[ecrea] CFP: Digital Infrastructures, Practices, and Socialities beyond the State

We are pleased to invite papers for the following panel as part of the 
Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA) meeting on/contrapunteo­/ 
(counterpoints) at Universidad de Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, May 16-20, 
2018.

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*Digital Infrastructures, Practices, and Socialities beyond the State*


Panel organizers: Geoffrey Hobbis (CREDO and University of British 
Columbia Okanagan) and Stephanie Hobbis (University of British Columbia 
Okanagan)


This panel looks at user experiences with digital technologies off 
state-controlled grids. A well-known Cuban example is /El Paquete 
Semanal, /a weekly package of media content distributed on USB flash 
drives, referred to by Cuban intellectual Victor Folwer as an “Internet 
of the poor” (cited in Dubinsky 2016, 158). Dubinsky (2016) locates a 
persisting Cuban spirit of disobedience in this technological 
/contrapunteo/. Similarly, Larkin (2008) shows how media piracy in 
Nigeria has developed parallel infrastructures and economies to those 
subjected to (global) state control. Building on the digital turn in 
ethnography (Pink et al. 2016) we seek materially and technologically 
grounded contributions that explore these and similar phenomena in 
diverse global contexts. Paper proposals may relate to, but are not 
limited, to the following topics:

·the offline circulation and mobility of digital media

·how non-state and state-regulated digital infrastructures and practices 
shape socialities and how they are subject to social interaction

·the digitization of non-, or not exclusively, capitalist modes of 
exchange (e.g. kin-based domestic and international remittance networks)

·how informal digital infrastructures shape and are shaped by spatial 
practices

·the myriad expressions of choice in relation to technological 
constraints created by state over- or undersight

If interested, please send a 150-word abstract with a brief bio by 
November 13, 2017 to Geoffrey Hobbis at (geoffreygahobbis /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(geoffreygahobbis /at/ gmail.com)>.


Further details about the conference can be found at: https://cascacuba.com/




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