Infrastructural Inaccessibility: Tech Entrepreneurs in Occupied Palestine

Pernille Bjørn, Nina Boulus-Rødje

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

In this article, we examine the fundamental and taken-for-granted infrastructures that make tech entrepreneurship possible. We report from a longitudinal ethnographic study of tech entrepreneurs situated in occupied Palestine. By investigating this polar case of tech entrepreneurship, we identify critical infrastructures that are otherwise invisible and go unnoticed. We propose infrastructural accessibility as a method to identify available and absent infrastructures in concrete trans-local situations. Infrastructural accessibility leads us to identify multiple dimensions of critical infrastructures necessary for the success of tech startups. This includes infrastructures related to location, community, funding, digital platforms, politics, and history.
Our study shows how these multiple dimensions of infrastructural accessibility shape the everyday practices of tech entrepreneurs. Furthermore, our study reveals how Palestinian tech entrepreneurship is characterized by infrastructural inaccessibility due to missing infrastructures related to mobility, legal frameworks, payment gateways, and mobile Internet. Infrastructural inaccessibility seriously limits tech entrepreneurs’ potential to succeed in creating a long-term sustainable tech industry.
Original languageEnglish
Article number26
JournalACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction
Volume25
Issue number5
Pages (from-to)1-31
Number of pages31
ISSN1073-0516
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2018

Bibliographical note

"© ACM, 2018. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction Volume 25 Issue 5, October 2018 Article No. 26. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/3219777"

Keywords

  • CSCW
  • Palestinian
  • accessibility
  • entrepreneurs
  • ethnography
  • infrastructures
  • innovation
  • mobility
  • occupation
  • politics
  • tech start-up
  • visibility

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