Tom Neumark
Biographic Data
| ID | 133231 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tom Neumark |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tom |
| FAMILY NAME | Neumark |
| SIGNATURE | NEUMARK T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oslo |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0205-3881 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 71 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
MedTech in Tanzania
Studying cutting-edge technologies in the domains of medicine built by Tanzanian experts operating on the margins of global techno-science has often led me to fall into a Manichean outlook. That is, seeing these processes in which technologies are built from rather than merely for the country, as either dispiriting evidence for another technological fix or as an encouraging sign pointing towards the building of new sovereign techno-science future…
Hypeful worlds
Contemporary technoscience is rife with hype-inflated claims that rapidly propagate in favor of the next "new thing." While scholars often strive to debunk and dispel hype, Tanzanian technologists working in health care face a different challenge: navigating hype. As these technologists embark on new projects in machine learning and other forms of AI, contending with hype becomes crucial. These actors operate on the margins of global technoscient…
Caring Cash
Digital diagnostics from Tanzania
Digital and data-driven technologies are increasingly being deployed in healthcare systems around the world, and used by individuals seeking to improve their health. Major global health institutions, from the WHO to the Gates Foundation, are arguing for their importance in the building of healthcare futures across the world. For critics, however, the broad enthuasiam for digital health has raised the question of whether too much faith is being pu…
Caring Cash
Leapfrogging the Grid
English Abstract: Around a third of Tanzanians light their homes with solar electricity. Foreign companies are building on the popularity and availability of solar to 'leapfrog' the classic state led mains electricity grid infrastructure by attempting to create new off-grid infrastructural pathways. Central to such ambitions is the fostering of individual ownership of these off-grid infrastructures that builds on the idea of self-reliant energy l…
Curious Utopias
This special issue focuses on a trend that appears to run counter to the recent fascination with scaled-down solutions to world problems. From the predictive powers of Big Data in Kenya to market-driven humanitarian attempts to tackle the world's ills, dreams of massive biometric identification in India and visions of health care 'for all', we are seeing a return to ostensibly, sometimes self-avowedly, 'utopian' imaginations and schemes of econom…
Digital Health in East Africa
Across East Africa, mobile phones and tablets are increasingly sitting in the hands of community health workers, clinicians, managers and patients. They are being used for a widening range of functions from diagnostics to health insurance to treatment advice, generating hopes for new healthcare futures and establishing the region as an emerging hub of experimentation in digital health. Drawing on our on‐going ethnographic and anthropological rese…
Solar Power and its Discontents
Since 2010, solar energy companies in North America and Europe have played a pivotal role in delivering clean, reliable and sustainable electricity to millions of people living off the grid across sub‐Saharan Africa. However, today, off‐grid solar energy in Africa is no longer seen as an unmitigated social and economic good. Inflows of private equity investment have led the employees and customers of off‐grid solar companies to question the indus…
Trusting the Poor
Across the world, attempts are being made to challenge and rework bureaucratic hierarchies. One such attempt is the policy to give cash with no strings attached to the poor. Lying at the heart of these grants is the belief that it is these people, and not experts, who know what they need to do to improve their lives. Benefactors seek to trust the poor by removing the regulation and bureaucracy from the charitable gift. But in one slum in Nairobi …
A good neighbour is not one that gives
Since Mauss, anthropologists have been drawn to gifts because they are understood to index the moral, often in contrast to the amorality of the market. Giving is considered to bring people closer together, weaving them into the fabric of sociality. However, in Korogocho, a low-income informal settlement in Nairobi, women recognize the dangers of giving and of closeness. Not only could others be a burden on them, but they could also be a burden on…
A good neighbour is not one that gives
Since Mauss, anthropologists have been drawn to gifts because they are understood to index the moral, often in contrast to the amorality of the market. Giving is considered to bring people closer together, weaving them into the fabric of sociality. However, in Korogocho, a low-income informal settlement in Nairobi, women recognize the dangers of giving and of closeness. Not only could others be a burden on them, but they could also be a burden on…
Digital diagnostics from Tanzania
Digital and data-driven technologies are increasingly being deployed in healthcare systems around the world, and used by individuals seeking to improve their health. Major global health institutions, from the WHO to the Gates Foundation, are arguing for their importance in the building of healthcare futures across the world. For critics, however, the broad enthuasiam for digital health has raised the question of whether too much faith is being pu…
Curious Utopias
This special issue focuses on a trend that appears to run counter to the recent fascination with scaled-down solutions to world problems. From the predictive powers of Big Data in Kenya to market-driven humanitarian attempts to tackle the world's ills, dreams of massive biometric identification in India and visions of health care 'for all', we are seeing a return to ostensibly, sometimes self-avowedly, 'utopian' imaginations and schemes of econom…
Leapfrogging the Grid
