SOSANT2630 ¨C Digital Anthropology

Course content

First and foremost, the course provides an overview of themes and approaches to the digital, from social media to smartphones, from temporality to mobility. Secondly, it presents and discusses the methodologies required to study these phenomena, relating them to classic ethnographic methods. Thirdly and finally, the course contextualises the new digital technologies historically, indicating continuities and ruptures with enduring and classic themes and theories of anthropology. It therefore presupposes basic knowledge of anthropological theory, method and subject matter. Whether your passion is smartphone use in a society that interests you ¨C rural Zambia, urban Brazil, highland Burma or the western suburbs of East London ¨C or the implications of the Internet in a particular sector ¨C health, education, business ¡­ ¨C or if your interest rather lies in theories of networks, principles of social organisation or the fundamentals of communication, this course will add unexpected depth and relevant breadth to your knowledge of the contemporary world and the human condition.

The course covers a broad range of issues relating to digital technologies, including:

• Social networks online and offline
• New methodologies tailored to research on digital communication
• The transformation of work
• Empowerment and surveillance in digital capitalism
• Games and gaming
• Micro-coordination and the smartphone as locative media
• Temporality, simultaneity and acceleration
• Mobility and the smartphone
• Information excess

In the lectures, these subjects will be dealt with on their own terms, but they are also connected to the non-digital, both historically and in a contemporary sense, thereby indicating historical continuities, perhaps even human universals, and not merely rapid change.

Learning outcome

Knowledge

• Overview of recent and current anthropological research on the digital;
• Introduction to research methods dealing with the digital;
• Knowledge of cultural and social variation regarding engagement with digital technologies;
• Understanding of network types and forms of social and cultural integration;
• Awareness of tensions, conflicts and contradictions involving digital technologies, ranging from concentration deficits to robotisation.

Skills

• Ability to distinguish theoretically and analytically between different information technologies and their implications;
• Mastery of methodological tools enabling basic research on digital and virtual worlds;
• Ability to work competently with other people in computer-mediated work environments.

General competence

• The ability to build an argument blending methodological, theoretical and empirical elements, both orally and in writing;
• Enhanced academic reading competence, which involves the critical interrogation of form and content in anthropological texts.

Admission to the course

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.

Teaching

Lectures.

Examination

Take home exam. The exam paper must be minimum 2 900 words and maximum 4 400 words including cover page and foot- or endnotes.

Previous exams

Language of examination

You may write your examination paper in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.

The examination text will be given in English and Norwegian.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

Resit an examination

If you are sick or have another valid reason for not attending the regular exam, we offer a postponed exam later in the same semester.

See also our information about resitting an exam.

More about examinations at UiO

• Use of sources and citations
• Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
• Withdrawal from an exam
• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Explanation of grades and appeals
• Resitting an exam
• Cheating/attempted cheating

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.