Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 14) – Nnenna Nwakanma on “Working WITH, not FOR”

This is the fourteenth episode of our podcast based on the vignettes contributed by friends and colleagues to Tim Unwin’s new book Digital Technologies in an Unequal World: An Empancipatory Manfesto. In it, Nnenna Nwakanma tells the story of her experiences having asked to visit a “school that the media has touted as the ‘model’” of good use of digital tech in education in a West African country. As she notes, “I needed to see things for myself, where the rubber hits the road. I also refused any ‘official’ or ‘media-related’ accompaniment”. The vignette reports on the schocks she encountered when she visited. As she concludes “When are we going to stop working FOR stakeholders and start working WITH them?”

The full vignette can be read here.

All audio files relating to the book are also available on our podcast with a new episode every week.

Nnenna from the internet’ is a voice for systemic policy changes for development through open, rights-based and human-centred technology. She is a champion for empowering internet and information access, freedom of expression, open data, open government, and the open web. She was proclaimed as one of the 100 Most Influential Africans of 2021 (Côte d’Ivoire)

Full details of the book are available through the following links:

Order your copy direct from Routledge here

Other recent episodes

Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 20) – Dato’ Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi on “It’s about what technology can do for society” – ICT4D Collective » ICT4D

Sharil, from Malaysia, trained and practised as a lawyer, became a policy maker, went into corporate finance and then moved on to become a telco regulator and a trade negotiator. Thereafter, got involved in corporate restructuring, automotive, infrastructure and aviation, whilst dabbling in a spot of angel investing, startup mentoring, media and movie making. He … Continue reading Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 20) – Dato’ Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi on “It’s about what technology can do for society”
  1. Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 20) – Dato’ Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi on “It’s about what technology can do for society”
  2. Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 19) – Revi Sterling on “Retreads: Pushing New Rocks up New Hills”
  3. Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 18) – Paul Spiesberger on “Spinning Digital Cotton to Counter Digital Colonialism”
  4. Inclusão Digital num Mundo Desigual (Episódio 17) – Fernanda Scur sobre “A Tecnologia Digital e os Desbancarizados: A Pandemia da COVID no Brasil” (Áudio em português)
  5. Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 17) – Fernanda Scur on “Digital Tech and the Unbanked: The COVID Pandemic in Brazil” (English audio)

Leave a comment