The Palgrave Handbook of the Anthropology of Technology

This Handbook offers an overview of the thriving and diverse field of anthropological studies of technology. It features 39 original chapters, each reviewing the state of the art of current research and enlivening the field of study through ethnographic analysis of human-technology interfaces, forms of social organisation, technological practices and/or systems of belief and meaning in different parts of the world. The Handbook is organised around some of the most important characteristics of anthropological studies of technology today: the diverse knowledge practices that technologies involve and on which they depend; the communities, collectives, and categories that emerge around technologies; anthropology's contribution to proliferating debates on ethics, values, and morality in relation to technology; and infrastructures that highlight how all technologies are embedded in broader political economies and socio-historical processes that shape and often reinforce inequality and discrimination while also generating diversity. All chapters share a commitment to human experiences, embodiments, practices, and materialities in the daily lives of those people and institutions involved in the development, manufacturing, deployment, and/or use of particular technologies. Chapters 11 and 31 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com. Preface Contents Notes on Contributors List of Figures Chapter 1: The Anthropology of Technology: The Formation of a Field Technology and Techniques Evolution Versus Diffusion From Artefacts to Processes 1980s and 1990s: Programmes for an Anthropology of Technology The Early 2000s: Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Methodological Innovation A Handbook of the Anthropology of Technology for the Twenty-First Century References Part I: Perspectives, Fields, and Approaches Chapter 2: Making ‘Technology’ Visible: Technical Activities and the Chaîne Opératoire The Chaîne Opératoire: Definitions, Trajectories, and Issues ‘Technical’ as an Analytical Category: From ‘Technical Acts’ to ‘Technical Activities’ Taming the Analytical: Methodological Considerations Making Processes Visible Conclusion: Making Concepts Visible References Chapter 3: Technology as Skill in Handwork and Craft: Basketwork and Handweaving Baskets and Basketry Technology as Skill and Tool Use: A Phenomenological Approach Gathering Basketry Knowledge Basketry ‘Knowing How’ Basketry, Skill, and Machines Contrasting Hand and Loom Weaving Skill and Knowledge The Human in the Weaving References Chapter 4: Material Culture Studies: Objectification, Agency, and Intangibility Technology and Material Culture From Material Culture to Materiality Materials and Materiality Agency The Essence and Absence of Things Case Study: Atmospheric Technologies Looking Ahead References Chapter 5: Feminist Technoscience and New Imaginaries of Human Reproduction From the Woman Question to the Study of Science Cultures Feminist Anthropology of Biomedicine and Reproduction A Feminist Technoscience Study of Medical Imaging Technologies Conclusion References Chapter 6: Assemblage Ethnography: Configurations Across Scales, Sites, and Practices Contextualising Predicaments Apparatus as Ethnographic Object A Bio-turn Lines and Rhizomes Conclusion References Chapter 7: Humanism, Posthumanism, and New Humanism: How Robots Challenge the Anthropological Object Constructing Humans Expanding the Boundaries Acknowledging Technological Boundary Making Humaning Humanoids Ontogenesis Conclusion References Chapter 8: Structuring Race into the Machine: The Spoiled Promise of Postgenomic Sequencing Technologies Anthropologies of Race Itself Structural Variation and Ethnicity-Specific Reference Genomes Building Genomic Order References Chapter 9: An Interventional Design Anthropology of Emerging Technologies: Working Through an Interdisciplinary Field Design Anthropology and Emerging Technologies Emerging Technologies Emerging Technologies and Problem-Solution Narratives Accidents, Trust, and Emerging Technologies Trust in Emerging Technologies from an Anthropological Perspective Ethnographies of Emerging Technologies in Practice Conclusion: Insights for the Anthropology of Emerging Technologies References Chapter 10: Computational Ethnography: A Case of COVID-19’s Methodological Consequences In This Chapter The Ethnographic Archive Navigating for Serendipity Computational Ethnography for Future Anthropologies References Part II: Knowing, Unknowing, and Re-knowing Chapter 