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Digital Disruption in Asia: Power, Technology, and Society
Abstract
This introduction to the fourth special issue of Asiascape: Digital Asia discusses the complex interactions between technology and society in the context of ‘digital Asia’. The special issue is drawn from contributions to a conference held in May 2016 titled ‘Digital Disruption in Asia: Methods and Issues’. Inspired by the idea that the use of digital technologies is shaking up some major political and economic institutions, the conference aimed to see whether some of the same processes were playing out across Asia. But while the wording of its title focused on the impact of digital technologies in Asian societies, what emerged were much more complex stories detailing the different ways the technologies are used in their offline contexts. This introduction traces these stories, identifying some common elements of digitality that range from constant connectivity, to mobility, speed, and the potential to break down social and even disciplinary boundaries.
... My own first tentative steps in the field came through an interest in the geographies of information, a concern with the under-representation of Asian voices on the internet (Hicks 2016). My imagination was captured by the idea of the internet working on and through existing power relations (Hicks 2017), and I marvelled at the size and sophistication of a new ride-hailing app in Indonesia called Gojek, which already had a workforce of 200,000 drivers (Hicks 2016). Today, the workforce is ten times as large, and the firm has a market value of over US$12 billion (CNBC 2020). ...
This article draws attention to a missing dimension in the analysis of digital ID : its geopolitical shaping. After a brief reflection on theory in digital Asia, it presents the most common approach to digital ID as involving judgments about its positive and negative impacts and potential regulatory fixes. While recognizing the utility of this approach, the article presents a complementary framing of digital ID systems focused not on their effects, but on the influences that shape them. It argues that in many Asian countries in the global South, digital ID systems can be influenced by a combination of: technological struggle between the US and China; a desire to open new markets for digital service companies; and the development potential of economic and financial inclusion. After revealing the intellectual roots of the ‘geopolitical shaping’ frame in three adjacent literatures, it concludes by pointing the way to new avenues of empirical enquiry.
... This is as if the variety of present technology is utilized in the same way and provided the same results as well. Other critics also questioned the convergence between what happens in the digital world and the 'real' world (Chan, 2014;Kaun & Uldam, 2018), also technological affordance as an issue which addresses the functional and relational aspects of a technology that do not determine, but rather frame the possibilities for action (Hicks, 2017;Hutchby, 2001;Joyce, 2010). ...
This article discusses digital activism and democracy in Indonesia, which is analyzed from several research articles published in the journal publications from 2014 to 2020. The objective of this research is to explore the various meanings of digital activism in Indonesia. The assumption is that digital activism is not a universal practice and the use of digital technology can be determined by the context and goals that are to be achieved from such activism. This article uses the scoping study method by exploring journal articles in the international publication database. The results of this research found that six themes portray the practice of digital activism in Indonesia, which are digital activism as (1) a strategy to mobilize support or to initiate social or political movement; (2) an arena to discuss marginalized issues; (3) critique and control of the government; (4) ‘hoaxtivism’ and counter-hoaxtivism; (5) hacktivism; and (6) identity building process. These various meanings show how digital activism became a potential strategy for pro-democracy agents to transform the inherent power nature of the internet. Such provides conditions for further research on digital activism and the strengthening of democracy in Indonesia.
Keywords: Digital activism, techno-politic, democratization, scoping study, internet
Asia is primed for digital disruption to achieve inclusive growth and shared prosperity. This chapter argues disruption is imperative, going beyond change to transform systems. Asia’s dichotomy of advanced and developing digital economies presents opportunities for disruptive solutions to bridge divides. The cultural diversity necessitates localized innovations catering to distinct user needs. Rapid technological advances also require embracing disruption to tap into emerging technologies. Digital disruption can unlock immense potential by triggering innovation, efficiency, and new business models. Case studies like Grab and Paytm demonstrate this impact. Pioneering entrepreneurs must lead disruption with tech and business models meeting evolving consumer needs. Digital literacy and skills initiatives are vital to empower citizens. Governments play a crucial role through policies and leadership to optimize disruption while ensuring inclusivity. AI and automation will be profoundly disruptive but their impact can be managed strategically. Disruption is key for Asia to fulfill its vast potential.
This article reviews a decade of research, published in the journal Asiascape: Digital Asia ( DIAS ), that explored the question of how digital technologies and their usage have shaped – and have been shaped by – societies, politics, and economies across the Asian region. It discusses the kind of scholarship that DIAS has published, and on which topics, before giving an overview of the contributions that form this anniversary issue. The article concludes by offering thoughts on the future of digital Asia research.
