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New Book: Theorising Media and Practice (Bräuchler & Postill 2010)

New Book: Theorising Media and Practice (Bräuchler & Postill 2010) published on No Comments on New Book: Theorising Media and Practice (Bräuchler & Postill 2010)

Bräuchler, B. and J. Postill (eds) 2010. Theorising Media and Practice. Oxford and New York: Berghahn.

From John Postill’s blog:

This book is very much a product of the numerous conversations we’ve had down the years on the EASA Media Anthropology Network on practice approaches to media. We’re really grateful to all chapter contributors and to all of network members who have helped us think through some of the key questions.

Synopsis

Although practice theory has been a mainstay of social theory for nearly three decades, so far it has had very limited impact on media studies. This book draws on the work of practice theorists such as Wittgenstein, Foucault, Bourdieu, Barth and Schatzki and rethinks the study of media from the perspective of practice theory. Drawing on ethnographic case studies from places such as Zambia, India, Hong Kong, the United States, Britain, Norway and Denmark, the contributors address a number of important themes: media as practice; the interlinkage between media, culture and practice; the contextual study of media practices; and new practices of digital production. Collectively, these chapters make a strong case for the importance of theorising the relationship between media and practice and thereby adding practice theory as a new strand to the anthropology of media.

More information: http://berghahnbooks.com/title.php?rowtag=BrauchlerTheorising

Tim Berners-Lee on the web’s future

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In an important article Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, addresses current and future issues of the web and its services. He reminds us that we should be careful not to create walled communities or closed content silos, as done by social network sites, such as facebook, or companies such as apple. Open standards, documents and data have been driving innovation and hence the web’s development for the last 20 years. And we have to make sure that we keep the web open, independent and accessible to all.

From Scientific American:

“Long Live the Web: A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality
By Tim Berners-Lee November 22, 2010

The world wide web went live, on my physical desktop in Geneva, Switzerland, in December 1990. It consisted of one Web site and one browser, which happened to be on the same computer. The simple setup demonstrated a profound concept: that any person could share information with anyone else, anywhere. In this spirit, the Web spread quickly from the grassroots up. Today, at its 20th anniversary, the Web is thoroughly integrated into our daily lives. We take it for granted, expecting it to “be there” at any instant, like electricity.

The Web evolved into a powerful, ubiquitous tool because it was built on egalitarian principles and because thousands of individuals, universities and companies have worked, both independently and together as part of the World Wide Web Consortium, to expand its capabilities based on those principles.”

more: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=long-live-the-web

Video: About “doing anthropology”

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MIT anthropologists in this short video talk about doing anthropology, about their personal experiences with working as anthropologists and ethnographers.

From: http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/315-doing-anthropology

“Thoughts on Fieldwork From Three Research Sites
Cultural Anthropology is a social science that explores how people understand – and act in – the world. But what, exactly, is it that Cultural Anthropologists do? How do they approach their research? In this short film, three members of MIT’s Anthropology Department, Stefan Helmreich, Erica James, and Heather Paxson, talk about their current work and the process of doing fieldwork.”

Lecture: Media Ethnographies – Ethnography in/and the Anthropology of Media

Lecture: Media Ethnographies – Ethnography in/and the Anthropology of Media published on No Comments on Lecture: Media Ethnographies – Ethnography in/and the Anthropology of Media

In the winter term 2010/2011 Philipp is giving a lecture on media ethnographies in the context of an anthropology of media technologies at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna. By using different case studies, the lecture aims to highlight the importance of ethnography in understanding media phenomena.

For more information in German go to: http://www.philbu.net/courses.html

Report on the 11th Biennial EASA 2010 Conference

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Report on the 11th Biennial EASA 2010 Conference “Crisis and Imagination”,
National University of Ireland Maynooth, 24-27th August 2010
by Philipp Budka
(University of Vienna)

This report focuses only on those workshops I attended during the conference. They all deal with media (technology) practices in/and social and cultural anthropology. For a complete list of workshops and thematic areas, take a look at the conference website: http://www.easaonline.org/conferences/easa2010/index.htm

National University of Ireland Maynooth, North Campus

25 August 2010: EASA Media Anthropology Network Workshop “The rewards of media”
Convenors: John Postill & Philipp Budka
(http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2010/panels.php5?PanelID=648)

John Postill introduces to the workshop’s theme, procedure and schedule. “The workshop explores the rewards (social, economic, symbolic, sensory, etc., cf. Warde 2005) derived from engaging in specific media practices in different sociocultural settings.” (more: http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2010/panels.php5?PanelID=648).

