Podcasts about Digital sociology

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, and guest host, Paula Bialski, Associate Professor for Digital Sociology at the University of St. Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland, interview Gabriella Coleman, Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University, about her long career studying hacker cultures. Topics include how hacking has changed over time, the different colored “hats” used to describe different hacker ethoses, the aesthetic dimensions of hacking including how poorly written code leads to moral outrage, and how Biella may soon found a new field of Critical Mold Studies. Professor Coleman's books include Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking and Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous. Professor Bialski, a former P&T guest, is the author of Middletech: Software Work and the Culture of Good Enough. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, and guest host, Paula Bialski, Associate Professor for Digital Sociology at the University of St. Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland, interview Gabriella Coleman, Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University, about her long career studying hacker cultures. Topics include how hacking has changed over time, the different colored “hats” used to describe different hacker ethoses, the aesthetic dimensions of hacking including how poorly written code leads to moral outrage, and how Biella may soon found a new field of Critical Mold Studies. Professor Coleman's books include Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking and Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous. Professor Bialski, a former P&T guest, is the author of Middletech: Software Work and the Culture of Good Enough. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, and guest host, Paula Bialski, Associate Professor for Digital Sociology at the University of St. Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland, interview Gabriella Coleman, Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University, about her long career studying hacker cultures. Topics include how hacking has changed over time, the different colored “hats” used to describe different hacker ethoses, the aesthetic dimensions of hacking including how poorly written code leads to moral outrage, and how Biella may soon found a new field of Critical Mold Studies. Professor Coleman's books include Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking and Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous. Professor Bialski, a former P&T guest, is the author of Middletech: Software Work and the Culture of Good Enough. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, and guest host, Paula Bialski, Associate Professor for Digital Sociology at the University of St. Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland, interview Gabriella Coleman, Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University, about her long career studying hacker cultures. Topics include how hacking has changed over time, the different colored “hats” used to describe different hacker ethoses, the aesthetic dimensions of hacking including how poorly written code leads to moral outrage, and how Biella may soon found a new field of Critical Mold Studies. Professor Coleman's books include Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking and Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous. Professor Bialski, a former P&T guest, is the author of Middletech: Software Work and the Culture of Good Enough. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-technology-and-society

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, and guest host, Paula Bialski, Associate Professor for Digital Sociology at the University of St. Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland, interview Gabriella Coleman, Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University, about her long career studying hacker cultures. Topics include how hacking has changed over time, the different colored “hats” used to describe different hacker ethoses, the aesthetic dimensions of hacking including how poorly written code leads to moral outrage, and how Biella may soon found a new field of Critical Mold Studies. Professor Coleman's books include Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking and Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous. Professor Bialski, a former P&T guest, is the author of Middletech: Software Work and the Culture of Good Enough. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/technology

Are the apps on your phone subtly rewiring your brain? Digital sociologist Dr. Julie Albright returns to the pod this week to discuss how social media's dopamine-driven design is reshaping our behavior and society itself. While humans are naturally wired for connection, the random rewards from these apps are creating ripple effects we can't ignore. Learn more about Dr. Albright's groundbreaking research and explore the psychological and social consequences of our app-driven world. --- ABOUT OUR GUEST Dr. Julie Albright is one of the leading experts in Digital Sociology. Dr. Albright is currently a Lecturer in the departments of Applied Psychology and Engineering at USC, where she teaches masters courses on the Psychology of Interactive Technologies and Sustainable Infrastructure. She has given keynotes for major data center, energy, and other industry conferences and also appeared as an expert on national media, including The Today Show, CNN, NBC Nightly News, CBS, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and NPR. --- SUBSCRIBE TO THE SERIES: YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube Music | Overcast FOLLOW US: Website | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn POWERED BY CLASSLINK: ClassLink provides one-click single sign-on into web and Windows applications, and instant access to files at school and in the cloud. Accessible from any computer, tablet, or smartphone, ClassLink is ideal for 1to1 and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives. Learn more at classlink.com.

Laurie Taylor lifts the lid on a sector of the economy associated with wealth, innovation & genius. Mark Graham, Professor of Internet Geography at the Oxford Internet Institute, uncovers the hidden human labour powering AI. His study, based on hundreds of interviews and thousands of hours of fieldwork, is the first to tell the stories of this army of underpaid and exploited workers. Beneath the promise of a frictionless technology that will bring riches to humanity, the interviews he has conducted reveal a grimmer reality involving a precarious global workforce of millions labouring under often appalling conditions. Also, Paula Bialski, Associate Professor for Digital Sociology at the University of St. Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland, discusses her research with software developers at a non-flashy, run-of-the-mill tech company. Beyond the awesome images of the Gods of Silicone Valley, she finds that technology breaks due to human-related issues and staff are often engaged in patch up and repair, rather than dreaming up the next killer app. Producer: Jayne Egerton

Peoples & Things host Lee Vinsel talks with Paula Bialski, an Associate Professor for Digital Sociology at the University of St. Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland, about her recent book, Middle Tech: Software Work and the Culture of Good Enough (Princeton UP, 2024). The pair talk about the art of ethnographic study of software work, and how, maybe, our world could do with a healthy dose of good enough-ness. They also scheme about some potential collaborations here on Peoples & Things, which you should definitely keep an eye out for. (You should also check out Paula's folk pop group, Paula & Karol, whose music was greatly enjoyed while working on this episode.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Peoples & Things host Lee Vinsel talks with Paula Bialski, an Associate Professor for Digital Sociology at the University of St. Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland, about her recent book, Middle Tech: Software Work and the Culture of Good Enough (Princeton UP, 2024). The pair talk about the art of ethnographic study of software work, and how, maybe, our world could do with a healthy dose of good enough-ness. They also scheme about some potential collaborations here on Peoples & Things, which you should definitely keep an eye out for. (You should also check out Paula's folk pop group, Paula & Karol, whose music was greatly enjoyed while working on this episode.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology

Peoples & Things host Lee Vinsel talks with Paula Bialski, an Associate Professor for Digital Sociology at the University of St. Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland, about her recent book, Middle Tech: Software Work and the Culture of Good Enough (Princeton UP, 2024). The pair talk about the art of ethnographic study of software work, and how, maybe, our world could do with a healthy dose of good enough-ness. They also scheme about some potential collaborations here on Peoples & Things, which you should definitely keep an eye out for. (You should also check out Paula's folk pop group, Paula & Karol, whose music was greatly enjoyed while working on this episode.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

Peoples & Things host Lee Vinsel talks with Paula Bialski, an Associate Professor for Digital Sociology at the University of St. Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland, about her recent book, Middle Tech: Software Work and the Culture of Good Enough (Princeton UP, 2024). The pair talk about the art of ethnographic study of software work, and how, maybe, our world could do with a healthy dose of good enough-ness. They also scheme about some potential collaborations here on Peoples & Things, which you should definitely keep an eye out for. (You should also check out Paula's folk pop group, Paula & Karol, whose music was greatly enjoyed while working on this episode.)

