Books & ideas

Governing by Technology in China

Émilie Frenkiel — 2020-05-11T07:00:00Z

Chinese society has been thoroughly transformed by digital tools, which private companies have developed for people to shop, chat, entertain themselves. The central and local governments have tried to keep up to date. Jesper Schlæger explains the intricacies of Chinese eGovernment.

Chinese Intellectuals Speak to the World

Émilie Frenkiel — 2020-03-09T08:00:00Z

With China's regained power on the world stage, making accessible and studying the way intellectuals reflect on their country and contribute to the global conversation has become indispensable.

Cannibal Machine

Martin Gibert — 2020-01-23T08:00:00Z

Are intelligent machines attacking human labor? In his study of the digital labor hiding behind the promises of automation and robots, Antonio Casilli notably argues that social media constitute a form of unpaid work.

Algorithms and Territorial Regulation

Dominique Cardon & Maxime Crépel — 2019-12-16T07:00:00Z

Uber, Waze, Airbnb… The algorithms that control these platforms are based on an optimisation of the service provided to the user rather than any collective, political or moral norms. The accusations against these algorithms expose the way technical architectures implicitly govern our lives.

China's Digital Nationalism and the Hong Kong Protests

Émilie Frenkiel — 2019-09-05T06:00:00Z

Nationalist discourses take the lion share of politics-related discussions on the Chinese Internet. In the context of intense struggles over the interpretation of the Hong Kong protests, this interview with Florian Schneider sheds light on the complexity of online political and identity expression in China and elsewhere.

The Bitcoin El Dorado

Ludovic Desmedt & Odile Lakomski-Laguerre — 2018-12-27T07:00:00Z

Conceived by its inventors as the basis of a new monetary order, Bitcoin seems to have been overtaken by finance and become the object of lucrative speculation.

LGBT: Chinese and Online

Tao Hong & Lucas Monteil — 2018-10-11T07:00:00Z

After surfacing in the 1990s, the LGBT movement has continued to take hold in China, despite the new Chinese leadership's increasing hostility towards independent non-governmental organisations. This relative success is partly due to an innovative use of the Internet by the movement's actors.

Citizen Hacker

Clément Mabi — 2017-07-06T07:00:00Z

To increase citizen participation and political responsiveness, today new civic tech claims to be ‘hacking' democracy. Going beyond their immediate appeal, can these technologies deeply transform politics? What project do they propose?

We Don't Need Another Hero: Understanding Digifeminism

Vanina Géré — 2016-05-16T07:00:00Z

In a lively interview, cyberfeminist Angela Washko explains how “digi-feminism” is currently challenging cybersexism and existing conditions of the web; she discusses her past and current video projects and how to fight harassment against cyberactivist on the web. And if you ask her what the political aspect of her work is, she will say “all of it is political”.

Civic Hacking and our Political Future

Émilie Frenkiel — 2016-02-25T08:00:00Z

Can fresh air come from young democracies like Taiwan and civic-minded hacktivists like Audrey Tang? This interview shows that both help renew democratic practices in providing sophisticated collaborative, participatory and deliberative tools.