S (Stephanie) Hobbis PhD

A social anthropologist by training, my research is located at the intersections of rural transformations, technological change and infrastructural development.

My work challenges taken-for-granted aspects of technological and infrastructural development initiatives while untangling how their purported recipients incorporate but also resist, appropriate or create alternatives to them. For example, in a 2021 article on ‘electrification for development’, I uncover a non-capitalist energy identity embedded in the reciprocal sharing of energy that rejects the desirability of electrified economic development following globally dominant approaches.

Currently, I am working on the following projects

1. With funding from the Dutch Research Council (NWO-Veni, 2023-2025), I explore how and to what extent it may be possible to counter the exploitative potentials of digital technologies while actively using or at least living in digitizing environments. What could a more autonomous approach to digitization, one that acknowledges the values, needs and interests of various data subjects, look like? For this, I conduct research in various remote environments as key historical battlegrounds for autonomy from exploitative, colonial forces, for example, on Vancouver Island (Canada) or in my longstanding field site in Malaita (Solomon Islands). Simultaneously, I work with data managers at Dutch universities to better understand how they conceptualize data autonomy and inclusive data management given longstanding histories of colonial and neoliberal engagements with, e.g. data extracted from indigenous contexts.

2. My second project is funded through the Endangered Material Knowledge Programme (Arcadia Foundation/British Museum). This collaborative grant digitally documents material practices and associated knowledge linked to the creation and maintenance of land itself. The Lau-speakers of Solomon Islands make land in the form of small islands. These ‘artificial islands,’ scattered across the lagoon, have played the backdrop to everyday and ritual life as it has met a long history of challenges, protecting the Lau from dangers from the mainland. Now, the ocean itself is a threat. The sea is rising, and so is the water’s temperature, which bleaches the coral reef. More and more Lau are abandoning these islands, moving into coastal settlements or faraway towns. This project seeks to document the technologies and techniques found in the island builders toolkit while developing a better understanding of how the Lau navigate climate change in their daily lives.