Paper short abstract:

This paper proposes a theory of theory in anthropology, seeking ways to create theory more compatible with principles of decoloniality and that does not betray ethnography. To illustrate this ambition it uses the example of attempts to theorise the global smartphone based on nine ethnographies.

Paper long abstract:

What should theory be in Anthropology? Contemporary theory can easily become a fetish as in - `your paper needs more theory'. We clearly require a better theory of theory. Even good theory is extremely dangerous to the aims of anthropology, especially when considered in the light of de-coloniality, because it can become the instrument by which metropolitan elites exclude and intimidate everyone else. Often the level of generality, de-contextualisation and cold abstraction betrays the nuance, sensitivity, accessibility and humanism of ethnographic reportage.

These issues will be considered with respect to a specific case. How can we write a theory of the smartphone derived from nine ethnographic monographs describing smartphone use by older people across the globe? Theory is essential if we are to transcend multiple ethnographies as simply aggregate parochialism. Creating new theoretical terms and visualisations such as `The Transportal Home' ` Perpetual Opportunism' `The Control Hub' or `Beyond Anthropomorphism' may help to visualise, understand and explain what people do with their smartphones and why. But where this subsumes Kampala and Yaoundé alongside Sao Paulo and Milan there is a danger of creating neo-imperial homogenisations based on citing de-contextualised critiques. The paper describes an alternative path that could allow for theory development, while avoiding these betrayals of wider anthropological values, to create theory that facilitates, rather than supresses, global education and the ideals of decolonisation.