Germaine Halegoua
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781479839216
- eISBN:
- 9781479829101
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479839216.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
The Digital City focuses on the interface of people, urban place, and the role that digital media play in placemaking endeavors. Critics have understood digital media as forces that alienate and ...
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The Digital City focuses on the interface of people, urban place, and the role that digital media play in placemaking endeavors. Critics have understood digital media as forces that alienate and disembed users from space and place. This book argues that the exact opposite processes are observable: many different actors are consciously and habitually using digital technologies to re-embed themselves within urban space. Five case studies from cities around the world illustrate the concept of “re-placeing” by showing how different populations employ urban broadband networks, social and locative media platforms, digital navigation technologies, smart cities, and creative placemaking initiatives to reproduce abstract urban spaces as inhabited places with deep meanings and emotional attachments. Through clear and accessible language and timely narratives of everyday urban life, the author argues that a sense of place is integral to understanding contemporary relationships with digital media while highlighting our own awareness of the places where we find ourselves and where our technologies find and place us. Through ethnographic and discourse analysis of everyday digital media practices and technologies, this book expands practical and theoretical understandings of the ways urban planners envision and plan connected cities, the role of urban communities in shaping and interpreting digital architectures, and the tales of the city produced through mobile and web-based platforms. Digital connectivity is reshaping the city and the ways we navigate through it and belong within it. How this happens and the types of places we produce within these networked environments are what this book addresses.Less
The Digital City focuses on the interface of people, urban place, and the role that digital media play in placemaking endeavors. Critics have understood digital media as forces that alienate and disembed users from space and place. This book argues that the exact opposite processes are observable: many different actors are consciously and habitually using digital technologies to re-embed themselves within urban space. Five case studies from cities around the world illustrate the concept of “re-placeing” by showing how different populations employ urban broadband networks, social and locative media platforms, digital navigation technologies, smart cities, and creative placemaking initiatives to reproduce abstract urban spaces as inhabited places with deep meanings and emotional attachments. Through clear and accessible language and timely narratives of everyday urban life, the author argues that a sense of place is integral to understanding contemporary relationships with digital media while highlighting our own awareness of the places where we find ourselves and where our technologies find and place us. Through ethnographic and discourse analysis of everyday digital media practices and technologies, this book expands practical and theoretical understandings of the ways urban planners envision and plan connected cities, the role of urban communities in shaping and interpreting digital architectures, and the tales of the city produced through mobile and web-based platforms. Digital connectivity is reshaping the city and the ways we navigate through it and belong within it. How this happens and the types of places we produce within these networked environments are what this book addresses.
Neriko Musha Doerr
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- July 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197571873
- eISBN:
- 9780197571910
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197571873.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Science, Technology and Environment
Digital disconnection is often considered a necessary condition for “authentic” experience of difference. However, this discourse others not only those whose lives are “authentically” experienced, ...
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Digital disconnection is often considered a necessary condition for “authentic” experience of difference. However, this discourse others not only those whose lives are “authentically” experienced, but also those who thrive on digital connection. Three cases illustrate this effect. First, the discourse of immersion prevalent in study abroad encourages students to “live like the locals”—“authentically”—by forgoing cell phones and the Internet. Second, educational farms provided college students on alternative break trips with simulations of life in poverty through digital disconnection to cultivate empathy toward them. Although meant to eliminate distraction, the digital disconnection in both cases also linked the life of Cultural Others and people in poverty with digital disconnection, othering them. Third, frictions on another alternative break trip pitted mainstream “outdoorsy” students seeking digital disconnection for “authentic” nature experience against “non-outdoorsy” students who enjoyed nature while digitally connected. This chapter investigates the othering effects of the discourse of digital disconnection and suggests ways to learn about difference with digital connectivity.Less
Digital disconnection is often considered a necessary condition for “authentic” experience of difference. However, this discourse others not only those whose lives are “authentically” experienced, but also those who thrive on digital connection. Three cases illustrate this effect. First, the discourse of immersion prevalent in study abroad encourages students to “live like the locals”—“authentically”—by forgoing cell phones and the Internet. Second, educational farms provided college students on alternative break trips with simulations of life in poverty through digital disconnection to cultivate empathy toward them. Although meant to eliminate distraction, the digital disconnection in both cases also linked the life of Cultural Others and people in poverty with digital disconnection, othering them. Third, frictions on another alternative break trip pitted mainstream “outdoorsy” students seeking digital disconnection for “authentic” nature experience against “non-outdoorsy” students who enjoyed nature while digitally connected. This chapter investigates the othering effects of the discourse of digital disconnection and suggests ways to learn about difference with digital connectivity.
