Document details

Digital Anthropology

London; New York: Routledge, 2nd ed. (2021), xii, 336 pp.

Contains illustrations, graphs

ISBN 978-1-350-07884-0 (pbk); 978-1-00-308788-5 (online)

Other editions: Revised edition of: Digital anthropology, edited by Heather A. Horst and Daniel Miller. London; New York: Berg, 2012

"Digital Anthropology 2nd Edition explores how human and digital can be defined in relation to one another within issues as diverse as social media use, virtual worlds, hacking, quantified self, blockchain, digital environmentalism and digital representation. The book challenges the moral universal of the digital by exploring emergent anxieties about the global spread of new technological forms as well as highlighting the productive contribution of the digital to new concepts and practices. In this fully revised edition, Digital Anthropology reveals how the intense scrutiny of ethnography can overturn assumptions about the impact of digital culture and reveal its profound consequences for everyday life around the world. Combining the clarity of case studies with an engaging style that conveys a passion for new frontiers of enquiry within anthropological study, this will be essential reading for students and scholars interested in theory of anthropology, media and information studies, communication studies and sociology. With a brand new introduction from editors Haidy Geismar and Hannah Knox, as well as the original introduction by Heather Horst and Daniel Miller, in conjunction with new chapters on hacking, and digitizing environments, amongst others, and fully revised chapters throughout, this will bring the field-defining overview of digital anthropology fully up to date." (Publisher description)
1 Introduction: Digital anthropology ten years on / Haidy Geismar and Hannah Knox, 1
PART I: POSITIONING
2 Six principles for a digital anthropology / Daniel Miller and Heather A. Horst, 21
3 Rethinking digital anthropology / Tom Boellstorff, 44
PART II: SOCIALIZING DIGITAL ANTHROPOLOGY
4 The anthropology of mobile phones / Heather A. Horst, 65
5 The anthropology of social media / Daniel Miller, 85
6 Diverse digital worlds / Bart Barendregt, 101
7 Disability in the digital age / Faye Ginsburg, 121
8 Devices and selves / Natasha Schüll, 137
PART III: POLITICIZING DIGITAL ANTHROPOLOGY
9 Digital politics / John Postill, 159
10 Traversing the infrastructures of digital life / Hannah Knox, 178
11 Blockchain / Bill Maurer, 197
12 Digital economy and labour / Ilana Gershon and Iris Bull, 219
PART IV: DESIGNING DIGITAL ANTHROPOLOGY
13 Design for and against digital anthropology / Adam Drazin, 241
14 Museum + digital = ? / Haidy Geismar, 264
15 The role of the digital anthropologist in citizen science and public participation mapping projects: a case study or two / David Jeevendrampillai with Gillian Conquest, 288
16 Digital futures anthropology / Sarah Pink, 307