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Making as imaginative crossroads: Ghanaian makers and the geopolitics of technological progress
Author(s) -
Avle Seyram
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
proceedings of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.193
H-Index - 14
ISSN - 2373-9231
DOI - 10.1002/pra2.298
Subject(s) - geopolitics , politics , futures contract , situated , the imaginary , negotiation , china , technological change , political science , sociology , political economy , social science , economics , law , psychology , artificial intelligence , computer science , financial economics , psychotherapist , macroeconomics
This paper is about the politics of technological progress as it is being played out among a loose network of Ghanaian makers. It unpacks how the practice of ‘making’ unfolds as a site for positioning the self and the nation within a global imaginary of techno futures. The paper argues, first, that ‘making’ in Ghana is emblematic of a crossroads of imaginative possibilities for technological design and production, and second, that this marks a distinct turn in the politics of technological progress, particularly when situated against ongoing econo‐political negotiations between the Global south, the West, and China.