From the Publisher
“The Promise of Access is one of the most important books written on social institutions and the lived experiences of techno-solutionism in the United States. Dan Greene systematically dismantles the cultural history of technology’s antipoverty promises to reveal, instead, the reality of how uncritical technology ideologies subvert social institutions’ democratic missions. The book is an important addition to STS, critical information studies, and political economy courses.”
—Tressie McMillan Cottom, Associate Professor of Information and Library Science. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; author of Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy
“Poverty is social. For decades we knew this, but we forgot, believing in computer code instead. Greene brilliantly explodes this myth, shows the damage it does, and imagines a way forward together.”
—Nick Couldry, Coauthor of The Costs of Connection: How Data Is Colonizing Human Life and Appropriating It for Capitalism
“Told with sympathy and humor, The Promise of Access is nonetheless a slow-motion tragedy, with often well-meaning characters set in a shiny world of upbeat adages, high-tech funding, and strategic metrics.”
—Allison J. Pugh, Professor of Sociology, University of Virginia; author of The Tumbleweed Society: Working and Caring in an Age of Insecurity
Winner of the McGannon Book Award, 2021
