FinTech and Neocolonialism in Africa
Development agencies, philanthropists, and multinational corporations typically forecast that FinTech will be central to African financial inclusion in the global economy. The 2008 World Bank Annual Report, ‘Finance for All’ is one early marker that this global challenge can be addressed through ‘increasing connectivity’; that FinTech can help the ‘unbanked’. Indeed, inclusion is vital given the enduring legacy of neoliberal development. I assess the prospects of these laudable goals by assesing whether FinTech perpetuates neocolonial tendencies through their credit extending and reporting apparatuses as these technical affordances are shaped by algorithmic capitalism. By complementing existing financial platform studies, I aim see whether a ‘digital-creditor-debtor-divide’ may arise in sub-Saharan Africa. If so, what steps could be implemented to diminish this prospect? And what kinds of national and international regulations are required to ensure FinTech can aid equitable industrialization in Africa?
Main Research Topics
- Democracy, Development & Social Inequality
- Policy Challenges & Benefits of New Technologies
- Political Economy of Postcolonial States
- Critical Social Theory
Curriculum Vitae
2022,Resident Fellow, Center for Advanced Internet Studies
2021 LUCAS-LAHRI Research Fellow, Centre for African Studies, University of Leeds
2020–present Research Associate, Centre for Social Change, University of Johannesburg
2016–2019 Lecturer, Communication Studies, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine
Lectures and Publications
Scott Timcke, 2022, What Does the American Version of the Race-Class Question Mean for The Caribbean? Social and Economic Studies, 70(1&2): 1-32.
Scott Timcke, 2021, Algorithms and The End of Politics: The Shaping of Technology in 21st Century American Life, Bristol: Bristol University Press
Scott Timcke, 2021, The Decolonial Ends of Caribbean Ethnography, with Shelene Gomes, in Rhoda Reddock and Encarnacion Gutierrez-Rodriguez (eds) Decolonial Perspectives on Entangled Inequalities: On Europe and The Caribbean, Anthem Press. pp155-172
Scott Timcke, 2017, Capital, State, Empire: The New American Way of Digital Warfare, London: University of Westminster Press
Scott Timcke, 2022, Talk at Free University Berlin, Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science
Scott Timcke, 2021, Talk at University of Leeds, Centre for African Studies