Mobile Technologies though the Eyes of an Anthropologist

Ilya Utekhin

European University in St. Petersburg

is a professor at the Department of Anthropology at the European University in St. Petersburg. In the 2000s he worked in the field of cognitive science and experimental research of interactive communication, working in the Laboratory of Cognitive Studies at St. Petersburg State University. He also directed the program "Melancholy and Communication Theory" at the Philological Faculty of St. Petersburg State University. He is the author of scientific publications, among them a monographic study of life in communal apartments "Sketches of Communal Life" (Moscow, OIG, 2001, 2004) and the virtual museum of Soviet life "Communal Apartment."

First Lviv Media Library (2a Muliarska St.)

Looking at mobile technologies in social and cultural aspects will begin a discussion not about bandwidth and coverage of cellular networks but about quite different things: migration and cultural identity, pilgrimage and religious practices, suburbanization and the daily commute, models of courtship and family relations. Technology is woven into culture and arises from its use. Looking at the examples of several countries we will try to find answers to the following questions: How does mobile communication enter various cultures and alter cultural practices? Why do IT-corporations hire anthropologists, and what role does ethnography play in developing new products and design solutions?

post picture — Ilya Utekhin

is a professor at the Department of Anthropology at the European University in St. Petersburg. In the 2000s he worked in the field of cognitive science and experimental research of interactive communication, working in the Laboratory of Cognitive Studies at St. Petersburg State University. He also directed the program “Melancholy and Communication Theory” at the Philological Faculty of St. Petersburg State University. He is the author of scientific publications, among them a monographic study of life in communal apartments “Sketches of Communal Life” (Moscow, OIG, 2001, 2004) and the virtual museum of Soviet life “Communal Apartment.”