Bits and Atoms

Information and Communication Technology in Areas of Limited Statehood

Edited by Steven Livingston and Gregor Walter-Drop

Oxford Studies in Digital Politics

First book to study the effects of information and communication technology on areas of limited statehood
Focuses on digital technology in areas of limited statehood in the global south

Bits and Atoms

Information and Communication Technology in Areas of Limited Statehood

Edited by Steven Livingston and Gregor Walter-Drop

Oxford Studies in Digital Politics

Description

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.

Bits and Atoms

Information and Communication Technology in Areas of Limited Statehood

Edited by Steven Livingston and Gregor Walter-Drop

Oxford Studies in Digital Politics

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
Primož 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

Bits and Atoms

Information and Communication Technology in Areas of Limited Statehood

Edited by Steven Livingston and Gregor Walter-Drop

Oxford Studies in Digital Politics

Author Information

Steven Livingston is Professor of Media and Public and International Affairs at the School of Public Affairs & 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

Contributors:

Gregory Asmolov is completing his PhD student at the London School of Economics and is a contributor to "Runet Echo", a project of "Global Voices Online."

Philip N. Howard is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington and, as of this writing, a fellow at Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy.

Muzammil M. Hussain is assistant professor of communication at the University of Michigan.

Sharath Srinivasan is the David and Elaine Potter Lecturer in Governance and Human Rights and inaugural Director of the Centre of Governance and Human Rights at the University of Cambridge. He is also a Fellow at King's College, Cambridge.

Primož Kova?i? is co-founder and the director of operations for Spatial Collective, a technology and development social enterprise company based in Nairobi, Kenya and a graduate student at The George Washington University.

Jamie Lundine is the co-founder of Spatial Collective.

Steven Livingston is Professor of Media and Public Affairs and International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University.

Patrick Meier is director of Social Innovation at the Qatar Foundation's Computing Research Institute. He previously co-directed Harvard's Program on Crisis Mapping & Early Warning and served as Director of Crisis Mapping at Ushahidi.

Joseph Siegle is Director of Research at Africa Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University. He has also held a number of positions with international development organizations around the world.

Peter van der Windt is completing his a Ph.D. at Columbia University where he is a Graduate Fellow at the Center for the Study of Development Strategies.

J.P. Singh is Professor of Global Affairs and Cultural Studies at George Mason University.

Gregor Walter-Drop is the managing director of SFB-700, Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood at the Free University of Berlin.

Bits and Atoms

Information and Communication Technology in Areas of Limited Statehood

Edited by Steven Livingston and Gregor Walter-Drop

Oxford Studies in Digital Politics

Reviews and Awards

"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

"Bits and Atoms makes significant contributions to multiple audiences. It is a must-read for development practitioners and students. If these dynamic chapters do not help them think of new, creative ways to harness the power of local voices, they are probably in the wrong field." - Perspectives on Politics