Why We Post

CTL-E-6386 · Work · other · 2012–2017

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07572 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6386.

Why We Post is a University College London digital-anthropology research project on the global use and consequences of social media. Based at UCL's Department of Anthropology and led by Daniel Miller, it sent nine anthropologists to spend fifteen months each living in communities in Brazil, Chile, England, India, Italy, Trinidad and Turkey, plus a rural and a factory town in China — nine field sites in all. Rather than study platforms alone, the team studied the content people post, concluding that social media is not only communication but a place where people now live. Its findings were released openly: an open-access book series with UCL Press, a website of discoveries and films, and a free five-week online course, 'Why We Post: The Anthropology of Social Media.'

The record

• Also known as: Why We Post: The Anthropology of Social Media

Notes

TYPING CALL (flagged for the founder): the backlog proposed Project; the schema has no Project type. Staged as Work/other: the project was a time-bounded ERC research effort with no continuing institutional existence separate from UCL Anthropology, and its durable, citable public artifact is the open-access Why We Post book series at UCL Press (plus the course derived from it) — the case for Work over Institution is the research worker's, adopted here; the alternative (Institution/other, matching EB-34/37/40's project-as-institution call) is stated so the founder can flip it at merge with one edit. CONFLICT KEPT OUT OF THE DESCRIPTION: UCL's course page says eleven books; the UCL Centre for Digital Anthropology people page says twelve volumes. No volume count is stated in the description. GRADE BASIS: Verified — three UCL sources plus independent LSE corroboration. BLOCKED EDGES: led-by → Daniel Miller (not a live record); produced_by → University College London (a School — produced_by targets Person/Institution/Business only). PHOTO: HELD (see media). CURATOR'S JUDGMENT (DRAFT): Why We Post is the packet's methods mirror — fifteen months in place beats fifteen minutes of platform metrics, a standard CTL's own community documentation should be measured against. (Draft judgment, not fact.)

Sources

• UCLeXtend, extendstore.ucl.ac.uk (accessed 2026-10-29): 'This free online course is based on the work of nine anthropologists who each spent 15 months in fieldsites in Brazil, Chile, industrial and rural China, England, India, Italy, Trinidad, and Turkey… The project is based at the Department of Anthropology, University College London… publishing eleven books on the research.' (primary source · build store)
• UCL Press, uclpress.co.uk (accessed 2026-10-29): 'Daniel Miller is Professor of Anthropology at University College London. He previously led the Why We Post project… nine anthropologists each spent 15 months living in communities in China, Brazil, Turkey, Chile, India, England, Italy and Trinidad… published Open Access.' (primary source · build store)
• UCL, ucl.ac.uk (accessed 2026-10-29): 'Daniel Miller completed two ERC five year projects. Why We Post produced twelve volumes including How the World Changed Social Media… They are all available as open access with UCL Press.' (primary source · build store)
• LSE blog / Parenting for a Digital Future, eprints.lse.ac.uk (accessed 2026-10-29): 'a hugely ambitious project called Why We Post, led by Miller and a team of nine anthropologists at University College London. For 15 months, the nine anthropologists conducted simultaneous fieldwork in global sites in Brazil, Italy, India, China (a rural and a factory town), Trinidad, Turkey, England and Chile.' (build store)

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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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