Technology, Power and Society
Critical Perspectives on the Global Digital Transformation
Published on 7. August 2025
Book
Hardback
322 pages
978-90-04-71138-9 (ISBN)
Description
Technology, Power and Society: Critical Perspectives on the Global Digital Transformation offers a critical exploration of how digitalization, datafication, and automation impact societies worldwide, with a particular focus on underrepresented and understudied contexts. This interdisciplinary volume unpacks the sociopolitical dynamics of new technologies, investigating their potential to empower, disrupt, and transform social structures across varied cultural landscapes. The book takes a broad view at various critical issues pertaining to digital media technologies and the socio-cultural challenges that come with their rise: How do big tech platforms try to dominate Internet access in the Global South? To what extent can they offer ways for resistance, where do they post risks for activists? How do current technology discourses maintain gender stereotypes and imbalances? How do visions of AI differ between political cultures? And how can we develop methodologies capable of capturing the complexity of global technology trends and their local manifestations? By bringing together global perspectives, this collection moves beyond conventional narratives to foster a nuanced understanding of how digital transformations both challenge and reshape local contexts.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 253 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
592 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-04-71138-9 (9789004711389)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Dennis Nguyen is an assistant professor for digital literacy and digital methods at Utrecht University. His research concerns critical data studies, public epistemology, and computational methods for researching media.
Jing Zeng is an assistant professor of computational social and communication science at University of Zurich. Her research concerns social implications of emerging digital technologies and methodology development.
Bruce Mutsvairo is a professor and chair of media, politics and the Global South at Utrecht University.
Jing Zeng is an assistant professor of computational social and communication science at University of Zurich. Her research concerns social implications of emerging digital technologies and methodology development.
Bruce Mutsvairo is a professor and chair of media, politics and the Global South at Utrecht University.
Content
Contents
Acknowledgements
Figures and Tables
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
?Dennis Nguyen, Bruce Mutsvairo and Jing Zeng
?Part 1
Concepts
1 Cosmopolitan Critical Data Studies
?Dennis Nguyen
2 Digital and Epistemic Sovereignty in the Science Ecosystem in Latin America
?Thaiane Oliveira, Afonso de Albuquerque and Tatiane Mendes
3 Experimenting on the Frontier: Imperial Laboratories and Facebook's Political Effects in Myanmar
?Stefan Baechtold
4 From Datafication to Interpellation Becoming a Data Subject in Contemporary Surveillance Cultures
?Bjorn Beijnon
?Part 2
Digital Cultures and Digital Politics
5 'BM Girl' Influencers on Xiaohongshu: Tracing Beauty Discourse, Social Media Challenges, and Consumption Practices in Chinese Society
?Shen Sijun and Crystal Abidin
6 Privacy Expectations and Norms: Perceptions of Individual Digital Activists in Turkey's Xsphere (Twittersphere)
?Yusuf Yueksekdag and Sarper Durmus
7 Detouring, Rerouting, Weaponization: Memetic Soundscapes and the Secondary Orality of WarTok
?Marloes Geboers, Daria Del and Elena Pilipets
8 Making Sense of Post-Coup Myanmar through Facebook
?Paula Romero Jimenez, Ana Melchor Perez, Siebe Dekker, Miguel Oliveira Royo and Jing Zeng
9 Artificial Intelligence Governance Made in China: Negotiating Imaginaries and Power
?Yishu Mao
?Part 3
Inequalities, Resistance and Alternatives
10 "With great power comes great responsibility": Lending Visibility to Risky Political Content
?OEzlem Demirkol Tonnesen
11 Artificial Intelligence's Sexual Politics: Three Modes and the Case of Japan
?Hiromi Tanaka and Michelle H. S. Ho
12 The Tech Gender Gap: A Closer Look at Women's Experiences in the Technology Industry
?Julia Luteijn and Rhied Al-Othmani
13 Beyond the Strictest Computation of the General Proportion
?Gys-Walt Van Egdom and Christophe Declercq
Index
Acknowledgements
Figures and Tables
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
?Dennis Nguyen, Bruce Mutsvairo and Jing Zeng
?Part 1
Concepts
1 Cosmopolitan Critical Data Studies
?Dennis Nguyen
2 Digital and Epistemic Sovereignty in the Science Ecosystem in Latin America
?Thaiane Oliveira, Afonso de Albuquerque and Tatiane Mendes
3 Experimenting on the Frontier: Imperial Laboratories and Facebook's Political Effects in Myanmar
?Stefan Baechtold
4 From Datafication to Interpellation Becoming a Data Subject in Contemporary Surveillance Cultures
?Bjorn Beijnon
?Part 2
Digital Cultures and Digital Politics
5 'BM Girl' Influencers on Xiaohongshu: Tracing Beauty Discourse, Social Media Challenges, and Consumption Practices in Chinese Society
?Shen Sijun and Crystal Abidin
6 Privacy Expectations and Norms: Perceptions of Individual Digital Activists in Turkey's Xsphere (Twittersphere)
?Yusuf Yueksekdag and Sarper Durmus
7 Detouring, Rerouting, Weaponization: Memetic Soundscapes and the Secondary Orality of WarTok
?Marloes Geboers, Daria Del and Elena Pilipets
8 Making Sense of Post-Coup Myanmar through Facebook
?Paula Romero Jimenez, Ana Melchor Perez, Siebe Dekker, Miguel Oliveira Royo and Jing Zeng
9 Artificial Intelligence Governance Made in China: Negotiating Imaginaries and Power
?Yishu Mao
?Part 3
Inequalities, Resistance and Alternatives
10 "With great power comes great responsibility": Lending Visibility to Risky Political Content
?OEzlem Demirkol Tonnesen
11 Artificial Intelligence's Sexual Politics: Three Modes and the Case of Japan
?Hiromi Tanaka and Michelle H. S. Ho
12 The Tech Gender Gap: A Closer Look at Women's Experiences in the Technology Industry
?Julia Luteijn and Rhied Al-Othmani
13 Beyond the Strictest Computation of the General Proportion
?Gys-Walt Van Egdom and Christophe Declercq
Index