A theory of a theory of the smartphone

Abstract

This article addresses the consequences of theory in social science. It suggests that theory has become fetishized and contributes to class differentiation as most people are excluded from its increasingly obfuscating form. Fetishism implies that what used to be a means for clarifying and explaining the world has become an end in itself. This article presents an alternative approach to theory as de-fetishized, using as an example a recent attempt to theorize the smartphone. In this approach the processes of abstraction, generalization and de-contextualization that are required to create theory are negated through simultaneous illustration, re-contextualization and forms of highly accessible dissemination. Two examples are provided from our recent theorization of the smartphone, first as the Transportal Home and, second, as Beyond Anthropomorphism.

Homeless food delivery riders and their transportal home in Shanghai's lockdown

“…During the 5 months of fieldwork, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 37 participants who were recruited through informal chats with fellow riders at the Huainan restaurant and via the reverse snowball sampling technique (Parker et al, 2019). We posted recruitment information on Weixin and shared it through existing networks to attract the initial participants.…”

“…Their mobile phones were the carrier and symbol of their vagrancy; they also constituted the "home" out of homelessness for the vagrant riders. Their phone was a "transportal home," an affective and imaginary space that mediates and shapes users' everyday life practices and experiences (Miller, 2021). As a transportal home, the mobile phone was perceived not merely as a digital communication tool but also as a space where one resided-that is, a space of leisure, work, and socialization.…”

The maturing of anthropology

“…Theory is an essential goal that commonly requires abstraction, decontextualization, and generalization. But in mature anthropological theory, all three of these properties should be negated in situ by including clear, comprehensible illustration from ethnography that returns it to the true task of theory: bringing clarity to explanation (McGranahan, 2022; Miller, 2021).…”

Digital health: A sociomaterial approach

“…This has been outlined by Pols et al (2019) who argued that reflexive agency in self-tracking is exercised through continuous notifications from devices, which interrupt unreflexive, routinised or intuitive ways of acting. Mobile health devices, Miller (2021) argues, provide a perpetual opportunism where health can become a topic at any time in everyday life through automated feedback and instant prompts. This raises the question of whether digital patients or citizens are more active or more passive participants in care since lines of actions often do not presume intentionality.…”