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Technocolonialism: when technology for good can be harmful

Hosted by the Department of Media and Communications

In-person and online public event (Old Theatre, Old Building)

Speaker

Professor Mirca Madianou

Professor Mirca Madianou

Chair

Dr Alison Powell

Dr Alison Powell

With over 300 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, and with emergencies and climate disasters becoming more common, AI and data are being championed as forces for good and as solutions to the complex challenges of the aid sector. In this talk based on her new book, Mirca Madianou will argue that digital innovations such as biometrics and chatbots engender new forms of violence and entrench power asymmetries between the global South and North.

Drawing on ten years of research on the uses of digital technologies in humanitarian operations, Madianou will unearth the colonial power relations which shape ‘technology for good’ initiatives. The notion of technocolonialism captures how the convergence of digital infrastructures with humanitarian bureaucracy, state power and market forces reinvigorates and reshapes colonial legacies. Technocolonialism shifts the attention to the constitutive role that digital infrastructures, data and AI play in accentuating inequities between aid providers and people in need.

Meet our speakers and chair

Mirca Madianou (@madianou) is Professor in the Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies and co-Director of the Migrant Futures Institute at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her research focuses on the social consequences of communication technologies, infrastructures and artificial intelligence (AI) in a global south context especially in relation to migration and humanitarian emergencies. She is currently Principal Investigator on a British Academy grant on digital identity programmes in refugee camps in Thailand. Her new book is Technocolonialism: When Technology for Good is Harmful.

Alison Powell (@a_b_powell) is Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE and serves as Programme Director for the MSc Media and Communications (Data and Society). Alison's research addresses the discourse, design and context for technologies in the public interest. From 2019 to 2023, Alison was the Director of the JUST AI network and is the author of Undoing Optimization: Civic Action in Smart Cities.

More about this event

This event will be available to watch on LSE Live. LSE Live is the new home for our live streams, allowing you to tune in and join the global debate at LSE, wherever you are in the world. If you can't attend live, a video will be made available shortly afterwards on LSE's YouTube channel.

The Department of Media and Communications (@MediaLSE) is a world-leading centre for education and research in communication and media studies at the heart of LSE’s academic community in central London. The Department is ranked #1 in the UK and #3 globally in the field of media and communications (2024 QS World University Rankings).

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This public event is free and open to all. This event will be a hybrid event, with an in-person audience and an online audience. 

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For the online event: Registration for this event will open after 10am on Thursday 14 November.

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