Prof.
Basile
Zimmermann
Professeur assistant
Tel.: +41 22 379 7240
Rue Gutenberg 6, 1201 Geneva, Switzerland
Research and publications
Contemporary China, Science and Technology Studies, Sociology of Art
Books
Common Chinese Characters, with Nicolas Zufferey. Paris : Youfeng, 2007 (160 p.)
The Impact of Western Technology on Chinese Culture: Beijing Electronic Musicians Practices as Observation Field of the Relationship Between Technical Objects and Artistic Creation, PhD thesis, Cyberthèses, University of Geneva, 2006 (318 p.) [in French]. See also the presentation Technology and Cultural Difference at Lift10, and the Interview by the Swiss National Television History of Knowledge, Outstanding Swiss young scientists series[in French].
Papers
“Analyzing Social Networking Web Sites: The Design of Happy Network 开心网 in China” In Global Design History, edited by Glenn Adamson, Giorgio Riello, and Sarah Teasley, 153-62. New York: Routledge, 2011.
“Redesigning Culture: Chinese Characters in Alphabet-Encoded Networks”, Design and Culture (Berg Publishers), vol. 2-1 (2010), pp. 27-43.
“Words of the First Level [in French]”. In G. Poizat, Contemporary Chinese Vocabulary I, 135-163. Paris: L'Asiathèque, 2008.
"The Containers Approach : An Inductive Method to look at Cultural Difference in a Technological Environment." Poster presentation, World Knowledge Dialogue, Crans-Montana, Switzerland, September 10-13, 2008 (Best Poster Contribution Award).
"Doing Chinese Studies at the Crossroads of Grounded Theory and Actor-Network-Theory." Paper presented at the 7th International Conference on Social Science Methodology, Re‐discovering Grounded Theory workshop. Campus di Monte Sant' Angelo, Naples, Italy, September 1- 5, 2008.
“Uncovering Cultural Issues in the Internet of Things: A Design Method.” Paper presented at the Internet of Things 2008 (Social-IoT Workshop, Designing the Internet of Things for Workplace Realities: Social and Cultural Aspects in Design and Organisation), Adjunct Proceedings, Florian Michahelles (Ed.), pp. 100-104, Zurich, 2008.
«Tracing the Action of Technical Objects in an Ethnography: Vinyls in Beijing », In Qualitative Sociology Review, Vol. III Issue 3 (2007), pp. 22-45.
«When the Chinese Teach Us What Technology is Really About »Towards a Knowledge Society: Is Knowledge a Public Good?, ESSHRA Conference proceedings, Bern 12-13th of June 2007.
«Technology is Culture: Two Paradigms». In Leonardo Music Journal, (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press), 15.1 (2005), pp. 53-57.
«Technology's Attitude Toward The Chinese: Synthesizers, Music Software and Turntables in Contemporary Beijing», Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations 2004, Science and Technology Workshop proceedings, Shanghai, 18-21of August, 2004 (19 p.)