11: Knowing, Unknowing, and Re-knowing Anthropological Takes on Knowledge Practices The Chapters in this Section Conclusion References Chapter 12: Technology, Environment, and the Ends of Knowledge Unknowing Technology Atmospheric Memory Art as Environmental Media Technology as Environmental Relation Anthropology of Technology at the End of Knowledge References Chapter 13: Charting the Unknown: Tracking the Self, Experimenting with the Digital Towards the Informatics-Behavioural Learning with Quantified Self Cultivating Metric Awareness Knowing and Sensing Devices Fuzzy Data Doubles Beyond Self-Tracking References Chapter 14: Data, Knowledge Practices, and Naturecultural Worlds: Vehicle Emissions in the Anthropocene Data Infrastructure and Knowledge Practices in the Anthropocene Technologies for Counting and Estimating Vehicle Emissions in the US Techno-Cultural Mediations of Emissions Standards Vehicle-Counting Data Collection Technologies Technologies for Modelling Vehicle Emissions Conclusion References Chapter 15: Set, Setting, and Clinical Trials: Colonial Technologies and Psychedelics Psychedelics as Critiques of Magic Bullets Capitalising on Medicine ‘Ayahuasca’/Listening to Plants Ayahuasca Is Not a Psychedelic Conclusion References Chapter 16: Assembling Population Data in the Field: The Labour, Technologies, and Materialities of Quantification Population as Knowledge Object Ethnographies of Counting and Classifying Seeing the Sample: Embodied Counting Field Sciences The Field as a Stage: Performing Difference Conclusion References Chapter 17: Peopled By Data: Statistical Knowledge Practices, Population-Making, and the State Ethnographic and Statistical Representation Making Populations with Statistics Governing by Numbers Statistical Subjects A Population of Swedish Twins Twins, Peas, and Berries Tracing the Twins The Most Representative Population in the World Conclusion References Chapter 18: Data Practices and Sustainable Development Goals: Organising Knowledge for Sustainable Futures Datafication and Proliferation of Data Situated Meanings of Data Technologies and Data Work Infrastructure and Data for Policy Data as Evidence and Technologies of Accountability Data Promises for the Sustainable Development Goals Dynamic 1: Developing Global Data as Evidence Dynamic 2: Disaggregation from Populations to Groups Dynamic 3: Localisation of Data Dynamic 4: Diversification of Data Sources Dynamic 5: Meaningful Accountability Concluding Discussion References Part III: Communities, Collectives, and Categories Chapter 19: Communities, Collectives, and Categories Communities and Technologies in Anthropological Debates Collectives and Technologies in Anthropological Debates Categories and Technologies in Anthropological Debates The Chapters Conclusion: An Anthropological Commitment to Studying Sociality and Social Relatedness Through Technologies References Chapter 20: Un/Doing Race: On Technology, Individuals, and Collectives in Forensic Practice Paying Attention to Technologies Difference in the Making: Learning with Genetics Uncomfortable Objects: Genetic Research in a Post-Racial Age? Disentangling the Milica van Doorn Murder Case: Collectives in the Making 1992: A ‘Singing Turkish Man on a Bike’ 2002–2008: DNA Dragnets and Delineating Populations of Interest 2017: Familial DNA and the Elusive ‘Turkish Community’ ‘Turkishness’ as a Matter of Multiple Technologies and Collectives References Chapter 21: Learning, Technology, and the Instrumentalisation of Critique Anthropological Critiques of Mainstream Cognitive Theory Institutional Loci of Anthropological Critique From Situated Learning to Digital Media and Learning A School for the Digital Age Sanctioned and Unsanctioned Counterpractices Conclusion References Chapter 22: Technology, Gender, and Nation: Building Modern Citizens in Maoist China Technology and Gender in Anthropology Technology, Modernity, and Gender Work and the Re-gendering of Technology: Maoist China’s Iron Girls References Chapter 23: Imagineerism: Technology, Robots, Kinship. Perspectives from Japan Kinship Technology Imagineering Versus Imagineerism ‘Blood’ and Kizuna Innovation as Renovation Society 5.0 Living with Robots Imagineerism Redux Epilogue References Chapter 24: Collectivities and Technological Activism: Feminist Hacking Technology, Activism, and Collectivities Pleasures and Politics of Hacking Hacking Communities: Feminist Hacking in FLOSS Conclusions: Technologically Oriented Collectivity Formation as Social Relations References Chapter 25: Inside