Events

This workshop is jointly organised by the Department of Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen, and the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore. It is funded by the DIGINEX project, supported by the Independent Research Fund Denmark.

Digital technologies have become integral parts of our contemporary lifeworlds in tangible and intangible ways. Online platforms, mobile apps, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and big data are fundamentally transforming not only a wide range of political, economic and social activities but also the natural environment and people’s relationships with it. Rapid digitalization of our worlds is reshaping the way we understand and engage with our ecosystems and ourselves, including how humans both exacerbate and try to ameliorate myriad existential environmental problems. This trend has implications for efforts to address crises of biodiversity loss and climate change and fostering sustainable green transitions at local, regional, and national scales. While such transitions and efforts are potentially advanced by more efficient and effective digital technologies, crucial justice questions remain over who will benefit, what forms of land use will be prioritized, and whose rights to natural resources and environmental services (human or nonhuman) will be centered or marginalized. Similarly, while digital and social media can play crucial roles in increasing environmental awareness, shifting contemporary linear economies and consumer practices towards more sustainable and circular forms, and mobilising diverse publics against environmental destruction and climate change, the natural resources and energy needed to produce digital hardware and power IT infrastructure has notably uneven social and environmental impacts.

Southeast Asia sits at the center of this digital-environment nexus. It is a region equally famous for its high levels of biodiversity and forest cover as its rapid urbanization and frontier capitalism for resource extraction and plantation agriculture. As such it occupies a paradoxical position in the global political economy with substantive questions regarding its role in the promotion of forest-based climate change solutions, sustainable and smart cities, transitions to green energy and a circular economy, and equitable green growth for its diverse populations. Digital technology is also increasingly an unavoidable part of these conversations, whether through the use of social media apps and data platforms to monitor green social practices and policy efficacy or human- and AI-assisted digital sensors to track ecosystem changes, air quality, and even human movements, whether in acts of surveillance or those of resistance. At the same time, large parts of Southeast Asia are among the top users of digital media globally, with Southeast Asians using more social media platforms than the global average, making them both key audiences and growing influencers for economic markets, political movements, and social campaigns, and raising crucial questions over how that influence might translate to local, regional, and global environmental challenges. The region, with its renowned cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity, thus provides a compelling vantage point to examine the diverse expressions of the contemporary digital-environment nexus and its evolving equity-sustainability tensions. A comparative perspective helps to situate digital-environmental cases and trajectories in a wider geographical context, as well as to identify lessons learned for how to move forward both theoretically and practically. In this workshop, we aim to leverage insights from past and ongoing research projects across Southeast Asia to delve into profound questions related to the utilization of digital technology and its ambiguous impact on the environment, drawing on insights from participants working in diverse national and regional contexts.

WORKSHOP CONVENORS

Assoc Prof Birgit BRÄUCHLER | Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen
Dr Lukas FORT | Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen
Dr Walker DEPUY | Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and registered attendees have been given instructions on participating in this in-person event. Please write to valerie.yeo@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the event.