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bakalamba's review
4.0
Eubanks makes a clear argument, with three vivid case studies, that technology can sugar coat, reinforce, and expand inequities, by creating what she calls a "digital poorhouse" that demeans, isolates, and punishes the poor. She can get a bit grandiose at times, and there are some holes in her argument, and critiques can be overlain a bit heavy.
I feel like the historical thread that she drives for the book makes sense although she doesn't really connect the threads completely. For example, going from poor houses to the digital tracking and policing of poor rings true but she doesn't provide a lot of connection between the two. The chapter on the politicization and privatization of public assistance in Indiana is a terrible tale and a cautionary one, full of vivid and strong examples of how radical system reform can have a terrible impact even deadly impact on people's lives.
However her reckoning of coordinated entry in Los Angeles paints a fairly positive picture of this system and only vaguely insinuates the surveillance aspects of the data gathered. You bangs has shared critiques of the system and how people whose housing and stability or homelessness is neither temporary nor in crisis get left behind by the system. However it seems her main point that police and the justice system can use information from the system relies on the possibility and not necessarily the actuality of this happening. I think this goes back to her interestingly yet fairly loose connection between poor houses and digital surveillance and algorithms. In this case both are potentially crucial and interesting arguments to be made, however she does not completely find all the connecting tissue to make really strong statement.
I feel like the historical thread that she drives for the book makes sense although she doesn't really connect the threads completely. For example, going from poor houses to the digital tracking and policing of poor rings true but she doesn't provide a lot of connection between the two. The chapter on the politicization and privatization of public assistance in Indiana is a terrible tale and a cautionary one, full of vivid and strong examples of how radical system reform can have a terrible impact even deadly impact on people's lives.
However her reckoning of coordinated entry in Los Angeles paints a fairly positive picture of this system and only vaguely insinuates the surveillance aspects of the data gathered. You bangs has shared critiques of the system and how people whose housing and stability or homelessness is neither temporary nor in crisis get left behind by the system. However it seems her main point that police and the justice system can use information from the system relies on the possibility and not necessarily the actuality of this happening. I think this goes back to her interestingly yet fairly loose connection between poor houses and digital surveillance and algorithms. In this case both are potentially crucial and interesting arguments to be made, however she does not completely find all the connecting tissue to make really strong statement.
opal360's review
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.25
A really informative read, and some of the case studies are heartbreaking. I felt the writer overused the phrase "digital poorhouse" but that's a minor criticism of an important book.
erin0803's review against another edition
4.0
Overall interesting and insightful, the conclusion drags a bit though
ncrozier's review
3.0
This book didn't quite end up being what I was hoping for. The author focused on three specific examples where it felt like there could have been room for more, and while I think the arguments are probably quite strong, she didn't make them in a way that was super convincing
chloj_805's review
5.0
I put off reading this for 3 years because I thought it would make me angry. It did.
manaledi's review
4.0
This is what I want out of mass-market academic non-fiction - I learned in depth about a topic I'd only thought about perfunctorily, it made me think and reassess some of my own assumptions, and it was readable. The presentation of the "digital poorhouse" and the way that algorithms and high tech surveillance tools across healthcare, housing, and child welfare helped bring home the dark side of tech "solutions."
If you're interested in this intersection of poverty/tech/inequality, I'd also recommend: [b:Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism|34762552|Algorithms of Oppression How Search Engines Reinforce Racism|Safiya Umoja Noble|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1492944248l/34762552._SX50_.jpg|55962260] and [b:Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America|34196061|Not a Crime to Be Poor The Criminalization of Poverty in America|Peter Edelman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1501512809l/34196061._SX50_.jpg|55233029].
If you're interested in this intersection of poverty/tech/inequality, I'd also recommend: [b:Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism|34762552|Algorithms of Oppression How Search Engines Reinforce Racism|Safiya Umoja Noble|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1492944248l/34762552._SX50_.jpg|55962260] and [b:Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America|34196061|Not a Crime to Be Poor The Criminalization of Poverty in America|Peter Edelman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1501512809l/34196061._SX50_.jpg|55233029].