BAEcon Economics

A consequence of the rapid uptake of digital and mobile technologies, and their equally rapid normalisation in everyday life, is that people often do not experience the technology itself, but rather culturally inflected forms of use. This course critically examines the relationships between people and the meanings, practices, and experiences associated with digital technologies from a culturally comparative perspective. It situates these relationships within wider historical trajectories and regional media ecologies. Topics covered in the course consider the implications of increasingly digital and automated environments in relation to longstanding themes in social anthropology, while also providing students with critical and analytical skills for further inquiry into relationships between the human and the digital. 

Knowledge and Understanding: 

• Discuss contemporary issues relating to socio-cultural aspects of digital technologies, demonstrating a systematic understanding and coherent and detailed knowledge of different theoretical approaches.
• Discuss digital technologies in relation to the histories, technological developments and media ecologies of different geographical regions; and in relation to specific topics such as political engagement, activism and advocacy, work, gender and ethnicity, infrastructural developments and automation.
• Apply this knowledge to critically evaluate arguments about a) contemporary possibilities and challenges for increasingly digital environments b) the implications of digital practices, meanings and experiences in the everyday and c) the role of digital technologies in the asymmetries between countries in the Global North and the Global South.

Intellectual skills:

• Synthesise theoretical approaches and ethnographic data in an integrated analysis.
• Compare, contrast and correlate multiple and diverse sources of data.
• Frame areas of inquiry and assess the salience of evidence for an argument.
• Assess the uncertainty, ambiguity and limits of knowledge in a rapidly changing technological environment.

Practical skills:

• Distil arguments and synthesise data into critically engaged written form with clarity.
• Apply competence and creativity in utilising web-based platforms for content creation and sharing.

Transferable skills and personal qualities:

• Compare, contrast and correlate multiple and diverse sources of data.
• Conduct independent research with secondary sources and write clear analytical reports.
• Apply clear communication in group contexts.
• Adapt to working independently in ways suited to undertaking further training.
• Demonstrate multiple ways of thinking for framing inquiry.

In addition, there will be weekly Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) to clarify what you should be learning at each stage of this module.

• 1500 word blog post essay (worth 30%);
• 2500 word final essay (worth 70%);

You will receive feedback continuously throughout the course from you lecturer and tutor. Your lecturer will engage with your participation in lecture sessions and will discuss tutorials with your tutor. I also encourage you to make a consultation appointment with me during my available office hours.

You will also receive formal written feedback on your group book report and your final essay. The School rule is that you will receive your feedback and marks within 3 weeks.

• Cearns, Jennifer. 2026. ‘Artificial intelligence’. In The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology, ed. Felix Stein.
• Costa, Elisabetta, Patricia G. Lange, Nell Haynes and Jolynna Sinanan (eds). 2022. The Routledge Companion to Media Anthropology. London and New York: Routledge.
• Horst Heather A. and Daniel Miller (eds). 2012. Digital Anthropology. Oxford: Berg
• Miller, Daniel, Costa, Elisabetta, Haynes, Nell, McDonald, Tom, Nicolescu, Razvan, Sinanan, Jolynna, Spyer, Juliano and Wang, Xinyuan. 2016. How the World Changed Social Media. London: UCL Press.
• Pertierra, Anna C. 2018. Media Anthropology for the Digital Age. Cambridge: Polity.