POSTPONED [Salon] Tales of a Digital Anthropologist with Daniel Miller

Digital anthropology was unheard of until David Miller pioneered the study of the digital in this fascinating field of research. In particular, he launched ethnographic research on the use and consequences of social media and smartphones as part of the everyday life of ordinary people anywhere.    

Do selfies have different meanings across cultures around the world? Since the advent of social media, are we becoming more individual or more social? How did memes become the moral police of the internet? Why is public social media so conservative? What impact does visual communication have on politics and education? And could health applications and mHealth apps be a useful and culturally-sensitive tool to improve the wellbeing of populations?    

Daniel will look into these issues, highlight the variations across different societies, share his latest insights on the ethnography of the smartphone, and quickly convince you why anthropology is possibly the best way to understand the digital dimension of our lives today.      

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ABOUT

Daniel Miller is Professor of Anthropology at UCL, and a prolific writer (he has authored or edited almost 40 books). He was originally trained in archaeology and anthropology at the University of Cambridge but has spent his entire professional life at the Department of Anthropology at the University College London, which has become a research centre for the study of material culture and where more recently, Miller established the world's first programme dedicated to the study of digital anthropology.  

GOOD READS 

• How the World Changed Social Media, 2016
  
• Tales from Facebook, 2011  
• Stuff, 2009
  
• The Comfort of Things, 2008
  
• The Internet: an Ethnographic Approach, 2000