AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF FUTURES AND TECH

This book explores the emerging automated technologies and systems and the roles anthropologists can play in their making, engaging with technologies in fieldwork, creating critical and interventional approaches, and offering insights for future-making practices. It responds to the call for new anthropologies that respond to the technological environments we live in.

Format: Hardback
Publication date: 15 July 2021
Publisher: TAYLOR & FRANCIS

This comprehensive book delves into the realm of emerging automated technologies and systems, exploring their profound impact on our lives and the visions we hold for the future. It raises crucial questions about the constitution of technological futures and the roles that anthropologists can play in shaping them. It examines how anthropologists engage with these technologies within their fieldwork contexts, employing research to influence future design and innovation. The book also offers critical and interventional approaches to technology design and innovation, aiming to create a more equitable and sustainable future. Moreover, it explores how a critical anthropology of the everyday experiences of emerging technologies can provide valuable insights for future-making practices. In response to a call for new anthropologies that adapt to the rapidly changing technological environments we inhabit, this book asserts that anthropology must go beyond critical thinking and propose alternative ways of approaching and engaging with the future. Rooted in ethnography, these approaches aim to contest dominant narratives of industry, policy, and government and to respond to our contemporary context through a public, vocal, and interventional approach. By examining the interplay between technology, society, and culture, this book offers a rich and nuanced understanding of the complex dynamics shaping our world and provides valuable insights for those seeking to shape a more promising future.

ISBN-13: 9781350144927