About CASPR 2026
For CASPR 2026, we will explored the topic of labor within technoscientific worlds to honor the legacy of David Hakken.
Labor and Technoscientific Worlds: Historical Encounters and New Directions in the Field
CASPR 2026 was our annual gathering dedicated to dissecting pressing issues in anthropology and STS. In past years, we have addressed topics such as applied anthropology, digital ethnography, and knowledge production in times of crisis. In Spring 2026, we turned our attention to labor within technoscientific worlds to honor the legacy of David Hakken.
As one of CASTAC’s founders, he pioneered research that helped lay the foundations of STS and anthropology, with a special focus on the social transformations of work in informatics and computing that shaped anthropological and materialist approaches to this dynamic intersection. As Hakken himself noted, “how society changes has more to do with how people interpret computerization than with any separable technological impact.” Following this legacy into the present, we asked: How does this foundational insight unfold in the era of artificial intelligence, ubiquitous digital infrastructures, and rising contestation over science and technology?
Bringing together scholars working in anthropology, STS, and labor studies, CASPR 2026 revisits this intellectual legacy while exploring emerging directions and challenges for the field. We had an excellent roundtable presentation and breakout Q&A discussions, as we invited our community to reflect on labor in a changing world, with our panelists Kalpana Shankar (University College Dublin), David Nemer (University of Virginia), and Lilly Irani (UC San Diego).
Resources Shared by Panelists & Attendees
Artz, Matt. 2026. “A Call for an AI Anthropology.” General Anthropology 33 (1): 23–28. https://doi.org/10.1111/gena.70007.
Austin, Jeanie. 2021. Library Services and Incarceration: Recognizing Barriers, Strengthening Access. American Library Association.
Hakken, David. 1993. “Computing and Social Change: New Technology and Workplace Transformation, 1980-1990.” Annual Review of Anthropology 22: 107–32. https://doi.org/10.1146/ANNUREV.AN.22.100193.000543.
Hakken, David. 1996. “Innovation and Jobs – An Anthropologist in OECD Land.” Anthropology News 37 (5): 5–5. https://doi.org/10.1111/an.1996.37.5.5.1.
Hakken, David. 1998. “Theories of Labor and the Nordic Approach to Information Systems Development.” Anthropology of Work Review: AWR 19 (1): 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1525/awr.1998.19.1.1.
Hakken, David. 2002. Cyborgs@ Cyberspace?: An Ethnographer Looks to the Future. Routledge.
Hakken, David, Maurizio Teli, and Barbara Andrews. 2020. Beyond Capital: Values, Commons, Computing, and the Search for a Viable Future. Routledge Advances in Sociology. London, England: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315682853.
Hale, Charles R. 2006. “Activist Research v. Cultural Critique: Indigenous Land Rights and the Contradictions of Politically Engaged Anthropology.” Cultural Anthropology: Journal of the Society for Cultural Anthropology 21 (1): 96–120. https://doi.org/10.1525/can.2006.21.1.96.
Kinder, Molly. 2024. “Hollywood Writers Went on Strike to Protect Their Livelihoods from Generative AI. Their Remarkable Victory Matters for All Workers.” Brookings. April 12, 2024. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/hollywood-writers-went-on-strike-to-protect-their-livelihoods-from-generative-ai-their-remarkable-victory-matters-for-all-workers/.
Kirsch, Stuart. 2018. Engaged Anthropology: Politics beyond the Text. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520297944.001.0001.
Koycheva, Lora, Angela K. VandenBroek, and Matt Artz, eds. 2026. Anthropology and AI. London, England: Routledge.
Parthasarathy, Balaji, and Kanikka Sersia. 2026. “Benign Technologies, Benevolent Founders? Innovations and Innovators in India’s Digital Platform Economy.” Economic and Political Weekly 61 (2026). https://www.epw.in/engage/article/benign-technologies-benevolent-founders.
Teli, Maurizio. 2018. “The Paradox of a Wise Man: Empirical Work and Future Making in David Hakken’s Cyberspace.” Anthropology of Work Review: AWR 39 (1): 22–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/awr.12134.
Wright, Erik Olin. 1976. “Class Boundaries in Advanced Capitalist Societies.” New Left Review 1 (98): 3–41. https://doi.org/10.64590/ppl.
Thank you to our panelists, Kalpana Shankar, Lilly Irani, and David Nemer, our host, Natalia Orrego Tapia, our moderators, Kimberly Fernandes and Katherine Hendy, our PR manager who live-posted the event, Felipe Eduardo Trujillo Bilbao, and our web producer, Angela K. VandenBroek for managing tech and security.
A special and huge thank you to all of the participants who came to the event and participated in the conversation! You made the event lively and engaging!