Paper Short Abstract:

This paper discusses how sustainable forest management practices and proposals are penetrating local forms of organisation and how local actors in marginal areas are activating and organising themselves out of a growing concern and direct or indirect experience of natural disasters such as wildfires

Paper Abstract:

The degradation of ecosystems in the context of the climate crisis, where the frequency of natural disasters is increasing, 'restoring nature' and sustainable forest management are becoming emerging paradigms that take the form of new 'green' laws and funding, and show the increasing mixing of politics with the science of resilience and adaptation.

Catalonia is increasingly affected by forest fires of growing magnitude. The Vall de Lord case study allows us to observe how 'nature-based solutions' (or rather technology-science-nature), where forests are often seen as strategic green infrastructure, penetrate local forms of organisation through extreme events and science-based narratives of environmental crisis.

On the other hand, this tendency towards catastrophe can give rise to local processes of creating collective practices and memories where the way the forest was, is and can be is discussed anew, bringing together feelings of resignation as well as hope, responsibility and the right to give new life to an area that is endangered partly because it is forgotten and not experienced.

Thus, I discuss how, in an increasingly uncertain future, the transformation of the forest and its technification contribute to the patrimonialisation of nature, which leads to a greater emphasis on its intangible values and the prioritisation of strategic areas, resulting in an unequal distribution of rural development opportunities. On the other hand, I discuss how landowners and other local actors in marginal areas are activating and organising themselves out of a growing concern and direct or indirect experience of natural disasters.

Paper Short Abstract:

In Denmark, online dating has doubled in the past decade, reaching nearly 500,000 users in a population of 6 million. Online dating-studies emphasize mistrust and disillusionment. While my initial data supports these insights, it also indicates newfound optimism and endurance in the pursuit of love.

Paper Abstract:

In Denmark, online dating has doubled the past decade, reaching nearly 500,000 users in a population of 6 million and is now the second most used way to find a long-term partner. Thus, making it a central aspect of Danes' romantic lives.

Studies of online dating stress that users frequently reflect on partner preferences and scrutinize physical imperfections, contributing to a "rejection mindset" where users casually delete and 'ghost' each other (Konings et al., 2023; Pronk & Denissen, 2020). Many studies draw inspiration from Zygmunt Bauman's critical theory on liquid love, emphasizing the consequences of marketization, normalization of untrustworthiness, and disillusionment in dating life (Bandinelli & Gandini, 2022; Bauman, 2003; Davidson et al., 2020; Hobbs et al., 2017; Illouz, 2012, 2019; Portolan & McAlister, 2021). While these critical approaches are valuable for examining structural factors, my project contributes with a phenomenological analysis of how online dating experiences affect aspirations and dreams about love, based on results from the first six months of a one-year fieldwork.

My initial data supports the insights on disillusionment, but it also indicates a newfound optimism and an enduring determination to withstand the challenges of contemporary dating culture in the pursuit of love. This may be attributed to the growing popularity of the new dating app Hinge, which emphasizes long-term relationships while distancing from casual hook-ups. Therefore, my preliminary findings add nuance to the prevailing critical theories on dating culture.

Paper Short Abstract:

Engaging with the selling of solar in Kenya, the relational forms emerging in this field as well as to questions of how solar infrastructures come to sit squarely within capitalist relations. I ask: how much can the anthropology of infrastructures attentively and legitimately ‘think together’?

Paper Abstract:

From the perspective of an ongoing research project concerned with the coming into being of solar off-grid infrastructures in Kenya, the paper reflects critically on the centrality of the ‘infrastructure lens’ for understanding how present-day infrastructure figures in efforts to stabilize capitalist formations. Solar companies have featured as key players in the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ terrain, committed towards delivering a social, environmental and economic good while at the same time creating consumer subjects and markets that go ‘far beyond solar’. Door-to-door solar sales agents are crafted into an emergent class of ‘development entrepreneurs’, instructed to conjure to the solar customers a future in which “previously unim¬aginable consumption becomes conceivable” (Dolan 2012: 7). The efforts of solar entrepreneurs in building renewable energy infrastructures become saturated with market-centered messages and logics. Solar customers, with limited access to formal financial services, come to buy products on pay-as-you-go mobile money loans – in turn being classified as ‘creditworthy’ or ‘non-creditworthy’ payers. All these point to infrastructures of data and scoring, and more generally to how digital, financial and business infrastructures are converging with the former. The paper suggests, drawing on this empirical example, that anthropology might currently be witnessing a splintering into different infrastructure approaches (as have partly been delineated by Buier 2023) and efforts to perhaps coalesce in ever more ‘subfields of the subfield’. Yet a more hopeful future for infrastructure studies appears to demand that they still be legitimately and attentively thought together without falling into the trap of open-ended assemblages.

