Contact
Philosophische Fakultät I
Seminar für Ethnologie
Norman Schräpel
phone: +49-(0)345 - 55 24189
fax: +49-(0)345 - 55 27326
norman.schraepel@ethnologie...
Reichardtstraße 11
06114 Halle
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Norman Schräpel
Ph.D. Student (Scholarship holder 10/2010-03/2011)
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Richard Rottenburg
Overview
Rwanda’s engagement with information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the last years can be read as a radical intervention in the infrastructure of the state.
In 2000 Rwanda declared “the Vision 2020”, announcing the transformation from Rwanda’s agriculturally-based economy to a knowledge-based middle-income economy within the next 20 years. The plan projects the deployment of ICTs in nearly every sector of society as the main transformative force. Rwanda’s ICT-initiatives appear to be unique within the broader African context. The rather questionable success of implementing standardised ICT-solutions for health care in the last decade leads to the assumption that the majority of these devices could not be translated adequately when they were transferred. However, there are cases for instance in the field of health care, where existing ICT infrastructures (such as cell phone networks) are adapted and merged to create new fields of applications or to include additional devices.
This form of experimentalisation evolves out of the particular scenarios in African contexts. The lasting state of emergency in Africa’s health sectors, for example, nurtures the beliefs in technological solutions and provides spaces to test technologies. To understand these processes the case study will look into a system that was initiated by Rwanda’s Ministry of Health: TRACnet.
Curriculum Vitae
Education
| 10/2010-03/2011 | Start-up grant at the Graduate School Society and Culture in Motion Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg |
| 04/2005-09/2010 | MA (Magister)Social Anthropology, Psychology, Linguistics Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg / Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany) MA thesis on “Rendering Technology – Re-Building South Africa’s health system through information and communication technologies”. |
Professional Activities
| 2008-present | Coordinator of AG Visual Anthropology (Halle) (www.visuelle-anthropologie-halle.de) at the Department for Social Anthropology (U Halle). |
| 2007-present | Editor of the CARGO – Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (www.cargo-zeitschrift.de). Editing 5 issues (27, 28, 29, 30, 31) of the German student journal CARGO. |
| 2006-2010 | Student assistant - Max Planck Fellow Group Law, Organisation, Science and Technology (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle). |
| 2007 (3 months) | Project Coordinator - Coordinator of Teaching activities at the Communnity Centre Casa Azul, Belo Horizonte (Brazil). |
| 2002-2004 | Teacher - Teaching all subjects at the street children school ‘Learn to Live’ in Cape Town (South Africa). |
Presented Papers
| 2010 | Adapting a revolution – Creativity and the deployment of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for health care in Rwanda. Conference: EASST010, Trento (Sep, 2nd 2010). Doing an Anthropology of ICT. Technologies and the Production of Order and Disorder Workshop: "Online PhD Colloquium ICT4D". (May, 12th 2010) (with Stefanie Bognitz) Translating Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in African contexts: Interventions, Transformations and Revolutions in Rwanda. Conference: "ICT: Africa’s Revolutionary Tools for the 21st Century?" University of Edinburgh. (May, 4th-5th 2010) Warum ich Technologie untersuche. Für eine Ethnologie der Wissenschaft und Technik. Conference: "7. Ethnologie Symposium der Studierenden", University of Zürich. (Apr, 22nd-25th 2010) Connecting Africa. African Connections. Africa’s engagement with information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their role for development – the case of telemedicine in South Africa. Workshop: "ICT and Development - Research Voices from Africa", Makerere University, Uganda. (Mar, 22nd-23rd 2010) Heroes in the making: A global perspective on representations and perceptions of African Football players. Conference: "Visualizing the Game. Global Perspectives on Football in Africa", University of Basel. (Jan, 28th-30th 2010) |
| 2009 | Images and Imaginaries - Telemedicine and therapeutic domination in South Africa. Workshop: “LOST – Annual Workshop”, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle. (Jun, 18th-20th 2009) |
| 2008 | In Search of Cipangu – Expectations and the shaping of Telemedicine in South Africa. Conference: “Med-e-Tel”, Luxembourg. (Apr, 16th-18th 2008) Telemedicine and the perpetuation of linkages. Workshop: “LOST – Annual Workshop”, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle. (Jun, 15th-22nd 2008) |
| 2007 | In Search of Cipangu – Expectations and the shaping of Telemedicine in South Africa. Workshop: “Knowledge Diversity and Power”, University of Stellenbosch. (Feb, 6th 2007) |
Publications
(2010) Connecting Africa. African Connections. Africa’s engagement with information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their role for development – the case of telemedicine in South Africa. Conference Proceedings: "ICT and Development - Research Voices from Africa", Makerere University, Uganda.
(2008) Fleisch. Cargo - Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 28: 45-47.
(2007) Wie Einführungen einführen oder Was Ethnologie wirklich ist. Cargo - Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 27: 52-53.
Languages
German (mother tongue), English (fluent), Portuguese (fluent), French (good), Spanish (working knowledge), isiXhosa (basic)