Machine Anthropology: A View from International Relations

Adler‐Nissen, Rebecca; Eggeling, Kristin Anabel; Wangen, Patrice

doi:10.1177/20539517211063690

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…To share information, diplomats continue to meet face-to-face, but they also send emails, write text messages, or feed and follow social media accounts (Bjola and Manor, 2022). Emerging literature attempts to trace how digital artefacts such as tweets are produced and shape diplomatic routines (Adler-Nissen et al, 2021) and reconceptualise online meetings in diplomacy as ‘synthetic situations’ (Eggeling and Adler-Nissen, 2021) connecting physical and virtual sites.…”

Section: Digital Technologies In Everyday Diplomatic Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Blended Diplomacy: The Entanglement and Contestation of Digital Technologies in Everyday Diplomatic Practice

Adler‐Nissen

Eggeling

2022

European Journal of International Relations

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This article develops a new theoretical approach to digitalisation in diplomacy, resituating conventional understandings of the relationship between diplomacy and technological transformation. Challenging the conception that ‘traditional’ diplomacy is being supplemented or challenged by new forms of ‘digital diplomacy’, we show how the ubiquity of digital devices and technologies makes disentangling analogue from digital diplomatic practices practically impossible today. The argument is developed through ethnographic observations of everyday diplomatic work in the European Union (EU) multilateral setting in Brussels as well as interviews with ambassadors, attachés, seconded diplomats, spokespersons and interpreters. To understand the place of digital technologies in diplomatic work, we develop the concept of blended diplomacy by which we mean the dual process of the entanglement of technical and social doings and the contestation regarding how this entanglement impacts professional diplomatic imaginaries and relations. Drawing on insights from practice theory and the sociology of science, technology and professions, we show how diplomatic actors demarcate their professional territory and protect their positions through boundary work. They draw horizontal boundaries between what they see as ‘real’ diplomatic work and distractions and vertical boundaries between themselves and other diplomatic actors, ranking people around status and skills. Overall, digital technologies are implicated in deeper struggles regarding what it means to be a diplomat. A focus on the blended character of diplomatic practice opens new avenues for research on how digitalisation, in contradictory and uneven ways, shapes norms, identities, and social relations and how it – through reflexivity, anxieties and contestation – may shape international politics.

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Section: Digital Technologies In Everyday Diplomatic Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Blended Diplomacy: The Entanglement and Contestation of Digital Technologies in Everyday Diplomatic Practice

Adler‐Nissen

Eggeling

2022

European Journal of International Relations

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“…Bridgen, 2011). In addition to expectations of displayed emotions on social media, digital diplomacy creates challenges for the competent performances of diplomacy that takes place offline and through (often confidential) face-to-face interactions that become a 'backstage of online performance' (Goffman, 1959;Adler-Nissen et al 2021). In this article, I therefore argue that digital diplomacy produces new demands of managed emotions that add an additional layer to the ways in which emotions are 'put to work' in the diplomatic profession.The research questions that guided this study were: How do diplomats perceive demands of digital diplomacy and how are emotions engaged in the online performance of diplomacy?…”

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confidence: 99%

“…This backstage is however not a private or secluded space but instead refers to the offline professional space where social media performances are planned and expected and content is produced and assessed by peers (cf. Adler-Nissen et al, 2021).…”

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confidence: 99%

Emotional labour in digital diplomacy: perceptions and challenges for European diplomats

Hedling

2023

Emotions and Society

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Social media are increasingly important tools in diplomacy. Diplomats are expected to use social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to communicate with each other and with both the domestic and international publics. This form of communication involves displaying positive emotions to generate attention in a competitive information environment. Emotions are essential to managing perceptions, conveying signals and safeguarding state reputations in traditional diplomacy. Commercial demands of online performance, however, activate new dimensions and challenges in the management of emotions in diplomacy. As digital disinformation and populist campaigns have transgressed the boundaries of domestic public debate, diplomats must also display emotional restraint to contain and counter such influence. This article analyses how diplomats perceive the demands of digital diplomacy and how emotions are engaged in their efforts to perform competently both online and offline. The study draws on fieldwork and interviews with 13 European diplomats as well as document analysis of handbooks and training material used to transfer ‘emotional communication skills’ to diplomats. The study findings suggest that the demands of digital diplomacy are challenging traditional enactments of ‘the good diplomat’. In addition to the tensions between outreach and countering communication practices, the emotional labour in digital diplomacy extends beyond what we see on social media. Diplomats perceive the expectations of constant performance online to at times conflict with their professional role offline.

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Introduction

Aggestam,

Rosamond,

Hedling

2024

Global Foreign Policy Studies

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This chapter introduces the study of the politics of feminist foreign policy and digital diplomacy. It unpacks two transformative and intersecting developments: (1) Sweden’s adoption of a distinct feminist branding of its foreign policy and (2) the embrace of digitalisation in diplomacy. In 2014, Sweden made history by becoming the first country in the world to launch a feminist foreign policy. This pioneering political move demanded both visibility and global attention, prompting Sweden to explore new digital environments and social media platforms, which would offer both scale and reach. Subsequently, several other states followed suit, embracing Sweden’s feminist foreign policy as a model of foreign policy conduct. This feminist shift in global politics has given rise to contestation, resistance and rejection by a range of global actors. This chapter advances a novel conceptual framework for studying the relationship between feminist foreign policy and digital diplomacy. The framework employs three key concepts: (a) articulation, (b) resonance and (c) contestation. These concepts are used to analyse Sweden’s feminist foreign policy leadership, nation branding and visual representation in global politics.

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Machine Anthropology: A View from International Relations

Cited by 7 publications

References 27 publications

Blended Diplomacy: The Entanglement and Contestation of Digital Technologies in Everyday Diplomatic Practice

Blended Diplomacy: The Entanglement and Contestation of Digital Technologies in Everyday Diplomatic Practice

Emotional labour in digital diplomacy: perceptions and challenges for European diplomats

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