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Bits and Atoms: Introduction

Bits and Atoms. Information and Communication Technology in Areas of Limited Statehood

Bits and Atoms. Information and Communication Technology in Areas of Limited Statehood

Steven Livingston, Gregor Walter-Drop – 2014

Bits and Atoms explores the governance potential found in the explosive growth of digital information and communication technology in areas of limited statehood. Today, places with weak or altogether missing state institutions are tied internally and to the larger world by widely available digital technology. The chapters in the book explore questions of when and if the growth in digital technology can fill some of the governance vacuum created by the absence of an effective state. For example, mobile money could fill a gap in traditional banking or mobile phones could allow rural populations to pay for basic services and receive much needed advice and market pricing information. Yet, as potentially revolutionary as this technology can be to areas of limited statehood, it still faces limitations. Bits and Atoms is a thought-provoking look at the prospects for and limitations of digital technology to function in place of traditional state apparatuses.

Title
Bits and Atoms: Introduction
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Location
Oxford
Keywords
infrastructure, fragile states, policy, Research Project A1
Date
2014
Identifier
ISBN 978-0199941599
Appeared in
Livingston, Steven/Walter-Drop, Gregor (eds.): Bits and Atoms: Information and Communication Technology in Areas of Limited Statehood, 1-14.
Language
eng
Type
Text