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  • © 2019

Anthropological Perspectives on the Religious Uses of Mobile Apps

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Offers a wide-ranging consideration of religious app use in multiple religious and cultural contexts
  • Combines insights from digital anthropology with digital religion and media studies
  • Provides an anthropological perspective on important, contemporary questions of mediated culture

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
  2. Piety in the Pocket: An Introduction

    • Jacqueline H. Fewkes
    Pages 1-16
  3. Back Matter

    Pages 241-248

About this book

This edited volume deploys digital ethnography in varied contexts to explore the cultural roles of mobile apps that focus on religious practice and communities, as well as those used for religious purposes (whether or not they were originally developed for that purpose). Combining analyses of local contexts with insights and methods from the global subfield of digital anthropology, the contributors here recognize the complex ways that in-app and on-ground worlds interact in a wide range of communities and traditions. While some of the case studies emphasize the cultural significance of use in local contexts and relationships to pre-existing knowledge networks and/or non-digital relationships of power, others explore the globalizing and democratizing influences of mobile apps as communication technologies. From Catholic confession apps to Jewish Kaddish assistance apps and Muslim halal food apps, readers will see how religious-themed mobile apps create complex sites for potential new forms of religious expression, worship, discussion, and practices. 

Editors and Affiliations

  • Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, Florida Atlantic University, Jupiter, USA

    Jacqueline H. Fewkes

About the editor

Jacqueline H. Fewkes is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University, USA. Dr. Fewkes is also the author of the books Locating Maldivian Women’s Mosques in Global Discourses (2019), and Trade and Contemporary Society along the Silk Road: An Ethno-history of Ladakh (2008).

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Anthropological Perspectives on the Religious Uses of Mobile Apps

  • Editors: Jacqueline H. Fewkes

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26376-8

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-26375-1Published: 21 October 2019

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-26378-2Published: 21 October 2020

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-26376-8Published: 10 October 2019

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XVII, 248

  • Number of Illustrations: 3 b/w illustrations, 5 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Comparative Religion, Social Anthropology, Media Sociology, Science and Technology Studies, Sociology of Religion

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access