Ethnography and the Like Economy: the Production, Consumption, and Circulation of Emotions on Social Media

2023/2024

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

3

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

Department of History

Course type:

Elective course

When:

2 year, 4 module

Instructor

Tereshina, Daria

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The course introduces basic concepts and literature in the field of digital anthropology/ethnography and critical studies of social media. The course focuses on emotions as an entry point for the discussions on the politics of social media platforms, their technical infrastructures and the specific ecology and sociality of the ‘like economy’ (Gerlitz, Helmond). The affective dimension is important for understanding social media given that feelings and user affects are turned into key products of digital labour involved in creation and circulation of content. At the same time, all sorts of content creators (bloggers, camgirls, celebrities, etc.) as well as content moderators perform affective labour themselves managing their emotional and bodily states. During the course, we will discuss the notions of affective, immaterial, and creative labour, talk about emotional regimes and their historical variability. Finally, we will unpack the category of the creative class and a creative worker, the main actor in the digital economy. While some researchers see creative digital workers as a new elite group and the winners of the digital economy, other critical voices prefer to talk about technopeasants or cybertariat, emphasizing the precarity of creative labour in the digital age.