Beyond concepts as tokens: heuristic value and epistemic politics in the study of digital subalterns (new paper)

On By Edgar Gómez CruzIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Abstract:

In this article we want to question the adequacy of existing concepts and frameworks for understanding experiences with digital technologies in the Global South. First, we describe how concepts acquire value, positioning them within geographical, epistemic, and political realities. Second, we ask about the pertinence of these concepts in describing subaltern practices in the digital world. Third, we identify an urgent need to go beyond digital-centric research, to be attentive to the broader epidigital context from the perspective of marginalized populations. We conclude with a call to move beyond the topicalization of theories by developing new empirical and conceptual work that can represent the lived experiences of the digital subalterns, and thereby commence addressing gaps in existing epistemes.

LINK TO THE FULL TEXT

Toward a Popular Theory of Algorithms (New paper)

On By Edgar Gómez CruzIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

ABSTRACT

This paper establishes dialogs between theories on the popular and critical studies on algorithms and datafication. In doing so, it contributes to reversing the analytical tendency to assume that algorithms have universal effects and that conclusions about “algorithmic power” in the Global North apply unproblematically everywhere else. We begin by clarifying how Latin American scholars and other research traditions have theorized the popular (“lo popular”). We then develop four dimensions of lo popular to implement these ideas in the case of algorithms: playful cultural practices, imagination, resistance, and “in-betweenness.” We argue that this dialogue can generate different ways of thinking about the problems inherent to algorithmic mediation by drawing attention to the remixes of cultural practices, imaginative solutions to everyday problems, “cyborg” forms of resistance, and ambiguous forms of agency that are central to the operations of algorithmic assemblages nowadays.

FULL PAPER (OPEN ACCESS) HERE

Everyday anthropo-scenes: a visual inventory of human traces (new paper)

On By Edgar Gómez CruzIn abstracts, English, Papers, PublicacionesLeave a comment

Abstract

Presenting an inventory of discarded Adhesive Bandages (ABs) in the city, this visual essay reflects on the pervasive presence of human traces, using the figure of anthropo-scenes. The ABs become a visual metaphor – what used to be a momentary relief for pain, a protective layer, turns into a reminder of the active role humans are playing in the earth’s destruction, a reminder of the tension between human power and their own fragility.

Full paper

WhatsApp as technology of life (new paper)

On By Edgar Gómez CruzIn abstracts, English, Papers, PublicacionesLeave a comment

Abstract

In this paper, we present a few ethnographic vignettes on the use of WhatsApp from a study in Mexico City. We suggest WhatsApp is a paradigmatic example of how a particular technology becomes an infrastructure to sustain, and therefore shape, a wide range of quotidian activities, from personal to economic, from spiritual to political. WhatsApp exemplifies what we call technologies of life, as such technologies mediate almost all aspects of social life. On this basis, we propose two interventions into the research agenda that go beyond data-centric approaches and focus on the lived-experiences of individuals, families, and communities.

Resumen

En este artículo presentamos algunas viñetas etnográficas sobre el uso de WhatsApp en la Ciudad de México. Proponemos que WhatsApp es un ejemplo paradigmático de cómo una tecnología en particular se transforma en una infraestructura para sostener, y de esa forma, generar, un gran número de actividades cotidianas, de comunicación personal a intercambios económicos, de conexiones espirituales a prácticas políticas. WhatsApp ejemplifica lo que denominamos Tecnologías Vitales, tecnologías que median casi todos los aspectos de la vida social. Sobre esta base, proponemos dos intervenciones en la agenda de investigación proponiendo ir más allá de las aproximaciones centradas en datos y plataformas y enfocándose en las experiencias vividas por individuos, familias y comunidades.

TEXTO COMPLETO

Black Screens: A Visual Essay on Mobile Screens in the City

On By Edgar Gómez CruzIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Screen Shot 2019-10-27 at 09.24.11

I just published this visual essay based on my photographic series Black Screen in the Journal of Visual Communication

Abstract

This visual essay, along with the Black Screens photographic series upon which it is based, has two aims. On the one hand, it is intended as a visual exploration of the increasingly central role that mobile phones have in our everyday lives. In a time when digital technologies are ubiquitous in urban settings of developed countries, the images reflect, visually, on what this pervasiveness looks like. The other aim is to present suggestions of how methods borrowed and/or inspired by art and street photography could potentially expand the toolkit of ethnographic inquiry.

Mobile screens and the public event: screen practices at the Anzac Day Dawn Service (new paper)

On By Edgar Gómez CruzIn English, Papers2 Comments

A collaboration with my colleague Shanti Sumartojo was published in Continuum. Journal of Media and Cultural Studies.

Abstract

Following current literature on public and mobile screens, this paper discuses the relevance that screens have in our everyday lives by focusing on the combination of mobile and temporary screen-based practices in the digital mediation of a single public commemorative event. We present an ethnographic account of different screen practices at the Anzac Day dawn Service, an annual Australian commemorative ceremony on a public holiday, 25 April. By focusing our analysis in a single place for a limited time, we analyse how people relate to screens in different ways, from media reception to spatial organization to online connection. We suggest that screens form a fundamental element of the entanglement between public space and political narrative that needs further investigation because this relationship holds implications for both urban life and citizenship.

I have some free eprints, if you are interested, just ask.