Peoples & Things host Lee Vinsel talks with Paula Bialski, an Associate Professor for Digital Sociology at the University of St. Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland, about her recent book, Middle Tech: Software Work and the Culture of Good Enough (Princeton UP, 2024). The pair talk about the art of ethnographic study of software work, and how, maybe, our world could do with a healthy dose of good enough-ness. They also scheme about some potential collaborations here on Peoples & Things, which you should definitely keep an eye out for. (You should also check out Paula's folk pop group, Paula & Karol, whose music was greatly enjoyed while working on this episode.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-technology-and-society

Peoples & Things host Lee Vinsel talks with Paula Bialski, an Associate Professor for Digital Sociology at the University of St. Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland, about her recent book, Middle Tech: Software Work and the Culture of Good Enough (Princeton UP, 2024). The pair talk about the art of ethnographic study of software work, and how, maybe, our world could do with a healthy dose of good enough-ness. They also scheme about some potential collaborations here on Peoples & Things, which you should definitely keep an eye out for. (You should also check out Paula's folk pop group, Paula & Karol, whose music was greatly enjoyed while working on this episode.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/technology

In this episode, hosts Jim McDonald and Jeff Steadman are live from Identiverse 2024, where they catch up with old friends and meet new faces. They dive into the highlights of the conference, including the overwhelming support from listeners and the buzz around Jim's infamous jacket. Joining them are Ian Glazer, Arynn Crow, and Allan Foster from the Digital Identity Advancement Foundation (DIAF), along with Kim Cameron Award winners Sophie Bennani-Taylor and Matthew Spence. The discussion covers the mission of DIAF, the impact of the Kim Cameron Award, and the personal journeys of Sophie and Matthew in the digital identity space. Listeners get a glimpse into the experiences of the award winners at Identiverse, their thoughts on digital identity, and their favorite moments from the conference. The episode wraps up with fun anecdotes about their time in Las Vegas, including an escape room adventure and culinary highlights. Learn more about the Digital Identity Advancement Foundation (DIAF) and how you can contribute - https://diaf.link/donate Ian Glazer - https://www.linkedin.com/in/iglazer/ Arynn Crow - https://www.linkedin.com/in/arynn-crow-821761103/ Allan Foster - https://www.linkedin.com/in/allanfoster/ Kim Cameron award recipients: Sophie Bennani-Taylor - https://www.linkedin.com/in/0sophie-taylor/ Matthew Spence - https://www.linkedin.com/in/spence-m/ TechCongress - https://www.techcongress.io/congressional-innovation-fellowship Jim's Jacket - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZD8NGWZ Attending Identity Week in Europe, America, or Asia? Use our discount code IDAC30 for 30% off your registration fee! Learn more at: Europe: https://www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/identity-week/ America: https://www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/identity-week-america Asia: https://www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/identity-week-asia/ Connect with us on LinkedIn: Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/ Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/ Visit the show on the web at http://idacpodcast.com and watch at https://www.youtube.com/@idacpodcast

In a couple of recent episodes guests have mentioned concerns about battle passes.  So, in this episode we decided to explore how they work, how they differ from traditional  subscription models or microtransactions, why they're so popular today with game companies, and whether they raise any serious ethical concerns. ---------------------------------------------------------------  Daniel Joseph is a Senior Lecturer of Digital Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University where he researches internet infrastructure, platforms, apps, and games. He's also written for a number of publications, including Briarpatch Magazine, Motherboard, and Real Life Magazine.  Follow Daniel on Twitter at @DanjoKaz00ie. ------------------------------------------------------------ JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY: - Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube  - Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com - If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it!  You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST! - Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts - If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know!  Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at contact@ethicsandvideogames.com.  We'd love to hear from you! Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell Music and graphics by Daniel Sher

Paris Marx is joined by Daniel Joseph to discuss why advertising is central not just to the tech economy, but modern capitalism itself, and how the business models of companies are increasing shaped by serving ads and collecting data to inform them.Daniel Joseph is a Senior Lecturer of Digital Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University. He's also written for a number of publications, including Briarpatch Magazine, Motherboard, and Real Life Magazine. Follow Daniel on Twitter at @DanjoKaz00ie.Tech Won't Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, support the show on Patreon, and sign up for the weekly newsletter.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.Also mentioned in this episode:Daniel wrote about how advertising and the need to create audiences is much more central to the tech economy than is often discussed.Shoshana Wodinsky explained why so many companies are getting into advertising, including hotel chains, retailers, and more.Unity faced criticism for merging with IronSource, a known advertising malware distributor.After reporting a subscriber decline earlier this year, Netflix launched an ad-supported tier in October.Companies like Apple and Uber are expanding their efforts to increase advertising revenue.Ramon Lobato wrote Netflix Nations: The Geography of Digital Distribution.Support the show

For this episode I spoke to Michael Rosino about his book Debating the Drug War: Race, Politics, and the Media which comes from a detailed analysis of the discourse on drug policy and race in newspapers and the comment sections of their online versions. Michael tells me about the discourses he identified which often deny racism and racial oppression as a factor in patterns of criminalisation of groups in drug related crime statistics. Michael is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Molloy College, Long Island, New York and you can follow him on Twitter @michaelrosino You can listen to the episode and subscribe on the Anchor website via the link below or by searching for “Digital Sociology Podcast” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever else you get podcasts. This will be the last episode for a while but I hope to be back with some more in the future. However, in the meantime I will be launching a new series of my Social Theory Podcast in the next couple of weeks.

For this episode I spoke to Peter Bloom who is a Professor of Management at the University of Essex, Owain Smolović Jones who is Director of the Open University's Research into Employment, Empowerment and Futures academic centre of excellence and Jamie Woodcock who is Senior Lecturer at the Open University. We talk about their new book Guerilla Democracy: Mobile Power and Revolution in the 21st Century which is a theoretically sophisticated analysis of digital politics. We have a fascinating chat about different examples of radical collective action (from striking cinema and restaurant workers to anti-vaxxers and the storming of the Capitol) and the guests suggest some creative and challenging ways of understanding these events. What role have digital technologies and networks played in these events? Do they enable easier and more effective political action? Are these digitally facilitated resistances only disruptive or can they lead to constructive political alternatives? You can follow Peter on Twitter @pbloombk, Owain @SunnOwain and Jamie @jamie_woodcock You can listen to the episode and subscribe on the Anchor website via the link below or by searching for “Digital Sociology Podcast” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever else you get podcasts.

This episode is a really great chat I had with Ben Jacobsen and David Beer both of The University of York. We talk about their new book Social Media and the Automatic Production of Memory Classification, Ranking and the Sorting of the Past which is an exploration of the ways in which social media engages with memory and how this becomes significant for their platforms. They focus on the "Facebook Memories" app within the Facebook platform which generates reminders to users of previous posts, photos or other content. We talk about what kinds of memories Facebook values and how it draws in previous interactions to create new content which is likely to produce more engagement in the present. They tell me about how the distinction between a "real" memory and one created by Facebook is blurring and how the platform's perspective on what memories are valuable differ from those of users. This also tells us a lot about the role which the platform plays in creating or assessing the value of memories. You can read more about their work in an LSE blog post. You can follow Ben on Twitter @bn_jacobsen and find David's website here.

Rich Gall (@richggall) and Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) talk with digital anthropologist Caitlin McDonald about what it means to be a digital anthropologist and why it matters in helping us to understand the way we build and use technology today. Caitlin begins by talking through how her work intersects with questions of agency and digital literacy, providing some useful context on how perceptions and understanding about what techbology does and how it's made can have an impact on the way it influences our lives. She also explains why there's a growing need for anthropological thinking in the tech industry, and why businesses and governments are starting to see the value in the disciplines specific ways of thinking about culture and communication. She also talks about digital anthropology in the context of the emerging conversation around ethics, and how changes in legislation and compliance rules is increasing demand for work that can help companies tackle these issues head on.We also discuss ethnography, and compare it to quantitative research. Caitlin notes that there's an emerging scepticism of quantitative methods and its ability to deliver value. Finally, we talk about Caitlin's work outside of digital anthropology, such as her work as a coach and her personal technology projects.  She emphasises the value of having a space to adopt a more playful and less productive approach to technology and to "reconnect with technical skills in a low-stakes way."Follow Caitlin MacDonald on Twitter: @cmcd_phdExplore Caitlin's techy projectsLearn more about EPIC and ethnography in industryLearn more about Microsoft's ethics game, Judgment CallRead Tricia Wang's Why Big Data Needs Thick Data

In this episode I spoke to Scott Timcke who is a comparative historical sociologist, with an interest in race, class, and technology in modernity. He is a research associate with the University of Johannesburg's Centre for Social Change and a fellow at the University of Leeds' Centre for African Studies. The basis of our discussion is Scott's book Algorithms and the end of Politics: How Technology Shapes 21st Century American Life which was published in 2021 by Bristol University Press. Scott tells about how algorithms and processes of datafication are influencing how politics functions. In particular, how the role which particular form of capitalism which has been enabled by the internet and digital technologies and networks affects politics. We talk about credit rating systems, the hidden ways in which we are influenced, Trump and the progress which needs to be made on considerations of race in our analysis of politics and technology amongst many other things. It was was really fascinating to talk to Scott who has immense knowledge on how technology and politics function and is a great communicator. I mention that Scott has been on my other podcast but as things have panned out this episode has come out before the other ones have. But those new Social Theory Podcasts will be coming out in a few weeks (after this current run of the Digital Sociology Podcast). You can follow Scott on Twitter @scotttimcke and read his previous book Capital, State & Empire: The New American Way of Digital Warfare via the University of Westminster Press website (Open Access).

