The anthropology of mobile phones

Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperChapter

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This chapter examines the emergence of the mobile phone and its consequences for research in the subfield of digital anthropology. It begins with a review of mobile phone research, discussing some of the first studies of mobile phones by anthropologists in conversation primarily with scholars outside the discipline. The next section turns to a discussion of key studies and themes that emerged in the second wave of research on the use or consumption of mobile phones in anthropological research in the Global South. More specifically, it explores the role that mobile phones played in elucidating key debates in the field around gender and power dynamics, and the dynamism of the mobile phone as it has transformed into a smartphone and the political economy of the mobile phone. The chapter ends with examples of the ways in which relationships between consumers, companies and state agents are made visible through the moral economy of the mobile phone based upon recent research in the Pacific.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationDigital Anthropology
EditorsHaidy Geismar, Hannah Knox
Place of PublicationU.K.
PublisherRoutledge
Pages65-84
Number of pages20
Edition2nd
ISBN (Electronic)9781003087885
ISBN (Print)9781350078857
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

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