Introduction

Digital infrastructures, like many other infrastructures, are beginning to cause “drama”. Their perennial breakdown and disruption have been noted as a matter of risk assessment, regulation, and compliance. In science and technology studies (STS) and anthropology, the book argues, digital security can be approached as a form of technological maintenance. Rather than overcoming breakdowns and disruptions, this book brings strategies of living with broken technologies to the fore, captured by the notion fragile computing. The chapter introduces the methodological approach in this book, as well as challenges connected to ethnographic studies of digital security. It concludes with a discussion of the term “fragile computing” that is further developed throughout the book.