Mobile technology and social logistics in rural India
In an article on mobile ICTs in rural West Bengal that has just appeared in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JRAI), Sirpa Tenhunen argues that in their technology studies authors such as Horst and Miller (2006) and Miller and Slater (2000) have overstressed social reproduction at the expense of social change. Tenhunen also takes issue with practice theorists (Bourdieu 1992, Ortner 1989, Sahlins 1987) for overlooking ‘actors’ critical faculties’. This author regards mobile technology as ‘a source of dynamism’ that shapes culturally specific ‘social logistics’. Well worth a read.
See article for references:
Tenhunen, S. 2008 ‘Mobile technology in the village: ICTs, culture, and social logistics in India’, JRAI (N.S.) 14, 515-534
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