Looking forward to presenting & discussing my paper "Infrastructural #Sovereignty: Community #Infrastructures & #Futures in Remote #Canada" online @easainfo.bsky.social conference in Poznań, 🇵🇱.
Philipp Budka
@philbu.bsky.social
sociocultural anthropologist infrastructure, tech, media, temporality, politics, ethnography currently @univie.ac.at https://www.philbu.net/
15 years ago, I wrote the paper "From cyber to digital #anthropology to an anthropology of the contemporary?" for EASA Media Anthro Network: easaonline.org/event/38-fro... Tomorrow, I will revisit it for lecture on #cybernetics & #AI @ Univ. Milano-Bicocca: www.formazione.unimib.it/en/events/cy...
38. From cyber to digital anthropology to an anthropology of the contemporary?
Paper: Philipp Budka (University of Vienna) Comments: Alexander Knorr (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich)
easaonline.org
On 16 June, I'll be speaking at Uni Milano-Bicocca about #cybernetics, #AI & #mediation from an anthropological perspective. Drawing on Indigenous internet in Ontario 🇨🇦, the talk situates AI within longer histories of communication & technological change. Online: unimib.webex.com/meet/paolo.g...
Following an @erc.europa.eu article on @infranortherc.bsky.social, here are key findings: #Arctic #transport infrastructures shape local livelihoods, governance & socio‑political relations, enabling opportunities & generating intended & unintended consequences. cordis.europa.eu/article/id/4...
Coming in Sept 2026: "Theorising Media & Time," ed. by B. Bräuchler & N. Mollerup: www.berghahnbooks.com/title/Braeuc... My chapter argues that archival research is a powerful complement to #ethnography, especially for tracing sociotechnical histories over time.
In June 2025, I gave a keynote on community-led digital #sovereignty @ IDSF in Vienna. As the report focuses on panels, I’ve shared key takeaways from my talk here: www.philbu.net/blog/communi...
Community-Led Digital Sovereignty: Key Takeaways From A Keynote in 2025 – Philbu's Blog
philbu.net
What does it mean to “be there” in ethnographic research when #fieldwork is increasingly digital, distributed & asynchronous? In this new post, T. Ahlin revisits the concept of digital field events & reflects on presence, temporality & ethnographic engagement: digitalethnography.at/being-there-...
Being There, Being Then, Being Present in Digital Field Events
Tanja Ahlin*When I first introduced the notion of "field events" with my co-author Fangfang Li (Ahlin and Li 2019), digital technologies were becoming more common in ethnographic fieldwork, b
digitalethnography.at
Dr. Seuss's debut manuscript: after +20 rejections, ready to burn it. Chance encounter → publication & career launch. #Anthropology lens: Rejection as persistence entangled with serendipity—iteratively honing manuscripts & grants via successive refusals that sharpen output & reflexivity.
How is #sovereignty enacted through #infrastructure in everyday life? I’ll be presenting on this at the #STS Conference Graz (May 4, 2026), drawing on ethnographic research with First Nations & northern communities in #Canada. stsconf.tugraz.at
How can #infrastructure planning address complex social, cultural & environmental #change in remote regions? New article in Futures: Multi-scale scenario building for community development (transportation in Circumpolar North) doi.org/10.1016/j.fu...
Excited to speak in the Seoul National University BK lecture series (organized by O. Fedorenko)! ➡️ "Remembering Indigenous Digital Worlds" ➡️ April 17, 2026 — 6:30 PM (Seoul) / 11:30 AM (CET) ➡️ Online via Zoom: snu-ac-kr.zoom.us/j/84642192976
What is an #archive? Outcomes of the "Thinking Archives Ethnographically" field school @univie.ac.at are now released on Phaidra, the uni's digital repository. 21 students explored museums, exhibits & bar toilets—finding archives in carpets, stickers, videos. phaidra.univie.ac.at/detail/o:231...
People in Nigeria and India are strapping iPhones onto their heads and recording themselves doing chores.