1) John Postill & Francisco Orsorio “Mobile rewards: a critical review of the Mobiles for Development (M4D) literature”
In the workshop’s first paper John and Francisco review literature in the field of mobile technologies, particular phones, for development.

…

26 August 2010: Workshop “Digital Anthropology”
Convenors: Daniel Miller & Heather Horst
(http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2010/panels.php5?PanelID=599)

Introduction to the workshop by Daniel Miller. “How can anthropology contribute to an understanding of the impact of new digital technologies? This session explores topics ranging from how digital technologies become part of everyday life to their role in the development of new infrastructures within both commerce and the state.” (more: http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2010/panels.php5?PanelID=599).

1) Daniel Miller & Heather Horst “A brief theory of digital anthropology”
Daniel gives an introduction to the theory of digital anthropology by presenting the study program for digital anthropology at the University College London and two ethnographic case studies.

…

National University of Ireland Maynooth, South Campus

27 August 2010: Workshop “Engaging anthropology in practice: pedagogical exchanges with media practitioners”
Convenors: Caroline Gatt, Rachel Harkness, Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Joseph Long
(http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2010/panels.php5?PanelID=621)

Introducing to the workshop and its theme are Caroline Gatt, Rachel Harkness, and Joseph Long. How can anthropology engage with media practitioners and in e.g. media training programs?
“Launching “Engaging Anthropology in Practice”, a project based in Scotland, this panel will showcase anthropological engagements of various publics by European practitioners in order to learn from this work and create links for future cooperation. Presentations have been requested that reflect upon the practicalities of engagement. Discussion in the latter part of the session will consider the development of anthropological training in the light of these experiences.” (more: http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2010/panels.php5?PanelID=621).

1) Julia Bayer “Awareness training for journalists and its potential for the promotion of media diversity”
Julia, in her presentation, is introducing an awareness training program for journalists in Germany.

…

International Day of the World’s Indigenous People 2010

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On 9th of August the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People is celebrated at UN Headquarters in New York and around the world. The theme of this year’s Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is indigenous film makers. Thus four selected short films are screened:

Ivan and Ivan Directed by Philipp Abryutin (Chucki)

Curte-Nillas Directed by Per-Josef Idivuoma (Sámi)

Taino Indians Counted Out of Existence Directed by Alex Zacarias (Taíno)

Sikumi (On the ice) Directed by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean (Inupiaq)

More info about film makers add new dimension on Day of World’s Indigenous People

What is the history of this special day for the world’s more than 300 million indigenous people? From the website of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues:

“In 1994, the General Assembly decided that the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People shall be observed on 9 August every year during the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People (Resolution 49/214 of 23 December). The date marks the day of the first meeting, in 1982, of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.

The UN General Assembly had proclaimed 1993 the International Year of the World’s Indigenous People, and the same year, the Assembly proclaimed the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People, starting on 10 December 1994 (Resolution 48/163). The goal of the First Decade was to strengthen international cooperation for solving problems faced by indigenous people in such areas as human rights, the environment, development, education and health.

In 2004, the UN General Assembly proclaimed a Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples through Resolution 59/174. The goal of the Second Decade is to further the “strengthening of international cooperation for the solution of problems faced by indigenous people in such areas as culture, education, health, human rights, the environment, and social and economic development, by means of action-oriented programs and specific projects, increase technical assistance, and relevant standard-setting activities”.”

more at: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/news_internationalday2010.html

Report on the workshop “Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Society”

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Section report “Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Society: Transformations and Challenges” by Philipp Budka and Adam Fiser in TRANS Internet Journal for Cultural Studies, 2010/17, Online: http://inst.at/trans/17Nr/8-2/8-2_sektionsbericht.htm

Of the more than 300 million Indigenous People recognized by the United Nations, a growing minority is actively shaping indigenous visions of a knowledge-based society (e.g. UNHCHR 2001, 1997). These visions are not simply indigenous responses to global mainstream debates over post-industrial development or techno-scientific culture, etc. More importantly, they articulate the actual deployment of new media and information communications technologies (ICTs) by indigenous communities to forward their own policies and practices. They frame how indigenous communities are mobilizing over the internet and on the web to communicate their lived experiences and extend their local networks to global audiences, including and most importantly, a global indigenous audience.