There has been a huge gap since the last episode as life, work and then Covid got in the way. I will be putting out a few episodes over the next few weeks which have all been recorded recently with the exception of this first interview with Mark Wong. This was recorded in 2019 and was intended to be the first of a series which I didn't manage to do at the time. But Mark's work is fascinating to reflect on in 2021 as he has done fascinating work on "Hidden Youth", that is, young people who spend all or most of their time at home engaging with other people solely online. This has been a familiar experience to many people over the last 18 months or so which makes Mark's research and insights more important than ever. Mark tells me about this growing phenomenon and the experiences of people he spoke to which challenge some of the perceptions of people who spend much of their time physically alone at home. The "Hidden Youth" are not necessarily isolated or disconnected, rather, they are highly connected with others and well-informed about cultural issues and trends. Also, in many cases digital communication facilitated more meaningful and emotional engagement and connection. Central to Mark's work is a comparison between "Hidden Youth" in Scotland and in Hong Kong and we talk about some of the differences between these two contexts. Mark Wong is a Lecturer in Public Policy and Research Methods in the School of Social & Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow. You can read Mark's article on "Hidden Youth" in New Media & Society and in his university repository. You can follow Mark on Twitter @UoG_MarkWong

Part of the Humanities Cultural Programme, one of the founding stones for the future Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities. This panel discussion and conversation with artist Khaled Kaddal examines The Formula of Giving Heart as a piercing study of our contemporary socio-political environment. Drawing from a variety of theoretical and creative perspectives, the panellists variously explore such themes as the global increase in physical confinement(s), the rise of cybernetics and biodata, and the continued privileging of contemporary science/medicine as distinct from other historical practices of healing. Exploring these phenomena amid a backdrop of global precarity, The Formula for Giving Heart forges fascinating linkages between seemingly disparate phenomena. It demonstrates how spatial imprisonment exists in and through hyperlinked and technologized (global) networks, ancient Pharaonic languages map onto and exist as contemporary (computer) code, and apparently distinct socio-political events—from the Coronavirus pandemic to the 2011 Egyptian revolution—can feel familiar through the very extraordinary nature of their temporal and affective regimes. Exploring these themes through the world premiere of Kaddal's newest work, this panel broadly considers our present moment as well as the shifting nature of sonic and visual performance during a time of global crisis and ever increasing technologization. Christopher Haworth is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Music at the University of Birmingham. His scholarly interests lie in the broad areas of electronic music and sound art, which he researches using a mixture of historiographic, philosophical, and ethnographic research methods. He is currently researching the short-lived 'cyber theory' moment that accompanied mid-1990s hype for the internet and World Wide Web in Britain, and he was previously an AHRC Early Career Leadership Fellow on Music and the Internet: Towards a Digital Sociology of Music. He also composes computer music, often incorporating principles from psychoacoustics, music psychology, and cybernetics. Khaled Kaddal is a Nubian visual artist and sound performer, raised in Egypt and currently resident in London. Allaying science and politics, spirituality and technology, he works with two interdependent abstractions; ‘Immortality of Time' and ‘Sovereignty of Space', in search for the imperishable balance between intelligence, emotions and moral judgments. Recent solo show at Overgaden Institut for Samtidskunst, Copenhagen; group exhibitions include ‘One the Edge' at Science Gallery, London; '10 Years of Production' at Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah; ‘What do you mean, here we are?' at Mosaic Rooms Gallery, London; ‘Art Olympics' at Tokyo Metropolitan ArtMuseum, Tokyo; Performances at ‘Keep quite and Dance' at Cairotronica Symposium, Cairo; Zentrum der Kunster Hellerau, Dresden; and ‘Daily Concerns' at Dilston Grove Gallery, London. Kaddal has an upcoming show at 5th Biennale Internationale de Casablanca, Morocco; and a Resident Fellow at Uniarts Helsinki, Finland. He studied Computer Science at AAST (EG), and Sound Art at the University of the Arts London (UK). Darci Sprengel is an ethnomusicologist and Junior Research Fellow in Music at St John's College, University of Oxford. Her research examines contemporary music in Egypt at the intersections of technology, capitalism, and politics. She is currently completing her first book, 'Postponed Endings': Youth Music and Affective Politics in Post-Revolution Egypt, which examines Egyptian independent music in relation to conditions of military-capitalism. She has two additional research projects. The first analyses music streaming technologies in the global South using a feminist and critical race approach to digital media. The second explores the influence of sub-Saharan African culture in Egyptian popular culture. Christabel Stirling is a musicologist specialising in ethnographic approaches to music and sound art in contemporary urban environments. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow on the ERC-funded project ‘Sonorous Cities: Towards a Sonic Urbanism', based at the Music Faculty at the University of Oxford. Her research explores the social relations and coalitions that music and sound produce in their live forms, focusing particularly on the potential for such coalitions to transform or reinforce existing social and spatial orders. 

Part of the Humanities Cultural Programme, one of the founding stones for the future Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities. This panel discussion and conversation with artist Khaled Kaddal examines The Formula of Giving Heart as a piercing study of our contemporary socio-political environment. Drawing from a variety of theoretical and creative perspectives, the panellists variously explore such themes as the global increase in physical confinement(s), the rise of cybernetics and biodata, and the continued privileging of contemporary science/medicine as distinct from other historical practices of healing. Exploring these phenomena amid a backdrop of global precarity, The Formula for Giving Heart forges fascinating linkages between seemingly disparate phenomena. It demonstrates how spatial imprisonment exists in and through hyperlinked and technologized (global) networks, ancient Pharaonic languages map onto and exist as contemporary (computer) code, and apparently distinct socio-political events—from the Coronavirus pandemic to the 2011 Egyptian revolution—can feel familiar through the very extraordinary nature of their temporal and affective regimes. Exploring these themes through the world premiere of Kaddal's newest work, this panel broadly considers our present moment as well as the shifting nature of sonic and visual performance during a time of global crisis and ever increasing technologization. Christopher Haworth is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Music at the University of Birmingham. His scholarly interests lie in the broad areas of electronic music and sound art, which he researches using a mixture of historiographic, philosophical, and ethnographic research methods. He is currently researching the short-lived 'cyber theory' moment that accompanied mid-1990s hype for the internet and World Wide Web in Britain, and he was previously an AHRC Early Career Leadership Fellow on Music and the Internet: Towards a Digital Sociology of Music. He also composes computer music, often incorporating principles from psychoacoustics, music psychology, and cybernetics. Khaled Kaddal is a Nubian visual artist and sound performer, raised in Egypt and currently resident in London. Allaying science and politics, spirituality and technology, he works with two interdependent abstractions; ‘Immortality of Time' and ‘Sovereignty of Space', in search for the imperishable balance between intelligence, emotions and moral judgments. Recent solo show at Overgaden Institut for Samtidskunst, Copenhagen; group exhibitions include ‘One the Edge' at Science Gallery, London; '10 Years of Production' at Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah; ‘What do you mean, here we are?' at Mosaic Rooms Gallery, London; ‘Art Olympics' at Tokyo Metropolitan ArtMuseum, Tokyo; Performances at ‘Keep quite and Dance' at Cairotronica Symposium, Cairo; Zentrum der Kunster Hellerau, Dresden; and ‘Daily Concerns' at Dilston Grove Gallery, London. Kaddal has an upcoming show at 5th Biennale Internationale de Casablanca, Morocco; and a Resident Fellow at Uniarts Helsinki, Finland. He studied Computer Science at AAST (EG), and Sound Art at the University of the Arts London (UK). Darci Sprengel is an ethnomusicologist and Junior Research Fellow in Music at St John's College, University of Oxford. Her research examines contemporary music in Egypt at the intersections of technology, capitalism, and politics. She is currently completing her first book, 'Postponed Endings': Youth Music and Affective Politics in Post-Revolution Egypt, which examines Egyptian independent music in relation to conditions of military-capitalism. She has two additional research projects. The first analyses music streaming technologies in the global South using a feminist and critical race approach to digital media. The second explores the influence of sub-Saharan African culture in Egyptian popular culture. Christabel Stirling is a musicologist specialising in ethnographic approaches to music and sound art in contemporary urban environments. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow on the ERC-funded project ‘Sonorous Cities: Towards a Sonic Urbanism', based at the Music Faculty at the University of Oxford. Her research explores the social relations and coalitions that music and sound produce in their live forms, focusing particularly on the potential for such coalitions to transform or reinforce existing social and spatial orders. 

