Showing papers by "Danny Miller published in 2012"

Migration and New Media: Transnational Families and Polymedia

Abstract: How do parents and children care for each other when they are separated because of migration? The way in which transnational families maintain long-distance relationships has been revolutionised by the emergence of new media such as email, instant messaging, social networking sites, webcam and texting. A migrant mother can now call and text her left-behind children several times a day, peruse social networking sites and leave the webcam for 12 hours achieving a sense of co-presence. Drawing on a long-term ethnographic study of prolonged separation between migrant mothers and their children who remain in the Philippines, this book develops groundbreaking theory for understanding both new media and the nature of mediated relationships. It brings together the perspectives of both the mothers and children and shows how the very nature of family relationships is changing. New media, understood as an emerging environment of polymedia, have become integral to the way family relationships are enacted and experienced. The theory of polymedia extends beyond the poignant case study and is developed as a major contribution for understanding the interconnections between digital media and interpersonal relationships.

Competitive Dynamics: Themes, Trends, and a Prospective Research Platform

Abstract: We provide a critical retrospective of the competitive dynamics perspective before proposing an integrative research platform for the future. We argue that competitive dynamics can serve as a synth...

Consumption and Its Consequences

Abstract: Prologue vi 1 What's Wrong with Consumption? 1 2 A Consumer Society 39 3 Why We Shop 64 4 Why Denim? 90 5 It's the Stupid Economy 108 6 How Not to Save a Planet 139 Postscript 182 Notes 186 Index 202

The digital and the human: A prospectus for digital anthropology

Abstract: The digital should and can be a highly effective means for reflecting upon what it means to be human, the ultimate task of anthropology as a discipline. To date, most of the literature on the revolutionary impact and potential of the digital has tended to follow Hart in focusing upon the abstract end of the equation. The digital extends the possibilities previously unleashed by money, equally the positive and the negative. A critical contribution of digital technologies is the way they exacerbate but also reveal those contradictions. Anthropologists need to be involved right across this spectrum, from J. Karanovic’s analysis of those involved in the creation of digital technology to F. Ginsburg’s work on those who place emphasis upon their consequences. The digital came into its own at the tail end of a fashion in academia for the term postmodern, which celebrated resistance to authority of all kinds but especially the authority of discourse.

Migration and New Media

Abstract: This book draws on a long-term ethnographic study of prolonged separation between transnational Filipino migrant mothers in the UK and their left-behind children in the Philippines.

Consumption and Its Consequences

Abstract: Prologue vi 1 What's Wrong with Consumption? 1 2 A Consumer Society 39 3 Why We Shop 64 4 Why Denim? 90 5 It's the Stupid Economy 108 6 How Not to Save a Planet 139 Postscript 182 Notes 186 Index 202

Blue Jeans: The Art of the Ordinary

Abstract: Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Life 2. Relationships 3. Fashion 4. Comfortable 5. Ordinary 6. The Struggle for Ordinary 7. Anthropology: From Normative to Ordinary 8. Sociology: The Ordinary and the Routine Bibliography Index

Open Access, scholarship and digital anthropology

Abstract: This article consists of three arguments. The first advocates the development of Open Access for anthropological books and journals and critiques the way we have ceded control of dissemination to inappropriate commercial concerns that come to stand for what should have been academic criteria. The second argues that this is best accomplished while being conservative about the process of review, selection, and the canons of scholarship. Third, the article address the emergence of Digital Anthropology, suggesting this has considerable significance for the very conceptualization of anthropology and its future, and suggesting that it can be given definition. But, this should not be confused with the issues of Open Access and review. This is followed by ten helpful and critical comments. In the concluding discussion I respond to these and argue how these points can be taken into account in creating the conditions for a shift to Open Access while defending the concept of Digital Anthropology.

Social Networking Sites

Abstract: This chapter focuses on social networking sites (SNS), but in the future it is likely that studies of specific digital media will have to consider the wider context of polymedia. SNS can also lead to closer surveillance—for example over the use of remittances, meeting children’s boyfriends and girlfriends and compensating for absence by imposing high degrees of control on left-behind children. The initial literature on migration naturally focuses upon the use of SNS to recover and maintain links with the homeland. The implication of such arguments is to bring SNS back to the terrain of anthropological theory and the wider ambitions of anthropology as a discipline for understanding the fundamental nature of society and culture. The sheer ubiquity of SNS means that they are likely to become an aspect of almost any area of anthropological study in the future—from economic life and religion to development studies and medical anthropology.

Normativity and Materiality: A View from Digital Anthropology:

Abstract: As with all material culture, the digital is a constitutive part of what makes us human. Social order is itself premised on a material order, making it impossible to become human other than through socialising within a material world of cultural artefacts, and includes the order, agency and relationships between things, and not just their relationship to persons. This article considers the consequences of the digital culture for our understanding of what it is to be human. Drawing upon recent debates concerning materiality in the sub-field of digital anthropology, we focus upon four forms of materiality - the materiality of digital infrastructure and technology; the materiality of mediation; the materiality of digital content; and the materiality of digital contexts - to make the case that digital media and technology are far more than mere expressions of human intention. Rather than rendering us less human, less authentic or more mediated, we argue that attention should turn to the human capacity to create or impose normativity in the face of constant change. We believe these debates around materiality and normativity, while rooted in the discipline of anthropology, have broader implications for understanding everyday practices in the digital age.

