The Politics of Technology in Africa
Communication, Development, and Nation-Building in Ethiopia

Gagliardone explores the relationship between politics, development and technological adoption in Africa for scholars of development studies, African studies and political science.

Iginio Gagliardone (Author)

9781316629246, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 May 2019

189 pages, 5 b/w illus.
23 x 15.3 x 1 cm, 0.4 kg

'For anyone interested in the complexities and contradictions of ICT for development in Africa, this book offers a fresh approach to the topic. I recommend this book to researchers engaged in national or comparative research as it offers a strong empirical model for how to conduct this kind of research without losing sight of the larger implications.' Melissa Tully, Information Technologies and International Development

As more Africans get online, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly hailed for their transformative potential. Yet, the fascination for the possibilities of promoting more inclusive forms of development in the information age have obfuscated the reality of the complex negotiations among political and economic actors who are seeking to use technology in their competition for power. Building on over ten years of research in Ethiopia, Iginio Gagliardone investigates the relationship between politics, development, and technological adoption in Africa's second most populous country and its largest recipient of development aid. The emphasis the book places on the 'technopolitics' of ICTs, and on their ability to embody and enact political goals, offers a strong and empirically grounded counter-argument to prevalent approaches to the study of technology and development that can be applied to other cases in Africa and beyond.

Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. Technopolitics, communication technologies and development
3. Avoiding politics: international and local discourses on ICTs
4. A quest for hegemony: the use of ICTs in support of the Ethiopian national project
5. Ethiopia's developmental and sovereign technopolitical regimes
6. Resisting alternative technopolitical regimes
7. ICT for development, human rights and the changing geopolitical order
8. Conclusion
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Technology: general issues [TB], Development economics & emerging economies [KCM], International economics [KCL], Economic growth [KCG], Regional government [JPR], Politics & government [JP], African history [HBJH]