E-Seminar: The digital turn: New directions in media anthropology
Udupa, S., Costa, E., & Budka, P. (2018) The digital turn: New directions in media anthropology. Discussion Paper for the Follow-Up E-Seminar on the EASA Media Anthropology Network…
Tag: Technology
A Report on the 2018 4S Conference in Sydney, Australia by Tessa Leach
What characterises STS in different regions? What kinds of research projects, educational programs, and people are doing STS around the world? What problems exist in different regions? Can…
‘Inclusive WASH’ – Contested assumptions about bodies and personhood in a Ugandan refugee settlement
As I skimmed through the first pages of the shiny brochure of the ‘Inclusive WASH’ project, I suddenly recognized some of the people that the leaflet depicted in…
User as a Currency
Both internet users and market regulators are becoming more concerned about who uses personal data and how. The recent events involving Cambridge Analytica have helped to raise the…
The Rise of Emotional Robots
[no-caption] David Williams/SAPIENS Listen to the companion episode of SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human! When Dan White first pulled Pepper out of the box, it was slumped…
Is Robot Empathy a Trap?
[no-caption] David Williams/SAPIENS Can robots care? And why should we care if they do? SAPIENS host Jen Shannon meets Pepper the robot, and host Chip Colwell goes on…
Ancestry Tests Pose a Threat to Our Social Fabric
[no-caption] Andrew Brookes/Getty Images I have never understood why anybody would think humans are by nature violent, warlike creatures. True, we have all surely had arguments turn sour…
How to Book an Appointment Online when you have Aphasia
I’m meeting a fellow speech therapist researcher at a weekly drop-in session for people with aphasia when Markus* comes in, brandishing an envelope. “I went!” he exclaims. Markus…
System, Space and Ecobiopolitics: A Conversation with Valerie Olson About “Into the Extreme”
[This week we present excerpts of an interview with Valerie Olson conducted by Lisa Messeri focused on Olson’s new book, Into the Extreme (U Minnesota P, 2018).…
Can Cryptocurrency Revolutionize the Rituals of Money?
[no-caption] Andrew Baker/Getty Images Objects—pieces of paper, coins, lumps of precious metal—may serve as currency and represent specific monetary values, but what underpins the exchang…
How to Pay Attention by Nick Seaver
The main challenge in running a seminar on the anthropology of attention is that such a thing doesn’t exist.* While anthropologists often think quite deeply about attention, worrying…
The Incas’ Knotty History
Khipu in the Museo Machu Picchu, Casa Concha, Cusco. Wikimedia Commons This article was originally published at Aeon. The Inca Empire (1400–1532) is one of few ancient civilizations that …
What the Tech Sector Could Learn from Anthropology
Technology is a social tool that requires understanding of social and cultural factors for it to be a driver of equality. Failing to incorporate an anthropological perspective into…
On Permissionless Innovation
Many libertarians in Silicon Valley are advocates for permissionless innovation. They eschew waiting around for permission from a nanny state. They are impatient and see themselves above the…
The Age of Cultured Machines
Two robots traverse the desert floor. Explosions from a decades-old conflict have left a pockmarked and unstable territory, though many more improvised bombs lie concealed in its vast…
Carbon Farmers Work to Clean Up the World’s Mess
It was a bright afternoon in March of 2011 when I met Pedro (a pseudonym) on his organic farm in the mountains of Costa Rica, north of San…
How ICE’s Bogus Science Is Violating Human Rights
Teeth and bones can tell us something about age—but not someone’s birthday. Journal of Forensic Dental Sciences This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been repu…
The Power of Small Things: Trustmarkers and Designing for Mental Health
At my office we put tennis balls on the legs of the chairs to reduce the noise of the scraping chairs against the parquet floors. They are hard…
Digital Food Activism – a book review by Michelle Pentecost
Digital Food Activism Tanja Schneider, Karin Eli, Catherine Dolan and Stanley Ulijaszek (eds.) Routledge Series in Critical Food Studies, 2018, 234 pages A Swiss academic scans the…
Paper: Indigenous articulations in the digital age
Budka, P. (2018). Indigenous articulations in the digital age: Reflections on historical developments, activist engagements and mundane practices. Paper at International Communication Association 2018…
In the Wake of Hurricane Maria, Memes Carry More Than a Little Truth
After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, many locals channeled their frustrations and sense of humor into creating and sharing memes. Ricardo Arduengo/Getty Images On September 20, 2017, Hu…
Is Cyclical Time the Cure to Technology’s Ills?
The world changed dramatically on June 29, 2007. That’s the day when the iPhone first became available to the public. In the 11 years since, more than 8.5…
Risk and utility in the governance of diagnostic testing: the case of genetic screening, 1960 to the present by Steve Sturdy
Routine collection of blood samples from neonates – often using so-called Guthrie cards (pictured) – began in the 1960s when a number of North American and European countries…
Projit Bihari Mukharji’s Doctoring Traditions: Ayurveda, Small Technologies, and Braided Sciences by Marshall Kramer
Doctoring Traditions: Ayurveda, Small Technologies, and Braided Sciences Projit Bihari Mukharji University of Chicago Press, 2016. 376 pages. In a sequel to his 2009 Nationalizing the Body,…