[Air-L] Definition of technology?

[I CL]

Dear Anna, Philipp and AoIR colleagues,

A few suggestions when it comes to technology and borders.

Andreas, Peter. *Border Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide*. 2000. 2nd
edition, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009.
Mezzadra, Sandro and Brett Neilson. *Border as Method, Or, the
Multiplication of Labor*. Durham: Duke University Press, 2013.
Raley, Rita. *Tactical Media*. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
2009. (Chapter 1)
Vukov, Tamara and Mimi Sheller. “Border Work: Surveillant Assemblages,
Virtual Fences, and Tactical Counter-Media.” *Social Semiotics* 23, no. 2
(2013): 225-241.

My ongoing research is on borders and/as technology with a specific focus
on the U.S.-Mexico borderlands since the mid-twentieth century. Last year,
I published an article in *American Quarterly*
<https://muse.jhu.edu/article/728858/summary> that deals with the history
of the automation of border control and its entanglements with racial
formation. The article centers the emergence of what I call the cybernetic
border through the design, installation and use of an "electronic
fence"--antecedents to today's "smart walls" and the wider surveillant
assemblage. I elaborate this point in my book manuscript, *The Cybernetic
Border: Drones, Technology, and Intrusion* (under contract with Duke
University Press).

As a member of the Precarity Lab, a group of colleagues and I cowrote a
short article published in *Social Text *that traces the production and
proliferation of precarity across geographical sites and its associations
with technology. Here is the link to our "Digital Precarity Manifesto."
<https://read.dukeupress.edu/social-text/article-abstract/37/4%20(141)/77/141540/Digital-Precarity-Manifesto>
We
also cowrote a book, *Technoprecarious*
<https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/technoprecarious>, which develops our ideas
further and it will be published this fall by Goldsmiths/MIT Press.

I hope these are helpful,
Iván
--
Mellon Diversity Postdoctoral Associate
Latina/o Studies Program
Department of Science and Technology Studies
Cornell University
www.ivanchaar.net
ichaar at cornell.edu

On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 10:40 AM Philipp Budka <ph.budka at philbu.net> wrote:

> Dear Ana,
>
> For anthropological perspectives on technology and possible definitions,
> see e.g.
>
> Adams, R. McC. (1996). Paths of fire: An anthropologist's inquiry into
> western technology. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
>
> de la Cadena, M. et al. (2015). Anthropology and STS: Generative
> interfaces, multiple locations. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory,
> 5(1), 437-475. https://doi.org/10.14318/hau5.1.020
>
> Escobar, A. (1995). Anthropology and the future: New technologies and
> the reinvention of culture. Futures, 27(4), 409-421.
>
> Fischer, M. J. (2007). Four genealogies for a recombinant anthropology
> of science and technology. Cultural Anthropology, 22(4), 539-615.
>
> Gell, Alfred (1988). Technology and magic. Anthropology Today 4(2), 6-9.
>
> Hess, D. J., & Layne, L. (Eds.). (1992). Knowledge and society. Volume
> 9, The anthropology of science and technology. London: JAI Press.
>
> Ingold, T. (1997). Eight themes in the anthropology of technology.
> Social Analysis, 41(1), 106-138.
>
> Latour, B. (2014). Technical does not mean material. HAU: Journal of
> Ethnographic Theory, 4(1), 507-510. https://doi.org/10.14318/hau4.1.033
>
> Pfaffenberger, B. (1988). Fetishised objects and humanised nature:
> Towards an anthropology of technology. Man, 23(2), 236-252.
>
> Pfaffenberger, B. (1992). Social anthropology of technology. Annual
> Review of Anthropology, 21, 491-516.
>
> Sigaut, F. (1997). Technology. In T. Ingold (Ed.), Companion
> encyclopedia of anthropology: Humanity, culture and social life. London:
> Routledge.
>
> All the best,
>
> Philipp
>
>
> Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2020 20:23:06 -0400
> From: Ana Visan<ana.m.visan at gmail.com>
> To:Air-L at listserv.aoir.org
> Subject: [Air-L] Definition of technology?
> Message-ID:
>         <CAFU4RtoquJWceRNGm=
> PbchLT5Vhs8QYM5R55jPi6ky94g892ZQ at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> Dear AoIRs,
>
> I am a migration and border studies scholar researching how technologies
> (from mobile phones to drones to databases) affect migration journeys. I am
> not familiar with STS scholarship and I was hoping you could help by
> pointing me to some (seminal?) works that might help me formulate an
> all-encompassing definition of technology (or a theoretical approach to
> it), beyond ICTs?i.e. one that includes biometrics, information exchange
> databases, but also material objects like drones, and/or one that addresses
> both technology ?used by? as well as technology ?used on.?
>
> Many thanks in advance,
>
> Ana
>
>
> --
> Philipp Budka
> http://www.philbu.net
> http://twitter.com/philbu
>
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