Guides of the Atlas

How do digital media technologies shape or restructure social practice? And which transitions and demarcations of different forms of publicness arise in this context? Simon Holdermann examines this question in his ethnography of everyday life in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco. In order to approach the ongoing, historically situated social transformations of the region, he analyses a variety of media practices concerning the organizational work and transnational cooperation that take place there – in particular at the intersection of mountain tourism, NGO work, and local self-government.

Simon Holdermann studied social and cultural anthropology at the University of Münster and University of Cologne, Germany, with semesters abroad at Uppsala University, Sweden, and University of California, Berkeley, USA. As a research associate at the Collaborative Research Center 1187 ®Media of Cooperation¬, University of Siegen, he conducted his PhD research in the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco. His research interests center on the anthropology of media and technology, with a regional focus on North Africa and the Mediterranean region.