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The CASTAC Blog  About the CASTAC Blog Platypod, The CASTAC Podcast Contributors About CASTAC Join CASTAC CASTAC Homepage Platypod, The CASTAC Podcast Assemblage, the CASTAC Membership Directory Collections, CASTAC Curated Materials A A A Smaller Font Normal Font Larger Font Reading Settings Smaller Font Normal Font Larger Font Menu About the CASTAC Blog Platypod, The CASTAC Podcast Contributors About CASTAC Join CASTAC CASTAC Homepage Platypod, The CASTAC Podcast Assemblage, the CASTAC Membership Directory Collections, CASTAC Curated Materials A A A Smaller Font Normal Font Larger Font Reading Settings Smaller Font Normal Font Larger Font Latest We had to rethink many, many things”: Reflexivity in Scientific Practices during the Zika Epidemic in Recife, Brazil  Thais Valim  April 25, 2024  Esse conteúdo também está disponível em português  Listen to a reading of this post. Luiza is a pediatrician and researcher specializing in infectious diseases who works at a teaching hospital in Recife, Brazil. Her daily routine involves treating children with congenital infectious syndromes, which can lead to various clinical conditions including microcephaly. However, in October 2015, an unprecedented situation unfolded. As she described during an interview with me, That year, a new world entered my world.” She was referring to the surge in cases of microcephaly that puzzled Brazilian doctors and health authorities that year. In Recife, where the average number of microcephaly cases historically stood at nine cases per year, there were twelve cases registered in just one maternity ward within a month. ( read more... )  General , Research  Epidemics , Reflexivity , STS , zika share Tweet Recent Tear Gas as Punishment  Jack Leff  April 18, 2024  Listen to a reading of this post. Tear gas is a chemical weapon that was developed in the early 20th century and has been predominantly used by police or military forces to stifle political unrest. As a result, tear gas serves as a manifestation of state violence; by forcefully reminding us of our need to breathe, its function is to break collective solidarity. Over time, the tactics surrounding tear gas have evolved and become more militarized. Typically, this has looked like both a general greater use of tear gas at protests, and the development of tear gas as punishment. As a researcher of radical, left-wing social movements in the United States and the security technologies used by the state to suppress them, tear gas is particularly interesting to me because it serves as a security technology par excellence. By examining the interplay between state use of tear gas to punish activists and the protestors fighting against it, we catch a glimpse into the racial capitalist operations of the United States and where it is vulnerable to resistance. This essay examines the police tactic of kettling, how it is wielded to punish activists, and how radical left-wing organizers respond. ( read more... )  General  police , political violence , protest , state surveillance , tear gas share Tweet Spatial Approaches to Livestreaming: A Methodological Exploration in Digital Ethnography  Soojin Kim  April 16, 2024  한국어 번역문은 여기에 있습니다.  Listen to a reading of this post. On AfreecaTV, faceless, wandering viewers appear and disappear in a livestream without notice. Many deceptively change their nickname (username) or use multiple nicknames to divide themselves and appear in different livestreams and other internet forums simultaneously. In crowded livestreams with hundreds to tens of thousands of viewers, it is increasingly challenging to discern the individuality of each viewer’s comments as their presence becomes ephemeral, almost like noise, amidst the rapid speed of chats. Given the near impossibility, or perhaps the meaninglessness, of identifying individuals in these online fields, I may opt to leave the quantified scope (e.g., the size and population) of my research fields undefined and just go with the flow” (hŭrŭm). This is my reflection on the frustrations that I encountered during the initial phases of my fieldwork within AfreecaTV. Between late 2016 and early 2018, I conducted ‘online’ and ‘offline’ ethnographic fieldwork for my master’s thesis on ( read more... )  General  AfreecaTV , digital ethnography , livestreaming , South Korea , spatial approach share Tweet Two Insomniacs Discuss Routine and Restlessness Through Google Tracking  Alexandra Dantzer  April 4, 2024  Ovaj sadržaj dostupan je i na srpskom.  Listen to a reading of this post. In this piece I meditate on a conversation I had with my key interlocutor, Aleksandar Kecman, about Google tracking and our reflections upon first encountering my digital footprint. I met Aleksandar in Belgrade, where I did research among insomniacs exploring how the experience of time (and tangentially, space) figures in their lives. Being an insomniac myself I felt chronically out of synch with the rest of society—people close to me and their work and sleep schedules, the rhythms of socializing, and the idea of productive life well spent in time—and this feeling tracked with my interlocutors. Many of the problems the sleepless face are quandaries of time. How are the everyday practices of insomniacs shaped by local and broader understandings of what it means, temporally, to lead a good life,” or a productive life, within a society that values grind and hustle? ( read more... )  General  data , grind culture , insomnia , maps , mobile apps , optimization , routine , self-tracking , smartphones , time , waste share Tweet Recipes of Resistance: Global Digital Gastrosolidarity for Palestine  Ashley Thuthao Keng Dam  March 26, 2024  Listen to a reading of this post. From the North in Safad (where my father is from) and Galilee to the South East in Al-Lydd (where my mother is from) and down to Jerusalem and Gaza, the food differs but is united at the same time, through love and history… Palestinian food is found in the home. That is where it all begins. (Joudie Kalla, Palestine on a Plate, 2016) Food is the most precious part of Palestinian heritage. For Palestinian food not to go extinct, the young have to learn from the old. (Aisha Azzam, Aisha’s Story, film forthcoming 2024) Around the world, millions have taken the streets in support of a free and thriving Palestine in the face of active genocide and the continuance of settler colonial violence. Visible on the streets and all over social media feeds, scattered among flags and keffiyehs, are images of the vibrant watermelon. This trinity of nationalist symbols bear a shared honoring of an ancient yet enduring cultural intimacy with Levantine lands. A cursory search about the history of the Palestinian flag’s colors (black, white, red, and green) leads one down many possible origins and mythologies behind the green portion of the flag. These include but are not limited to representing influential Arab dynasties, peace, Islamic faith, as well as a deep love and appreciation for the olive trees which bloom across the landscape. The keffiyeh, a traditional scarf, embodies similar sentiments entangled in its design. Within its iconic weave, visual histories of Palestinian trade pathways, robust fishing culture upon the Mediterranean sea, and once again, the olive trees. Last is the watermelon, which was used as a covert placeholder for the flag during a period of occupation when the display of the flag itself was forbidden. In essence, at the core of these symbols are Palestinian foodways and culture. ( read more... )  Uncategorized  digital activism , digital culture , digital ethnography , digital food , digital gastronomy , digital media , gastrodiplomacy , gastrosolidarity , Palestine share Tweet Bed-Time Storytelling  Fei Yuan  March 12, 2024  한국어번역글은 여기에 있습니다  Listen to a reading of this post. Bedtime stories are stories narrated by adults to children before they fall asleep. As an essential parenting...