In recent article, Drone Capitalism, author Michael Richardson makes a number of expected and acceptable oversights in recent scholarship on UAVs. I tend to be rough with it but I do indeed like a lot of it. Here are my thoughts—unsolicited and polemical. I’ve just finished 6 months of working with drone activists around the world and am on my arrogant high-horse. Its all meant in the spirit of support and collaboration. Seeing the drone through a critique of capitalism, {+}

This is a Guest Post about the #hautalk by Emily Yates-Doerr Hau’s Editorial Board has just released its second response, this time unsigned, to the grievances aired by former staff. I am concerned that Giovanni da Col’s name remains listed at the top of the board and I am compelled to share my experiences with Hau publically. Last year, just before an article of mine was to be published in Hau, Da Col contacted me about funds for the publication. I {+}

By now, many readers are familiar with the issues surrounding recent events at HAU: journal of ethnographic theory, including the letters released by the HAU Former Staff 7 here and four current and former staff here. The week’s revelations were kicked off by an apology David Graeber here. What is clear from the ensuing conversations is that issues of harassment, abuse, exploitation, misogyny, and classism/elitism remain live and palpable in the discipline’s highest echelons, and have impacted precarious and vulnerable scholars in {+}

Drones sense from afar and see from a distance. They go where people can go but won’t because of cost to life or capital. Piloting precariously above coral reefs, palm oil plantations, and primary forests is not safe with a helicopter nor cost-effective. So we use drones; risk is transferred from human bodies to technology and capital costs. In these efforts, we are able to witness-from afar, with capital but little bodily risk—earth and human entanglements. In many instances this witnessing {+}

This is going to be a brief note. But I have to clarify that these are my own opinions. Anthropological twitter exploded today after David Graeber issued an apology for his endorsement of HAU journal in its conception. There are some hard accusations that you can follow here, here and here, but the main thing is that HAU was a horrid work environment. I was involved with the project as a volunteer of the social media team, and even though {+}

There is a lot of propaganda around drones being “disruptive” technologies. I have been empirically testing the disruptive potentials of drone practices through many diverse contexts throughout the world. Between 2015 to just a few days ago I’ve been conducting participatory and ethnographic fieldwork with drone operators, inventors, entrepreneurs, fanatics, artists, and activists in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Australia, the US—including Los Angeles and Native America—and the North Atlantic—Iceland, Scotland, Denmark, and the UK trying to see how this flying Turing {+}

Anthropology is flourishing outside universities. More anthropologists than ever before work in the commercial sector- as researchers, consultants, user experience and design specialists.  Techniques informed by anthropological practice  comprise an expanding  portfolio of  approaches widely used in commercial qualitative research.  The practice of anthropology within commercial contexts has implications for the ways that research is conducted and fosters new professional identities. Many anthropologists at home in the commercial world are actively engaged in EPIC whose successful annual conferences  attract  a {+}