Subversion, conversion, development : cross-cultural knowledge exchange and the politics of design / edited by James Leach and Lee Wilson.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Leach, James, 1969- editor.

Wilson, Lee, 1966- editor.

Series:

Infrastructures series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Information technology--Social aspects.

Information technology.

Technological innovations--Social aspects.

Technological innovations.

Community development--Case studies.

Community development.

Internet and Indigenous peoples.

Computers and civilization.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

viii, 257 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2014]

Summary:

This book explores alternative cultural encounters with and around information technologies. These encounters are alternative because they counter dominant, Western-oriented notions of media consumption; they include media practices as forms of cultural resistance and subversion, "DIY cultures," and other nonmainstream models of technology production. The contributors-leading thinkers in science and technology studies, anthropology, and software design-pay special attention to the specific inflections that different cultures and communities give to the value of knowledge. The richly detailed accounts presented here challenge the dominant view of knowledge as a neutral good -- information available for representation and encoding but separated from all social relations. The chapters examine specific cases in which the forms of knowledge and cross-cultural encounters are shaping technology use and development. They consider design, use, and reuse of technological tools, including databases, GPS devices, books, and computers, in locations that range from Australia and New Guinea to Germany and the United States. Book jacket.

Contents:

1. Anthropology, cross-cultural encounter, and the politics of design / James Leach and Lee Wilson

2. Liminal futures : poem for islands at the edge / Laura Watts

3. Freifunk : when technology and politics assemble into subversion / Gregers Petersen

4. Postcolonial databasing? Subverting old appropriations, developing new associations / Helen Verran and Michael Christie

5. Sacred books in a digital age : a cross-cultural look from the heart of Asia to South America / Hildegard Diemberger and Stephen Hugh-Jones

6. Redeploying technologies : ICT for greater agency and capacity for political engagement in the Kelabit Highlands / Poline Bala

7. Making the invisible visible : designing technology for nonliterate hunter-gatherers / Jerome Lewis

8. Assembling diverse knowledges : trails and storied spaces in time / David Turnbull and Wade Chambers

9. Structuring the social : software design / Alan F. Blackwell.

10. Design for X : prediction and the embeddedness (or not) of research in technology production / Dawn Nafus

11. Engaging interests / Marilyn Strathern

12. Subversion, conversion, development : imaginaries, knowledge forms, and the uses of ICTs / James Leach and Lee Wilson.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780262027168

026202716X

9780262525831

0262525836

OCLC:

858672612