Hostility by Design - by Sally Wyatt (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

Technologies are not created hostile, but they can become so. Through neglect, austerity or repurposing, the systems that shape our lives can cause profound harm to people, animals, and physical and social environments in ways their creators neither anticipated nor acknowledged.

Drawing on examples spanning border control, welfare systems, urban design and AI, this provocative collection introduces the concept of technological innocence: the obliviousness that allows bias and hostility to flourish unchallenged.

Moving beyond naïve design ethics, it offers scholars, designers and policy makers a powerful new vocabulary for confronting the darker consequences of technological choice.

Review Quotes

'Through a series of compelling examples, this book shatters the myth that all innovation is good innovation. A thought-provoking collection.' Alan Irwin, Aarhus University and Copenhagen Business School.

''Hostility by Design' puts to bed once and for all any notion that our technologies are somehow merely neutral things. The astounding range of examples - high-tech and low, large-scale infrastructure and microprocessors - make the inherent politics of technology undeniable'. - Robert Rosenberger, Carter School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology

'A vital account that shows how technologies lend themselves to weaponisation, by planned hostility of innocence by which power designs itself.' - Nishant Shah, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

'Bringing together leading scholars from across disciplines, this provocative collection challenges assumptions and develops a shared vocabulary for understanding the hostilities embedded in all technologies.' - Jennifer Pybus, Department of Politics, York University, Canada

'Wyatt has brought together a diverse and exciting collection of authors and examples to illustrate how, when and where technologies can become hostile to people, the environment and democracy.' - Judy Wajcman, Department of Sociology, London School of Economics

'This beautifully curated collection reveals the myriad ways in which technologies become or are made hostile. It will captivate students and general readers alike'. - Claudia Aradau, Department of War Studies, King's College London

About the Author

Sally Wyatt is Professor Emerita of Digital Cultures at the Maastricht University Science, Technology and Society Studies research programme.