{"product_id":"virtually-amish-isbn-9780262543637","title":"Virtually Amish","description":"\u003cb\u003eHow the Amish have adopted certain digital tools in ways that allow them to work and live according to their own value system.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Amish are famous for their disconnection from the modern world and all its devices. But, as Lindsay Ems shows in \u003ci\u003eVirtually Amish\u003c\/i\u003e, Old Order Amish today are selectively engaging with digital technology. The Amish need digital tools to participate in the economy—websites for ecommerce, for example, and cell phones for communication on the road—but they have developed strategies for making limited use of these tools while still living and working according to the values of their community. The way they do this, Ems suggests, holds lessons for all of us about resisting the negative forces of what has been called “high-tech capitalism.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eEms shows how the Amish do not allow technology to drive their behavior; instead, they actively configure their sociotechnical world to align with their values and protect their community’s autonomy. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted in two Old Order Amish settlements in Indiana, Ems explores explicit rules and implicit norms as innovations for resisting negative impacts of digital technology. She describes the ingenious contraptions the Amish devise—including “the black-box phone,” a landline phone attached to a device that connects to a cellular network when plugged into a car’s cigarette lighter—and considers the value of human-centered approaches to communication. Non-Amish technology users would do well to take note of Amish methods of adopting digital technologies in ways that empower people and acknowledge their shared humanity. 1 Happiest in the Margins: Amish Approaches to Participation in High-Tech Capitalism 1\u003cbr\u003e2 From the Fence to the Switch: Configuring Communication Systems for Sanctuary 13\u003cbr\u003e3 Explicit Structure, Communal Decisions: Setting Sanctuary's Bounds 33\u003cbr\u003e4 Where the \"Rules\" End, Informal Approaches to Behavior Change Begin 45\u003cbr\u003e5 Critical Amish Makers 73\u003cbr\u003e6 Internet Management: Configuring the Amish Internet 131\u003cbr\u003e7 Holism and a Preference for Face-to-Face Communication 145\u003cbr\u003e8 Communicating Strategically for Amish Empowerment 173\u003cbr\u003eAppendix: Notes on Field Sites 181\u003cbr\u003eNote 189\u003cbr\u003eReferences 191\u003cbr\u003eIndex 197“Ems’s research offers a fascinating window into what an incremental and thoughtful approach could begin to look like for non-Amish and how to navigate ongoing digital technology pressure—reminding us that we do, in fact, have a choice.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMennonite Quarterly Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Well-researched and engagingly narrated.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTechnology and Culture\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“\u003ci\u003eVirtually Amish\u003c\/i\u003e offers a detailed and insightful exploration of how digital technology has already made its presence—and its perils—known in Amish communities.... Informative, well-researched, and entertaining.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—\u003ci\u003eNova Religio\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“The first sentences of this book draw you into a world of seeming contradictions—an older Amish entrepreneur who is a self-described ‘technology buff.’ What Ems deftly shows us by the conclusion of \u003ci\u003eVirtually Amish\u003c\/i\u003e is that it is our assumptions, not how people tend the boundaries and meaning of their shared lives, that we should reconsider. Written with crisp prose detailing how Amish families and religious leaders constitute the meaning of ‘traditional ways of life,’ Ems makes it clear that what matters most about technologies isn’t their absence or presence. Ems smartly pushes beyond facile debates about the digital divide, focusing instead on how the Amish illustrate that even those who seem furthest from the center of technological innovation are always creatively remaking them through strategies of connection and disconnection in their everyday lives.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eMary Gray, Senior Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research; Faculty Associate, Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The Amish—unlikely to be digital influencers—show us one way to draw on culture to regain control over our digital future. This compelling account of Amish resistance to digitization provides a surprising model for the rest of us.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eAdam Fish, Scientia Associate Professor, University of New South Wales\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e “Rooted in extensive ethnographic evidence, \u003ci\u003eVirtually Amish\u003c\/i\u003e makes an important empirical and conceptual contribution to our understanding of the relationship between digital technologies and society. It is a touchstone text for understanding how the Amish view and use technologies.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eRob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth\u003c\/b\u003eLindsay Ems is Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Butler University.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301000040677,"sku":"NP9780262543637","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262543637.jpg?v=1767743479","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/virtually-amish-isbn-9780262543637","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}