[Commlist] new book: 'Technocolonialism: when technology for good is harmful'

New book
'Technocolonialism: When Technology for Good is Harmful 
<https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=technocolonialism-when-technology-for-good-is-harmful--9781509559022>'. 


Mirca Madianou

 From the back cover:
With over 300 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, and 
with emergencies and climate disasters becoming more common, AI and big 
data are being championed as forces for good and as solutions to the 
complex challenges of the aid sector.
This book argues, however, that digital innovation engenders new forms 
of violence and entrenches power asymmetries between the global South 
and North. Madianou develops a new concept, technocolonialism, to 
capture how the convergence of digital developments with humanitarian 
structures, state power and market forces reinvigorates and reshapes 
colonial legacies. The concept of technocolonialism shifts the attention 
to the constitutive role that digital infrastructures, data and AI play 
in accentuating inequities between aid providers and people in need.
Drawing on ten years of research on the uses of digital technologies in 
humanitarian operations, the book examines a range of practices: from 
the normalization of biometric technologies to experimentation in 
refugee camps, which are treated as laboratories for technological 
pilots. In so doing, the book opens new ground in the fields of 
humanitarianism and critical AI studies, and in the debates in 
postcolonial studies, by highlighting the fundamental role of digital 
technologies in reworking colonial genealogies.

‘A rich and radical rethinking of digital humanitarianism from the 
perspective of postcolonial theory. Superbly evidenced and argued, this 
is a must-read that will define critical scholarship on humanitarianism 
as well as media and communications for years to come.’
*Lilie Chouliaraki, London School of Economics and Political Science*
‘/Technocolonialism/ gets at the very core of how humanitarianism is 
being redefined in the global context when AI technologies and 
datafication prevail. With analytical mastery, Madianou reveals the 
multiple hierarchies embedded in this subject. A must-read and timely 
intervention.’
*Radha Sarma Hegde, New York University*
‘Madianou’s groundbreaking work…sheds light on the tangible 
repercussions of technocolonialism on the most vulnerable of 
populations, making it indispensable reading for understanding the 
contemporary landscape of global aid.’
*Cheryll Soriano, De La Salle University, Manila*
Mirca Madianou is Professor in the Department of Media, Communications 
and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London.

https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=technocolonialism-when-technology-for-good-is-harmful--9781509559022 

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