Daniel Greene - The Promise of Access: Technology, Inequality, and the Political Economy of Hope

Ive got a really big team. And Im not much without them.

I must first thank my informants and everyone else who allowed me into their offices, labs, and lives in support of this project. Without their generosity, none of this would be possible. I owe special thanks to those generous people who not only welcomed me in, but provided feedback on this manuscript and its argument over the years: Shawn, Ebony, Beth, Catherine, Irene, Daniella, Grant, and Eugene. Donna Haraway (1997) tells us that ethnography is not so much a specific procedure in anthropology as it is a method of being at risk in the face of the practices and discourses into which one inquires (190). It is from my informants that I learned I was not studying the digital divide per se but the institutions managing it, ones in which I myself was deeply enmeshed. Tracking the hope that animates and renovates these institutions required deep questioning of my own professional and political identity. For that I will be eternally grateful.

This project emerged from my dissertation in American studies at the University of Maryland. The members of my committee each shaped this project and my thinking in their own way and so I thank Ira Chinoy, Sheri Parks, Jan Padios, Katie Shilton, and Jason Farman. Other mentors, inside and outside my American studies doctoral program, also provided invaluable support and perspective: Christina Hanhardt, Lisa Nakamura, Matt Kirschenbaum, Jessie Daniels, Alice Marwick, and Andr Brock. Without Patrick Grzankas friendship and encouragement, I doubt Id even have started graduate school, much less finished it.

Without my brothers, sisters, and comrades in the University of Marylands graduate workers union, or our allies in the staffs American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) local or the undergraduates Student Labor Action Project, I wouldnt have been reminded of my priorities throughout the research for this project, nor would I have been able to recharge and apply myself to the things that I really want to make a career of: making our institutions work for everyone in them and making sure our students learning conditions dont suffer for our working conditions.

The Social Media Collective at Microsoft Research New England provided the best possible space in which this project and its author could mature. Many thanks to the generosity of Nancy Baym, Tarleton Gillespie, Mary Gray, Kate Crawford, danah boyd, and the other friends and mentors I met in that lab during my postdoc. Many thanks too to my brave coworkers in big tech, who, in the spring of 2018, rebelled against their employers, joined with the fighters at Color of Change and Mijente, and organized in defense of the people targeted by the surveillance and classification systems that Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and others built to help governments bomb or cage people. I did not believe such a thing was possible and I believe that you will win.

A wonderful network of wonderful people supported me and my work at important times, providing guidance, advice, and camaraderie as this book progressed. They include Daniel Joseph, Gavin Mueller, Deen Freelon, Ifeoma Ajunwa, Luke Stark, Anna Lauren Hoffman, Mike Casiano, Katy Pearce, Mary Flanagan, Meg Finn, Jessa Lingel, Nick Seaver, Tara McPherson, Miriam Posner, Simone Browne, Karen Gregory, Brooke Duffy, Douglas Williams, Joanna Pinto-Coehllo, Leslie Kay Jones, Shannon Mattern, Lilly Irani, and Steve Vallas. I would also thank the Relaxed Marxist Discussion Group for good conversation. Gita Manaktala is the best editor I could have asked for as a first-time author. Laura Portwood-Stacer and Sarah Hamid provided invaluable services in reviewing and preparing the manuscript. Special thanks are owed to those colleagues who provided feedback on the manuscript as it neared completion: Jen Jack Gieseking, Victor Ray, and Nick Seaver.

I write these acknowledgments as a pandemic sweeps the world. This is ultimately a book about care, about making a living and making lives. The biggest thanks are due to my daughter, Eliza: care is a promise, for a world well build together. And to my partner, Annie, who continues to care for families and children no matter what and who has taught me more about this fight than anyone else.