have a new publication with Craig Ryder called The Augmented Interview. It's a methodology paper that shows how and why an interview based around an object or image can be far more productive than a purely language-based interview
shorturl.at/9tOoS
One thing I feel is missing in the obituaries for Jürgen Habermas is the influence of his earlier work, Knowledge and Human Interests. For people such as myself, this was a key component in the critique of positivism at that time.
This afternoon at 3:00 I'm giving a lecture at SOAS on the impact of digital technology on wellbeing and mental health.
Hard not to get mesmerised by these latest developments in Moltbot, Clawdbot and OpenClaw - basically social media platforms where chatbots talk to each other. Apparently, chatbots find anthropologists fascinating.
Understanding China also means excavating beneath terms such as China and the Chinese. The case studies in this book highlight the diversity within this vast region: from IT workers to mushroom pickers, from period tracking apps to media executives.
New publication:
Understanding China Through Digital Anthropology,
Edited with Wang Xinyuan
A free download from UCL Press.
In the conclusion, we explain the profound differences in attitudes to the digital between China and the West.
uclpress.co.uk/book/underst...
Listening to The Velvet Sundown and Xania Monet. These AI-generated songs are impressive. But Lily Allen they ain't.
ongratulations to my student Zheng Ken on passing her PhD examination. Her extensive ethnography within one of the key Chinese IT companies produced important revelations of what really happens in the creation of an algorithm. Very different from what we might imagine.
New Publication. The Uses of Digital Anthropology in Podjed. D. and Montero, C. Why The World Needs Anthropologists.
www.routledge.com/Why-the-Worl...
My work email just told me it is full. But when I checked, there were only 221,000 emails there.
New paper in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute on the struggles of migrant care workers in elderly care in China. By Xinyuan Wang, currently working with me on a project concerned with care, surveillance and fairness in London and Shanghai.
rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Enjoyed End of the Road for Self-Esteem, Hayden Pedigo, Broadside Hacks playing the Incredible String Band, Vieux Farka Toure, Roje, Ustaad Noor Bakhsh and Muireann Bradley (missed Anna Erhad).
The title of the Chinese version of the book I am editing with Wang Xinyuan on digital anthropology in China, is now `Smoke and Fire in the Everyday World 2:0.' I imagine it sounds even better in Chinese.
Why on earth are governments still delaying the full recognition of a Palestinian state, specifically including Gaza?
Now is surely the exact time when this must be proclaimed and defended.
If Jews can have a state, then so must Palestinians and vice versa.
Sad to report the death of my colleague Michael Rowlands. Above all else, Mike was an intellectual. The embodiment of centuries during which universities were the places where humanity might achieve a deeper and broader understanding of itself and the world in which we live.
Delighted to announce The Anthropology of Retirement. Ed with Pauline Garvey
With growing life expectancy, retirement is becoming equal to our entire working lives. It is not just an event but decades of change. In this book, we consider the consequences.
www.berghahnbooks.com/title/Miller...
Just finished The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk. It is a masterpiece and worthy of her Nobel Prize. But given my fondness for A Suitable Boy and The Dream of the Red Chamber, maybe I just like really really long books.
We have updated the webpages for the ASSA (Anthropology of Smartphones and Smart Ageing) project so you can see our films, cartoons, publications and general findings. We need this emphasis on the ubiquitous smartphone, instead of just social media.
www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology...
x eh g!
Currently, I am proofreading the book I have edited with Pauline Garvey on The Anthropology of Retirement. This will be coming out with Berghahn, hopefully in the not-too-distant future.
Very sad to hear of the death of Amadou Bagayoko. I saw Amadou and Mariam live on several occasions as they were one of my favourite bands.
Just to let you know that we have done an update to our website for the Centre for Digital Anthropology at UCL
www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology...
am a supporter of the Labour Party and will vote for them in the forthcoming local election (for fear of worse), but I also must support Annaliese Dodds in resigning over this disgraceful proposed cut to overseas aid.
Just sent in the manuscript for our book Understanding China through Digital Anthropology, Edited by Daniel Miller and Xinyuan Wang. To be published by UCL Press. Very happy with the amazing contributions that I think really challenge the meaning of the word digital.
Went to an excellent talk last night by Paula Bialski about her book Middle Tech which I strongly recommend—an Ethnographic study of software engineers.
Many congratulations to Haichao Wang for her excellent PhD on the impact of digital technologies on the Muslim Hui population of Xi'An China. Delighted also that Haichao is currently a lecturer in our department.
Cooking for our monthly drop in for refugees and asylum seekers reminded me of Marianne Faithfull's powerful song Broken English. If you don't know it, give it a listen, in memory of her.
My student showed me yesterday that DeepSeek is rather more complimentary about me and my work than ChatGPT. You are welcome to draw whatever conclusion you like from that.
