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Critical Zones of Technopower and Global Political Ecology

Platforms, Pathologies, and Plunder

Critical Zones of Technopower and Global Political Ecology cover

Critical Zones of Technopower and Global Political Ecology

Platforms, Pathologies, and Plunder

Description

This book delivers a sharp, wide-angle look at how technology and the global tech industry shape social, health, economic, and environmental realities across the world.
Peter C. Little shows that the power of electronics and Big Tech-from booming digital platforms to ever-growing streams of electronic waste-constitutes a political-ecological force that reshapes communities in both the Global North and South. Tracing everything from extractive mining and industrial pollution to rising inequalities, data-driven surveillance, platform-economy intrusions, and the expanding reach of Silicon Valley corporations, Little demonstrates why the political ecology of technology demands urgent attention.
Drawing on tech criticism, ethnographic case studies, and conceptual tools such as technocapital and technoprecarious political ecology, the book exposes the deep toxicity, precarity, and planetary politics embedded in global tech systems. Critical Zones of Technopower and Global Political Ecology also highlights justice movements pushing back against technopower, including emerging “just tech” initiatives that underscore the need for a global political ecology of technocapitalism in the digital age. Having a global political ecology of technocapitalism in the digital age is no longer optional: it is mandatory, and Little demonstrates how it might be done.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Amidst Platforms, Pathologies, and Planetary Plunder
Part One: Groundwork for a Technocapital Ecology Critique
Chapter 1 Technocapitalism and Hegemonic Technocapital
Chapter 2 Pandemic Portals and Pathologies of Technopower
Chapter 3 Technocapital Ecologies and Toxic Sacrifice Zones
Part Two: Toxic Frontlines of Technopower in the Global North and South
Chapter 4 Big Tech Necropolitics and Toxic Sacrifice in the Global North
Chapter 5 Toxic Supply Chains and E-Waste Ecologies in the Global South
Part Three: On Global Political Economy and Just Tech Transitions
Chapter 6 On Technopowered Late Liberal Democracies
Chapter 7 Engaging Tech and the Limits of Transformation: A Conversation with Mark Blyth
Chapter 8 On Just Tech and Emerging Ecologies of Care
Conclusion: Towards a Technoprecarious Political Ecology
References
Index
About the Author

Product details

Published Sep 05 2023
Format Ebook (PDF)
Edition 1st
Pages 1
ISBN 9781978799578
Imprint Lexington Books
Illustrations 19 b/w illustrations;
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Peter C. Little

Peter C. Little is professor and chair of anthropo…

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