Anthropology of the Internet: traditional social institutions, new cultural practices

elective courses
general courses

A proficiency in English sufficient for reading academic texts is required. The classes are conducted in Polish. Completion of the course "Anthropology of Culture" is not a prerequisite for attending the classes, but it may be helpful for active participation.

Classroom

The classes will focus on the cultural dimension of the internet. The central theme of the following meetings will be a reflection on the transformations that cultural institutions undergo due to technological advancements and the mediatization of social life.

The classes will explore how the internet and new technologies redefine traditional institutions of social life and what new phenomena they generate. We will discuss social media, which has become a space for adapting and modifying cultural practices familiar from the pre-digital world. At the same time, the post-digital reality is undergoing dynamic changes, so the goal of the classes will be to register and document new network phenomena, with a particular focus on analyzing them from a cultural studies perspective using tools of digital ethnography and internet sociology. The course description is a general outline and includes, among others, the topics listed below, but it can be adjusted to the research interests of the participants.

- Anthropologist on Instagram: the internet as a subject of research and a source of anthropological knowledge

- Knowledge, power, and their flows: information bubbles then and now, new and old conspiracy theories and moral panics, rumor as the power of the powerless

- New lectoorality: what and how we read and write on social media

- Selfies, memes, virals, aesthetics, and other new media genres

- The physical body vs. the digital network: hybrids, extensions, and prosthetics

- New new tribes: family, romantic and friendship relationships, childhood and old age on social media

- There is an app for that: parameterization, monitoring, the end of sleep, and technological solutionism

- AI: Fears and hopes - these and other technological “snake oils”

- Technology as religion and new forms of spirituality in the post-digital world

- Dealing with death (online): practices of mourning, memorializing

- Digital resistance: "log out to live," digital minimalism, digital detox, and alternatives to the network

- The cloud is not weightless: digital ecology

- Work - automatisation, bullshit jobs, new professions on the internet.

Selected literature:

Crary J. (2013). 24/7. Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep.

Castells M. (2001). The Internet Galaxy.

Jemielniak D. (2019). Socjologia internetu.

Jenkins H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide.

Jurgenson N. (2019). The Social Photo: On photography and social media.

Kamińska M. (2011). Niecne memy. Dwanaście wykładów o kulturze internetu.

Kamińska M. (2017). Memosfera. Wprowadzenie do cyberkulturoznawstwa.

Kember S., Zylinska J. (2012). Life After New Media: Mediation as a Vital Process.

Lovink G. (2016). Social Media Abyss: critical internet cultures and the force of negation.

Szpunar M. (2016). Kultura cyfrowego narcyzmu.

The list of texts may be adjusted to the interests of the participants. The texts will be shared via Classroom.

The student knows and understands the specificity of cultural studies and their usefulness in analyzing phenomena related to the social dimension of technological progress.

The student is able to use the acquired anthropological knowledge to independently identify and analyze new phenomena in the post-digital reality, as well as to initiate and engage in discussions that consider diverse audiences and their worldviews and value systems.

The student is ready to critically evaluate their own knowledge and the content they encounter.

The primary requirement for passing the semester is attendance. Absences must be justified with the lecturer. A student is allowed up to two justified or unjustified absences per semester. If a student has between three and five absences, they must make up for them in a manner determined by the lecturer (on an individual meeting during office hours to review the missed material). Absences (even justified ones) from more than five classes will result in disqualification from passing the course — only students with an Individual Study Arrangement approved by the BOK may have an increased absence limit, but no more than up to 50%.

The basis for passing the course is attendance and active participation in discussions. The course will conclude with a final assessment in the form of a short presentation in class or during the final exam. The specific form of assessment will be discussed with participants during the first meeting.

The use of artificial intelligence tools in theses, written assignments, and presentations is regulated by the provisions of § 3 and 4 of Resolution No. 98 of the University Council for Education of December 8, 2023, regarding guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence tools in the educational process.