I spoke to my friend Paula Bialski, Paula is the sister to Rosa Loess ( Episode 241) and is currently living in Switzerland. Paula is an Associate Professor for Digital Sociology at the University of St. Gallen. She is an ethnographer of digital technologies, and has authored many books and articles around the topic. She is also a professional musician with the Warsaw-based band Paula & Karol. They have released the EP “Goodnight Warsaw” (2009), LP “Overshare” (2010), “Whole Again” (2012), Heartwash (2014), “Our Town” (2017), and the upcoming “Lifestrange” (Summer 2021). In our conversation Bialski and I discuss her work as a Professor, marketing yourself as a musician and life in Switzerland. Find out more on Dreams Not Memes Podcast. Socials FB: https://www.facebook.com/paulaikarol/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/paulaikarol New single: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcbpELDIsZw --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/dreamsnotmemes/support

In this episode we speak with Paula Bialski, Associated Professor of Digital Sociology at University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Paula’s research focuses on the impact of digital media on working cultures, communication and the concept of intimacy. In this podcast we discuss her current book project entitled Slow Software which is based on a two-year ethnographic study examining the operating modes and workplace cultures of software companies in Berlin. Paula’s ethnographic methods bring the human body and concepts like exhaustion or friendship into the mix as sometimes overlooked elements of digital materiality. The interview for this episode was recorded in November 2018. Music from filmmusic.io "Clean Soul" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) License: CC BY (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) About the podcast: Data Materiality is a podcast series about the ways in which digital data depends on physical forms and infrastructures, and comes to matter in practice and imagination. The impetus for this podcast is a three-year research project by the same name – Data Materiality – co-sponsored by Birkbeck’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Media and Culture and the Vasari Centre for Art and Technology. The series is co-hosted by Joel McKim and Scott Rodgers. For more information: www.bbk.ac.uk/vasari To listen or subscribe via Apple Podcasts, visit: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/vasari-research-centre-for-art-and-technology/id1494065021

Paris Marx is joined by Daniel Joseph to discuss the relationship between video games and capitalism, how the gaming experience has become increasingly commercialized, and what the new consoles — Xbox Series X|S and Playstation 5 — herald for the future of the industry.Daniel Joseph is a Senior Lecturer of Digital Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University. Read his articles for Real Life about video games and capitalism and platformization, and for Briarpatch about what better platforms might look like. Follow Daniel on Twitter as @DanjoKaz00ie.Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter.** Support the show on Patreon and read the plan for the future.Find out more about Harbinger Media Network and follow it on Twitter as @harbingertweets.Also mentioned in this episode:“If Xbox is Netflix, then Playstation is cinema” by Christopher Dring at GamesIndustry.bizHow PS4 better positioned itself against Xbox One, including a short video about trading gamesNintendo was charged with price fixing in the 1990s in the United States and EuropeIn 2015, Valve and Bethesda had to backtrack on plans to commercialize modding53% of PS4 game sales were digital in 2019. That grew to 74% in the early part of 2020.David Nieborg and Thomas Poell’s work on platforms; Sarah Grimes’ work on commercialization of children’s gaming; the App Studies Initiative; and T.L. Taylor’s “Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming”Support the show (https://patreon.com/techwontsaveus)

How do inequalities in access to digital technologies persist after everyone gets an iPad and access to a hotspot?

How do inequalities in access to digital technologies persist after everyone gets an iPad and access to a hotspot?

How do inequalities in access to digital technologies persist after everyone gets an iPad and access to a hotspot?

We talk about Twitter has altered journalism, the news, and our world of information.

Dr. Mark Carrigan is a digital sociologist in the Faculty of Education, at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on how digital platforms are reshaping our education systems. Mark is the author of the book 'Social Media for Academics' and advises both individuals and organisations on their use of social media to build their identity and network online. In this episode, we discuss the use of social media during the coronavirus pandemic, when we're all spending increasing amounts of time online and in front of screens. Mark explains why, after publishing his book on social media, he decided to delete his personal Twitter account as a way to follow his own advice: ''Find a way to use social media that works for you.'' In this episode we discuss some of the recent issues with Zoom and the risk of increased surveillance built into these platforms. Mark points to the need to be more reflexive about the ways in which we use these tools in our academic practices, and how they influence our work and our interactions with each other. Mark has been working on a book on 'reflexivity' in connection to technology and digital platforms, and shares with us how his attitude towards them has changed throughout his time spent exploring digital media. He has also been trying to finish another work on the sociological phenomenon of 'distraction', but ironically enough, he has been too distracted to finish it! In this podcast, he explains why. I ask him everything from why social media can be so addictive, to what he thinks about the rapid digitization of education taking place today. Find Mark's blog here: https://markcarrigan.net, to find out more. He also has his own podcast: https://anchor.fm/theisolationpod. Follow Cambridge Quaranchats on Facebook and Twitter @CamQuaranchats. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/quaranchats/message

