Digital Technologies and African Societies

Digital Technologies and African Societies PDF Author: Julien Atchoua
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119777283
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
The integration and use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in African countries is increasingly observable in various sectors of activity (banking, education, trade, etc.) despite a digital divide still relevant. ICT has become a major sector of the recent growth of a new informal economy in African cities (Chéneau-Loquay, 2008). This question has been at the heart of various international meetings. An overall positive and even utopian momentum is generally heard about the contribution of digital technologies to the development of African states. The adoption or appropriation of digital technologies by Africans is presented in many speeches by politicians or institutions involved in the field of cooperation and international development as an important issue for the development of this continent. These different considerations give rise to reflections on the following themes. - Social Media and Public Space in Africa - Challenges of the digital economy in Africa - ICT and modernization of higher education in Africa

Digital Technologies and African Societies

Digital Technologies and African Societies PDF Author: Julien Atchoua
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119777283
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book Here

Book Description
The integration and use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in African countries is increasingly observable in various sectors of activity (banking, education, trade, etc.) despite a digital divide still relevant. ICT has become a major sector of the recent growth of a new informal economy in African cities (Chéneau-Loquay, 2008). This question has been at the heart of various international meetings. An overall positive and even utopian momentum is generally heard about the contribution of digital technologies to the development of African states. The adoption or appropriation of digital technologies by Africans is presented in many speeches by politicians or institutions involved in the field of cooperation and international development as an important issue for the development of this continent. These different considerations give rise to reflections on the following themes. - Social Media and Public Space in Africa - Challenges of the digital economy in Africa - ICT and modernization of higher education in Africa

Digital Technologies and African Societies

Digital Technologies and African Societies PDF Author: Julien Atchoua
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119777291
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
The integration and use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in African countries is increasingly observable in various sectors of activity (banking, education, trade, etc.) despite a digital divide still relevant. ICT has become a major sector of the recent growth of a new informal economy in African cities (Chéneau-Loquay, 2008). This question has been at the heart of various international meetings. An overall positive and even utopian momentum is generally heard about the contribution of digital technologies to the development of African states. The adoption or appropriation of digital technologies by Africans is presented in many speeches by politicians or institutions involved in the field of cooperation and international development as an important issue for the development of this continent. These different considerations give rise to reflections on the following themes. - Social Media and Public Space in Africa - Challenges of the digital economy in Africa - ICT and modernization of higher education in Africa

Mapping the Digital Divide in Africa

Mapping the Digital Divide in Africa PDF Author: Bruce Mutsvairo
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
ISBN: 904853822X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
Despite issues associated with the digital divide, mobile telephony is growing on the continent and the rise of smartphones has given citizens easy access to social networking sites. But the digital divide, which mostly reflects on one's race, gender, socioeconomic status or geographical location, stands in the way of digital progress. What opportunities are available to tame digital disparities? How are different societies in Africa handling digital problems? What innovative methods are being used to provide citizens with access to critical information that can help improve their lives? Experiences from various locations in several sub-Saharan African countries have been carefully selected in this collection with the aim of providing an updated account on the digital divide and its impact in Africa.

Technologies and African Societies in Pandemic Times

Technologies and African Societies in Pandemic Times PDF Author: Saikou Diallo
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 139422589X
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
In February 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic became a worldwide health emergency, and in April of that year, the ITU and the WHO created a joint declaration to show their commitment to using ICTs to overcome the pandemic. Technologies and African Societies in Pandemic Times explores the impact of Covid-19 on African societies in North and West Africa through the lens of technology and social media. The authors of this book highlight how everyday people dealt with the pandemic from its onset, through the process of the development of the vaccine and to its eventual dissemination. This book tells stories of survival, of coping and, eventually, of economically thriving. The authors also describe how, in this extremely challenging moment for humanity, people used music, art and social media to reinvent the community, to share joy and pain and to try to remain connected.

The Rise of Digital Repression

The Rise of Digital Repression PDF Author: Steven Feldstein
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190057491
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
Advances in artificial intelligence, mass surveillance, disinformation, facial recognition, and censorship are transforming how authoritarian leaders advance their repressive agendas. This is leading to a fundamental reshaping of the relationship between citizen and state. In The Rise of Digital Repression, Steven Feldstein presents new field research from Thailand, the Philippines, and Ethiopia to hightlight how governments pursue digital strategies of repression based on a range of factors: ongoing levels of repression, leadership, state capacity, and technological development. As many of these trends are going global, Felstein argues that this has major implications for democracies and civil society activists around the world.

Rethinking Language Use in Digital Africa

Rethinking Language Use in Digital Africa PDF Author: Leketi Makalela
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
ISBN: 1800412320
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
This book challenges the view that digital communication in Africa is limited and relatively unsophisticated and questions the assumption that digital communication has a damaging effect on indigenous African languages. The book applies the principles of Digital African Multilingualism (DAM) in which there are no rigid boundaries between languages. The book charts a way forward for African languages where greater attention is paid to what speakers do with the languages rather than what the languages look like, and offers several models for language policy and planning based on horizontal and user-based multilingualism. The chapters demonstrate how digital communication is being used to form and sustain communication in many kinds of online groups, including for political activism and creating poetry, and offer a paradigm of language merging online that provides a practical blueprint for the decolonization of African languages through digital platforms.

