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HCI researchers work within spaces of possibility for potential designs of technology. New methods (for example, user centrism); expected types of interaction (user with device); and potential applications (urban navigation) can extend the boundaries of these possibilities. However, structural and systemic factors can also foreclose them. A recent wide and shallow survey of over 116 individuals involved in technology development across 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa reveals how factors of political economy significantly impact upon technological possibilities. Monopolies, international power dynamics, race, and access to capital open or constrain technological possibilities at least as much as device-centric or user-focused constraints do. Though their thrust may have been anticipated by reference to political economic trends, the structural constraints we found were underestimated by technologists even a decade ago. We discuss the implications for technology development in Africa and beyond.

Radio continues to be a widely consumed, polyphonous, complex, and critical form of media throughout most of the African continent. It is immediate, “warm,” free to receive, and dialogical without requiring expensive hardware, literacy, or exclusive attention. From the era of single stations filled with colonial propaganda, through market liberalization, to today's commercial and religious mix (fueled by an apparently unending supply of ads by telcos), radio on the continent has been shaped by many factors. For the first time, as attention shifts to digital, people around the world can ask the question: what radio do we want? In Brazil and Mexico literally thousands of pirate stations broadcast local information, often in indigenous languages not served by the state or media. In England and France the move to digital has opened up space for hundreds of new community stations; the US announced 10,000 new slots for low power community radio in 2014. What could the future of African radio look like? Who will get to determine its political economics?

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