Cryptopolitics: Exposure, Concealment, and Digital Media
New York: Berghahn (2023), vii, 245 pp.
Contains index
Series: Anthropology of Media, 12
ISBN 978-1-80539-029-9 (hbk); 978-1-80539-033-6 (ebook)
"Hidden information, double meanings, double-crossing, and the constant processes of encoding and decoding messages have always been important techniques in negotiating social and political power dynamics. Yet these tools, "cryptopolitics," are transformed when used within digital media. Focusing on African societies, Cryptopolitics brings together empirically grounded studies of digital media to consider public culture, sociality, and power in all its forms, illustrating the analytical potential of cryptopolitics to elucidate intimate relationships, political protest, and economic strategies in the digital age." (Publisher description)
Introduction. Cryptopolitics and Digital Media / Katrien Pype, Victoria Bernal, and Daivi Rodima-Taylor, 1
1 Four Ways of Not Saying Something in Digital Kinshasa: Or, On the Substance of Shadow Conversations / Katrien Pype, 24
2 Social Media and Sounding Out in the Cryptopolitical Landscape of the Burundian Conflict / Simon Turner, 51
3 Digital (Dis)order, Twitter Hashtags, and the Performance of Politics in Kenya / George Ogola, 79
4 The Muslim Mali Video Game: Revisiting the Religious-Security-Postcolonial Nexus in Popular Culture / Marie Deridder and Olivier Servais, 97
5 Algorithmic Power in a Contested Digital Public: Cryptopolitics and Identity in the Somali Conflict / Peter Chonka, 129
6 The Cryptopolitics of Digital Mutuality / Daivi Rodima-Taylor, 156
7 This Dictatorship Is a Joke: Eritrean Politics as Tragicomedy / Victoria Bernal, 184
8 Regulating Refugees: Technologies, Bodies, and Belonging in Kenya / Lisa Poggiali, 207
Conclusion. Studying Cryptopolitics / Daivi Rodima-Taylor, Katrien Pype, and Victoria Bernal, 234
1 Four Ways of Not Saying Something in Digital Kinshasa: Or, On the Substance of Shadow Conversations / Katrien Pype, 24
2 Social Media and Sounding Out in the Cryptopolitical Landscape of the Burundian Conflict / Simon Turner, 51
3 Digital (Dis)order, Twitter Hashtags, and the Performance of Politics in Kenya / George Ogola, 79
4 The Muslim Mali Video Game: Revisiting the Religious-Security-Postcolonial Nexus in Popular Culture / Marie Deridder and Olivier Servais, 97
5 Algorithmic Power in a Contested Digital Public: Cryptopolitics and Identity in the Somali Conflict / Peter Chonka, 129
6 The Cryptopolitics of Digital Mutuality / Daivi Rodima-Taylor, 156
7 This Dictatorship Is a Joke: Eritrean Politics as Tragicomedy / Victoria Bernal, 184
8 Regulating Refugees: Technologies, Bodies, and Belonging in Kenya / Lisa Poggiali, 207
Conclusion. Studying Cryptopolitics / Daivi Rodima-Taylor, Katrien Pype, and Victoria Bernal, 234
