Towards an Ethical Electronics? Ecologies of Congolese Conflict Minerals
This paper asks how coltan, casseterite, wolframite and gold ores mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo relate networked microelectronics to brutal warlords, and what legal and industrial actions have been enacted by activists, NGOs, politicians and businesses aiming to address this situation. E...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Westminster Press
2015-09-01
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| Series: | Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture |
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| Online Access: | https://www.westminsterpapers.org/article/id/207/ |
| _version_ | 1818901339614216192 |
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| author | Sy Taffel |
| author_facet | Sy Taffel |
| author_sort | Sy Taffel |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper asks how coltan, casseterite, wolframite and gold ores mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo relate networked microelectronics to brutal warlords, and what legal and industrial actions have been enacted by activists, NGOs, politicians and businesses aiming to address this situation. Exploring these questions requires the abandonment of immaterialist rhetorics of technology; tropes of cyberspace, virtuality, cloud computing and other discourses of digital disembodiment, instead inviting materialist analysis relating to the geological, geopolitical, industrial and informational flows surrounding globalized microelectronics industries.The paper applies media ecologies and object-oriented ontology to explore ethics and electronics, in particular focussing upon the legislative action of Dodd-Frank Section 1502 and the release of the Fairphone as moves explicitly designed to address Congolese conflict minerals and networked microelectronics in which the networked technologies that are the ‘causes’ of social and ecological pathologies are simultaneously being used to mitigate their deleterious impacts. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T20:18:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-004e09e7120845d998d048423f717a65 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1744-6716 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T20:18:11Z |
| publishDate | 2015-09-01 |
| publisher | University of Westminster Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture |
| spelling | doaj.art-004e09e7120845d998d048423f717a652022-12-21T20:07:05ZengUniversity of Westminster PressWestminster Papers in Communication and Culture1744-67162015-09-0110110.16997/wpcc.210Towards an Ethical Electronics? Ecologies of Congolese Conflict MineralsSy Taffel0Lecturer in Media Studies, Massey University, AotearoaThis paper asks how coltan, casseterite, wolframite and gold ores mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo relate networked microelectronics to brutal warlords, and what legal and industrial actions have been enacted by activists, NGOs, politicians and businesses aiming to address this situation. Exploring these questions requires the abandonment of immaterialist rhetorics of technology; tropes of cyberspace, virtuality, cloud computing and other discourses of digital disembodiment, instead inviting materialist analysis relating to the geological, geopolitical, industrial and informational flows surrounding globalized microelectronics industries.The paper applies media ecologies and object-oriented ontology to explore ethics and electronics, in particular focussing upon the legislative action of Dodd-Frank Section 1502 and the release of the Fairphone as moves explicitly designed to address Congolese conflict minerals and networked microelectronics in which the networked technologies that are the ‘causes’ of social and ecological pathologies are simultaneously being used to mitigate their deleterious impacts.https://www.westminsterpapers.org/article/id/207/OOOEcologyDigitalColtanMicroelectronicsMateriality |
| spellingShingle | Sy Taffel Towards an Ethical Electronics? Ecologies of Congolese Conflict Minerals Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture OOO Ecology Digital Coltan Microelectronics Materiality |
| title | Towards an Ethical Electronics? Ecologies of Congolese Conflict Minerals |
| title_full | Towards an Ethical Electronics? Ecologies of Congolese Conflict Minerals |
| title_fullStr | Towards an Ethical Electronics? Ecologies of Congolese Conflict Minerals |
| title_full_unstemmed | Towards an Ethical Electronics? Ecologies of Congolese Conflict Minerals |
| title_short | Towards an Ethical Electronics? Ecologies of Congolese Conflict Minerals |
| title_sort | towards an ethical electronics ecologies of congolese conflict minerals |
| topic | OOO Ecology Digital Coltan Microelectronics Materiality |
| url | https://www.westminsterpapers.org/article/id/207/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT sytaffel towardsanethicalelectronicsecologiesofcongoleseconflictminerals |