Silicon Elsewhere: Nairobi, Global China, and the Promise of Techno-Capital
A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.

Heralded as Africa's "Silicon Savannah"—a cradle of innovation—Nairobi has become a technology and innovation capital for Kenya and for the continent at large. With a national strategy that has prioritized digital technology for the last two decades, many Chinese digital champions, smaller startups, and investors have since chosen Nairobi as their African landing pad. Mapping the interface between Nairobi's innovation scene and China's digital presence there, Silicon Elsewhere tells a unique story of ingenuity and adaptation, failure and speculation, and hopefulness and pragmatism. Andrea Pollio's ethnography draws on interviews with cautious venture capitalists, renegade entrepreneurs, dedicated bureaucrats, and ambitious data scientists to explore the competing meanings of contemporary techno-capital. Moving between leafy coworking spaces and the temperature-controlled rooms of brand-new data centers, Pollio locates Nairobi among the experimental capitals, not peripheries, of technological change in the early twenty-first century.
1147271382
Silicon Elsewhere: Nairobi, Global China, and the Promise of Techno-Capital
A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.

Heralded as Africa's "Silicon Savannah"—a cradle of innovation—Nairobi has become a technology and innovation capital for Kenya and for the continent at large. With a national strategy that has prioritized digital technology for the last two decades, many Chinese digital champions, smaller startups, and investors have since chosen Nairobi as their African landing pad. Mapping the interface between Nairobi's innovation scene and China's digital presence there, Silicon Elsewhere tells a unique story of ingenuity and adaptation, failure and speculation, and hopefulness and pragmatism. Andrea Pollio's ethnography draws on interviews with cautious venture capitalists, renegade entrepreneurs, dedicated bureaucrats, and ambitious data scientists to explore the competing meanings of contemporary techno-capital. Moving between leafy coworking spaces and the temperature-controlled rooms of brand-new data centers, Pollio locates Nairobi among the experimental capitals, not peripheries, of technological change in the early twenty-first century.
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Silicon Elsewhere: Nairobi, Global China, and the Promise of Techno-Capital

Silicon Elsewhere: Nairobi, Global China, and the Promise of Techno-Capital

by Andrea Pollio
Silicon Elsewhere: Nairobi, Global China, and the Promise of Techno-Capital

Silicon Elsewhere: Nairobi, Global China, and the Promise of Techno-Capital

by Andrea Pollio

eBook

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Available for Pre-Order. This item will be released on January 13, 2026

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Overview

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.

Heralded as Africa's "Silicon Savannah"—a cradle of innovation—Nairobi has become a technology and innovation capital for Kenya and for the continent at large. With a national strategy that has prioritized digital technology for the last two decades, many Chinese digital champions, smaller startups, and investors have since chosen Nairobi as their African landing pad. Mapping the interface between Nairobi's innovation scene and China's digital presence there, Silicon Elsewhere tells a unique story of ingenuity and adaptation, failure and speculation, and hopefulness and pragmatism. Andrea Pollio's ethnography draws on interviews with cautious venture capitalists, renegade entrepreneurs, dedicated bureaucrats, and ambitious data scientists to explore the competing meanings of contemporary techno-capital. Moving between leafy coworking spaces and the temperature-controlled rooms of brand-new data centers, Pollio locates Nairobi among the experimental capitals, not peripheries, of technological change in the early twenty-first century.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780520413092
Publisher: University of California Press
Publication date: 01/13/2026
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 238

About the Author

Andrea Pollio is Assistant Professor of Political and Economic Geography at the Department of Urban and Regional Studies of the Polytechnic of Turin, Italy, and Research Associate at the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Table of Contents

Contents
 
Preface
Lists of Abbreviations, Chinese Pinyin Terms, and Kiswahili and Sheng Terms
 
Introduction: The Silicon Savannah's Beijing Connection
1. Silicon States of Development
2. Machines of Data Frontiers
3. Platforms of Algorithmic Suturing
4. Microgeopolitics of Standards
5. Labors of Investability
6. Ethnographies of Techno-Optimism
Coda: Thinking Technology Elsewhere, and Otherwise
 
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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