Announcement: 25.04.2025 – Online Lecture by Daniel McFarlane and Yannik Mieruch: "Smartphones and Community in Bangkok's Platform Economy: Possible Directions in Thai Studies"

25 April 2025, 2:00 pm, by AAI Webmaster

Photo: Daniel McFarlane and Yannik Mieruch (cropped)

We kindly invite you to this online lecture in English language on Friday, April 25th, 2025, at 14:00–16:00 h (CEST/MESZ).

Topic:
    "Smartphones and Community in Bangkok’s Platform Economy: Possible Directions in Thai Studies"

Speakers:
    Prof. Daniel McFarlane (PhD) and Yannik Mieruch (MA)

Affiliation:
    Mahidol University and Thammasat University

Date/Time:
    April 25^th, 2025 (Friday), 14:00 – 16:00 (CEST/MESZ)

Language:
    English

Zoom Link:
    https://uni-hamburg.zoom.us/j/64563521222?pwd=OEdSbENCOUV2Ynl5ZUdnNG5mM1pwQT09

Zoom Meeting-ID:
    645 6352 1222

Zoom Passcode:
    hgtlecture

About this lecture:

Daniel McFarlane and Yannik Mieruch will discuss their recent article "Smartphones and 'doing community' in Bangkok’s platform economy: A Weberian Analysis" and explore possible directions in Thai studies. Applying Max Weber’s conceptualisation of Vergemeinschaftung or 'doing community', they examine emergent communities of platform-based delivery workers in Bangkok. Their offline and online ethnographic research illustrates how delivery workers actively 'do community' on the streets of Bangkok and leverage smartphones and social media to extend their communities to the online realm. They show how these community practices are culturally constituted and share characteristics with pre-existing communities in the transportation sector in Thailand that are under pressure from rationalisation. However, their ethnographic findings also reveal that it is out of the rational conditions of gig work that delivery workers cultivate community. Their analysis demonstrates how Weber’s theory effectively captures the dialectical dynamics of ‘doing community’ and rationalisation in Thailand’s digital economy. See the following link to read their article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448241312653.

Brief profile of Prof. Daniel McFarlane (PhD):

Daniel McFarlane has a PhD from the Australian National University’s Department of Political and Social Change in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs. He is currently a lecturer at Mahidol University’s Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities in Thailand. He is interested in class, inequality and community in Thailand, the social dimensions of the digital economy, and discourses of sustainable and digital development.

Brief profile of Yannik Mieruch (MA):

Yannik Mieruch is currently a PhD candidate at the School of Global Studies, Thammasat University, Thailand. His research critically examines the intersections of international development, labour relations, and digital technology, with a focus on the platform economy, internet connectivity policy, and digital skills.

We would like to thank the Hamburg Society for Thai Studies for the cooperation. 

You can also find all this information on our Instagram account and on our flyer.