
This is the fifteenth 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, Nimmi Rangaswamy concludes that “What was once imagined as a shared, empowering infrastructure has become a personalised, pay-per-use playground — curated for binge and scroll rather than community or collective good. The Internet in India today is more a screen in the palm than a shared window. It entertains more than it empowers, and connects more to content than to community”.
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.
Nimmi is a Professor at the Kohli Centre on Intelligent Systems, IIIT, Hyderabad. She teaches on the society-technology interface, bringing an anthropological perspective to explore the impacts of AI. Her research in Human-Computer Interaction foregrounds local practices of technology diffusion and how communities engage with digital systems — through sharing, learning, training, and adaptation
Full details of the book are available through the following links:
- An overview
- What others are saying about the book
- Chapter summaries
- Draft of opening chapter
- Full drafts of all the 31 vignettes contributed by other leading researchers and practitioners
- Flyer about the book
Other recent episodes
Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 21) – Ettie Unwin on “Crafting a More Equitable Framework for Global Epidemiological Research Practice: Working With Not On” – ICT4D Collective » ICT4D
- Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 21) – Ettie Unwin on “Crafting a More Equitable Framework for Global Epidemiological Research Practice: Working With Not On”
- Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 20) – Dato’ Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi on “It’s about what technology can do for society”
- Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 19) – Revi Sterling on “Retreads: Pushing New Rocks up New Hills”
- Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 18) – Paul Spiesberger on “Spinning Digital Cotton to Counter Digital Colonialism”
- 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)