Whose Global Village? Hardcover – 15 November 2017
Ramesh Srinivasan . SAGE Publications Pvt. Ltd . English
In the digital age, technology has shrunk the physical world into a “global village,” where people seem to be connected as an online community. Yet social media and other digital technology tools, assumed often as open and accessible to all, are in reality commercial entities which often reinforce the inequalities of globalization, rarely reflecting the perspectives of those at the bottom of the digital divide. This book asks its readers to reconsider “whose global village” is being shaped with the digital technology revolution today. Sharing stories of collaboration with Native Americans in California and New Mexico, revolutionaries in Egypt, communities in rural India, and others across the world, it urges us to reimagine what digital devices or social media platforms may look like when considered from the perspective of diverse cultures rather than corporate elites or Western consumers. Such collaborations can enable a people-first approach toward designing and working with new technology worldwide.
Categories: Action & Adventure
About the Author
Ramesh Srinivasan studies the relationship between technology, politics, culture, and societies across the world. He has been a faculty member at UCLA since 2005 in the Information Studies and Design|Media Arts departments. He is the founder of the UC-wide Digital Cultures Lab, exploring the meaning of technology worldwide as it spreads to the far reaches of our world. He is also the author of the book “Whose Global Village? Rethinking How Technology Impacts Our World” with NYU Press, and "After the Internet" (forthcoming) with Polity Press. Srinivasan earned his Ph.D. in design studies at Harvard; his master’s degree in media arts and science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering at Stanford. He has served fellowships in MIT’s Media Laboratory in Cambridge and the MIT Media Lab Asia. He has also been a teaching fellow at the Graduate School of Design and Department of Visual and Environmental Design at Harvard. Srinivasan is a regular speaker for TEDx Talks, and makes regular media appearances on NPR, Al Jazeera, “The Young Turks,” and Public Radio International. His writings have been widely published by Al Jazeera English, The Washington Post, and The Huffington Post.
