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Title details for Tug of War by Jocelyn Wills - Available

Tug of War

Surveillance Capitalism, Military Contracting, and the Rise of the Security State

by Jocelyn Wills
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Selling Earth observation satellites on their abilities to predict and limit adverse environmental change, politicians, business leaders, the media, and technology enthusiasts have spent sixty years arguing that space exploration can create a more peaceful, prosperous world. Capitalist states have also socialized the risk and privatized the profits of the commercial space industry by convincing taxpayers to fund surveillance technologies as necessary components of sovereignty, freedom, and democracy. Jocelyn Wills's Tug of War reminds us that colonizing the cosmos has not only accelerated the arms race but also encouraged government contractors to compete for the military and commercial spoils of surveillance. Although Canadians prefer to celebrate their role as purveyors of peaceful space applications, Canada has played a pivotal part in the expansion of neoliberal policies and surveillance networks that now encircle the globe, primarily as a political ally of the United States and component supplier for its military-industrial complex. Tracing the forty-five-year history of Canada's largest space company – MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) – through the lens of surveillance studies and a trove of oral history transcripts, government documents, trade journals, and other sources, Wills places capitalism's imperial ambitions squarely at the centre of Canada-US relations and the privatization of the Canadian political economy. Tug of War confronts the mythic lure of technological progress and the ways in which those who profess little interest in war rationalize their leap into military contracting by avoiding the moral and political implications of their work.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Carleton Library

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 4, 2017

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780773550490
      • File size: 693 KB

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780773550490
      • File size: 693 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from October 15, 2017

      Excepting proprietary technologies, little remains secret about government contractors aggressively competing for the products--ever-evolving--of military and commercial surveillance. No longer must North American taxpayers be convinced of the necessity for spy satellites, supercomputers, and the capitalist engine driving progress. Wills (history, Brooklyn Coll.) writes of how Canada's MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) not only became the country's largest space company, but across its 45-year history has proved vastly influential on neoliberal policies (allied with the United States) that built a global network. Not as well-known is a parallel chronicle: the rationalizations by powerful players and ambitious technicians, enabling them to sweep under the metaphorical rug moral and political implications. The promised "global village" of enlightened consumers benefiting from affordable devices that double as convenient tools for spying still hasn't arrived, and probably never will. Even the most well-intentioned among those enthralled by space exploration seem agreeable to funding by organizations and industries openly damaging the environment and worse. VERDICT A fascinating, incisive study of MDA's and the global surveillance network's historic and continuing role in furthering the imperial objectives of capitalism. With comprehensive end-matter referencing trade journals, government documents, oral history transcripts, and private sources.--William Grabowski, McMechen, WV

      Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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