Description
Territory is shifting. No longer defined by the dotted line of the border or the national footprint of soil, today's territories are enacted through data infrastructures. From subsea cables to server halls, these infrastructures underpin new forms of governance, shaping subjects and their everyday lives. Technical Territories moves from masked protestors in Hong Kong through to sand miners in Singapore and asylum-seekers in Christmas Island, exploring how these territories are both political and visceral, altering the experience of their inhabitants.
Infrastructures have now become geopolitical, strategic investments that advance national visions, extend influence, and trigger trade wars. Yet at the same time, these technologies also challenge sovereignty as a bounded container, enacting a more distributed and decoupled form of governance. Such "technical territories" construct new zones where subjects are assembled, rights are undermined, labor is coordinated, and capital is extracted. The stable line of the border is replaced by more fluid configurations of power. Luke Munn stages an interdisciplinary intervention over six chapters, drawing upon a wide range of literature from technical documents and activist accounts, and bringing insights from media studies, migration studies, political theory, and cultural and social studies to bear on these new sociotechnical conditions.
About the Author
Reviews
Technical Territories makes a strong case that we cannot ignore how developments in the data infrastructure arena are shaping geopolitics and international relations. This is an important contribution-one that focuses attention on the influence of material developments for how we think about and understand the changing political geography of the planet." - Alexander B. Murphy, University of Oregon
Book Information
ISBN 9780472076031
Author Luke Munn
Format Hardback
Page Count 192
Imprint The University of Michigan Press
Publisher The University of Michigan Press
Weight(grams) 272g
Infrastructures have now become geopolitical, strategic investments that advance national visions, extend influence, and trigger trade wars. Yet at the same time, these technologies also challenge sovereignty as a bounded container, enacting a more distributed and decoupled form of governance. Such "technical territories" construct new zones where subjects are assembled, rights are undermined, labor is coordinated, and capital is extracted. The stable line of the border is replaced by more fluid configurations of power. Luke Munn stages an interdisciplinary intervention over six chapters, drawing upon a wide range of literature from technical documents and activist accounts, and bringing insights from media studies, migration studies, political theory, and cultural and social studies to bear on these new sociotechnical conditions.
About the Author
Luke Munn is a Research Fellow in Digital Cultures & Societies at the University of Queensland.
Reviews
Technical Territories makes a strong case that we cannot ignore how developments in the data infrastructure arena are shaping geopolitics and international relations. This is an important contribution-one that focuses attention on the influence of material developments for how we think about and understand the changing political geography of the planet." - Alexander B. Murphy, University of Oregon
Book Information
ISBN 9780472076031
Author Luke Munn
Format Hardback
Page Count 192
Imprint The University of Michigan Press
Publisher The University of Michigan Press
Weight(grams) 272g
