Coding Places

By examining software development in the 'wrong place' of Rio de Janeiro, Yuri Takhteyev shows us with vivid accounts and clear narrative how individuals who work far from the geographic hubs of their field create local connections and shape local environments even as they embrace global culture and pursue global dreams for themselves and their locations. The concept of a 'wrong place' proves an immediately beguiling and completely original approach for understanding work in the global setting; Takhteyev's choice of Rio, in particular, is nothing short of brilliant.

Diane Bailey, School of Information, University of Texas at Austin

Coding Places opens the black box of 'globalization' to show us the pieces involved in that process—people, technical objects, government agencies, universities, businesses—in intimate detail: how they work, what they need to survive, what they furnish to others, the network of their connections, conflicts, and accommodations. We see the whole machine in operation: how the many possible inputs generate a variety of outputs, technically and organizationally. And we learn a way of thinking that we can apply to the arts, science, or business, to any kind of activity with worldwide extension and ramifications. It does all this with a depth of vision and a clarity in telling the story seldom found in the social sciences.

Howard S. Becker, author of Outsiders and Art Worlds

Software development is no longer limited geographically but is expanding to different regions of the world. Yuri Takhteyev has produced an insightful work that provides a critical account of software developers and their role in the global knowledge economy. This is a fascinating story of knowledge workers in a region that has the potential to become the next Silicon Valley.

Alladi Venkatesh, Professor and Associate Director, Center for Research on Information Technology, University of California, Irvine