The rise of digital technology is transforming the world in which we live. Our digitalized societies demand new ways of thinking about the social, and this short book introduces readers to an approach that can deliver this: digital sociology. In What is Digital Sociology (Polity, 2019), Neil Selwyn examines the concepts, tools and practices that sociologists are developing to analyze the intersections of the social and the digital. Blending theory and empirical examples, the five chapters highlight areas of inquiry where digital approaches are taking hold and shaping the discipline of sociology today. The book explores key topics such as digital race and digital labor, as well as the fast-changing nature of digital research methods and diversifying forms of digital scholarship. In this interview, Dr. Selwyn and I discuss the overarching question guiding this book: what is digital sociology? We go on to discuss how the classical figures in sociology wrote about, and engaged with, technology, the distinctiveness of contemporary digital sociology, key methodologies, and the research ethics related to digital sociological research. I highly recommend this book for students, professors, and anyone else interested in digital humanities, big data and computational methods, or science and technology studies. This would be a great book for both undergraduate and graduate courses related to digital media and social science. Dr. Neil Selwyn is a professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. His research and teaching focuses on the place of digital media in everyday life, and the sociology of technology (non)use in educational settings. Neil has written extensively on a number of issues, including digital exclusion, education technology policymaking and the student experience of technology-based learning. You can find him on Twitter @Neil_Selwyn. Krystina Millar is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at Indiana University. Her research interests include gender, sociology of the body, and sexuality. You can find her on Twitter at @KrystinaMillar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The rise of digital technology is transforming the world in which we live. Our digitalized societies demand new ways of thinking about the social, and this short book introduces readers to an approach that can deliver this: digital sociology. In What is Digital Sociology (Polity, 2019), Neil Selwyn examines the concepts, tools and practices that sociologists are developing to analyze the intersections of the social and the digital. Blending theory and empirical examples, the five chapters highlight areas of inquiry where digital approaches are taking hold and shaping the discipline of sociology today. The book explores key topics such as digital race and digital labor, as well as the fast-changing nature of digital research methods and diversifying forms of digital scholarship. In this interview, Dr. Selwyn and I discuss the overarching question guiding this book: what is digital sociology? We go on to discuss how the classical figures in sociology wrote about, and engaged with, technology, the distinctiveness of contemporary digital sociology, key methodologies, and the research ethics related to digital sociological research. I highly recommend this book for students, professors, and anyone else interested in digital humanities, big data and computational methods, or science and technology studies. This would be a great book for both undergraduate and graduate courses related to digital media and social science. Dr. Neil Selwyn is a professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. His research and teaching focuses on the place of digital media in everyday life, and the sociology of technology (non)use in educational settings. Neil has written extensively on a number of issues, including digital exclusion, education technology policymaking and the student experience of technology-based learning. You can find him on Twitter @Neil_Selwyn. Krystina Millar is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at Indiana University. Her research interests include gender, sociology of the body, and sexuality. You can find her on Twitter at @KrystinaMillar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The rise of digital technology is transforming the world in which we live. Our digitalized societies demand new ways of thinking about the social, and this short book introduces readers to an approach that can deliver this: digital sociology. In What is Digital Sociology (Polity, 2019), Neil Selwyn examines the concepts, tools and practices that sociologists are developing to analyze the intersections of the social and the digital. Blending theory and empirical examples, the five chapters highlight areas of inquiry where digital approaches are taking hold and shaping the discipline of sociology today. The book explores key topics such as digital race and digital labor, as well as the fast-changing nature of digital research methods and diversifying forms of digital scholarship. In this interview, Dr. Selwyn and I discuss the overarching question guiding this book: what is digital sociology? We go on to discuss how the classical figures in sociology wrote about, and engaged with, technology, the distinctiveness of contemporary digital sociology, key methodologies, and the research ethics related to digital sociological research. I highly recommend this book for students, professors, and anyone else interested in digital humanities, big data and computational methods, or science and technology studies. This would be a great book for both undergraduate and graduate courses related to digital media and social science. Dr. Neil Selwyn is a professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. His research and teaching focuses on the place of digital media in everyday life, and the sociology of technology (non)use in educational settings. Neil has written extensively on a number of issues, including digital exclusion, education technology policymaking and the student experience of technology-based learning. You can find him on Twitter @Neil_Selwyn. Krystina Millar is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at Indiana University. Her research interests include gender, sociology of the body, and sexuality. You can find her on Twitter at @KrystinaMillar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The rise of digital technology is transforming the world in which we live. Our digitalized societies demand new ways of thinking about the social, and this short book introduces readers to an approach that can deliver this: digital sociology. In What is Digital Sociology (Polity, 2019), Neil Selwyn examines the concepts, tools and practices that sociologists are developing to analyze the intersections of the social and the digital. Blending theory and empirical examples, the five chapters highlight areas of inquiry where digital approaches are taking hold and shaping the discipline of sociology today. The book explores key topics such as digital race and digital labor, as well as the fast-changing nature of digital research methods and diversifying forms of digital scholarship. In this interview, Dr. Selwyn and I discuss the overarching question guiding this book: what is digital sociology? We go on to discuss how the classical figures in sociology wrote about, and engaged with, technology, the distinctiveness of contemporary digital sociology, key methodologies, and the research ethics related to digital sociological research. I highly recommend this book for students, professors, and anyone else interested in digital humanities, big data and computational methods, or science and technology studies. This would be a great book for both undergraduate and graduate courses related to digital media and social science. Dr. Neil Selwyn is a professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. His research and teaching focuses on the place of digital media in everyday life, and the sociology of technology (non)use in educational settings. Neil has written extensively on a number of issues, including digital exclusion, education technology policymaking and the student experience of technology-based learning. You can find him on Twitter @Neil_Selwyn. Krystina Millar is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at Indiana University. Her research interests include gender, sociology of the body, and sexuality. You can find her on Twitter at @KrystinaMillar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The rise of digital technology is transforming the world in which we live. Our digitalized societies demand new ways of thinking about the social, and this short book introduces readers to an approach that can deliver this: digital sociology. In What is Digital Sociology (Polity, 2019), Neil Selwyn examines the concepts, tools and practices that sociologists are developing to analyze the intersections of the social and the digital. Blending theory and empirical examples, the five chapters highlight areas of inquiry where digital approaches are taking hold and shaping the discipline of sociology today. The book explores key topics such as digital race and digital labor, as well as the fast-changing nature of digital research methods and diversifying forms of digital scholarship. In this interview, Dr. Selwyn and I discuss the overarching question guiding this book: what is digital sociology? We go on to discuss how the classical figures in sociology wrote about, and engaged with, technology, the distinctiveness of contemporary digital sociology, key methodologies, and the research ethics related to digital sociological research. I highly recommend this book for students, professors, and anyone else interested in digital humanities, big data and computational methods, or science and technology studies. This would be a great book for both undergraduate and graduate courses related to digital media and social science. Dr. Neil Selwyn is a professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. His research and teaching focuses on the place of digital media in everyday life, and the sociology of technology (non)use in educational settings. Neil has written extensively on a number of issues, including digital exclusion, education technology policymaking and the student experience of technology-based learning. You can find him on Twitter @Neil_Selwyn. Krystina Millar is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at Indiana University. Her research interests include gender, sociology of the body, and sexuality. You can find her on Twitter at @KrystinaMillar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The rise of digital technology is transforming the world in which we live. Our digitalized societies demand new ways of thinking about the social, and this short book introduces readers to an approach that can deliver this: digital sociology. In What is Digital Sociology (Polity, 2019), Neil Selwyn examines the concepts, tools and practices that sociologists are developing to analyze the intersections of the social and the digital. Blending theory and empirical examples, the five chapters highlight areas of inquiry where digital approaches are taking hold and shaping the discipline of sociology today. The book explores key topics such as digital race and digital labor, as well as the fast-changing nature of digital research methods and diversifying forms of digital scholarship. In this interview, Dr. Selwyn and I discuss the overarching question guiding this book: what is digital sociology? We go on to discuss how the classical figures in sociology wrote about, and engaged with, technology, the distinctiveness of contemporary digital sociology, key methodologies, and the research ethics related to digital sociological research. I highly recommend this book for students, professors, and anyone else interested in digital humanities, big data and computational methods, or science and technology studies. This would be a great book for both undergraduate and graduate courses related to digital media and social science. Dr. Neil Selwyn is a professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. His research and teaching focuses on the place of digital media in everyday life, and the sociology of technology (non)use in educational settings. Neil has written extensively on a number of issues, including digital exclusion, education technology policymaking and the student experience of technology-based learning. You can find him on Twitter @Neil_Selwyn. Krystina Millar is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at Indiana University. Her research interests include gender, sociology of the body, and sexuality. You can find her on Twitter at @KrystinaMillar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/digital-humanities

On this week’s show, Digital Sociologist Lisa Talia Moretti talks about her discipline, and Matt & Chris discuss why we can’t have nice things through the medium of hospital car parking.

Digital Sociology con Donatella Padua Libri di Donatella Padua: La fiducia nella crisi globale. l'attualita' del pensiero sociale keynesiano Alta formazione e new economy Libri consiglio: Antifragile Fine delle certezze  Il secolo imprevedibile   App della settimana Microsoft todo       

In this episode I am talking to Elinor Carmi who is a Postdoc Research Associate in Digital Culture & Society at the University of Liverpool. She tells me about how her experience of working in radio and music production and as a feminist has influenced her current analysis of digital media work. In particular we discuss her comparison and analysis of early 20th century telephone operators and contemporary online content moderators. Elinor suggests that there are similarities between the ways in which (usually female) telephone operators were not only responsible for connecting calls but for maintaining the smooth front end experience for callers. One of the key tasks required of them was to distinguish between "message" and "noise" and remove the latter. Content moderators have to make similar distinctions in with online content by removing violent, sexual and other content which doesn't fit with the values which the platform wishes to present. The power of this analysis is made stark through the example of how Facebook considers male nipples to be "message" and female nipples "noise". You can follow Elinor on Twitter @Elinor_Carmi You can read Elinor's article 'The Hidden Listeners: Regulating the Line from Telephone Operators to Content Moderators' in the International Journal of Communication https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/8588 Elinor's article 'Cookies – More than Meets the Eye' in the journal Theory, Culture & Society

In this episode of the Digital Sociology Podcast I spoke to Susan Halford who is Professor of Sociology at the University of Bristol and the President of the British Sociological Association. Amongst other things she explains the emergence "semantic web" to me and we discuss why this is of interest to sociologists and what sociology my have to offer in understanding it. If the web is a massive database of documents then the semantic web is a way of identifying and connecting "entities" within those documents (WolframAlpha is an example of a basic version of the semantic web). Susan says that this is a significant ontological task of identifying what kinds of things do and do not exist in this space. For the semantic web to develop huge amounts of data on all kinds of topics would need to be gathered and analysed which would also require decisions to be made about what kinds of data to include and exclude. We also discuss about the benefits and challenges of working working across the social sciences and computer sciences. I ask Susan about a paper she wrote with Mike Savage in which they outline a fascinating reading of the work of Thomas Piketty, Robert Putnam and Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett. They propose the approach taken by these authors can be applied as "symphonic social science" which could be used to approach big data. https://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/en/publications/speaking-sociologically-with-big-data(37fbb772-fa88-4371-974b-dd91ce57d86a).html Susan also offers some of her opinions on why sociologists are sometimes a bit scared to work with "big data" and how we might be able to overcome this.