For academics in the field, Indigenous Peoples are opening up spaces of inquiry beyond the digital divide by actively co-creating online communities and transforming their cultural experience through ICTs. Questions about resources, knowledge, power, and access continue to be important, but they have become more complicated by issues of networking and social life, virtual reproduction, and information policy.

Knowledge production within the knowledge society is not only closely related to new forms of communication and technologies, it is also the basic principle of research and academic work. Research with Indigenous Peoples has been changing dramatically over the last forty years, particularly because more and more members of indigenous communities have become actively involved in shaping research policy and undertaking research projects. There is also a heightened sensitivity that research with Indigenous People and communities can be a conflict-ridden endeavour, as Linda Tuhiwai Smith (2005: 2), a Māori researcher, notes when she identifies research as “… a significant site of struggle between the interests and ways of knowing of the West and the interests and ways of resisting of the Other”. The Other in her example, and in our section, represents the position that Indigenous Peoples take as marginal forces within the mainstream currents of the global knowledge society.

…

more at: http://inst.at/trans/17Nr/8-2/8-2_sektionsbericht.htm

Section papers: http://inst.at/trans/17Nr/8-2/8-2_inhalt17.htm

TAZ Artikel “Social Network für Indianer – ‘Wir waren zuerst da!'”

TAZ Artikel “Social Network für Indianer – ‘Wir waren zuerst da!'” published on No Comments on TAZ Artikel “Social Network für Indianer – ‘Wir waren zuerst da!'”

von Sunny Riedel, TAZ, 08.06.2010 (Print, PDF und Online)

“MyKnet ist eine soziale Online-Umgebung von Indianern für Indianer”, erklärt Philipp Budka vom Institut für Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie der Universität Wien. Seit ein paar Jahren forscht er über das Internetportal und dessen Provider Knet.

Das Herzstück ist MyKnet.org, eine Ansammlung von Homepages, über die Angehörige der First Nations, wie sie sich selbst bezeichnen, miteinander kommunizieren.

Wie die meisten Aboriginals werden auch die First Nations stark benachteiligt. Ihre Siedlungen und Reservate sind häufig weit voneinander entfernt, Straßen gibt es kaum. Nur im Winter, wenn Flüsse und Seen zugefroren sind, brausen Trucks über diese “winter roads”. Im Sommer können die Distanzen nur per Flugzeug bewältigt werden. Die fehlende Perspektiven in der Isolationbringt Probleme mit sich. Depressionen, Alkoholismus, Arbeitslosigkeit und eine hohe Selbstmordrate sindAlltag.

“Grund dafür ist die Unterdrückung der First Nations und die Missachtung ihrer Kultur durch die Mehrheitsgesellschaft”, erklärt Philipp Budka. Um das Web 2.0 dafür zu nutzen, die eigene Kultur zu fördern, hatte das Tribal Council, ein Zusammenschluss der politischen Führer der Indigenen, die Organisation Knet 1994 gegründet. Im Jahr 2000 folgte das soziale Netzwerk MyKnet.org.

mehr auf: http://www.taz.de/1/netz/netzkultur/artikel/1/wir-waren-zuerst-da/

Presentation: Indigene Medienproduktion im Nordwestlichen Ontario, Kanada

Presentation: Indigene Medienproduktion im Nordwestlichen Ontario, Kanada published on No Comments on Presentation: Indigene Medienproduktion im Nordwestlichen Ontario, Kanada

Philipp Budka
(Universität Wien)

6. Tage der Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie, Workshop “Medien und Medienkritik aus kultur- und sozialanthropologischer Perspektive”
Insitut für Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie, Universität Wien
22.04.2010

