Startup States: Sov, Tech, Dev

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Title: Startup States: Sovereignty, Technology, and Development in Africa Startup States examines digital sovereignty initiatives in Africa—particularly efforts to cultivate startup ecosystems and technical education—as a critical lens for understanding how postcolonial African states negotiate sovereignty in a globally asymmetrical technological and economic order. By situating entrepreneurship and platform-building within broader political and historical contexts, the course interrogates how such initiatives function both as practical policy interventions aimed at technologically powered development and as (figural and material) performances of postcolonial state agency. Through African case studies, foundational development texts, policy documents, students will explore the aims and paradoxes of digitally-mediated development and the contested terrain where innovation, governance, and global capital intersect.