Paper Short Abstract:

Utilising ethnography to identify and dismantle barriers in SMEs, this study showcases a transformative approach for designing resilient future work practices.

Paper Abstract:

This paper introduces the 'HOME' Improvement approach as a dynamic embodiment of 'doing' and 'undoing' within the realm of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), presenting a novel method for SMEs to navigate their evolving work practices.

Doing: The initial phase involves a holistic organisational analysis — a deep dive into how work is currently 'done.' This phase represents the 'doing' of traditional practices, utilising ethnographic methods to understand existing operational models, work cultures, and employee dynamics within Southside Architecture.

Undoing: Following this, the approach transitions to an 'undoing' phase, where established practices are critically reassessed. Here, changes are collaboratively co-designed and prototyped, challenging and dismantling the status quo. This 'undoing' is critical, as it allows for the deconstruction of outdated practices, paving the way for innovation and transformation.

A New Doing: The final stage introduces a new form of 'doing,' where the co-designed changes are implemented. This phase prepares the organisation for future challenges by embedding new practices. It signifies a reconfiguration of work practices, transitioning from traditional methods to innovative, sustainable approaches.

The 'HOME' Improvement approach reflects a continuous cycle of 'doing,' 'undoing,' and 'redoing' in response to the shifting needs of SMEs. This paper advocates for the significance of this approach in the broader context of anthropology, demonstrating how the discipline can actively contribute to and shape the futures of organisations amidst global uncertainties. It exemplifies how anthropology can be both undone and redone to serve practical, impactful purposes in addressing modern societal challenges.

Paper Short Abstract:

Examining digital health futures in Portugal, this presentation underscores the dual transformation of healthcare and anthropologists’ practices. It advocates for anticipatory methods to address societal challenges, prompting a reconsideration of anthropology's role in shaping sustainable futures.

Paper Abstract:

Traditionally, anthropological studies have primarily focused on cultural heritage, customs, and traditions, often neglecting the reciprocal influence between current actions and future aspirations. In scrutinizing the implementation of digital health initiatives in Portugal, I shift focus from unraveling healthcare practices to critiquing anthropology's methodologies. While healthcare agents must discard previous help-seeking notions, anthropologists, in contrast, substitute their conventional subject matter with a commitment to envisioning sustainable futures. This intricate process explores how the idealized "ought to be" molds the "being" within social practices, where anthropology holds significance and legitimacy. The analysis sheds light on speculative methods, facilitating hypothetical actions that challenge established norms in the present-making process. Both observed and observers undergo transformation through this journey.

Drawing from my direct involvement in social innovation projects related to digital health, I scrutinize entrenched anthropological practices and challenge the prevailing notion that innovation alone guarantees comprehensive sustainability. Exploring themes such as evolving practices, envisioning futures, and examining the convergence of the present and future, I advocate for narratives that transcend mere technological solutions to address societal challenges.

Ultimately, this presentation aims to fuel discussions on traditional paradigms in anthropology, encouraging a profound exploration of how anthropological analysis shapes the development of sustainable futures.

Paper Short Abstract:

The author presents surprising findings from his recent research into the cryonics and radical anti-aging scenes and their efforts to become "amortal" (a proposed avoidance of inevitable death by aging) -- including reasons for their mainstreaming and their counterintuitive approach to kinship.

Paper Abstract:

Cryonics and anti-aging medicine represent two different paths to becoming “amortal” (where the inevitability of death by aging is eliminated, making deathlessness theoretically possible). Both the anti-aging and cryonics scenes have gained recent popularity and coverage in mass media, partly from interest from Silicon Valley figures and more broadly (I argue) from online cultures characterized by techno-optimism and techno-solutionism. As part of the Human Futures: Technoscientific Immortality project at the University of Bergen and Harvard University, this paper draws on ethnographic and survey data to reveal some counterintuitive findings about cryonics and anti-aging as roads to “amortality” that are biological, addressing questions such as: What is their relationship to developments in AI and other technological advances tending towards “transhumanism” or the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” (descriptions of increased merging of the digital and the biological)? What do they have to do with “mind-upload” scenarios? Why is growth in the anti-aging and cryonics scenes correlated with growth in movements like Rationalism, Effective Altruism, and Longtermism? And how are kinship and the family being imagined and reimagined by those involved in cryonics and anti-aging, as projects that seek to remake how human systems are reproduced?