In this episode of the Digital Sociology Podcast I am talking to Huw Davies who is a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford. Huw tells me about his research into young peoples' use of technology (and particularly the internet). His research has shown that there are significant social class differences between how young people of different social class backgrounds tend to use technologies. However, this doesn't always follow the patterns we might expect. He has found from his detailed research with young people that many might not be engaging with the school curriculum on digital literacy (for instance) but nevertheless have sophisticated skills and are quite entrepreneurial with online and creative activities. The two papers of Huw's we discussed were: Davies HC and Eynon R (2018) Is digital upskilling the next generation our ‘pipeline to prosperity’? New Media and Society. DOI: 10.1177/1461444818783102. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444818783102 Davies HC (2018) Learning to Google: Understanding classed and gendered practices when young people use the Internet for research. New Media & Society 20(8): 2764–2780. DOI: 10.1177/1461444817732326. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444817732326?journalCode=nmsa Huw is one of the conveners of the British Sociological Associations's Digital Sociology study group (along with me and a few others) which you can follow on Twitter @bsadigitalsoc

On the latest Digital Sociology Podcast I am talking to Dr Jess Drakett who is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Leeds Beckett University. Jess shares some fun and fascinating insights from her PhD research  into representations of gender in meme culture and sexism in the tech industry. She conducted qualitative, discourse analysis of probably the most commonly used memes - "image macros". These are usually an image with white writing overlaid at the top and bottom.

The research looked into how humour is used in the very rule bound world of memes both by applying the format of a particular image macro to a new and context, subverting the form or commenting on it (as with the one above).
A big part of the analysis was how memes create collective identities for those who know the rules and the references but are also exclusionary for those who don't and if they are the target of the memes with many being sexist and misogynistic.
The other part of Jess's research was into the use of humour in a workplace context in the programming industry. She found similar kinds of humour used in the tech industry and memes themselves as facilitators of this with image macros being pasted up on workplace walls.
Jess talks a bit about the challenges of conducting research on memes but also that some of the most useful resources are ones which academic researchers wouldn't usually draw on like the "Know Your Meme" database:
https://knowyourmeme.com/
You can read Jess's paper on her meme research 'Old jokes, new media – Online sexism and constructions of gender in Internet memes' in the journal Feminism & Psychology
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0959353517727560
However, that version doesn't include images (due to the copyright concerns of the publishers) but the pre-print version of the paper does:
http://eprints.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/4406/
You can follow Jess on Twitter @jessicadrakett
You can listen to the podcast on Anchor or download and subscribe on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever else you get podcasts.


For this episode I spoke with Tom Brock who is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University.
He tells me about his research into e-sports and video games and how the changes in the political economy of video games leads to a more rational approach to games. Is this damaging to the experience of play if it becomes instrumentalised. He also suggests this potentially encourages a neo-liberal orientation to the self as we are encouraged to measure ourselves and our performance in terms of a vast array of metrics.
It was fascinating to hear about the embodied experience of elite video game playing including the strains put on bodies in order to compete at a high level and the insecure lifestyles of those hoping for a share in the potential riches of prize money or sponsorship.
As someone who is terrible at video games I really connected with they way in which Tom conceptualised the perverse pleasures of failure when playing games.
You can read more about what Tom is doing on his website and follow him on Twitter @tgjbrock
http://www.tgjbrock.co.uk/
The references for the articles of Tom's we discussed are below along with links.
TGJ. Brock, E. Fraser (2018). Is Computer Gaming a Craft? Prehension, Practice and Puzzle-Solving in Gaming Labour. Information, Communication and Society. 21(9), pp.1219-1233.
https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/620399/
T. Brock (2017). Videogame consumption: The apophatic dimension. Journal of Consumer Culture.pp.146954051668418-146954051668418.
https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/617975/
TGJ. Brock (2017). Roger Caillois and e-Sports: On the Problems of Treating Play as Work. Games and Culture. 12(4), pp.321-339.
https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/617954/
You can listen to the podcast on Anchor or subscribe and download through iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you usually get podcasts.


In this episode of the Digital Sociology Podcast I am talking to Kylie Jarrett who is a lecturer in Department of Media Studies at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. She writes and researches on internet cultures and has written on the “culture of search” inspired by Google. But in this episode we are mainly talking about her feminist analysis of digital labour. This is a concept which has been developed to describe the value which users of the commercial internet (and particularly social media) generate through their interactions. Through a critique of some strands of “autonomist” Marxist analysis she suggests that he gendered character of this “digital labour” is often overlooked and the novelty of this situation is overplayed. Some people (usually women) have long been contributing “free labour” necessary to the functioning and maintenance of capitalism (broadly speaking social reproduction). Kylie has suggested the concept of the "digital housewife" to describe this. Social media companies have just found a particularly effective means of mobilising and monetising our everyday interactions and the maintenance of our relationships and communities. In a very entertaining discussion Kylie tells me about how an annoyance with some people overlooking the tradition of feminist work which had established these points and the dismissal of of her reading of digital labour incited her anger which she channeled into the book.
Kylie Jarret's profile:
https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/people/kylie-jarrett
Google and the culture of Search by Hillis, Petit and Jarrett:
https://books.google.com/books/about/Google_and_the_Culture_of_Search.html?id=0X_1HS13FbsC
Feminism, Labour and Digital Media: The Digital Housewife:
https://books.google.com/books/about/Feminism_Labour_and_Digital_Media.html?id=yY34CgAAQBAJ
 You can follow Kylie on Twitter @kylzjarrett

In what is likely the most fun episode I spoke to Penny Andrews. This started out as a chat about Penny’s research into current research information systems, institutional repositories and academic social networking services such as academia.edu. Penny gives some fascinating insights from her research into how people use these systems and the political economy around in which they are integrated. I found it particularly fascinating to hear about how people increasingly have little choice but to use these systems which generate data and enable control of academic life by multinational corporations. Along the way there are some diversions in our chat into the state of academia, the pressures created by systems of measurement, digital capitalism and even Doctor Who and Charlie from Casualty. Warning! This is a wide-ranging chat which I considered cutting down to something more focused but actually the charm of this episode is in the shambolic loose character of it. Penny also tells me plenty about one of her other great passions; Ed Balls gifs! Also, I recorded this about a year ago and it has taken me ages to upload this (sorry Penny) but most of the political diversions we go down are still mostly pertinent which perhaps says a lot about the state we're in.  Penny has written about her fandom for Ed Balls and her role as the worlds most prominent producer of Ed gifs and read some of her articles on higher education and metrics at Wonkhe  https://discoversociety.org/2017/07/05/every-day-can-be-ed-balls-day-in-uk-politics-fandom/ https://wonkhe.com/staff/penny-andrews/ You can follow Penny on Twitter @pennyb 

In this episode of the Digital Sociology Podcast I spoke with Mark Carrigan. Because it has taken me ages to upload this podcast my introduction to Mark on the podcast is a bit out of date now. But Mark is the Digital Engagement Fellow at The Sociological Review and a researcher in the Culture Politics and Global Justice cluster in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge where he works on research on the digital university. I also mention that he runs the Sociological Imagination website which has since been closed down. Mark is on Twitter @mark_carrigan I have just changed over my podcast host from Soundcloud to Anchor. If you listen on a podcast app this shouldn't make any difference and you should get new episodes as normal. But if you usually listen through a browser on Soundcloud you will just need to go to my profile on the Anchor site instead. 

