My name is Zane Kripe. I am a PhD student at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University, the Netherlands.

I research ethnographically the Southeast Asian technology startup scene and the making of digital businesses. Trying to understand what does it mean to be an entrepreneur in the new economy I focus particularly on Singapore as the regional centre of Southeast Asia.

Following the quest of building “Asian technology for Asia” and “Silicon Valleys of Southeast Asia” I examine the position of geeks, entrepreneurs, investors and others involved in the tech startup space in relation to state, economy and globalisation. At the intersections of technology and business cultures I explore the aspirations and ideas about the future linked to the so called knowledge economy.

My Phd research is part of a “The Future is Elsewhere: towards a Comparative History of Digital Futurities” project funded by the Dutch National Research Foundation (NWO). The project is an exploration of various forms of future, their histories and cultural grammars. Read more about it here.

Prof. Peter Pels and Dr. Bart Barendregt are my supervisors. In addition I am guided by my wonderful colleague Dr. Dorien Zandbergen.

I hold a MSc in Media Technology (Leiden University, the Netherlands) and BA in Political Science (Riga Stradins University, Latvia).

I blog at Leiden Anthropology blog. Under “I write” you’ll find those and some other writings of mine. Publications are listed on my Academia.edu profile.

Feel free to contact me, sign up for updates on this site or follow me on twitter.