In this introductory chapter, the authors explore why the internationalization of media studies has been stymied and argue that the conditions are now ripe for invigorating this effort, especially in and through Asia. The fervent adoption of information and communication technologies in Asia, the region’s rapid economic growth, and its youthful and increasingly well-educated populace have lent impetus to the adoption, consumption, appropriation and production of media content and technologies. Juxtaposed against these contemporaneous developments are the enduring traditions and cultural values of the region that are simultaneously shaped by and shaping the socio-technological landscape. Although media systems and experiences are increasingly being shaped by global flows and exchanges, the chapter makes a case for the importance of looking back at these enduring Asian concepts to inform our nuanced understanding of everyday experiences of communication and technology engagement in the region. This chapter also describes the organization of the volume and provides an introduction to the chapters.
This article is a contribution to the debate about the role of the Internet in mobilizations for political and social change, drawing on interviews and observations during the Egyptian revolution. We propose distinguishing between the use of the Internet as a tool by those seeking to bring about change from below, and the Internet's role as a space where collective dissent can be articulated. We argue that it is important to go beyond three sets of polemics. First, we argue for transcending the debate between utopian and dystopian perspectives on the role of the Internet in political change. Second, we propose a shift away from perspectives that isolate the Internet from other media by examining the powerful synergy between social media and satellite broadcasters during the January 25 uprising. And finally, we call for an understanding of the dialectical relationship between online and offline political action. The revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt have renewed and repolarized debates over the role of the Internet in mobilizations for political and social change. While Morozov's (2011) contention that, faced with the threat of revolution, an embattled government would simply try and pull the plug on the Internet proved to be correct, 1 the communications shutdown in Egypt neither stopped the protests, nor prevented the protesters from communicating with the outside world. In fact, despite the media hype about "Facebook Revolutions," the Egyptian activists we interviewed rightly reject simplistic claims that technology somehow caused the 2011 uprisings, and they say it undermines the agency of the millions of people who participated in the movement that brought down Hosni Mubarak. Our analysis here attempts to go beyond three sets of counterposed polemics. First, we reject the false polarization of utopian/dystopian views of the Internet and recognize that the Internet is both a product of imperialist and capitalist logics and something that is simultaneously used by millions in the struggle to resist those logics. As we shall explain, it is unsatisfactory to counterpose assertions that the Internet and other forms of new media either have no effect on the dynamic of revolution with assertions 1 Details of the Internet shutdown and restoration can be found on the Renesys blog, J. Cowie, (January 27, 2011; February 2, 2011).
Purpose
– This paper seeks to examine the various actors responsible for the recent tragedy at a clothing factory in Bangladesh. Rather than focusing on the actual factory owner, it evaluates the broader structural and institutional factors, plus a particular Western retailer strategy of fast fashion, that together explain the practical inevitability of such tragedies.
Design/methodology/approach
– As a case study of a particular incident, it presents data from newspaper accounts and descriptive statistics to evaluate the broader context of an industrial accident.
Findings
– By examining the full context of the incident, it becomes apparent that there were systemic issues that effectively encouraged many parties to engage in workplace policies that almost inevitably can lead to accidents or at least labor abuses. Finally, blame is apportioned to Western consumers whose insatiable appetite for “fashionable” goods merely feeds a retail system that was set up to resolve earlier supply chain problems and ended up taking advantage of changing international trade regimes.
Originality/value
– The paper takes a much broader examination and analysis of institutional factors that shape work conditions than studies that focus merely on labor-management issues.
Recent studies have shown what indispensable role mobile phones play as means of mobilization in contentious politics around the world. Nevertheless, there has been no clear elaboration of how mobile phone uses translate into mobilization in contentious politics. To fill this gap, the current study employs Passy's (2003) framework of the threefold function of social ties as channels of mobilization to examine how mobile communication, embedding the dynamics of social ties, influences protest mobilization. It investigates two cases in rural and urban China in which Chinese people employed their mobile phones to mobilize participants for protests, and conducts 24 in-depth interviews with participants in these protests. Findings suggest that using mobile phones for mobilization registers the relational dynamics of social ties, which shapes participants' perceptions of given protest issues, ensures the safety of protest recruitment and mobilization in a repressive context, and generates pressure on participation, all of which contributes to the mechanism of mobilization. This study concludes with the concept of 'relational mobilization' , which addresses the embedment and relevance of social ties in the process of mobile-phone-mediated mobilization and its implication for Asian countries.