Should You Accept a Friends Request From Your Mother? And Other Filipino Dilemmas

Abstract: This paper uses the concept ofcutting the network' derived from the work of Marilyn Strathern to examine the relationship between two kinds of social network, that of kinship and the system of friends constructed on social networking sites. Specifically the material comes from a study of Filipina domestic workers and nurses in the UK and their relationship to their left behind children in the Philippines. A bilateral system of kinship can lead to a proliferation of relatives, while the use of the Friendster social networking site can lead to a proliferation of friends. It is when these two systems clash following the request by one's mother to become a friend that the constraints and problems posed by both systems comes into view. Cases show that it is possible to use social networking sites to help mothers become close friends for their absent children, but more commonly the increasing presence of actual mothers through new media disrupts the relationships that children had developed for themselves to a idealised projection of motherhood.

Qu'est-ce, au juste, que le leadership ?

Abstract: Resume Ce texte nous plonge au cœur d’une reflexion sur le leadership sous la forme d’un dialogue invente entre un etudiant et Socrate, un philosophe de la Grece antique preoccupe par la morale et le politique. Cet entretien permet de remettre en cause les definitions traditionnelles du leadership. Il permet egalement de faire ressortir une definition susceptible de resister aux contre-exemples les plus evidents et d’en tirer les lecons suivantes : le leadership peut etre oriente vers le « bon » comme vers le « mauvais » ; il ne se reduit pas a la sphere d’autorite ; il ne concerne pas uniquement le changement ; il est toujours localise ; tout le monde peut exercer du leadership ; enfin, le leadership n’est ni inne ni acquis.Fonctions : management, GRHSecteurs : tous

The Two Faces of Socio-Emotional Wealth

Abstract: We argue that the socioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective can serve as an integrative framework to resolve theoretical and empirical disputes in the study of family business. We do this in part by ...

A Decision-support System for Assessing the Impact of Fire Management on Threatened and Endangered Species

Abstract: Historically, wildfire was an important agent of change in landscapes across the western United States. Fires of varying magnitudes and extents contributed to a mosaic of dynamic landscape conditions. For the past century, fire management that focuses on fire suppression has effectively altered the composition of many vegetation communities across the landscape. Fire management and other landuse practices associated with natural resource use, agriculture, and residential development have changed the complexity of terrestrial landscapes. Aquatic systems have not been exempt from these changes: alterations in disturbance processes on the landscape have changed inputs into the stream environment, and practices such as stream cleaning have reduced the capacity of streams to build complex habitats. Road and dam construction have reduced connectivity among quality stream habitats for aquatic dependent species. Despite all these changes and challenges, populations of imperiled salmonids continue to survive. While the abundance and distribution of native aquatic species is much reduced, they persist in areas where suitable habitat exists and is accessible. It is part of the mission of many federal and state land management agencies to work toward a sustainable balance between ecological needs and other uses of the land. In this project, we have expanded and improved tools and techniques that make it easier for managers to consider the ecological and geomorphic effects of fire on aquatic systems. We have developed new applications that model the effect of fire on wood inputs, fine sediment, and stream temperature for the Wenatchee River watershed. We have developed models of Bull Trout and spring Chinook Salmon at landscape scales that allow us to begin to predict the potential effect of fire on the habitats necessary for the long-term persistence of these species. By considering in greater detail the connections between landscape processes and in-stream condition, we offer a landscape-scale perspective that has the potential to inform management regarding approaches to fire management that enhances aquatic habitat. Background and Purpose The effect of fire on ecological and geomorphic processes is a critical issue in the management of western forests. Land management at a riverscape scale spans watershed divides and includes ecologically meaningful boundaries such as watersheds, as well as human-imposed management frameworks such as land ownership. How to adapt management of forests and fire to enhance and re-establish ecological function in aquatic systems is not well understood (Gresswell 1999). Fire management has important shortand long-term implications for landscape structure and in-stream habitat conditions. A century of management focused on fire suppression has changed the frequency, intensity, and spatial extent of wildfires. Changing the disturbance processes that fostered habitat complexity throughout western riverscapes has also changed in-stream habitat. Including aquatic issues of habitat quality, stream network connectivity, and fish population resilience in fire management plans offers land managers the opportunity to broaden the goals of fire-suppression and fuels treatment activities (Bisson et al. 2003; Dunham et al. 2003). There is much to learn about the specific effects of fire on in-stream conditions and the resultant effects on fish population persistence. The long-term persistence of native aquatic species requires complex and connected habitats that may only be attainable by changing aspects of the current fire-management paradigm. When considering effects of fire and fire management on fish and aquatic ecosystems, it is necessary to consider both the physical environment (habitats, water quality) and the biology, including adaptive strategies, of the fish. Key factors that determine the response of a particular stream fish population to fire and other disturbances include: 1) the magnitude and duration of the disturbance event; 2) the potential response of the watershed of interest to fire; 3) the size of suitable habitat patches for the fish species of