Fragile connections: Community computer networks, human infrastructures, and the consequences of their breakdown in Havana.
To compensate for their lack of internet access, Cuban video game enthusiasts and programmers have built vast grassroots computer networks, the biggest of which, SNET (Street Network), at one point connected tens of thousands of households across Havana. This vernacular infrastructure generated not...
| Published in: | American Anthropologist Vol. 124; no. 2; pp. 383 - 399 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
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Wiley-Blackwell
Jun2022
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=156968189&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 156968189 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00027294 AAN jtl: American Anthropologist issn: 00027294 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Jun2022 vid: 124 iid: 2 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 156968189 10.1111/aman.13727 ppf: 383 ppct: 16 formats: tig: atl: Fragile connections: Community computer networks, human infrastructures, and the consequences of their breakdown in Havana. aug: au: Köhn, Steffen Siré, Nestor affil: Department of Anthropology, Aarhus University, Denmark Independent artist, Havana, Cuba su: Cuba Havana (Cuba) Computer networks Internet access Video game culture Ideology Video games Human beings Subjectivity sug: subj: Computer networks Internet access Video game culture Ideology Video games Human beings Cuba Havana (Cuba) Computer Systems Design Services Video game design and development services Doll, Toy, and Game Manufacturing Video game publishers Home entertainment equipment merchant wholesalers Subjectivity keyword: digital anthropology human infrastructures networks STS digital anthropology human infrastructures networks STS ab: To compensate for their lack of internet access, Cuban video game enthusiasts and programmers have built vast grassroots computer networks, the biggest of which, SNET (Street Network), at one point connected tens of thousands of households across Havana. This vernacular infrastructure generated not only new means of access but also new relations between people and fostered new political subjectivities. SNET is heavily shaped by a local cultural ideology of resolver, of collectively navigating resources and limitations in a context of scarcity. Using the metaphor of modding (modifying), a communal practice within gaming cultures that describes alterations by players or fans that change the look or functionality of a video game, we show how SNET makers were forced to constantly adapt to the shifting technical, political, and social frameworks in Cuba. Expanding anthropological theory on infrastructures that shows how breakdown in many parts of the world is a constitutive part of how people experience them, we argue that makers of human infrastructures such as SNET must not only deal with material breakdown but also navigate the breakdown of social relationships. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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