Research and publications

• Research projects

  Digital agriculture: Sino-European contrasts, correspondences and collaborations
  Status: Ongoing

  Start	01.08.2024
  End	31.07.2028
  Funding	SNSF  Open project sheet
  The background and rationale of this project is the introduction of increasingly autonomous multi-tasking drones from the People’s Republic of China – a global drone leader – into domestic and international agriculture. These drones are indicative of the country’s repositioning in the global economic and technological order, in which digitalisation is a key strategy for advancing domestic development and geopolitical standing, and the pressing question of how to feed one fifth of the world’s population with less than 10 percent of the world’s farmland. Based on the example of the digitalisation of agriculture through drones in China, Germany and Switzerland, the overall objectives of this project are to gain an in-depth, actor-centred understanding of the challenges and opportunities of agricultural digitalisation through drones, and to use this as a case for understanding broader reconfigurations of global hierarchies of digital technologies and knowledge. The specific aims are: 1) An empirical contribution to the anthropological study of digital agriculture through new regional and technological foci (Chinese drone and 5G technologies) and attention to transnational aspects relevant to understanding the opportunities and challenges of adopting digital technologies in relation to global China; 2) A conceptual contribution to nuancing and provincialising dominant understandings of digitalisation by radically shifting perspectives from digital technologies and related imaginaries of modernisation and progress attributed to the urban West towards rural East Asia; 3) A methodological contribution to further exploring new highly-automated drones as a method in anthropology. Concerning methods, the project consists of two multi-sited ethnographic case studies. Subproject A (PI) explores the use of drones in the Sino-German context. Subproject B (PhD student) investigates 5G technology in drones in the Swiss-Chinese context. The main methods used in both subprojects are participant observation; qualitative interviews with various stakeholders such as farmers, technology designers, industry and international experts; the analysis of written, digital and audio-visual sources; and drones as method. Expected results and their impact: Aside from important empirical, conceptual and methodological contributions related to the project’s specific aims, it will result in: A) A better understanding of the digitalisation of agriculture through drones by taking into account the perspectives of various actors themselves (farmers, technology developers, international experts), which will be relevant both to assess the social impacts of digital technologies and to guide technology developers in filling the gaps between technology design in theory and technology adoption in practice; B) A better, actor-centred understanding of the Chinese role in securing global food security and ‘China in Europe’ that adds important nuances to one-sided Western perceptions of China. The project will provide crucial insights into the challenges related to Chinese digital technologies in the ongoing global economic, political and technological competition. This will be important for assessing how to respond appropriately to growing Chinese engagement and investments in Europe and how to deal with Chinese technological advancements in practice.