HOYNG, Rolien
Assistant Professor

B.A. & M.A. in History, University of Amsterdam

B.A. & M.A. in Comparative Literature, University of Amsterdam 

Research M.A. in Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam

Ph.D. in Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

 (852) 3943-5300
 (852) 2603-5007
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 Research Interests:

• Digital Infrastructure & Culture
• Politics of Data
• Media, Political Ecology & Waste
• Media, Publics & Dissent
• Technology, Globalization & Nonwestern Cities
• Cultural Theory

 Current Research:

My research explores digital infrastructure and culture, especially in Hong Kong and Istanbul. I am interested in questions of technology in particular contexts of use, where technological material affordances meet cultural aspirations and signification. For instance, I explore the politics of “openness” by looking at Open Data and fintech in Hong Kong. Furthermore, I look at data-centric governance and constructions of “accidentalness” in communication pertaining to e-waste and ecology. Last, I study smart urbanisms and the socio-technical networks of activism. Focused on two nonwestern global cities, my research tells us more about globalization, not as a story of all-encompassing connectivity and free flow but of struggle over political subjectivity and belonging, data-centric forms of cognition and control as well as emerging ethical norms and political imaginaries.

Teaching Interests:

• Digital Media and Culture
• Critical and Cultural Theory
• Global Media
• Qualitative Methods
• STS

Competitive Grants and Fellowships

• Principal Investigator, Modeling ecology: Climate uncertainty and technologies of speculation. Direct Grant, funded by The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
• Principal Investigator, “Rerouting Free Flow: An Inter-Asian Exploration of the Politics of Data,” University Grants Council Hong Kong SAR Government, 2017.
• Conference Convener, “Digital Media and Borders: Infrastructures, Mobilities, and Practices Across Asia and Beyond.” Conference Organization Grant, Lingnan University, 2017.
• Principal Investigator, “Free Flow: Informational and Infrastructural Politics in Hong Kong,” Lingnan University, 2015.
• Principal Investigator, “Excess Creativity: Invention and Imitation from Techno Park to Street Market,” Lingnan University, 2015.
• Co-investigator, “Popular Creativity: Technologies of Productive Citizenship in Hong Kong,” Lingnan University, 2014.
• Principal Investigator, “Governmentality through Connection: Urban Citizenship and Technology in Hong Kong,” Lingnan University, 2013.
• Principal Investigator, Cultuurbeurs, Prins Bernhard Culture Foundation/ Carolus Magnus Foundation, Amsterdam, 2010.
• Summer Research Fellowship, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2011.
• Residence Fellowship, Netherlands Institute in Turkey. Istanbul, Turkey, 2011.

Advice to students:

“I am not interested in Theory, I am interested in going on theorizing” – Stuart Hall

Publication List:

Editorial Work

R. Hoyng and GPL Chong (2022). Critiquing Communication innovation: New media in a multipolar world. Michigan State University Press.

R. Hoyng (2021). Digital infrastructure, liminality and world-making via Asia. International Journal of Communication, 15.

Academic

Hoyng, R., & Chong, G. P. L. (2022). New, old, and uncertain futures: communication innovation in comparison. In R. Hoyng and G. P. L. Chong (Eds.), Critiquing communication innovation: New media in a multipolar world (pp. iix-xxxiii). East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press. 

Hoyng, R., & Chong, G. P. L. (Eds.) (2022). Critiquing communication innovation: New media in a multipolar world. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press. 

Hoyng, R. (2022) The price of speculation: Fintech risk regimes in Hong Kong. Cultural Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2022.2090017 

Hoyng, R. (in press 2022). Datacenters: In the middle of nowhere and everywhere. In T. Hristova, B. Neilson, and N. Rossiter (eds) Data farms: circuits, labour, territory. London: Open Humanities Press.

