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bechols's review against another edition
2.0
Interesting basic concept - shared standards, networks, and models help define what's possible but are often overlooked - but it doesn't go any further than that.
sahanpm's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting ideas. But the writing is obnoxiously impenetrable. It's dense. Very dense.
The sort of density that indicates that an author is either at the forefront of their field... or doesn't haven't the skill to replace their long-winded words with simple statements.
Some good nuggets though.
My favourite - the infrastructure of cities grows as a result of multipliers within it: cars, laws, phones. The best example is the elevator, which enabled the building of skyscrapers. Elevator rope is now the limiting factor when it comes to the height of skyscrapers, apparently.
Made me think about multipliers outside of architecture. Are there any inventions out there that have yet to fulfil their potential as multipliers?
The sort of density that indicates that an author is either at the forefront of their field... or doesn't haven't the skill to replace their long-winded words with simple statements.
Some good nuggets though.
My favourite - the infrastructure of cities grows as a result of multipliers within it: cars, laws, phones. The best example is the elevator, which enabled the building of skyscrapers. Elevator rope is now the limiting factor when it comes to the height of skyscrapers, apparently.
Made me think about multipliers outside of architecture. Are there any inventions out there that have yet to fulfil their potential as multipliers?
seeyf's review against another edition
3.0
Extrastatecraft, according to Easterling, describes the unseen, undisclosed activities that are carried out behind the official public face of the state. These activities operate through the medium of infrastructure space: a web of active forms, spatial products and networks that is shaped not only through physical objects like submarine cables, cell towers, and high rises, but also through stories that subtly affect its disposition, as demonstrated in free trade zones and international standards organisations. In this field, “knowing how” to design and manipulate these active forms in relation to changing situations or designing the apparatus is more important than the “knowing that” of describing the entirety of the system or designing a fixed plan or form, a distinction borrowed from Gilbert Ryle.
The book is structured into six sections: Zone (free trade zones), Disposition (types of active forms and how they shape disposition: the multiplier, switch/remote, wiring/topology and interplay/governor), Broadband (its growth in Africa), Stories (state narratives of war and liberalism), Quality (ISO and related standards) and Extrastatecraft. The final section suggests practical ways of putting this knowledge into action by detailing activist techniques that employ methods of inflecting disposition, as opposed to traditional activism that names a single opponent or binary stance and is vulnerable to misinformation campaigns. The techniques listed are: gossip/rumor/hoax to destabilize power; “pandas” or gifts that disarm and obscure true intentions; exaggerated compliance, for example Danish architecture firms producing designs for affordable housing to press the mayor to fulfill her campaign promise of building 5000 of such apartments for the city; doubling, e.g. creating imposters or hijacking identities; comedy/satire, remotes (indirect effects such as drawing pressure from the international community, or consumers); distraction/meaninglessness/irrationality (though published in 2014, this is a good description of Trump’s strategy); hackers/entrepreneurs; exposing inadmissible evidence/dissensus e.g. the migrant worker who is often explained away; english (in the sense of imparting spin on the ball in billiards, or the unintended consequences and ripple effects and swerves); and lastly “knowing how”. In this auxiliary activism, or “ethical Möbius”, the declarative approach “aligns with the maintenance of consensus around stated principles”, while the enacted approach “describes the maintenance of dissensus around a necessarily indeterminate struggle with undeclared but consequential activity.”
Although the book covers a lot of ground and draws connections across a large variety of topics, Easterling’s writing is dense with facts, citations and academic jargon, which can have the effect of obscuring her main argument during the initial read. For example, the chapter on the expansion of broadband into Africa, though interesting, seemed unnecessarily long. Also, some of the many concepts introduced appear to overlap or seem like the same concept described in slightly different manners, making their exact definitions unclear.
Easterling’s descriptions of how active forms can be manipulated have proved to be rather prescient. In describing how topologies (networks of multipliers and switches) illustrate how authorities circulate or concentrate information and power, for example in the monopolising of electrical utilities in the US and how Google and Facebook could do the same for the “open web”, she accurately describes today’s tech oligopoly. Russia’s Internet Research Agency is also an example of an organisation that has perfected the techniques that Keller describes, through its fake social media accounts that have influenced public opinion to promote Russian interests and the 2016 US presidential election. Unfortunately, it seems that the most adept users of extrastatecraft have only used it to entrench or strengthen existing power hierarchies and indirectly increase inequalities, perhaps because its employment involves immense resources and also morally ambiguous means. Whether social activists fighting to dismantle such structures can (or should) successfully adapt the same techniques, especially as the field of action shifts toward the use of deepfakes and other digital tools of misinformation, remains to be seen.
