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SUMMARY:Digital Development Dilemma: From Progress to Control - Dr Azadeh 
 Akbari\,  University of Twente
DTSTART:20241113T170000Z
DTEND:20241113T183000Z
UID:TALK220681@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ashwin Varghese
DESCRIPTION:While the move towards digital futures seems to be inevitable\
 , there are concerning reports about discrimination\, exclusion\, injustic
 e\, repression\, and bias backed up by the newest technologies\, such as A
 I-governed systems. Many of these problems are portrayed as unintended out
 comes\, digital harm\, political repression\, or planning and design mista
 kes. This talk takes a brief historical look at the conceptualisation of t
 echnology in the decades of development work and the faith in technologica
 l fixes for socio-political problems. It argues that without situating ICT
 4D programmes in their colonial\, political\, socio-cultural\, and economi
 c contexts\, their complexities and their ‘outcomes’ cannot be analyse
 d. Dr Akbari will introduce the digital development dilemma as a concept d
 escribing the inherent dilemma carried in the core of digital development 
 programmes: increasing efficiency\, inclusion\, and participation on the o
 ne hand and paving the way for digital repression\, consolidation of exclu
 sion\, establishment of new forms of technological dependency\, and compli
 cating digital self-determination\, on the other. The talk includes recent
  examples of state control and surveillance\, the increasing engagement of
  Big Tech companies in digital development\, and new colonial models of pl
 atform-based work. In doing so\, it aims to scrutinise the neutrality and 
 idealism of ICT4D programmes by highlighting the dilemma between efficienc
 y\, control\, and dependency at the heart of such initiatives.\n\nDr Azade
 h Akbari is Assistant Professor in Public Administration and Digital Trans
 formation at the University of Twente\, the Netherlands. She has received 
 the European Union’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Global fellowship f
 or her project on Authoritarian Smart Cities. Azadeh Akbari’s research f
 ocuses on authoritarian surveillance and critical studies of ICTs in devel
 opment. She is a member of the board of directors at the International Sur
 veillance Studies Network and has also founded Surveillance in the Majorit
 y World Research Network to expand the scope of surveillance studies to in
 clude non-Western discourses and practices and create a place for exchange
 \, collaboration\, and activism against the undemocratic use of surveillan
 ce technologies.
LOCATION:Online
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