LAGOSTECH · Africa’s Silicon Landscapes: negotiating Information and Communication Technology in Lagos

To improve our understanding of the interactions and negotiations between society and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in sub-Saharan African ‘silicon places’, LAGOSTECH will investigate the experiences of technology in and the digital creativity emanating from two technological nodes (Yaba and Talent City) in Lagos. Nigeria is home to the largest number of tech hubs in Africa, but paradoxically is also where silicon places have received the least scholarly attention. Studies of Silicon Valley reveal how ‘technologically saturated’ places strongly influence social relationships and individual experiences while producing a variety of perceptions of technology. Yet, despite the EU’s strong interest in digitalisation processes in Africa, previous studies on African technological nodes focused on entrepreneurs’ investment strategies within tech hubs, paying scarce attention to high-tech communities’ socio-cultural characteristics and to the broader reasons behind their development. LAGOSTECH aims to fill this gap by analysing Lagos innovation clusters in everyday life, with a focus on the negotiation of ‘technology contracts’; that is, the social dynamics through which ICTs are accepted, amended or rejected, ultimately leading to the emergence or the disappearance of these communities. Through ethnographic fieldwork, LAGOSTECH will look at the stories, discourses, and practices of tech entrepreneurs, experts, users and consumers, revealing how they imagine their digital futures and the interweaving between people and ICTs. In addition to advancing knowledge in disciplines such as Anthropology, Sociology, African Studies, STS, and Silicon Valley studies, the project’s findings will facilitate a broader reconsideration of ICTs in Africa, leading to improved collaboration between European and sub-Saharan African stakeholders.