Article ID: CBB001181668

Revolutionary secrets: Technology's role in the South African anti-apartheid movement (2007)

unapi

Description In the late 1980s, Operation Vula brought exiled African National Congress (ANC) leaders and military capacity into South Africa despite legal and military obstacles. According to participants, a purpose-built encrypted communication system was critical to this success, but what was the significance of the technology? Was it simply a catalyst for change within the ANC leadership, or did the system crucially alter the political situation? This case study highlights the importance of four key factors affecting the interaction between new information and communication technologies (ICTs) and social movements. The factors are (a) ongoing technological innovation, (b) user practices, (c) technical competence, and (d) organizational routines. Scholarship that fails to consider these factors risks oversimplifying the process of sociotechnical change, hampering our ability to understand the relationship between ICTs and contentious political activity. (Abstract from: http://ssc.sagepub.com/content/25/1/13.abstract?rss=1)


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001181668/

Similar Citations

Chapter Lundin, Per; Dussauge, Isabelle; Gribbe, Johan; Kaijser, Arne; Peralta, Julia; Sjöblom, Gustav; Thodenius, Björn; (2011)
Precursors of the IT nation: Computer use and control in Swedish society, 1955--1985 (/isis/citation/CBB001181593/)

Book Castells, Manuel; Kiselyova, Emma; (1995)
The collapse of Soviet communism: A view from the information society (/isis/citation/CBB001180056/)

Article Malte Ziewitz; (January 2016)
Governing Algorithms: Myth, Mess, and Methods (/isis/citation/CBB061486372/)

Chapter Haigh, Thomas; (2010)
Masculinity and the machine man (/isis/citation/CBB001180016/)

Book Aspray, William F.; Ceruzzi, Paul E.; (2008)
The Internet and American business (/isis/citation/CBB001180684/)

Article Wyk, Martha van; (2010)
Sunset over Atomic Apartheid: United States--South African Nuclear Relations, 1981--93 (/isis/citation/CBB001213843/)

Book Hecht, Gabrielle; (2011)
Entangled Geographies: Empire and Technopolitics in the Global Cold War (/isis/citation/CBB001251047/)

Article Tatarchenko, Ksenia; (2010)
Cold War Origins of the International Federation for Information Processing (/isis/citation/CBB001231737/)

Article Cortada, J. W.; (2012)
Information Technologies in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), 1949--1989 (/isis/citation/CBB001211132/)

Chapter Kramer, R.; (1993)
The politics of information: A study of the French Minitel system (/isis/citation/CBB001180072/)

Book Paul Dourish; (2017)
The stuff of bits: an essay on the materialities of information (/isis/citation/CBB641593490/)

Book Castells, Manuel; (2001)
Internet galaxy: Reflections on the internet, business and society (/isis/citation/CBB001180055/)

Book Streeter, Thomas; (2010)
The net effect: Romanticism, capitalism, and the internet (/isis/citation/CBB001180086/)

Book Leslie, Jacques; (2005)
Deep Water: The Epic Struggle over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment (/isis/citation/CBB000700536/)

Book Bartscherer, Thomas; Coover, Roderick; (2011)
Switching Codes: Thinking through Digital Technology in the Humanities and the Arts (/isis/citation/CBB001251280/)

Thesis Rowe, Josh; (2011)
The Public Life of Information (/isis/citation/CBB001562733/)

Authors & Contributors
Hecht, Gabrielle
Castells, Manuel
Anton F. Guhl
Ziewitz, Malte
Thodenius, Björn
Streeter, Thomas
Concepts
Information technology
Technology and society
Technology and politics
Internet
History of Computing
Computers and computing
Time Periods
20th century, late
21st century
20th century
Places
United States
South Africa
Germany
France
Soviet Union
Saudi Arabia
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment