ABSTRACT
Modernity is almost universally equated with the degree to which a nation and its constituent urban centers are integrated into the global economy. One of the key paths to this integration is via a commitment to technology and infrastructure associated with the “new economy”. Modernity and information technology are now considered symbiotic (Wankade and Argawal, forthcoming). The “digital divide” between those with or without access to this technology has become a public policy concern in recent years. Global North nations are heavily “wired”, with more than two-thirds of adults in the US actively using computers and the Internet. Access to this technology in most nations of the South is minimal, although growing. In the North, our transportation, commercial, educational, military, media, and governmental infrastructures all rely on computerization for data management, processing, and storage, as well as for private and mass communication. The various sectors that comprise the high technology industry form the largest manufacturing effort in the world. This industry is also one of the most rapidly changing in human history. For example, the speed of the microchip – the “brain” in most computerized devices – has doubled every 18 months for more than three decades. This also means that consumer electronics – particularly personal computers – are becoming obsolete quite rapidly. What happens to all those computers and other electronics goods – also known as “e-waste” – once they are discarded? They are often shipped to urban areas and villages across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where residents/ workers disassemble them for sale in new manufacturing processes. Because each computer contains several pounds of highly toxic materials, this practice creates a massive transfer of hazardous waste products from North to South, and is responsible for impacting public health and the integrity of watersheds in numerous nations such as India, Pakistan, China, the Philippines, and Taiwan, for example. This process has also transformed rural or semi-rural regions into emerging urban spaces and created greater population and toxic pollution densities in heavily urbanized locations.
