Hitachi Center for Technology and International Affairs Speaker Series

Hitachi Center for Technology and International Affairs Speaker Series

Irene Wu

"Forging Trust Communities: How Technology Changes Politics"

Monday, October 12, 2015

12:30-1:45 pm

Mugar 200

Lunch will be served.

Bloggers in India used social media and wikis to broadcast news and bring humanitarian aid to tsunami victims in South Asia. Terrorist groups like ISIS pour out messages and recruit new members on websites. The Internet is the new public square, bringing to politics a platform on which to create community at both the grassroots and bureaucratic level. Drawing on historical and contemporary case studies from more than ten countries, Irene S. Wu’s Forging Trust Communities argues that the Internet, and the technologies that predate it, catalyze political change by creating new opportunities for cooperation. The Internet does not simply enable faster and easier communication, but makes it possible for people around the world to interact closely, reciprocate favors, and build trust. The information and ideas exchanged by members of these cooperative communities become key sources of political power akin to military might and economic strength.

Forging Trust Communities demonstrates that the way people receive and share information through network communities reveals as much about their political identity as their socioeconomic class, ethnicity, or religion. Scholars and students in political science, public administration, international studies, sociology, and the history of science and technology will find this to be an insightful and indispensable work.

Irene S. Wu is senior analyst at the US Federal Communications Commission. The author of From Iron Fist to Invisible Hand: The Uneven Path of Telecommunications Reform in China, she teaches in the Communications, Culture & Technology Program at Georgetown University.

Please register for this event using Eventbrite:

About the Hitachi Center:

The Hitachi Center was founded in 1990, with a generous endowment gift from Hitachi, Ltd., and is housed at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. Its mission is to sponsor advanced research and instruction, demonstrate intellectual and professional leadership, and encourage and facilitate a global exchange of ideas on the management of innovation and technological change and the advancement of economic and financial integration. Over the years, the Hitachi Center has helped to promote Fletcher’s mission of teaching, research, and service through its support and promotion of internships, research on important issues of global technology management, international finance, and international economic integration, conferences bringing together scholars and policy-makers, and other educational activities.