Abstract

Indigene Gruppen, Organisationen und Netzwerke sind weltweit verstärkt daran interessiert ihre soziokulturellen, politischen und ökonomischen Lebensumstände mittels unterschiedlichster Medientechnologien zu kommunizieren. Reichweite und Fokus indigener Medienproduktionen sind dabei ebenso unterschiedlich wie politische, technische und infrastrukturelle Rahmenbedingungen. Dieser Beitrag gibt einen Einblick in die indigene Medienproduktion im Nordwestlichen Ontario, Kanada, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der historischen, geographischen sowie soziokulturellen Kontexte. Anhand von Fallbeispielen wird einerseits die politische und kulturelle Bedeutung klassischer Massenmedien, wie Zeitung, Radio und Fernsehen, sowie spezieller Kommunikationsmedien, wie Community Radio, für die indigenen Menschen in dieser abgeschiedenen Region aufgezeigt. Andererseits wird der Frage nachgegangen wie indigene BenutzerInnen neuer Medien, wie World Wide Web und Internet, Inhalte selbst produzieren, verändern, reproduzieren und kommunizieren. Weitere Fragen die in diesem Vortrag andiskutiert werden sind: Wie gestaltet sich das Verhältnis von Medientechnologien zu Sprach- und Wissenserwerb bzw. -weitergabe? Welchen Einfluss haben neue Medien auf traditionelle soziale Strukturen? Was bedeutet User-generated Content von persönlichen Homepages für etablierte Massenmedien? Welche Bedeutung haben diese Fallbeispiele indigener Medienproduktion für Österreich?


Indigene Medienproduktion im Nordwestlichen Ontario, Kanada on Prezi

First Nations students need Internet technology, advocates say

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from the straight.com

Denise Williams believes strongly that broadband Internet access can help First Nations in British Columbia broaden the opportunities available on their often rural or remote reserves. The 27-year-old member of the Cowichan Tribes likens high-speed pipes to the roads that connect a community to the rest of the world.

“It’s the infrastructure that’s going to strengthen the entire social fabric of the community,” Williams told the Georgia Straight at a café in Kitsilano. “So, it’s education, it’s health, it’s justice, it’s economy—it’s all of that.”

Williams is the youth initiative officer for the First Nations Education Steering Committee, a West Vancouver–based organization established in 1992 to support First Nations education activities in the province. While 80 of the 203 First Nations in B.C. are still waiting for broadband—a plan to connect them could be announced by the end of the year—the committee is looking at using Internet technology to facilitate the teaching of classes in band-run and independent schools on reserves.

High-speed connectivity allows on-line teleconferencing and video conferencing, as well as interactive applications that incorporate slide shows and instant messaging, to be employed in the delivery of distance education, Williams noted. Using such synchronous technologies, a teacher can remotely instruct a class comprising students in several locations.

…

full story at:
http://www.straight.com/article-254208/first-nations-kids-need-net

“An anthropology of the internet” by Keith Hart

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Is an anthropology of the internet possible? If so, what would it look like? I will attempt a provisional answer here, building on my book about the consequences of the digital revolution for the forms of money and exchange. People, machines and money matter in this world, in that order. Most intellectuals know very little about any of them, being preoccupied with their own production of cultural ideas. Anthropologists have made some progress towards understanding people, but they are often in denial when it comes to the other two; and their methods for studying people have been trapped for too long in the 20th-century paradigm of fieldwork-based ethnography. I do not advocate a wholesale rejection of the ethnographic tradition, but rather would extend its premises towards a more inclusive anthropological project, better suited to studying world society, of which the internet is perhaps the most striking expression. For sure, we need to find out what real people do and think by joining them where they live. But we also need a global perspective on humanity as a whole if we wish to understand our moment in history. This will expose the limitations of the modern experiment in the social sciences — their addiction to impersonal abstractions and repression of individual subjectivity.

more: http://thememorybank.co.uk/2010/02/06/an-anthropology-of-the-internet-2/

US Congress Increases Funding for Native American Language Programs

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from Cultural Survival News:

Date: 01/14/2010

Hundreds of Native language advocates convened on Capitol Hill this past May, asking Congress to approve a minimum of $10 million in additional federal support for the Esther Martinez Act, which funds Native American language immersion schools, master-apprentice programs, and other revitalization projects. Native language advocates have made the $10 million request in earnest since 2007, and the new administration heard the call. In May during the Cultural Survival and National Alliance to Save Native Languages summit, Congressional appropriators welcomed the language revitalization funding request from Code talkers, fluent speakers, and novice learners alike in nearly three dozen meetings with key members of Congress and their staffers. A $12 million increase for the Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act of 2006 was signed by President Obama on December 16, 2009 as part of the omnibus fiscal year 2010 appropriations bill (HR 3288, which included HR 3293). The $12 million in increased funds for Native languages will be administered in a competitive grants program by the Administration for Native Americans within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Article: MyKnet.org: How Northern Ontario’s First Nation communities made themselves at home on the World Wide Web

Article: MyKnet.org: How Northern Ontario’s First Nation communities made themselves at home on the World Wide Web published on No Comments on Article: MyKnet.org: How Northern Ontario’s First Nation communities made themselves at home on the World Wide Web

