Reading List Teach-in #19 - Surveillance Technology as a Weapon

Find a suggested list of resources and introductory readings for the Political Economy Teach-In session #19 on Surveillance Technology as a Weapon to be held on 29 January at 1 pm UTC by Islam al Khatib. Register here!

Islam al Khatib is a Palestinian researcher born and raised in Lebanon. She currently works as the Knowledge Building Co-Strategist at Noor and is pursuing a PhD exploring surveillance as a methodology in academia and anti-colonial knowledge production at LSE. Her research focuses on surveillance, digital fascism, and the geopolitics of AI. Her recent work includes Beyond Techwashing: The UAE’s AI Industrial Policy as a Security Regime, published with the AI Now Institute.

All resources are authored by Global South feminists and are organised by language – Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish-. If you would like to access a more extensive list of resources on the topic or other feminist productions you can visit the South Feminist Knowledge Hub here. We invite you to send us any other resources that should be included in this reading list by filling out this form or emailing us at knowledgehub@southfeministfutures.org

Resources by Islam al Khatib [English]

Beyond Techwashing: The UAE’s AI Industrial Policy as a Security Regime

“Rather than narrate AI as a tool or factor influencing the economy, the idea of an “AI economy” captures a self-fulfilling vision of AI shaping an economy in which it occupies a central, all-encompassing role. As Mckenzie Wark writes in Capital is Dead, 2 there is a difference “between ‘information’ as a force of production and information as a dominant force of production.” Similarly, AI is no longer simply a market to monopolize, but rather a monopoly that will marketize other sectors.“

The UAE’s mission to Mars is a terrifying manifestation of the Technocene

“The fact that the UAE is leading in the tech sector should terrify us; there are serious allegations of Emirati governmental interference with privacy and digital rights, not only in the Gulf, but across the Middle East and North Africa. People are paying the price for technological advancement in different and cruel ways. From using Israeli spyware as a tool to silence dissent, to investing in the war on Yemen and arming dictators, Emirati structures of oppression are symptoms of a much more complex systemic issue.”