Dismantling rupture and tech determinism: Digital transformations and their impacts on social lives, media practices and economies

Abstract (English)

Events and innovations in the realm of technology and digitisation are typically framed as either moments of social rupture or as an inevitable trajectory that humans merely follow. But within these developments lie smaller-scaled, often overlooked disruptions—unanticipated shifts, gradual transitions, and entirely unscripted ways of doing things. How do people in different social contexts experience and respond to the tension between continuity and change? What drives resistance to transformation, and how do people navigate it? And what do people want change to look like - what do they want to preserve and what to alter? What alternative futures to those scratched out by an elite few are being imagined? Digital anthropology allows us to explore these questions - the social textures and everyday realities of living with technology—whether through social media and their latest AI add-ons, e-governance, or the environmental consequences of digital expansion. This panel invites us to look beyond grand narratives of rupture and technological determinism and get into the messiness of our digitally substantiated life worlds, into the imaginations of “change” (as transition, as rupture, etc.), and into the expectations regarding digital futures. We are particularly interested in papers that can be included in a special issue or edited volume on the topic.