Colonialism, Empire, and Networks
1. I am interested in interrogating the reason behind Dourish’s characterization of specfically post-colonial computing. While I do not wish to suggest that each and every nation-state that has been colonized must remain so to some extent, I do wonder about the ways in which post-colonial computing may additionally function as a neo-colonial pursuit. Borrowing from Fanon, I’d like to consider how even a program that gives laptops to children simultaneously functions to instill particular dependencies and create a potential labor pool. While it does seem that the practice of jugaad functions to shift the power dynamics Fanon cites, I am still not entirely comfortable with the idea of a post- moment.
2.As I’ve just finished reading Wellman and Rainie’s Networked, I’m wondering about the ways in which sovereignty, empire, and networked individualism connect. What is the relationship between networks and empire? Do networks rather than group dynamics allow for the growth of empire or is it perhaps the other way around?
3. Finally, how do mobile media, ubiquitous computing, and asynchronicity change how we read the shift from nations/imperialism to empire? While it seems to make perfect sense that international connectivity and transnational flows (or carvings out) of capital, information, and bodies would necessitate empire (think Google as empire), but is this shift too easy and too clear? That is, is it possible that nationalism and imperialism are not nearly as dead as we think but we simply can’t see it?
Definitions
Body: A node in the network
Place: The specification of space, achieved via one’s place in a networked community