Performing Technocapitalism: The Politics and Affects of Postcolonial Technology Entrepreneurship in Kenya

by Alev Coban

Overview

In Kenya, technology entrepreneurs and makers have to employ their work and emotions in order to re-script their peripheral positionalities within technocapitalism and make Kenya a place for technology development. Based on ethnographic research in makerspaces and co-working spaces in Nairobi, Alev Coban argues that postcolonial technology entrepreneurship is neoliberal and inherently political work. Technology developers, narratives, prototypes, and digital fabrication tools unite to achieve ambiguous Kenyan futures of technocapitalist market integration and decolonial emancipation in order to foster national well-being and disentangle Kenya from exploitative global structures.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783837667073
Publication date:	05/28/2024
Series:	Social and Cultural Geography
Pages:	298
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.86(h) x (d)

About the Author

Alev Coban (Dr.) is a feminist and digital geographer. She worked as a research assistant and lecturer at the Department of Human Geography at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt. She studied African Development Studies of Geography, Law in Africa and Human Geography in Bayreuth and Frankfurt and Design Thinking at the Hasso-Plattner-Institute in Potsdam. Her research interests include Feminist and Postcolonial Science and Technology Studies, Affect and Care Theories, Digital Work, Emancipatory Technologies, Makerspaces, East Africa and Ethnography.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter 1
Contents 5
Acknowledgements 9
Technical Remarks 11
Chapter 1 Introduction: The Postcolonial Making of Technology 13
Chapter 2 The Politics of Postcolonial Technology Entrepreneurship 47
Storytelling: Affective Promises and Performances about Technology 77
Chapter 3 The Normativity of Kenya's Tech Story 89
Chapter 4 Tangible Tech Stories - The Embodied Performances of Visitor Tours 113
Chapter 5 Writing Media Stories - The Socio-Technical Care Work of Storytelling 129
Chapter 6 Marketing Poverty - The Conservatism of Social Impact Technologies 139
Part I Conclusion: Technocapitalism - An Affective Economy of Promises and Performances 169
Making: The Careful and Calculative Manufacturing of Professional Products 177
Chapter 7 Hustle - The Making of Technologies in Kenya 189
Chapter 8 Love - The Careful Making of Technologies 201
Chapter 9 Fear - The Calculative Making of Technologies 219
Chapter 10 Resisting - Incalculable and Unloved Working Conditions 235
Part II Conclusion: Technocapitalism's Responsibilization to Calculate and Care (for Liberating Products) 245
Chapter 11 Conclusion: Performing Technocapitalism 249
References 263