Rethinking publics in Africa in a digital age
Rethinking publics in Africa in a digital age
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DOI：
10.1080/17531055.2018.1547259
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发表时间：
2019-01-02
影响因子：
1.4
通讯作者：
Karekwaivanane, George
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Srinivasan, Sharath;Diepeveen, Stephanie;Karekwaivanane, George
整个非洲大陆正在发生的数字化转型迫切需要对公众进行新的思考。这篇导言阐述了这期特刊对重新思考非洲公众研究的推动力和贡献。在更广泛的学术机构的脚步之后，我们借鉴非洲的过去和现在，以超越西方学术中嵌入的限制性假设，历史和语言。我们认为，在非洲数字时代，去西方化和捕捉公众都需要对学科、方法和问题的多样性持开放态度。此外，我们还将解释本特刊中的文章如何共同和单独地为承担这一任务做出贡献。总的来说，这些文章是关于索马里、埃塞俄比亚、苏丹、乌干达、坦桑尼亚、肯尼亚、卢旺达和津巴布韦公民利用新旧媒体和通信平台召集和参与讨论的不断发展的做法的令人大开眼界的汇编。贡献涵盖不同的学科观点和实证案例，调查公众聚集在数字平台，从WhatsApp，Twitter和Facebook的博客和约会应用程序在移动的手机。我们看到这种研究东非复杂而动态的数字化转型的努力是一个关键的学术转向的一部分，在这个转向中，对非洲社会和政治的研究有助于我们重新思考在其他地方有遗产的思想和概念，并以新的眼光来理解它们。
The digital transformations taking place across the African continent present an urgent need for fresh thinking in the study of publics. This introduction lays out the impetus and contribution of this Special Issue to such a rethinking of the study of publics in Africa. Following in the footsteps of a wider body of scholarship, we draw on Africa's pasts and present in order to move beyond the limiting assumptions, histories and languages that are embedded within Western scholarship on publics. We make the case that both de-Westernising and capturing publics in a digital age in Africa require openness to a diversity of disciplines, approaches and questions. In addition, we explain how, collectively and individually, the articles in this Special Issue contribute to taking up this task. Taken together, the articles are an eye-opening collection on the unfolding practices of citizens convening and participating in discussions using both newer and older media and communication platforms across Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Zimbabwe. Contributions cover diverse disciplinary perspectives and empirical cases that investigate publics convening around digital platforms from WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook to weblogs and dating apps on mobile phones. We see this endeavour of examining the complex and dynamic digital transformations across Eastern Africa as part of a crucial scholarly turn in which the study of African society and politics helps us to rethink ideas and concepts that have heritages elsewhere, and to understand them in a new light.