Silicon Elsewhere
Nairobi, Global China, and the Promise of Techno-Capital
Seiten
2026
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-41308-5 (ISBN)
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-41308-5 (ISBN)
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Heralded as Africa's "Silicon Savannah"—a cradle of innovation—Nairobi has become a technology and innovation capital for Kenya and for the continent at large. With a national strategy that has prioritized digital technology for the last two decades, many Chinese digital champions, smaller startups, and investors have since chosen Nairobi as their African landing pad. Mapping the interface between Nairobi's innovation scene and China's digital presence there, Silicon Elsewhere tells a unique story of ingenuity and adaptation, failure and speculation, and hopefulness and pragmatism. Andrea Pollio's ethnography draws on interviews with cautious venture capitalists, renegade entrepreneurs, dedicated bureaucrats, and ambitious data scientists to explore the competing meanings of contemporary techno-capital. Moving between leafy coworking spaces and the temperature-controlled rooms of brand-new data centers, Pollio locates Nairobi among the experimental capitals, not peripheries, of technological change in the early twenty-first century.
Heralded as Africa's "Silicon Savannah"—a cradle of innovation—Nairobi has become a technology and innovation capital for Kenya and for the continent at large. With a national strategy that has prioritized digital technology for the last two decades, many Chinese digital champions, smaller startups, and investors have since chosen Nairobi as their African landing pad. Mapping the interface between Nairobi's innovation scene and China's digital presence there, Silicon Elsewhere tells a unique story of ingenuity and adaptation, failure and speculation, and hopefulness and pragmatism. Andrea Pollio's ethnography draws on interviews with cautious venture capitalists, renegade entrepreneurs, dedicated bureaucrats, and ambitious data scientists to explore the competing meanings of contemporary techno-capital. Moving between leafy coworking spaces and the temperature-controlled rooms of brand-new data centers, Pollio locates Nairobi among the experimental capitals, not peripheries, of technological change in the early twenty-first century.
Andrea Pollio is Assistant Professor of Political and Economic Geography at the Department of Urban and Regional Studies of the Polytechnic of Turin, Italy, and Research Associate at the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Contents
Preface
Lists of Abbreviations, Chinese Pinyin Terms, and Kiswahili and Sheng Terms
Introduction: The Silicon Savannah's Beijing Connection
1. Silicon States of Development
2. Machines of Data Frontiers
3. Platforms of Algorithmic Suturing
4. Microgeopolitics of Standards
5. Labors of Investability
6. Ethnographies of Techno-Optimism
Coda: Thinking Technology Elsewhere, and Otherwise
Notes
Bibliography
Index
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 13.1.2026 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 10 figures, 1 map, 1 table |
| Verlagsort | Berkerley |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 152 x 229 mm |
| Themenwelt | Kunst / Musik / Theater |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Europäische / Internationale Politik | |
| Technik ► Nachrichtentechnik | |
| Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Wirtschaftsinformatik | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-520-41308-3 / 0520413083 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-520-41308-5 / 9780520413085 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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