Transient Workspaces - Technologies of Everyday Innovation in Zimbabwe

An account of technology in Africa from an African perspective, examining hunting in Zimbabwe as an example of an innovative mobile workspace.In this book, Clapperton Mavhunga views technology in Africa from an African perspective. Technology in his account is not something always brought in from outside, but is also something that ordinary people understand, make, and practice through their everyday innovations or creativities—including things that few would even consider technological. Technology does not always originate in the laboratory in a Western-style building but also in the society in the forest, in the crop field, and in other places where knowledge is made and turned into practical outcomes.
African creativities are found in African mobilities. Mavhunga shows the movement of people as not merely conveyances across space but transient workspaces. Taking indigenous hunting in Zimbabwe as one example, he explores African philosophies of mobilities as spiritually guided and of the forest as a sacred space. Viewing the hunt as guided mobility, Mavhunga considers interesting questions of what constitutes technology under regimes of spirituality. He describes how African hunters extended their knowledge traditions to domesticate the gun, how European colonizers, with no remedy of their own, turned to indigenous hunters for help in combating the deadly tsetse fly, and examines how wildlife conservation regimes have criminalized African hunting rather than enlisting hunters (and their knowledge) as allies in wildlife sustainability. The hunt, Mavhunga writes, is one of many criminalized knowledges and practices to which African people turn in times of economic or political crisis. He argues that these practices need to be decriminalized and examined as technologies of everyday innovation with a view toward constructive engagement, innovating with Africans rather than for them.

A propos de l'auteur

Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga is Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at MIT. He is the author of Transient Workspaces: Technologies of Everyday Innovation in Zimbabwe and the editor of What Do Science, Technology, and Innovation Mean from Africa?, both published by the MIT Press.

Résumé

An account of technology in Africa from an African perspective, examining hunting in Zimbabwe as an example of an innovative mobile workspace.

Détails du produit

• Auteurs: Clapperton Chakanets Mavhunga, Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga, Clapperton Chakanetsa (Associate Professor Mavhunga
• Edition: The MIT Press
• Langues: Anglais
• Format d'édition: Livre de poche
• Sortie: 31.12.2019
• EAN: 9780262537582
• ISBN: 978-0-262-53758-2
• Pages: 312
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 16 mm
• Thèmes: The MIT Press; The MIT Press; Mobility Studies
• Catégories: Sciences naturelles, médecine, informatique, technique > Technique > Autres; Sciences sociales, droit, économie > Sociologie > Sociologie du travail, de l'économie et de l'industrie; SCIENCE / Philosophy & Social Aspects, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Engineering (General), TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / History, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Social Aspects, Zimbabwe, History of engineering and technology, Impact of science & technology on society, History of engineering & technology, Impact of science and technology on society, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Technology Studies, Intermediate technology