transformation by providing affordable yet feature-rich mobile phones for the economically disadvantaged. Miao Lu draws on rich fieldwork in China and Ghana to delve into the company’s operations and growing influence. Critiquing technology transfer, Lu focuses on design, marketing, and repair to illustrate the multi-layered technology translations between China and Ghana. Borrowing the metaphor of deep ploughing, Lu examines the rural-centric and lower-class–oriented approach of translating mobile technology. Transsion challenges the cultural imagination of big tech. But the company is also evolving into a regional power that’s adept at marginalizing small players and increasing local dependence. Lu’s analysis explores the complexity that Shenzhen can act as Silicon Valley’s “South” and Africa’s “North” simultaneously. The middle space created by Transsion bridges globalization from above and below, which opens the door to new possibilities and inequalities.
Smart Leading and Parenting of Teenage Kids in the Digital Era
The physical features of teenage kids change to catch up with their brain circuits ready to take on the pre-historic hunter-gatherer roles. The goal: resource mobilisation for survival. Resource mobilisation would not only help them survive but also to earn them invisible rewards by way of positive brain chemicals and electricity. However, the post-industrialisation scenario has been quite different. Teenagers get groomed via skill- or academic development to take on economic roles latest by their mid-twenties. Such grooming strategy does not always lead to the invisible rewards which they would have earned had they been playing their pre-historic hunter-gatherer roles. Most interestingly, t...
Political Automation
In Political Automation, Eduardo Albrecht explores this question in various domains, including policing, national security, and international peacekeeping. Drawing upon interviews with rights activists, Albrecht examines popular attempts to interact with this novel form of algorithmic governance so far. He then proposes the idea of a Third House, a virtual chamber that legislates exclusively on AI in government decision-making and is based on principles of direct democracy, unlike existing upper and lower houses that are representative. An in-depth look at how political automation impacts the lives of citizens, this book addresses the challenges at the heart of automation in public policy decision-making and offers a way forward.
Collaborative Research in the Datafied Society
The influence of austerity measures and neoliberal ideologies has sparked discussions about the relevance and value of academic institutions, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. Universities are redirecting academic focus towards greater societal engagement. This book argues that academia has much to gain by moving beyond its institutional walls, in our case, by doing data work with stakeholders and civil society. This collaborative work benefits citizens in our democratic, open societies and advances our knowledge economies., Collaborative Research in the Datafied Society offers a combination of theoretical insights, practical methodologies, and case studies, showcasing the ...
Digital Work in the Planetary Market
Understanding the embedded and disembedded, material and immaterial, territorialized and deterritorialized natures of digital work. Many jobs today can be done from anywhere. Digital technology and widespread internet connectivity allow almost anyone, anywhere, to connect to anyone else to communicate and exchange files, data, video, and audio. In other words, work can be deterritorialized at a planetary scale. This book examines the implications for both work and workers when work is commodified and traded beyond local labor markets. Going beyond the usual “world is flat” globalization discourse, contributors look at both the transformation of work itself and the wider systems, networks...
Xiaomi
There may be no hotter company on the planet than Xiaomi. In less than a decade, the company has gone from being a Chinese start-up to a global player in the smartphone market. Driven by the philosophy of 'Innovation for all', Xiaomi has a cult fan following; after all, it offers high-end features at relatively low prices. Besides, it does not only sell phones. It also sells earphones, bluetooth speakers, televisions, fitness bands, weighing scales, power banks and air purifiers, among other products. Each one of them offering the best possible value for money. How did a small Chinese start-up become so big in a matter of years? How has it managed a cult following in such a short time period when a company like Apple took decades? What's the secret behind Xiaomi's success? Such are the answers this book will provide at length.
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