In Technology of the Oppressed, David Nemer draws on extensive ethnography to provide a rich account of how favela residents appropriate different technologies to navigate digital and non-digital sources of oppression - and even, at times, thrive . Based on the work of educator Paulo Freire, Nemer develops a decolonial and intersectional theoretical framework called Mundane Technology to analyze how technologies can simultaneously be spaces of oppression and tools in the struggle for freedom. Nemer also addresses the relationship between disinformation and radicalization and the rise of the new extreme right. Contrary to the techno-optimistic belief that technology will save the poor, even with access to technology, these marginalized people face numerous sources of oppression, including technological biases, racism, classism, sexism, and censorship. Still, the community spirit, love, resilience and resistance of favela residents enable their quest for freedom.
Mini Bio:
David Nemer is a professor in the Media Studies and Anthropology departments and director of the Latin American Studies program at the University of Virginia. He is also an associate professor at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Nemer is the author of the books Tecnologia do Oprimido (Milfontes, 2021 & MIT Press, 2022), winner of the Marcel Roche Prize, and Favela Digital: The other side of technology (Editora GSA, 2013). He holds master's degrees in Anthropology from the University of Virginia and in Computer Science from the University of Saarland (Germany), and a Ph.D. in Computing, Culture and Society from Indiana University. Nemer writes for The Guardian, El País, The Huffington Post (HuffPost), Salon, The Intercept_, UOL and CartaCapital.