Although scholarship in the social construction of technology (SCOT) has contributed much to illuminating technological development, most work using this theoretical approach is committed to an agency-centered approach. SCOT scholars have made only limited contributions to illustrating the influence of social structures. In this article, the authors argue for the importance of structural concepts to understanding technological development. They summarize the SCOT conceptual framework defined by Trevor Pinch and Wiebe Bijker and survey some of the methodological and explanatory difficulties that arise with their approach. Then the authors present concepts from organizational sociology and political economy that illuminate structural influences in shaping phe-nomena of interest to SCOT scholars. These structural concepts can be applied to the study of the design, development, and transformation of technology. The authors con-clude that the limited amount of scholarship on structural factors in the social shaping of technological development presents numerous opportunities for research.
An exploration of the diverse experiments in digital futures as they advance far from the celebrated centers of technological innovation and entrepreneurship.
In Networking Peripheries, Anita Chan shows how digital cultures flourish beyond Silicon Valley and other celebrated centers of technological innovation and entrepreneurship. The evolving digital cultures in the Global South vividly demonstrate that there are more ways than one to imagine what digital practice and global connection could look like. To explore these alternative developments, Chan investigates the diverse initiatives being undertaken to “network” the nation in contemporary Peru, from attempts to promote the intellectual property of indigenous artisans to the national distribution of digital education technologies to open technology activism in rural and urban zones.
Drawing on ethnographic accounts from government planners, regional free-software advocates, traditional artisans, rural educators, and others, Chan demonstrates how such developments unsettle dominant conceptions of information classes and innovations zones. Government efforts to turn rural artisans into a new creative class progress alongside technology activists' efforts to promote indigenous rights through information tactics; plans pressing for the state wide adoption of open source–based technologies advance while the One Laptop Per Child initiative aims to network rural classrooms by distributing laptops. As these cases show, the digital cultures and network politics emerging on the periphery do more than replicate the technological future imagined as universal from the center.
This article asks two related questions. First, to what extent has internet activism shaped social protest in Malaysia from the late 1990s to the present? Second, what can the history of internet activism and social protest in Malaysia tell us, if anything, about the 2011 global wave of protests? To address these questions I distinguish three key moments in Malaysia’s eventful history of internet activism and social protest, namely the 1998-1999 reformasi movement, the electoral ‘tsunami’ of 2008 (in which the ruling coalition lost its two-thirds majority), and the Bersih 2.0 rallies of 2011. I argue that Bersih 2.0 is best explained as both the latest episode in a series of uniquely Malaysian techno-political events and as a local variant of the global wave of protests of 2011 – a wave in which hackers, online journalists, and technology lawyers, as well as ordinary citizens using digital media, played an important part. The article ends with a summary and with suggestions for further research.
:While social networking platforms can be powerful tools in the hands of activists seeking to bring down authoritarian governments, it is unwise to assume that access to the Internet and social networking platforms alone is sufficient for democratization of repressive regimes. The case of China demonstrates how authoritarian regimes can adapt to the Internet, even using networked technologies to bolster legitimacy. The emergence of Chinese "networked authoritarianism" highlights difficult issues of policy and corporate responsibility that must be resolved in order to ensure that the Internet and mobile technologies can fulfill their potential to support liberation and empowerment.
Itineraries of RecognitionWorlding PracticesASIAReferences
This article argues that a mutual shaping lens enables a more encompassing account of the joint processes of technological and social change in new media than the diffusion of innovations and social shaping of technology perspectives. Drawing from recent work in sociology and history of technology, organization studies, social informatics, and computer-supported cooperative work, this article suggests that the shaping and diffusion of media artifacts are so intimately tied that they should be seen as the two sides of the same innovation coin. Using examples from the history of videotex newspapers in the United States, the analysis shows that actors simultaneously pursued interdependent technological and social transformations, that this was an ongoing process in which partial outcomes in the technological domain influenced social events at a later phase—and vice versa—and that such process was influenced by historical developments.
- Rosa
‘One Tweet does not a Revolution Make: Technological Determinism, Media and Social Change’
- Hirst
‘Economies of Digital Production in East Asia iPhone Girls and the Transnational Circuits of Cool’
- Nakamura
- Owen
‘Technology, Texts, and Affordances’
- Hutchby
‘Achievements of Computational Humanities Programme’
- Mulder
‘Mobile Phone Culture: The Impacts of Mobile Phone Use’
- Seung-Hyun