Cryptopolitics

Exposure, Concealment, and Digital Media

Focusing on African societies, Crypolitics brings together empirically grounded studies of digital media to draw out the significance of hidden information, double meanings, and the constant processes of encoding and decoding messages in negotiations of power relations.

Hidden information, double meanings, double-crossing, and the constant processes of encoding and decoding messages have always been important techniques in negotiating social and political power dynamics. Yet these tools, cryptopolitics, are transformed when used within digital media. Focusing on African societies, Cryptopolitics brings together empirically grounded studies of digital media toconsider public culture, sociality, and power in all its forms, illustrating the analytical potential of cryptopolitics to elucidate intimate relationships, political protest, and economic strategies in the digital