The gig workers who are training humanoid robots at home
People in Nigeria and India are strapping iPhones onto their heads and recording themselves doing chores.
technologyreview.com
Excited to join @easainfo.bsky.social Media #Anthropology Network's discussion of S. Köhn’s book "Island in the Net" (2026) as one of the discussants. Looking forward to talking about Cuba’s creative digital practices! Registration for this online event: easaonline.org/event/book-d...
In case you missed it: I co-edited the @anthropologica.bsky.social special issue "Narratives & Temporalities of #Infrastructure". The collection examines how infrastructures are narrated, lived & reimagined across time & place in the Canadian context. cas-sca.journals.uvic.ca/index.php/an...
Today is the 2nd session of the seminar "Digital Visual Culture" @univie.ac.at. Students will continue designing their ethnographic projects, focusing on research questions, methods & fieldwork plans. ufind.univie.ac.at/en/course.ht...
u:find - 240532 SE MM3 Digital Visual Culture: Practices, Images, and Popular Media (2026S)
ufind.univie.ac.at
My review of "Sustainable Energy Transitions in #Canada" (ed. M. S. Winfield, S. D. Hill & J. R. Gaede) is now out in "Zeitschrift für Kanada-Studien." I discuss the book’s interdisciplinary perspective on energy transitions in Canada: www.philbu.net/blog/review-... #energy #transitions #policy
Looking forward to teaching the course "Digital Visual Culture" @univie.ac.at! We'll dive into digital visual practices across #memes, #influencers & viral #visuals through ethnographic projects. Details: ufind.univie.ac.at/en/course.ht...
New on the Digital Ethnography Initiative (DEI) blog: a post exploring how Disney’s Evil Queen circulates on Facebook & how platform culture shapes gendered power imagery online: digitalethnography.at/facebooks-ev...
The call for this conference has been extended until March 1: digicommons.org/call-for-pap... #digital #commons #infrastructure #design #ethics
Call for papers
Digital Commons: Infrastructures, Design, and the Ethics of Autonomy Call for Papers and PanelsCo-organized by the Department of Social Anthropology, Panteion University & the Institute of Infor...
digicommons.org
"A growing number people have figured out a trick to make #AI tools tell you almost whatever they want. It's so easy a child could do it." www.bbc.com/future/artic...
I hacked ChatGPT and Google's AI – and it only took 20 minutes
I found a way to make AI tell you lies – and I'm not the only one.
bbc.com
Technology alone does not build trust. #Radio broadcasters do. www.unesco.org/en/days/worl...
World Radio Day 2026
13 February
unesco.org
I am very much looking forward to my talk on community #infrastructures in remote #Canada 🇨🇦 tomorrow at the Department of Social #Anthropology @manchester.ac.uk. infranorth.eu/news/feb-202...
The "Linke Wienzeile Buildings" are two apartment buildings in #Vienna constructed by Otto Wagner in 1898-99. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linke_W...
New special issue: "Ethnographies of Infrastructure," ed. by me, P. Schweitzer & O. Povoroznyuk, in JCE. It explores #infrastructure (& its futures) as social phenomenon, spanning the #Arctic & beyond: ports, roads, supply chains & environmental conflict. journals.sagepub.com/toc/jcec/55/1
🗓️ Feb 9: #InfraNorth researcher Philipp Budka will give a talk titled “Sovereignty by Design: Community #Infrastructures in Remote Canada” as part of the seminar series of the Department of Social #Anthropology at the University of Manchester. @philbu.bsky.social @uomsoss.bsky.social
Feb 9, 2026: Talk by Philipp Budka at the University of Manchester’s Social Anthropology Seminar Series - InfraNorth
On Monday, February 9, 2026, from 3:00 to 5:00 pm (GMT), InfraNorth researcher Philipp Budka will deliver a guest talk as part of the seminar series of the Department of Social Anthropology at the Uni...
infranorth.eu