Book Talk with Britt Paris–Radical Infrastructures: Building Possibilities for a People's Internet

About Radical Infrastructures: Building Possibilities for a People's Internet: 

What if we could start over and build the Internet from scratch? How could it be rebuilt or reimagined as more equitable and just? For more than eight years, Britt S. Paris investigated alternative Internet infrastructure projects, conducting interviews, site visits, and policy analysis. In this expansive and interdisciplinary study, Paris critically examines the myriad and contradictory promises, utility, and obstacles to building a completely new Internet. Radical Infrastructure locates and analyzes the boundaries of how people and groups imagine, build, deploy, maintain, and use the Internet as they survive—and even dare to thrive—in challenging political, economic, and environmental contexts. Ultimately, Paris encourages active reflection among scholars, policymakers, and activists and reveals more grounded imaginaries, tactics, and opportunities for future people-centered projects.

About the author: 

Britt S. Paris is a critical informatics scholar studying the political economy of information infrastructure, as it relates to evidentiary standards and political action. Previously, she has published work on Internet infrastructure projects, artificial intelligence-generated information objects, digital labor, and civic data, analyzed through the lenses of science and technology studies, political economy, cultural studies, and social epistemology. Paris' research, teaching, and service are interconnected and emphasize the following themes:
Critically investigating contemporary discourse and practice around using data-driven technology to solve growing social, political, and environmental problems.
Uncovering political, ethical, and aesthetic assumptions built into Internet infrastructure.
Understanding the labor, economics, and systems of power that undergird today’s information and communication landscape.