Global South Dronification: Mapping Drone Socio-Technical Networks in Córdoba (Argentina)

This chapter offers a series of practical experiences to open the “black box” of the ongoing dronification process. It explores the discussions around the classification of these artefacts within legal circuits, social practices of development and usage, as well as techno-aesthetic imaginaries of control and care, whether of people, goods, or landscapes, currently operating in Argentina. It proposes to mobilise these “local” experiences to think about the phenomenon of dronification and expand this discussion on a Latin American scale. Moreover, it unpacks the phenomenon of “dronification of society” by expanding the complexity of the drone as a technological assemblage (flying platform + camera) to the drone as a “socio-technical network”. In its conclusion, this chapter aims to broaden the understanding of drones through local and global, technical and visual, as well as political and imaginary assemblages.