Gordon Conway, Ousmane Badiane, and Katrin Glatzel
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501743887
- eISBN:
- 9781501744419
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501743887.003.0010
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter deals with digital technologies, both hardware and software, and how they can help increase agricultural production and food security in a sustainable fashion. Africa is going digital, ...
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This chapter deals with digital technologies, both hardware and software, and how they can help increase agricultural production and food security in a sustainable fashion. Africa is going digital, enabling millions of Africans to connect for the first time. The effect is to revolutionize the lives of African farmers—by overcoming isolation, by speeding up change, and by taking success to scale. Digital connectivity has enormous implications for agriculture and nutrition. It is already being used to disseminate information on nutrition and health, providing timely information on everything from weather predictions, crop selection, and pest control to management and finance. Technologies include the analysis of big data, using machine learning and blockchain technology applications that help to produce and analyze digital soil maps, to provide sophisticated insurance and faster breeding cycles for traditional African crops.Less
This chapter deals with digital technologies, both hardware and software, and how they can help increase agricultural production and food security in a sustainable fashion. Africa is going digital, enabling millions of Africans to connect for the first time. The effect is to revolutionize the lives of African farmers—by overcoming isolation, by speeding up change, and by taking success to scale. Digital connectivity has enormous implications for agriculture and nutrition. It is already being used to disseminate information on nutrition and health, providing timely information on everything from weather predictions, crop selection, and pest control to management and finance. Technologies include the analysis of big data, using machine learning and blockchain technology applications that help to produce and analyze digital soil maps, to provide sophisticated insurance and faster breeding cycles for traditional African crops.
Mahesh K. Joshi and J.R. Klein
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198827481
- eISBN:
- 9780191866388
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198827481.003.0020
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Political Economy
Is globalization under attack? The current geopolitical environment is indicating a shift towards protectionism, nationalism, and isolationism. The US elections and Brexit are a reflection of public ...
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Is globalization under attack? The current geopolitical environment is indicating a shift towards protectionism, nationalism, and isolationism. The US elections and Brexit are a reflection of public sentiments. It will be interesting to see how much the current rhetoric is able to dent globalization, which has become an integral part of our society because of technological interconnectedness. Globalization has been underway for centuries with trade, entertainment, cuisines, education, and politics. Today’s physical interconnectivity has been replaced by digital connectivity. There are more than 350 million cross-border e-commerce shoppers. In 2015 almost 200 million people were living away from their home country, and around 40 million were crossing borders for work. There are nearly 400 million international travelers every year.Less
Is globalization under attack? The current geopolitical environment is indicating a shift towards protectionism, nationalism, and isolationism. The US elections and Brexit are a reflection of public sentiments. It will be interesting to see how much the current rhetoric is able to dent globalization, which has become an integral part of our society because of technological interconnectedness. Globalization has been underway for centuries with trade, entertainment, cuisines, education, and politics. Today’s physical interconnectivity has been replaced by digital connectivity. There are more than 350 million cross-border e-commerce shoppers. In 2015 almost 200 million people were living away from their home country, and around 40 million were crossing borders for work. There are nearly 400 million international travelers every year.
