Overview
- Considers the effectiveness of repurposing biometric technology as a tool for elections
- Outlines the ways biometric technology can contribute to the marginalization of certain users
- Describes approaches for developing and adapting technology to meet the needs of cross-cultural audiences
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Table of contents (9 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book examines Ghana’s use of the fingerprint biometric technology in order to further conversations about localization championed by technical communication scholars. Localization, in this case, refers to the extent to which users demonstrate their knowledge of use by subverting and reconfiguring the purpose of technology to solve local problems. Dorpenyo argues that the success of a technology depends on how it meets the users’ needs and the creative efforts users put into use situations. In User Localization Strategies in the Face of Technological Breakdown, Dorpenyo advocates studying how users of technological systems construct knowledge about the technology and develop local strategies to solve technological breakdowns. By analyzing technical documents and interview transcripts, the author identifies and advances three user localization strategies: linguistic localization, subversive localization, and user-heuristic experience localization, and considers how biometric systems can become a tool of marginalization.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Isidore Kafui Dorpenyo is Assistant Professor of Professional Writing and Rhetoric at George Mason University, USA. His research focuses on election technology, international technical communication, social justice, and localization. He co-edited a special issue of Technical Communication focused on technical communication and election technologies. Dorpenyo has also published in Technical Communication Quarterly, the Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, and Community Literacy journal.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: User Localization Strategies in the Face of Technological Breakdown
Book Subtitle: Biometric in Ghana’s Elections
Authors: Isidore Kafui Dorpenyo
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26399-7
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-26398-0Published: 02 September 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-26401-7Published: 02 September 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-26399-7Published: 20 August 2019
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVII, 243
Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 19 illustrations in colour
Topics: Science and Technology Studies, Biotechnology, African Politics, Innovation/Technology Management