Africa's Information Revolution Technical Regimes and Production Networks in South Africa and Tanzania

The African continent is home to more than 700 million mobile phone users—and its rate of computer and internet penetration has increased exponentially in the past decade. What are the structural implications of Africa’s current “information revolution?” Africa’s Information Revolution presents an in-depth examination of the development and economic geographies accompanying the rapid diffusion of new ICTs in Sub-Saharan Africa. Based on more than 200 interviews with firms from a manufacturing and service industry in Tanzania and South Africa, the authors integrate concepts from economic geography, political economy, and science and technology studies to explain the impacts and implications of ICT adoption for African economies. Through their critical interrogation of Africa’s industrial development in an age of deeply informationalised capitalism, the authors develop and advance new theoretical concepts—including “neointermediation” and “thin” and “thick” forms of ICT integration. They also reveal that even as ICTs are absorbed into the everyday routines and practices of firms, the benefits of these technologies are being off-set by a simultaneous increase in the power that foreign companies hold over African economies. By balancing in-depth field research with innovative conceptual-theoretical perspectives, Africa’s Information Revolution offers illuminating insights into the relationships between ICTs and Africa's growing role in the global economy.

Africa’s Information Revolution was recently announced as the 2016 prizewinner of the Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences - congratulations to the authors James T. Murphy and Padraig Carmody!

Africa’s Information Revolution presents an in-depth examination of the development and economic geographies accompanying the rapid diffusion of new ICTs in Sub-Saharan Africa.

• Represents the first book-length comparative case study ICT diffusion in Africa of its kind
• Confronts current information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) discourse by providing a counter to largely optimistic mainstream perspectives on Africa’s prospects for m- and e-development
• Features comparative research based on more than 200 interviews with firms from a manufacturing and service industry in Tanzania and South Africa
• Raises key insights regarding the structural challenges facing Africa even in the context of the continent’s recent economic growth spurt
• Combines perspectives from economic and development geography and science and technology studies to demonstrate the power of integrated conceptual-theoretical frameworks
• Include maps, photos, diagrams and tables to highlight the concepts, field research settings, and key findings