Digital media, development and political creativity – between Utopia and digital disruption in urban Nairobi

Bibliographic Data

ID13004024
AuthorsJoshua Mcnamara (0000-0001-6407-8817, The University of Melbourne, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume9
Issue3
Pages268-280
Publication date2017-09-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical African Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2040-7211 • E-ISSN: 2168-1392
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/21681392.2017.1371621
OpenAlexW2763902657
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited22

This article explores the concept of digital political creativity in urban East Africa, a context where the dominant articulation of ‘digital media’ has assumed an uncritical relationship with narratives of Africa’s social and economic development. It posits that thinking about the politics of the digital in Africa, we should allow ourselves to simultaneously think through issues of the digital mediation of social action and human communication, as well as the art and aesthetics of digital sensory experience. Exploring a case study from Nairobi, Kenya, I propose that the developmental appropriation of digital technology might not be quite as linear as development’s narrative logic suggests

Action (physics · Aesthetics · Appropriation · Art · Articulation (sociology · Context (archaeology · Creativity · Digital media · Epistemology · Media studies · Mediation · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Social media · Social science · Sociology · Utopia · History · ICT Impact and Policies · ICT in Developing Communities · Innovation and Socioeconomic Development · Law

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