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Conclusion: Towards the Supercompositional Object

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The Digitizing Family

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Abstract

The conclusion brings everything together through an ethnographic approach to theory generation wherein I present my concept of smartphones as kinship technologies and supercompositional objects. I show how the rapid proliferation of digital technologies reveals Solomon Islands at a critical juncture in medias res as smartphones are a boon but also detrimental to the kin networks as the cornerstone of Melanesian socialities. Smartphones are further argued to be particularly contentious as supercompositional objects that condense and redistribute social networks, as well as the contradictions and controversies that they entail, through the materiality of the technology itself.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Geoffrey Hobbis

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Hobbis, G. (2020). Conclusion: Towards the Supercompositional Object. In: The Digitizing Family. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34929-5_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34929-5_10

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-34928-8

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