We are thrilled to announce the publication of the collection “COVID-19 from the Margins: Pandemic Invisibilities, Policies and Resistance in the Datafied Society”, edited by Stefania Milan, Emiliano Treré (Cardiff University) and Silvia Masiero (University of Oslo) for the Theory on Demand series of the Institute of Network Cultures!
The book explores pandemic invisibilities and datafied policies, but also forms of resistance and creativity of communities at the margins as they try to negotiate survival during the COVID-19 crisis. It features 75 authors writing in 5 languages in 282 pages that amplify the silenced voices of the first pandemic of the datafied society. In so doing, it seeks to de-center dominant ways of being and knowing while contributing a decolonial approach to the narration of the COVID-19 emergency. It brings researchers, activists, practitioners, and communities on the ground into dialogue to offer critical reflections in near-real time and in an accessible language, from indigenous groups in New Zealand to impoverished families in Spain, from data activists in South Africa to gig workers in India, from feminicidios in Mexico to North/South stereotypes in Europe, from astronomers in Brazil to questions of infrastructure in Russia and Github activism in China—and much more!
The book is **open access**. You can download the .pdf and .epub versions from this page.
While supplies last, we are also distributing printed copies for free (use the same link to order yours).
“COVID-19 from the Margins caringly and thoughtfully demonstrates why the multiplicity we call “the poor” is more than ever at the receiving end of the worst effects of globalized, patriarchal/colonial racist capitalism. But they are not passive victims, for their everyday forms of activism and re-existence, including their daily tweaking of the digital for purposes of community, care, and survival, has incredible insights about design and digital justice that this book takes to heart as we strive to undo the lethal effects of ‘the first pandemic of the datafied society’ “, wrote about the book Colombian anthropologist Arturo Escobar, author of ‘Designs for the Pluriverse. Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds’ (Duke UP, 2018).
A number of book launch event will follow in the coming weeks. Visit this website to stay tuned, or follow the project on Twitter (@BigDataSur).
We wish to thank a number of sponsors without whom this project and the blog where it all started would not have been possible. In order of appearance, the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis, the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University, the European Research Council, and the Research Priority Areas of the University of Amsterdam Global Digital Cultures and Amsterdam Center for European Studies. Finally, a big heartfelt thanks goes to Geert Lovink and his INC team, for believing in this project from the start and giving us the chance to experiment with multilingualism and knowledge sharing.