For episode 13 of the Digital Sociology Podcast I had a chat with Karen Gregory who is a digital sociologist at the University of Edinburgh. She tells me about her work on the exploitation enabled by the rise of digital labour. She tells me about the importance of challenging the individualised and empowering picture of digital technologies and platforms which are often claimed to enable empowerment for individuals. We also discuss the relationship between right wing politics and the increase of digital work. Karen explains the relationship between gender, work and social reproduction and how feminist thought can help us to understand this. She also emphasises the importance of labour history for understanding the contemporary digital economy. A few times Karen mentions a book called Lower Ed: The troubling rise of for-profit colleges in the new economy by Tressie McMillan Cottom. She also discusses Kylie Jarrett’s book Feminism, Labour and Digital Media: The Digital Housewife See he

For this episode I spoke with Murray Goulden of the Horizon centre at the University of Nottingham and he told me about the projects he is working which, amongst other things, use digital traces as a memory aid as part of ethnographic research. To do this him and his colleagues have designed methods and technologies to extract data from people’s digital devices (with consent of course!) to present these data back to people. The participants were then encouraged to make sense of these data (which they wouldn’t usually see). You can follow Murray on Twitter @murraygoulden

This episode was turning up in a lot of podcast apps in a shorter version so I have uploaded it again as a separate episode which will hopefully fix this. So if you have the first version as a 13 minute audio delete that one and download this (should be 39 minutes). For this episode of the Digital Sociology Podcast I spoke to Harry Dyer about his work on online social platforms and identity. Harry tells me about his thoughts on the development and design of different platforms and how they make different actions and connections possible and restrict others. Harry told me about what he has found from his research on the way in which young people use different platforms and the subtle ways they interpret and use platforms to present their identities. He tells me about the theoretical traditions he has drawn upon influenced by Erving Goffman and Karan Barad amongst others. I also here about the innovative way he has applied the analysis of comic books to social media. We also talk about

For this episode of the Digital Sociology Podcast I spoke to Harry Dyer about his work on online social platforms and identity. Harry tells me about his thoughts on the development and design of different platforms and how they make different actions and connections possible and restrict others. Harry told me about what he has found from his research on the way in which young people use different platforms and the subtle ways they interpret and use platforms to present their identities. He tells me about the theoretical traditions he has drawn upon influenced by Erving Goffman and Karan Barad amongst others. I also here about the innovative way he has applied the analysis of comic books to social media. We also talk about whether communities are possible online and how the Facebook model of community differs from the “anonymous” one. This is the first episode that I haven’t been able to edit properly. All of my previous episodes have included intro/outro music, stings and various bit

In this episode of the Digital Sociology Podcast I spoke to Mariya Stoilova who is working on a project called Global Kids Online. Mariya is based at the London School of Economics but the project is an international one which looks at the experiences, opportunities, risks and rights and how these relate to inequalities. The project developed out of a previous one called EU Kids Online and Mariya has been working on developing an open source toolkit which is adaptable to countries in the global south. Central to their project is challenging the idea that the internet is a space dominated by risk but also one which provides opportunities for them. Conversely, there is also a "digital determinist" discourse which is equally simplistic which assumes that access to the internet will in itself produce more highly skilled and knowledgeable young people. The research has produced findings which show a nuanced picture particularly around how risk is understood differently by children compare

In this episode I spoke to Rachel Thomson who is Professor of Childhood and Youth Studies at the University of Sussex. Rachel tells me about the “Everyday Childhoods” project (which is part of the long-running “Mass Observation Project”). This is a project which both archives young peoples’ lives and studies their use of digital media and devices. We talk about how this project fits with older forms of archiving and existing approaches to childhood studies and the significance of how children and watched and what happens when this becomes digitized.

The Digital Sociology Podast is having a break for a couple of weeks but I'll be back soon with more interviews with researchers of the digital.

For episode 8 of the Digital Sociology Podcast I had a chat with Warren Pearce who is the Faculty Fellow (iHuman) at the University of Sheffield. He is working on the “Making Climate Social” project which is investigating how climate change debate happens across the web. Warren tells me about some of the innovative digital methods he is using to understand how conversations about climate change take place on Youtube comments and other places online. I hear about some research Warren has done about Koko the Gorilla and his dominance of one area of the climate change discussion online. Koko is a gorilla with a big online presence who lent his popularity to raising awareness of climate change but Warren and his colleagues found that the impact was not quite what it seems on the surface. You can read more about some of Warren’s work on climate change discussion on Twitter and see a full list of his publications here. Also, you can follow Warren on Twitter @WarrenPearce

In episode 7 of the Digital Sociology Podcast I spoke to Justine Gangneux about her work on how social media users engage in the practice of “checking” and “Facebook stalking”. The empirical research she has conducted shows the importance of humour and of taking “guilty pleasure” in monitoring what others are doing. Justine told me about how people research one another to assess potential future romantic partners, the suitability of flatmates and possible friendships among colleagues. This practice Justine refers to as “scrutiny” rather than surveillance as it brings together issues of transparency, care, humour, monitoring and other elements. Justine’s broader theoretical work can be found in her discussion of surveillance. You can follow Justine on Twitter @JGgnx and see her blog https://justinegangneux.wordpress.com/

For episode 6 of the Digital Sociology Podcast I spoke to the world renowned sociologist Deborah Lupton. Deborah has been a leading figure in the sociology of health, public health, the body and risk as well as many other areas. More recently she has been a pioneer of digital sociology. Here we talk a bit about her biography and how she came to be researching “the digital” and how her early work on the virality of HIV paved the way for thinking about digital networks. We also discuss self-tracking of health and exercise and how this relates to metaphors of flows. Deborah tells me about how some of her work on risk has fed into her understanding of big data and health and how she believes there is a new kind of individualisation in public health discourse influenced by the use of self-tracking. For more of Deborah’s insights on the Quantified Self and self-tracking see her book on that topic, she also has a recent book on digital sociology and new one on digital health. For even more s

Holly Powell-Jones is a PhD student at City University London and a former broadcast journalist and educator who is conducting research into the young peoples’ perceptions of risk and criminality online. We talk about her methods of research and how her ethical position informed her approach. For instance, when conducting research she integrates educational aspects which help to inform young people about online criminality and how they can be recognised. Holly tells me about how her participants have made sense of, and made judgements about “sexting” and “revenge porn” amongst other issues and we assess the effectiveness of current legal frameworks in the UK. We touch on issues such as who is considered to be “risky” and what behaviours are considered to be “risky”. Often we assume that younger people are more likely to engage in risky behaviour due to being inexperienced but Holly found that younger people were more risk averse and often “hyper risk managers” who are highly aware of

In episode 4 of the Digital Sociology Podcast I spoke to Louise Reid from the School of Geography and Sustainable Development at the University of St Andrews about her research on energy demand, smart technology and wellbeing. Louise told me about some of her findings about how people engage with and understand technologies which allow them to monitor their energy usage. She told me about how she used analysis of Mumsnet discussions to explore how people use smart energy devices. This was really useful because it was a completely different kind of interaction compared to a traditional research interview. This generated much more detailed data on how participants’ interact with their technologies and enabled the researchers to observe the seemingly mundane reality of how people engage in energy practices. We also talk about the differences between how research is done in digital sociology and digital geography and what the two are learning from one another. You can follow Louise on

In this third episode I spoke to Nick Prior who is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh and a Visiting Fellow at Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan. We talk about the influence of digital technology on music consumption and production including midi formats and autotune. The discussion touches on Nick's work on how iPods have changed the way in which we experience public space. Nick also tells me about his latest work on the "crowdsourced" Japanese "virtual popstar" Hatsune Miku. You can find Nick on Twitter @nickprior4

