Paper short abstract:

n.a.

Paper long abstract:

"Quick question. sanaabagamoyo.com is expired - is it worth keeping it alive or are we 100% tasuba.ac.tz" (email May 2009). Using Turner's notion of social drama, this paper explores institutional transformations framing Internet development at TaSUBa, a national arts and culture institute in Tanzania. TaSUBa's change of web addresses is instructive of the institute's recent transformation into an executive agency, a process characterized by considerable ambiguity. In order to make sense of how neoliberal public sector reforms are responded to in this postsocialist context, I will explore the concept of liminality to explain the composition of what can be conceptualized as a state of creolization. The analysis builds on ethnographic engagements at TaSUBa from 2002 to 2009, combining digital, visual and sensory research methods.