Handbook of Quality of Life in African Societies

Handbook of Quality of Life in African Societies PDF Author: Irma Eloff
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030153673
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
This handbook reflects on quality-of-life in societies on the continent of Africa. It provides a widely interdisciplinary text with insights on quality-of-life from a variety of scientific perspectives. The handbook is structured into sections covering themes of social context, culture and community; the environment and technology; health; education; and family. It is aimed at scholars who are working towards sustainable development at the intersections of multiple scientific fields and it provides measures of both objective and subjective quality-of-life. The scholarly contributions in the text are based on original research and it spans fields of research such as cultures of positivity, wellbeing, literacy and multilinguism, digital and mobile technologies, economic growth, food and nutrition, health promotion, community development, teacher education and family life. Some chapters take a broad approach and report on research findings involving thousands, and in one case millions, of participants. Other chapters zoom in and illustrate the importance of specificity in quality-of-life studies. Collectively, the handbook illuminates the particularity of quality-of-life in Africa, the unique contextual challenges and the resourcefulness with which challenges are being mediated. This handbook provides empirically grounded conceptualizations about life in Africa that also encapsulate the dynamic, ingenious ways in which we, as Africans, enhance our quality-of-life.

China, Africa, and the Future of the Internet

China, Africa, and the Future of the Internet PDF Author: Iginio Gagliardone
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1783605251
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
China is transforming Africa's information space. It is assisting African broadcasters with extensive loans, training and exchange programmes and has set up its own media operations on the continent in the form of CCTV Africa. In the telecommunications sector, China is helping African governments to expand access to the internet and mobile phones, with rapid and large-scale success. While Western countries have ambiguously linked the need to fight security threats with restrictions of the information space, China has been vocal in asserting the need to control communication to ensure stability and development. Featuring a wealth of interviews with a variety of actors – from Chinese and African journalists in Chinese media to Chinese workers for major telecommunication companies – this highly original book demonstrates how China is both contributing to the 'Africa rising' narrative while exploiting the weaknesses of Western approaches to Africa, which remain trapped between an emphasis on stability and service delivery, on the one hand, and the desire to advocate human rights and freedom of expression on the other. Arguing no state can be understood without attention to its information structure, the book provides the first assessment of China’s new model for the media strategies of developing states, and the consequences of policing Africa’s information space for geopolitics, security and citizenship.

The Oxford Handbook of Digital Technology and Society

The Oxford Handbook of Digital Technology and Society PDF Author: Simeon Yates
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190932619
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 799

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Book Description
Required reading for anyone interested in the profound relationship between digital technology and society Digital technology has become an undeniable facet of our social lives, defining our governments, communities, and personal identities. Yet with these technologies in ongoing evolution, it is difficult to gauge the full extent of their societal impact, leaving researchers and policy makers with the challenge of staying up-to-date on a field that is constantly in flux. The Oxford Handbook of Digital Technology and Society provides students, researchers, and practitioners across the technology and social science sectors with a comprehensive overview of the foundations for understanding the various relationships between digital technology and society. Combining robust computer-aided reviews of current literature from the UK Economic and Social Research Council's commissioned project "Ways of Being in a Digital Age" with newly commissioned chapters, this handbook illustrates the upcoming research questions and challenges facing the social sciences as they address the societal impacts of digital media and technologies across seven broad categories: citizenship and politics, communities and identities, communication and relationships, health and well-being, economy and sustainability, data and representation, and governance and security. Individual chapters feature important practical and ethical explorations into topics such as technology and the aging, digital literacies, work-home boundary, machines in the workforce, digital censorship and surveillance, big data governance and regulation, and technology in the public sector. The Oxford Handbook of Digital Technology and Society will equip readers with the necessary starting points and provocations in the field so that scholars and policy makers can effectively assess future research, practice, and policy.

Handbook of Research on Examining Cultural Policies Through Digital Communication

Handbook of Research on Examining Cultural Policies Through Digital Communication PDF Author: Önay Dogan, Betül
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1522569995
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 468

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Book Description
Culture is one of the most important elements for explaining individuals' behaviors within the social structure. It meets the various social needs of members of a society by directing how individuals must react to various events and how to act in specific circumstances. A planned and systematic process is required for disseminating this cultural accumulation as a policy, which is produced collectively by all members within their everyday life practices. The Handbook of Research on Examining Cultural Policies Through Digital Communication provides emerging research on this aspect of cultural policy, which is formed within the framework of this systematic process in a strategic manner and can be defined as various activities of the state intended for art, human sciences, and cultural inheritance. Creating such cultural policies involves the establishment of measures and organizations required for the development of each individual, providing economic and social facilities, all of which are actions intended for directing society. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as long-distance education, digital citizenship, and public diplomacy, this book is ideally designed for academicians, researchers, advanced-level students, sociologists, international and national organizations, and government officials.