Technology against technocracy : toward design strategies for critical community technology
Name
1003284260-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
4.2 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
da3a2de51115f437f14738a4a8da960a
Author(s)
Wagoner, Maya M
Advisor(s)
Sasha Costanza-Chock.
Alternative Title
Design strategies for critical community technology
Date Issued
2017
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
This thesis develops an intersectional, critical analysis of the field of practice known as Civic Tech and highlights other relevant community-organizing and activist practices that utilize technology as a central component. First, I develop critiques of Civic Tech as a dominant technocratic, neoliberal approach to democracy and bureaucracy and trace the history and intellectual genealogy of this specific movement. I then highlight civic technologies outside of the field of Civic Tech that have resulted in more redistributive and democratic outcomes, especially for Black people and other people of color. Finally, I define a research and design practice called Critical Community Technology Pedagogy that is demystificatory, multi-directional, transferable, and constructive, and draws upon examples from the Civic Lab for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR) in Newfoundland, Data DiscoTechs in Detroit, and the Center for Urban Pedagogy in New York City.
Description
Thesis: S.M. in Comparative Media Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Humanities, 2017.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 73-79).
Subjects
Comparative Media Studies.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing
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