May 2021 Open Access Books
May may have been grey, dull and rainy (in the UK, at least), but it started with a bang for UCL Press! The publication of The Global Smartphone, and its sister volumes Ageing with Smartphones in Ireland and Ageing with Smartphones in Urban Italy attracted attention from media outlets across the globe. For more details see here.
We also published two other amazing books in the second half of the month: Families and Food in Hard Times and On Learning. Why not take a look? They're all free to download as always!
The Global Smartphone
Beyond a youth technology
Daniel Miller, Laila Abed Rabho, Patrick Awondo, Maya de Vries, Marília Duque, Pauline Garvey, Laura Haapio-Kirk, Charlotte Hawkins, Alfonso Otaegui, Shireen Walton, and Xinyuan Wang
The smartphone is often literally right in front of our nose, so you would think we would know what it is. But do we? To find out, 11 anthropologists each spent 16 months living in communities in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America, focusing on the take up of smartphones by older people. Their research reveals that smartphones are technology for everyone, not just for the young. Download free PDF
Ageing with Smartphones in Ireland
When life becomes craft
Pauline Garvey and Daniel Miller
There are not many books about how people get younger. It doesn’t happen very often. But Ageing with Smartphones in Ireland documents a radical change in the experience of ageing. Download free PDF
Ageing with Smartphones in Urban Italy
Care and community in Milan and beyond
Shireen Walton
‘Who am I at this (st)age? Where am I and where should I be, and how and where should I live?’ These questions, which individuals ask themselves throughout their lives, are among the central themes of this book, which presents an anthropological account of the everyday experiences of age and ageing in an inner-city neighbourhood in Milan, and in places and spaces beyond. Download free PDF.
Families and Food in Hard Times
European comparative research
Rebecca O'Connell and Julia Brannen
Food is fundamental to health and social participation, yet food poverty has increased in the global North. Adopting a realist ontology and taking a comparative case approach, Families and Food in Hard Times addresses the global problem of economic retrenchment and how those most affected are those with the least resources. Download free PDF.
On Learning
A general theory of objects and object-relations
David Scott
A concept can have many meanings and can be used in a number of different ways, and this creates difficulty when considering the nature of objects and the relationships between them. To enable this, David Scott answers a series of questions about concepts in general and the concept of learning in particular. Download free PDF.
Stay safe, and, as always, happy reading!