English Abstract: Around a third of Tanzanians light their homes with solar electricity. Foreign companies are building on the popularity and availability of solar to 'leapfrog' the classic state led mains electricity grid infrastructure by attempting to create new off-grid infrastructural pathways. Central to such ambitions is the fostering of individual ownership of these off-grid infrastructures that builds on the idea of self-reliant energy l…
Solar Power and its Discontents
Since 2010, solar energy companies in North America and Europe have played a pivotal role in delivering clean, reliable and sustainable electricity to millions of people living off the grid across sub‐Saharan Africa. However, today, off‐grid solar energy in Africa is no longer seen as an unmitigated social and economic good. Inflows of private equity investment have led the employees and customers of off‐grid solar companies to question the indus…
Trusting the Poor
Across the world, attempts are being made to challenge and rework bureaucratic hierarchies. One such attempt is the policy to give cash with no strings attached to the poor. Lying at the heart of these grants is the belief that it is these people, and not experts, who know what they need to do to improve their lives. Benefactors seek to trust the poor by removing the regulation and bureaucracy from the charitable gift. But in one slum in Nairobi …
Hypeful worlds
Contemporary technoscience is rife with hype-inflated claims that rapidly propagate in favor of the next "new thing." While scholars often strive to debunk and dispel hype, Tanzanian technologists working in health care face a different challenge: navigating hype. As these technologists embark on new projects in machine learning and other forms of AI, contending with hype becomes crucial. These actors operate on the margins of global technoscient…
A good neighbour is not one that gives
Since Mauss, anthropologists have been drawn to gifts because they are understood to index the moral, often in contrast to the amorality of the market. Giving is considered to bring people closer together, weaving them into the fabric of sociality. However, in Korogocho, a low-income informal settlement in Nairobi, women recognize the dangers of giving and of closeness. Not only could others be a burden on them, but they could also be a burden on…
Trusting the Poor
Across the world, attempts are being made to challenge and rework bureaucratic hierarchies. One such attempt is the policy to give cash with no strings attached to the poor. Lying at the heart of these grants is the belief that it is these people, and not experts, who know what they need to do to improve their lives. Benefactors seek to trust the poor by removing the regulation and bureaucracy from the charitable gift. But in one slum in Nairobi …
Digital Health in East Africa
Across East Africa, mobile phones and tablets are increasingly sitting in the hands of community health workers, clinicians, managers and patients. They are being used for a widening range of functions from diagnostics to health insurance to treatment advice, generating hopes for new healthcare futures and establishing the region as an emerging hub of experimentation in digital health. Drawing on our on‐going ethnographic and anthropological rese…
Solar Power and its Discontents
Since 2010, solar energy companies in North America and Europe have played a pivotal role in delivering clean, reliable and sustainable electricity to millions of people living off the grid across sub‐Saharan Africa. However, today, off‐grid solar energy in Africa is no longer seen as an unmitigated social and economic good. Inflows of private equity investment have led the employees and customers of off‐grid solar companies to question the indus…
Caring Cash
Leapfrogging the Grid
English Abstract: Around a third of Tanzanians light their homes with solar electricity. Foreign companies are building on the popularity and availability of solar to 'leapfrog' the classic state led mains electricity grid infrastructure by attempting to create new off-grid infrastructural pathways. Central to such ambitions is the fostering of individual ownership of these off-grid infrastructures that builds on the idea of self-reliant energy l…
Curious Utopias
This special issue focuses on a trend that appears to run counter to the recent fascination with scaled-down solutions to world problems. From the predictive powers of Big Data in Kenya to market-driven humanitarian attempts to tackle the world's ills, dreams of massive biometric identification in India and visions of health care 'for all', we are seeing a return to ostensibly, sometimes self-avowedly, 'utopian' imaginations and schemes of econom…
Caring Cash
Digital diagnostics from Tanzania
Digital and data-driven technologies are increasingly being deployed in healthcare systems around the world, and used by individuals seeking to improve their health. Major global health institutions, from the WHO to the Gates Foundation, are arguing for their importance in the building of healthcare futures across the world. For critics, however, the broad enthuasiam for digital health has raised the question of whether too much faith is being pu…
Hypeful worlds
Contemporary technoscience is rife with hype-inflated claims that rapidly propagate in favor of the next "new thing." While scholars often strive to debunk and dispel hype, Tanzanian technologists working in health care face a different challenge: navigating hype. As these technologists embark on new projects in machine learning and other forms of AI, contending with hype becomes crucial. These actors operate on the margins of global technoscient…
MedTech in Tanzania
Studying cutting-edge technologies in the domains of medicine built by Tanzanian experts operating on the margins of global techno-science has often led me to fall into a Manichean outlook. That is, seeing these processes in which technologies are built from rather than merely for the country, as either dispiriting evidence for another technological fix or as an encouraging sign pointing towards the building of new sovereign techno-science future…
Political science (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Economics (5 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (4 works) · Economic growth (4 works) · Business (3 works) · Economy (3 works) · Geography (3 works) · Distributed generation (2 works) · Electrical engineering (2 works)