The book is structured into six sections: Zone (free trade zones), Disposition (types of active forms and how they shape disposition: the multiplier, switch/remote, wiring/topology and interplay/governor), Broadband (its growth in Africa), Stories (state narratives of war and liberalism), Quality (ISO and related standards) and Extrastatecraft. The final section suggests practical ways of putting this knowledge into action by detailing activist techniques that employ methods of inflecting disposition, as opposed to traditional activism that names a single opponent or binary stance and is vulnerable to misinformation campaigns. The techniques listed are: gossip/rumor/hoax to destabilize power; “pandas” or gifts that disarm and obscure true intentions; exaggerated compliance, for example Danish architecture firms producing designs for affordable housing to press the mayor to fulfill her campaign promise of building 5000 of such apartments for the city; doubling, e.g. creating imposters or hijacking identities; comedy/satire, remotes (indirect effects such as drawing pressure from the international community, or consumers); distraction/meaninglessness/irrationality (though published in 2014, this is a good description of Trump’s strategy); hackers/entrepreneurs; exposing inadmissible evidence/dissensus e.g. the migrant worker who is often explained away; english (in the sense of imparting spin on the ball in billiards, or the unintended consequences and ripple effects and swerves); and lastly “knowing how”. In this auxiliary activism, or “ethical Möbius”, the declarative approach “aligns with the maintenance of consensus around stated principles”, while the enacted approach “describes the maintenance of dissensus around a necessarily indeterminate struggle with undeclared but consequential activity.”
Although the book covers a lot of ground and draws connections across a large variety of topics, Easterling’s writing is dense with facts, citations and academic jargon, which can have the effect of obscuring her main argument during the initial read. For example, the chapter on the expansion of broadband into Africa, though interesting, seemed unnecessarily long. Also, some of the many concepts introduced appear to overlap or seem like the same concept described in slightly different manners, making their exact definitions unclear.
Easterling’s descriptions of how active forms can be manipulated have proved to be rather prescient. In describing how topologies (networks of multipliers and switches) illustrate how authorities circulate or concentrate information and power, for example in the monopolising of electrical utilities in the US and how Google and Facebook could do the same for the “open web”, she accurately describes today’s tech oligopoly. Russia’s Internet Research Agency is also an example of an organisation that has perfected the techniques that Keller describes, through its fake social media accounts that have influenced public opinion to promote Russian interests and the 2016 US presidential election. Unfortunately, it seems that the most adept users of extrastatecraft have only used it to entrench or strengthen existing power hierarchies and indirectly increase inequalities, perhaps because its employment involves immense resources and also morally ambiguous means. Whether social activists fighting to dismantle such structures can (or should) successfully adapt the same techniques, especially as the field of action shifts toward the use of deepfakes and other digital tools of misinformation, remains to be seen.
prcizmadia's review against another edition
4.0
Easterling uses three examples-- the special economic zone, broadband development, and global technical standards—to show how these seemingly apolitical, technical concepts intersect and maintain a disposition that impacts global economies and governance. Looking deeper, she identifies a number of points of inflection that allow the perceptive designer, activist, or entrepreneur the opportunity to influence the hardware, and thus the entirety of the system.
Lots to consider here. I bury it under scholarly-ish writing, but the implications are big. I’m already thinking.
Lots to consider here. I bury it under scholarly-ish writing, but the implications are big. I’m already thinking.
malexmave's review against another edition
4.0
Once again, I seem to have picked a sociological treatise where I expected a more approachable non-fiction book. Still, the book was interesting, if sometimes a little hard to read.
jaclyn_youngblood's review against another edition
3.0
A good look at a topic I previously knew very little about, so I'm thankful for the primer. The writing was overly academic at times (here's looking at you, Boston.gov, for having me expect things to sound like they're coming from a helpful human), but incredibly well foot-noted. I loved the chapter on the ISO and the accompanying nonsense of self-determined standards and badges and levels of quality. The typology of utopian designer, activist, hacker/entrepreneur was also a useful frame, discussed throughout but summarized in the last chapter.
zararah's review
5.0
Not a light read, but this was an excellent book. Easterling takes lots of basic infrastructure that it's all too easy to take for granted, and skilfully deconstructs them to the tiniest detail - clearly, a lot of research went into this book.
In terms of readability, there were definitely parts that I found more interesting than others - chapter 3, for example, on broadband - and chapter 6, which mentions a variety of forms of activism against extrastatecraft, and includes this wonderful description about the power of gifts as a form of activism:
"Excessively soft and cute, the panda is a steamroller of sweetness and kindness- an armtwisting handshake that disarms and controls with apparent benevolence"
Generally, I was impressed with the diversity of examples given - geographical, thematic and strategic. I would recommend this especially for tech activists and those interested in the role of technology in society.
In terms of readability, there were definitely parts that I found more interesting than others - chapter 3, for example, on broadband - and chapter 6, which mentions a variety of forms of activism against extrastatecraft, and includes this wonderful description about the power of gifts as a form of activism:
"Excessively soft and cute, the panda is a steamroller of sweetness and kindness- an armtwisting handshake that disarms and controls with apparent benevolence"
Generally, I was impressed with the diversity of examples given - geographical, thematic and strategic. I would recommend this especially for tech activists and those interested in the role of technology in society.
peribee's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
The subject mater can seem dull at the outset, but the book reveals some useful insights into how international economic power outmaneuvers national labor and tax laws
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