Synopses & Reviews
Bits and Atoms explores the governance potential found in the explosive growth of digital information and communication technology in areas of limited statehood. Until recently, places without an effective state were also without the means to communicate internally or with the larger world. Entire communities-indeed entire nations-were cut off, and information was scarce and costly - but all of that has changed.
Today, places with weak or altogether missing state institutions are tied internally and to the larger world by widely available digital technology. This book considers the political ramifications of the unparalleled growth of mobile phones around the world (6 billion subscriptions in 2013), various open source digital mapping platforms, high-resolution remote sensing satellites, and a variety of purpose-built software applications for the provision of collective goods. This revolution in access has created digitally enabled collective action in an era of relative information abundance as an alternative governance modality in areas of limited statehood. The chapters in this book explore whether the growth in digital technology can fill the governance vacuum created by the absence of an effective state in North Africa, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union.
Yet, as potentially revolutionary as this technology can be to areas of limited statehood, it still faces limitations. This alternative governance modality can alert others in the polity that medicine, effective policing, clean water, food, and sanitation are needed in a particular place and time, and it can facilitate more cost effective ways of getting them into place. But, as this book demonstrates, bits can only do so much in the provision of atoms. Bits and Atoms is a thought-provoking look at the prospects for and limitations of digital technology to function in place of traditional state apparatuses.
Review
"This pathbreaking book brings an innovative group of scholars and practitioners together to explore ways in which information and communication technologies are addressing governance problems that occur when states fail to deliver basic services or provide acceptable levels of social order and public input. The diverse cases illustrate both the capacities and limits of communication technologies in building various forms of social and political organization. These studies cast a much needed light on the spectrum of political problems and creative possibilities that shape the lives of the majority of people living outside of functional democratic political regimes. The book adds significantly to how we think about governance, the role of technology in social and political organization, and the nature of political communication."-- W. Lance Bennett, Professor of Political Science and Ruddick C. Lawrence Professor of Communication, University of Washington
"For readers versed in digital media and politics, this engaging book is about the rest of the world: Haiti, Nigeria, and other areas where states exercise limited authority. Through their special focus on such places, the contributors challenge assumptions about collective action. They show the power and limits of digital media to foster social action when authority is limited and collective goods are different than in well-functioning states. This is an innovative contribution to our understanding of collective action."--Bruce Bimber, Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara
Synopsis
Bits and Atoms explores the governance potential found in the explosive growth of digital information and communication technology in areas of limited statehood. Today, places with weak or altogether missing state institutions are tied internally and to the larger world by widely available digital technology. The chapters in the book explore questions of when and if the growth in digital technology can fill some of the governance vacuum created by the absence of an effective state. For example, mobile money could fill a gap in traditional banking or mobile phones could allow rural populations to pay for basic services and receive much needed advice and market pricing information. Yet, as potentially revolutionary as this technology can be to areas of limited statehood, it still faces limitations. Bits and Atoms is a thought-provoking look at the prospects for and limitations of digital technology to function in place of traditional state apparatuses.
About the Author
Steven Livingston is Professor of Media and Public and International Affairs at the School of Public Affairs and Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University, and he is the author of
When The Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina (Chicago, 2007),
Clarifying the CNN Effect (Harvard, 1997),
Terrorism Spectacle (Westview, 1994).
Gregor Walter-Drop is the Managing Director of the Collaborative Research Center 700 "Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood" at Freie Universität Berlin
Table of Contents
Foreward
Sina Odugbemi
Chapter 1: Introduction
Steven Livingston and Gregor Walter-Drop
Part 1: Simulation, Consolidation, Opposition: ICT and Limited Statehood
Chapter 2: Information Technology and the Limited States of the Arab Spring
Muzammil M. Hussain and Philip N. Howard
Chapter 3: The Kremlin's Cameras and Virtual Potemkin Villages: ICT and the Construction of Statehood
Gregory Asmolov
Chapter 4: E-government as a Means of Development in India
J. P. Singh
Chapter 5: ICT and Accountability in Areas of Limited Statehood
Joseph Siegle
Part 2: Substitution: ICT as a Tool for Non-State Governance
Chapter 6: FrontlineSMS, Mobile-for-Development and the 'long tail' of governance
Sharath Srinivasan
Chapter 7: Natural Disasters and Alternative Modes of Governance: the Role of Social Networks and Crowdsourcing Platforms in Russia
Gregory Asmolov
Chapter 8: Mapping Kibera. Empowering Slum Residents by ICT
Primo%z Kova?i? and Jamie Lundine
Chapter 9: Crisis Mapping in Areas of Limited Statehood
Patrick Meier
Chapter 10: From Crowdsourcing to Crowdseeding: The Cutting Edge of Empowerment?
Peter van der Windt
Chapter 11: Conclusions
Steven Livingston and Gregor Walter-Drop
Notes
References
Index