Contemporary Technoculture through the Prism of Relations between Users and Technologies

Abstract

The article draws on the results of the ethnographic study conducted by the author in 2003-2007 in a Moscow technical service center, and on data gathered through a number of focused biographical interviews with technicians working in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Minsk, and Rostov-on-Don. Its objective is to provide an empirical illustration of the way in which the classical anthropological theory may be combined with interpretive approaches of various applied disciplines to reach a better understanding of the contemporary material culture and technoculture. The author examines the consumption of technologies as a ritual sequence; analyzes those among the latter that support the functioning of the current digital media; and shows the ways in which the ritual process undergoes the transformation of meanings that are attached by designers and users to technologies.