Hoyng, R. (2021). Toward a viral circular economy? Affections of data and waste. In G. Hawkins and N. Rossiter (eds) Contagion design: Labour, economy, habits, data. London: Open Humanities Press. Available at: http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/contagion-design/

Hoyng, R. (2021). Digital infrastructure and the politics of liminality. International Journal of Communication, 15, 2600–2612. 

Hoyng, R. & Es, M. (2020). Material politics facing post-truth: Speculation, infrastructure and ecology in Turkey. Antipode, 52 (6), 1731-1750.

Hoyng, R. (2020). From Open Data to “grounded openness”: Recursive politics and postcolonial struggle in Hong Kong. Television and New Media. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476420931444 

Hoyng, R. (2020). Platforms for populism? The affective issue crowd and its disconnections. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 12(6), 984-1001. 

Hoyng, R. (2019). Aggregations of the opaque: Rethinking datafication and e-waste. First Monday, 24(4). https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/9866/7747 

Hoyng, R. (2018). Logistics of the accident: E-waste management in Hong Kong. In B. Neilson, N. Rossiter & R. Samaddar (Eds.), Logistical Asia: The labor of making a world region (pp. 199 – 220). Singapore: Palgrave McMillan.

Hoyng, R. (2018). The politics of skilland potential in an “emerging” region: Upskilling initiatives in Istanbul. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 21(6), 651–668.

Hoyng, R. (2017). Transparency in the rupture? Open Data and the datafication of society. Tecnoscienza: Italian Journal of Science and Technology Studies, 8(20), 190-195.

Hoyng, R. & Es, M. (2017). Conspiratorial webs: Media ecology and parallel realities in Turkey. International Journal of Communication 11, 4219-4238.

Hoyng, R. (2017). Politics by other means: Post-digital gameplay in Hong Kong. Javnost-The Public, 24(3), 284-299.

Servaes, J. (50%) and Hoyng, R. (50%). (2017). The tools of social change: A critique of techno-centric development and activism. New Media & Society, 19(2), 255-271.

Hoyng, R. (2016). From infrastructural breakdown to data vandalism: Re-politicizing the smart city? Television and New Media, 16(5), 397-415.

Hoyng, R. (2016). A socio-technical contract: network governance and ICT4D in Turkey. Telematics and Informatics, 33, 139–149.

Hoyng, R. (2014). Place brands, nonbrands, tags, and queries: The networks of urban activism in the creative city Istanbul. Cultural Studies, 28(3), 494-517.

Hoyng, R. (2014). Circuits of shock and bunk: testing citizenship in the Dutch blogosphere. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 17(4), 347-362.

Hoyng, R. (2012). Popping up, fading out: Participatory networks and Istanbul’s creative city project. Culture Machine, 3, 1-23.

Translations

Hoyng, R. (2020). Başka araçlarla siyaset: Hong Kong’ta post-dijital oyun” (Politics by other means: Post-digital gameplay in Hong Kong). In Mutlu Binark (Ed.), Asya’da popüler kültür ve medya. Um:ag Vakfı Yayınları. Translation by Umut Yener Kara.

Other Writings

Hoyng, R and Shek, S (2021). Open Data Sovereignty? Lessons from Hong Kong. Internet Society of Hong Kong, Newsletter December 2021. Also available via Datactive: https://data-activism.net/2022/05/bigdatasur-open-data-sovereignty-lessons-from-hong-kong/

Hoyng, Rolien and Murat Es. (2015). “Censorship and Conspiracy Theories Rule the Day in Post- Election Turkey.” Open Democracy, November 4, 2015. Available at: https://opendemocracy.net/murat-es-rolien-hoyng/censorship-and-conspiracy-theories-rule-day-in-post-election-turkey

Hoyng, Rolien and Murat Es. (2014). “Umbrella Revolution: The Academy Reflects on Hong Kong’s Struggle.” Open Democracy, October 2, 2014. Available at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/rolien-hoyng-murat-es/umbrella-revolution-academy-reflects-on-hong-kong%E2%80%99s-struggle