Technology Organisations: Imaginaries of Digitalisation at Work Organisational Anthropology and Ethnographies of Technology Companies Digitalisation, Innovation, and Disruption ‘Don’t Trust a Video that You Haven’t Faked Yourself’—Collaborative Robots and Engineered Imaginaries ‘Like Nurturing Small Plants’—Digital Technologies in Navigation Conclusion References Part IV: Ethics, Values, and Morality Chapter 26: Ethics, Values, and Morality Anthropologies of Values, Ethics, and Morality Ethics Morality Funding, Normativity, and Activism The Chapters Conclusion References Chapter 27: Moral Ambiguities: Fleshy and Digital Substitutes in the Life Sciences Moral Experiences with Liminal Lives: Person and Kinship Extending the Field of Moral Action: From Biopolitics to Symbiopolitics Research Piglets as Fleshy Substitutes in Experimental Science Genomes as Digital Substitutes in Precision Medicine Conclusion References Chapter 28: Enacting Authenticity: Changing Ontologies of Biological Entities Making Things Authentic: Lessons from Studies of Concepts of Nature, the Body, Food, and Their Classifications Human Organoids Human Subjects? Authentication Infrastructures Cultured Meat What Does It Mean to Be Cow? A Post-Animal Techno-ethico-Economy? Conclusions References Chapter 29: Technologies of Beauty: The Materiality, Ethics, and Normativity of Cosmetic Citizenship A Short Overview of the Scholarship on Beauty Technologies of Gender Race, Eugenics, and Biopolitics Transnational Beauty and Its Effects/Affects The Vulnerability of Skin and Buccal Fat Excision in Brazil: A Case Study Conclusion References Chapter 30: The Optimised and Enhanced Self: Experiences of the Self and the Making of Societal Values Theorising Optimisation and Enhancement Neoconservatism and Transhumanism/Libertarians and a Mediated Perspective The Example of Pharmaceutical Cognitive Enhancement Agency, Authenticity, and Legitimacy in the Usage of Enhancement Drugs Enhancing Productivity and Having Fun Self-tracking and Optimisation Self-tracking Technologies, Documentation, and Experiences of the Self Conclusion: Technologies as Vehicles for Self-transformation References Chapter 31: Articulations of Ethics: Energy Worlds and Moral Selves Corporate Responsibilities Engineering Ethics Oil, God and Liberty Concluding Thoughts References Chapter 32: Competing Responsibilities and the Ethics of Care in Young People’s Engagements with Digital Mental Health Responsibilisation and Beyond Digital Technologies and Developing Ethics of Care Inter-relationalities of Care State, Social, and Corporate Obligation Beyond Human Responsibility? References Chapter 33: Committee Work: Stem Cell Governance in the United States Kinship and Genealogy Categories, Ontologies, and Ethics Governing Promissory Worlds Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight Committees False Premises? Democratic Failures Sufficiency and Sustainability Expansionism Conclusion References Part V: Infrastructures, Linkages, and Livelihoods Chapter 34: Infrastructures, Linkages, and Livelihoods Anthropological Studies of Infrastructures and Infrastructuring The Chapters in This Section Infrastructuring Methodologies References Chapter 35: Accumulation: Exploring the Materiality of Energy Infrastructure Energy Accumulation Transitioning in Reverse Conclusion References Chapter 36: Food Infrastructures and Technologies of Trust in Contemporary China Infrastructuring Food Trusting Food in China Changing Food Infrastructures in Rural Hebei Special Supply Surveillance, Transparency, and Traceability Conclusion References Chapter 37: Water Infrastructures: The Making and Maintenance of Material and Organisational Connections Currents in the Anthropology of Water and Technology Water Infrastructuring Politics: Power, Governance, Control Water Infrastructuring Worlds: Meaning, Knowledge, and Beyond the Material Making Water Flow in an Urban Waterscape Presión/Pressure Water Technologies as Material (and Beyond Material) Practices References Chapter 38: Electricity as a Field for Anthropological Theorising and Research Speaking of Electricity Embedded Categories Resistance Loss and Losses Conclusions References Chapter 39: Circuit Board Money: An Infrastructural Perspective on Digital Payments Money, Debt, and Cashless Transactions Payments, Debris, and the Metadata of Digitalisation Financial in/Exclusion in a Digital Economy Digital ‘Wallets’ in Indonesia: Peers and Intermediaries Interfaces, Incentives, and a System that ‘Doesn’t Wanna Know’ Conclusion References Index