Online infrastructures of transnational engagement in the Horn of Africa

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Watch the recording of the webinar here

Online and social media platforms constitute infrastructures for private and public communication and interaction across the globe. But how might this digital infrastructure take on new or unanticipated significance in contexts affected by limited state capacity, wide-ranging transnational/diasporic engagement and ongoing conflict?

At this webinar, Pete Chonka explores the role of western-developed digital platforms for nascent state authorities and civil society actors. Focusing on the Horn of Africa, he highlights how this infrastructure is shaping a digital public across this politically fragmented region. Through examples such as the interaction of local language data with search engine ‘predictions’, Chonka interrogates the problem of algorithmic accountability and proposes how we might begin to document the (potentially increasing) impacts of externally-governed digital infrastructure within so-called ‘fragile’ states.

Pete Chonka is a Lecturer in Global Digital Cultures at King’s College London’s Department of Digital Humanities. His research focuses on the impacts of new media technologies on cultural politics, state making, civil society activism, mobility and humanitarian communications in the Horn of Africa.  

The webinar is part of the Infrastructure as analytical approach series where we explore the potential and implications of infrastructure analysis through state-of-the art talks by leading scholars.

Speakers
Pete Chonka, Lecturer in Global Digital Culture, King’s College, London
Nauja Kleist, Senior Researcher, DIIS

Programme
15.00-15.05    Welcome and introduction, Nauja Kleist
15.05-15.25    Online infrastructures of transnational engagement in the Horn of Africa, Pete Chonka
15.25-16.00    Q&A - chair Nauja Kleist

Recorded Tuesday 8 December 2020, 15.00-16.00.