Anthropology of Smartphones and Smart Ageing: launch of open access-books and course

The Anthropology of Smartphones and Smart Ageing project is a multi-sited research project based at UCL Anthropology. The project is a comparative analysis of the impact of the smartphone on the experience of mid-life and ageing around the world.

The project employs 11 researchers who conducted simultaneous 16-month ethnographies in 9 countries around the world: Brazil, Chile, Cameroon, Ireland, Italy, Japan, China, Uganda and al-Quds (east Jerusalem).

The fieldwork for the project concluded in June 2019 and the first three open-access books based on the results of the research are published on the 6th of May by UCL Press:

• Ageing with Smartphones in Urban Italy: Care and Community in Milan and Beyond, by Shireen Walton
• Ageing with Smartphones in Ireland: When life becomes craft, by Pauline Garvey and Daniel Miller
• The Global Smartphone: Beyond a youth technology, by Daniel Miller, Laila Abed Rabho, Patrick Awondo, Maya de Vries, Marília Duque, Pauline Garvey, Laura Haapio-Kirk, Charlotte Hawkins, Alfonso Otaegui, Shireen Walton, and Xinyuan Wang

ASSA is also the basis of a free 3-week course called ‘An Anthropology of Smartphones’, which is available on FutureLearn and starts on the 10th of May. The course is open for pre-enrolment before the launch.

For a quick introduction to the project, you can also watch a 4-minute trailer here.

The study was led Prof Daniel Miller at UCL and began at a time when adoption of smartphones was increasing significantly among older generations across the world – for many, their first smartphone is the first time they have constant access to the digital world. ASSA also studied the intimate and private usage of smartphones among different populations and how this usage varies by culture.

We are hoping the two weeks between the launch of the books and course will give people some time to become familiar with the findings of the project and we propose to host an open session where you can meet all the team and ask us questions about the project.

The event is hosted by the Centre for Digital Anthropology at UCL and chaired by the Centre Director, Dr Hannah Knox.

All welcome!

Photo by Alfonso Otaegui