John Postill

Core Members

John Postill (PhD, UCL) is Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow at RMIT University, Melbourne, and Digital Anthropology Fellow at University College London (UCL).

His publications include Localizing the Internet (2011), Media and Nation Building (2006) and the co-edited volume Theorising Media and Practice (2010, with Birgit Bräuchler). Currently he is writing a book provisionally titled Freedom Technologists: Digital Activism and Political Change in the Early 21st Century, and the co-edited volume Theorising Media and Change (with Elisenda Ardèvol and Sirpa Tenhunen).

Webpage:media/anthropology

Themes

Digital Inclusion, Mobility, and Activism

The research program examines the challenges and potentials of digital participation as this relates to access and inclusion, connectivity, networks and political activism, gig or micro work, and mobility and migration.

Publications

Imagining mundane futures

The Rise of Nerd Politics: Digital Activism and Political Change

Postill tracks the rise of techno-political 'nerds' as a new class of political brokers with growing influence.

Digital Ethnography Principles and Practice

This sharp, innovative book champions the rising significance of ethnographic research on the use of digital resources around the world.