Budka, P., Bell, B., & Fiser, A. 2009. MyKnet.org: How Northern Ontario’s First Nation communities made themselves at home on the World Wide Web. The Journal of Community Informatics, 5(2), Online: http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/568/450

Abstract

In this article we explore the development of MyKnet.org, a loosely structured system of personal homepages that was established by indigenous communities in the region of Northern Ontario, Canada in 2000. Individuals from over 50 remote First Nations across Northern Ontario have made this free of charge, free of advertisements, locally-driven online social environment their virtual home. MyKnet.org currently comprises over 25,000 active homepages and strongly reflects the demographic and geographic profile of Northern Ontario. It is thus youth-based and built around the communities’ need to maintain social ties across great distances. We draw upon encounters with a range of MyKnet.org’s developers and long time users to explore how this community-developed and community-controlled form of communication reflects life in the remote First Nations. Our focus is on the importance of locality: MyKnet.org’s development was contingent on K-Net, a regional indigenous computerization movement to bring broadband communications to remote First Nations. MyKnet.org is explicitly community-driven and not-for-profit, thus playing an important role in inter- and intra-community interaction in a region that has lacked basic telecommunications infrastructure well into the millennium.

Special Issue: CI & Indigenous Communities in Canada—The K-Net Experience

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The Journal of Community Informatics Special Issue: CI & Indigenous Communities in Canada – The K-Net (Keewaytinook Okimakanak’s Kuhkenah Network) Experience

Table of Contents
http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/issue/view/27

Editorial

The K-Net Experience: Thematic Introduction to the Special Issue
Brian Beaton, Susan O’Donnell, Adam Fiser, Brian Walmark

K-Net, Community Informatics and Service Delivery: An Evolving Paradigm
Michael Gurstein

Articles

MyKnet.org: How Northern Ontario’s First Nation Communities Made Themselves At Home On The World Wide Web
Philipp Budka, Brandi Bell, Adam Fiser

How K-Net and Atlantic Canada’s First Nation Help Desk are Using Videoconferencing for Community Development
Mary Milliken, Susan O’Donnell, Elizabeth Gorman

Out from the Edges: Multi-site Videoconferencing as a Public Sphere in First Nations
Fenwick McKelvey, Susan O’Donnell

Representation and Participation of First Nations Women in Online Videos
Sonja Perley

Implementation of Information and Communication Technology in Aboriginal Communities: A Social Capital Perspective
Javier Mignone, Heather Henley

Case Studies

Managing Changes in First Nations’ Health Care Needs: Is Telehealth the Answer?
Josée Gabrielle Lavoie, Donna Williams

Notes from the field

In Search of Community Champions: Researching the Outcomes of K-Net’s Youth Information and Communications Technology Training Initiative
Kristy Tomkinson

A Community Informatics Model for e-Services in First Nations Communities: The K-Net Approach to Water Treatment in Northern Ontario
Michael Gurstein, Brian Beaton, Kevin Sherlock

Reports

Enabling and Accelerating First Nations Telehealth Development in Canada
Valerie Gideon, Eugene Nicholas, John Rowlandson, Florence Woolner

ON-LINE RESOURCES about Keewaytinook Okimakanak, the Kuhkenah Network (K-Net) and Associated Broadband Applications
Brian Beaton

Article: Transforming learning infrastructures in the social sciences through flexible and interactive technology-enhanced learning

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Budka, P., & Schallert, C. 2009. Transforming learning infrastructures in the social sciences through flexible and interactive technology-enhanced learning. In: Learning Inquiry, 3(3), 131-142.

Abstract
The changing higher educational landscape in Europe creates new learning infrastructures and transforms existing ones. Students are thus provided with new possibilities and challenges. Through the case study of a newly developed common curriculum for the social sciences of a public university in Austria, this article discusses the interacting social agents, elements, and tools of a flexible and interactive technology-enhanced learning model. In doing so, the transnational, national, and local infrastructural conditions and challenges are critically examined from a socio-technological perspective. Selected evaluation and survey results highlight students’ learning practices, usage behavior, and suggestions to improve their learning situation. The article concludes that student-centered learning models focusing on flexibility and interactivity can support the stable implementation of a common curriculum and its technology-enhanced learning infrastructure for the social sciences at public universities with high student numbers.

Keywords
Higher education – Learning – Infrastructure – Social sciences – Austria

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