The Covid-19 app and the fire spirit: Receiving messages in Britain and Siberia
The UK's National Health Service Covid-19 ‘track and trace’ app was designed as a critical public health technology. So why has it encountered so much resistance? The authors compare alerts on the phone regarding exposure to possible Covid-19 infection with messages from a Siberian nomad's...
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Online Access: | https://research.ulapland.fi/fi/publications/b325c408-4999-44b1-a9df-d440315a61d4 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12688 https://rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?SeriesKey=14678322&sortBy=Earliest http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85120318074&partnerID=8YFLogxK http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85120318074&partnerID=8YFLogxK |
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ftulaplandcdispu:oai:lacris.ulapland.fi:publications/b325c408-4999-44b1-a9df-d440315a61d4 2024-02-04T10:02:08+01:00 The Covid-19 app and the fire spirit: Receiving messages in Britain and Siberia Laptander, Roza Vitebsky, Piers 2021-12-01 https://research.ulapland.fi/fi/publications/b325c408-4999-44b1-a9df-d440315a61d4 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12688 https://rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?SeriesKey=14678322&sortBy=Earliest http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85120318074&partnerID=8YFLogxK http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85120318074&partnerID=8YFLogxK eng eng https://research.ulapland.fi/fi/publications/b325c408-4999-44b1-a9df-d440315a61d4 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Laptander , R & Vitebsky , P 2021 , ' The Covid-19 app and the fire spirit: Receiving messages in Britain and Siberia ' , Anthropology Today , vol. 37 , no. 6 , pp. 17-20 . https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12688 Nenets reindeer herders fire Siberian religion conspiracy theory COVID-19 pandemic Health services tracking app prediction technology /dk/atira/pure/person/fieldofscience2010/6/16 name=Other humanities article 2021 ftulaplandcdispu https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12688 2024-01-11T00:03:41Z The UK's National Health Service Covid-19 ‘track and trace’ app was designed as a critical public health technology. So why has it encountered so much resistance? The authors compare alerts on the phone regarding exposure to possible Covid-19 infection with messages from a Siberian nomad's domestic fire, which sometimes crackles warnings of potential illnesses or accidents. Though these prediction technologies may seem radically different, they are both instruments for thinking about possible futures and adjusting behaviour. The authors interpret them as forms of divination that differ not so much in their logic as in their embeddedness in wider cosmologies of person, fate and society. The Siberian fire generates meaning as a focal point of coherence within many narrative strands concerning family and landscape; acceptance of its messages is rooted in intimacy and entanglement. This highlights how the Covid-19 app belongs to a state of emergency and exception. Its statistical idiom of risk and its culturally hyper-valued focus on privacy conceal the identities of people caught in the chain of infection, blocking social and narrative coherence and thereby encouraging suspicion and cynicism. Article in Journal/Newspaper nenets Siberia LaCRIS - University of Lapland Current Research System Anthropology Today 37 6 17 20 |
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LaCRIS - University of Lapland Current Research System |
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English |
topic |
Nenets reindeer herders fire Siberian religion conspiracy theory COVID-19 pandemic Health services tracking app prediction technology /dk/atira/pure/person/fieldofscience2010/6/16 name=Other humanities |
spellingShingle |
Nenets reindeer herders fire Siberian religion conspiracy theory COVID-19 pandemic Health services tracking app prediction technology /dk/atira/pure/person/fieldofscience2010/6/16 name=Other humanities Laptander, Roza Vitebsky, Piers The Covid-19 app and the fire spirit: Receiving messages in Britain and Siberia |
topic_facet |
Nenets reindeer herders fire Siberian religion conspiracy theory COVID-19 pandemic Health services tracking app prediction technology /dk/atira/pure/person/fieldofscience2010/6/16 name=Other humanities |
description |
The UK's National Health Service Covid-19 ‘track and trace’ app was designed as a critical public health technology. So why has it encountered so much resistance? The authors compare alerts on the phone regarding exposure to possible Covid-19 infection with messages from a Siberian nomad's domestic fire, which sometimes crackles warnings of potential illnesses or accidents. Though these prediction technologies may seem radically different, they are both instruments for thinking about possible futures and adjusting behaviour. The authors interpret them as forms of divination that differ not so much in their logic as in their embeddedness in wider cosmologies of person, fate and society. The Siberian fire generates meaning as a focal point of coherence within many narrative strands concerning family and landscape; acceptance of its messages is rooted in intimacy and entanglement. This highlights how the Covid-19 app belongs to a state of emergency and exception. Its statistical idiom of risk and its culturally hyper-valued focus on privacy conceal the identities of people caught in the chain of infection, blocking social and narrative coherence and thereby encouraging suspicion and cynicism. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Laptander, Roza Vitebsky, Piers |
author_facet |
Laptander, Roza Vitebsky, Piers |
author_sort |
Laptander, Roza |
title |
The Covid-19 app and the fire spirit: Receiving messages in Britain and Siberia |
title_short |
The Covid-19 app and the fire spirit: Receiving messages in Britain and Siberia |
title_full |
The Covid-19 app and the fire spirit: Receiving messages in Britain and Siberia |
title_fullStr |
The Covid-19 app and the fire spirit: Receiving messages in Britain and Siberia |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Covid-19 app and the fire spirit: Receiving messages in Britain and Siberia |
title_sort |
covid-19 app and the fire spirit: receiving messages in britain and siberia |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://research.ulapland.fi/fi/publications/b325c408-4999-44b1-a9df-d440315a61d4 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12688 https://rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?SeriesKey=14678322&sortBy=Earliest http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85120318074&partnerID=8YFLogxK http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85120318074&partnerID=8YFLogxK |
genre |
nenets Siberia |
genre_facet |
nenets Siberia |
op_source |
Laptander , R & Vitebsky , P 2021 , ' The Covid-19 app and the fire spirit: Receiving messages in Britain and Siberia ' , Anthropology Today , vol. 37 , no. 6 , pp. 17-20 . https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12688 |
op_relation |
https://research.ulapland.fi/fi/publications/b325c408-4999-44b1-a9df-d440315a61d4 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12688 |
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Anthropology Today |
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37 |
container_issue |
6 |
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17 |
op_container_end_page |
20 |
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