In this episode I spoke to Sian Lincoln about her “Facebook Timelines” project in which they spoke to people about their use of the social network. We discuss the “scroll back method” of interviewing she used to explore the role of Facebook in young peoples’ lives. Sian and I reflect on Facebook etiquette and how people police each other’s behaviour online. We also talk about the central place which nostalgia takes in Facebook but how it structures perceptions of the future. Sian also suggests from her analysis that Facebook’s success (over other, like Myspace, which failed) was enabled by the simultaneous rise of smartphones and that Facebook use is becoming less public. Also, is Facebook cool any more? Was it ever cool? More here: http://thisisnotasociology.blog/2017/07/27/digital-sociology-podcast-episode-2-sian-lincoln-facebook-identity-and-nostalgia

This is the first episode in my new Digital Sociology Podcast. In this series I will be talking to researchers doing work looking at the impact of digital technologies on society and culture. For this episode I spoke to Mike Saker from Southampton Solent University about his work on "locative media" such as Pokémon Go and Foursquare. We discussed the application of the notion of the flâneur to the digital realm. We questioned whether locative media enable a new commercialisation of space and commodification of play? Mike questioned whether locative media create a performance of authenticity? We also discussed Mike’s tendency to study things just as they die!

Dr. Heidi Schelhowe, ordentliche Professorin an der Universität Bremen für "Digitale Medien und Bildung" und Leiterin der Arbeitsgruppe dimeb, unterhält sich mit Dr. Udo Thiedeke über die Begreifbarkeit der Zeichen, wie sie Computer möglich machen und was das für die Bildung bedeutet.Shownotes:#00:00:37# Zur nichttrivialen Maschine vgl. Heinz von Foerster, 1993: Wissen und Gewissen. Versuch einer Brücke, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. S. 206f.#00:02:35# Zur Wertschätzung der Mathematik im 20. Jhr., als höchste Form geistiger Betätigung und rationaler Gesinnung vgl. Bettina Heintz, 1993: Die Herrschaft der Regel. Zur Grundlagengeschichte des Computers. Frankfurt/M., New York: Campus.#00:03:00# Zu Turings Provokation mit der Turing Maschine vgl. Alan Turing, 1937: On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem. In: Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society. Bd. 42. S. 230-265. Zusammenfassend: #00:05:48# Zur Symbiose von Mensch und Maschine siehe IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Vol.14, No.1 + 2, 1992.#00:08:33# Heidi Schelhowe, 1997: Das Medium aus der Maschine: zur Metamorphose des Computers. Frankfurt/M./New York: Campus.#00:09:06# Susanne Bødker, 1991: Through the Interface: A Human Activity Approach to User InterfaceDesign. Mahwah, New Jersey, USA: Lawrence Erlbaum Ass.#00:11:03# Die "Enigma" war eine in mehreren Versionen während des zweiten Weltkriegs produzierte, deutsche Verschlüsselungsmaschine, deren Code schließlich endgültig von den Engländern u.a. unter Mitarbeit von Alan Turing geknackt wurde. Online. #00:11:45# Konrad Zuse baute 1941 mit der "Z3" den ersten frei programmierbaren und funktionsfähigen Digitalcomputer. Siehe: Konrad Zuse, 1993: Der Computer – Mein Lebenswerk. 3. Aufl. Berlin: Springer.#00:16:06# Zur Digital Sociology vgl. z.B. Deborah Lupton, 2012: Digital Sociology: an Introduction. Sydney: University of Sydney.#00:20:20# Zur bei dimeb entwickelten Programmierumgebung siehe: Online.#00:26:05# Zum Funktionsprinzip der 3D-Drucker. Online.#00:28:16# Siehe zum sog. material turn etwa Tony Bennett, Patrick Joyce, 2010: Material powers: cultural studies, history and the material turn. London et al.: Routledge, und zu Latours Ideen: Bruno Latour, 1995: Wir sind nie modern gewesen. Versuch einer symmetrischen Anthropologie. Übersetzt von Gustav Roßler. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag. (1991)#00:29:55# Zu ubiquitous computing und embedded systems siehe: Mark Weiser, 1993: Some Computer Science Issues in Ubiquitous Computing. In: Communications of the ACM, No. 7, July: S. 75-84.#00:32:20# Zum Umgang von autistischen Kinder mit Robots siehe: Online.#00:33:05# Zum Uncanny-Valley-Effekt, der als Irritatioin beim Kontaktmit antropomorphen Robotern oder Avataren auftritt siehe: Online.#00:40:55# Zur Medienbildung im "klassischen" Verständnis siehe: Dieter Baacke, 1999: Medienkompetenz als zentrales Operationsfeld von Projekten. In: Dieter Baacke,, Susanne Kornblum, Jürgen Lauffer, Lothar Mikos, Günther A. Thiele (Hrsg.): Handbuch Medien: Medienkompetenz, Modelle und Projekte. Bonn: Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung. S. 31-35.Dieter Spanhel, 2010: Entwicklung und Erziehung unter den Bedingungen von Medialität. In: Manuela Pietraß, Rüdiger Funiok (Hrsg): Mensch und Medien. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag. S. 65-89.#00:44:30# Die Idee, dass Computer so selbstverständlich werden, dass unsere Kinder nicht mehr wissen, was damit gemeint sein könnte, wenn wir von "Computern" sprechen, findet sich in einem Interview, das der Science-Fiction Autor William Gibson, der den Begriff "Cyberspace" erfand, 2013 dem Nachrichtenmagazin "der Spiegel" gab. William Gibson, 2013: "Wir haben gewonnen". In: der Spiegel 12/2013 vom 18. März 2013. S. 134-136.#00:45:14# Informationen zum "reflexive experience design" im DFG Projekt "Interaktionsdesign für reflexive Erfahrungen im Bildungskontext (REDiB) finden sich hier: Online. #00:48:45# Vgl. zu den Bedingungen und Konsequenzen der Selbstquantifizierung mit Computern, die zum selbstquantifizierten Selbst (quantified Self) führen soll: Stefanie Duttweiler, Robert Gugutzer, Jan-Hendrik Passoth, Jörg Strübing (Hrsg.), 2016: Leben nach Zahlen. Self-Tracking als Optimierungsprojekt? Bielefeld: transcript.#00:50:00# Der Grafik Designer Nicholas Felton, der die App "Reporter" entwickelt hat, ist fasziniert davon, sein eigenes Leben in eine Selbststatistik zu überführen und zu visualisieren. Vgl. Sandra Rendgen, 2016: Stenographie eines Lebens. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. 9. Feburar 2016. Online. #00:59:33# Vgl. einen "Klassiker" zum sog. Digital Divide: Paul DiMaggio, Eszter Hargittai, 2001: From the 'Digital Divide' to 'Digital Inequality': Studying Internet Use as Penetration Increases, Working Paper No. 15, Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies. Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. Online.#01:00:30# Marc Prensky hatte 2001 die "Digital Natives", die schon mit dem Computer als Medium Sozialisierten, den "Digital Immigrants", denen, die "Computer" erst noch lernen müssen, gegenübergestellt; vgl. Online.#01:01:48# Zur begrenzten Nutzung des Internets und der Social Media durch Jugendliche, siehe: Klaus Peter Treumann, Dorothee M. Meister, Uwe Sander, Eckhard Burkatzki, Jügen Hagedorn, Manuela Kämmerer, Mareike Strotmann, Claudia Wegener 2007: Medienhandeln Jugendlicher. Mediennutzung und Medienkompetenz. Bielefelder Medienkompetenzmodell. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.#01:02:50# Siehe zur Computerkompetenz von Peers in der Hauptschule: Ulrike Wagner (Hrsg.), 2008: Medienhandeln in Hauptschulmilieus. Mediale Interaktion und Produktion als Bildungsressource. München: kopaed.#01:07:55# Einen differenzierteren Einblick zur Beteiligung am Internet, nach Verständnis der Beteiligung, Motivation und Milieuzugehörigkeit bietet etwa die DIVIS-Milieu-Studie des Sinus- Instituts aus dem Jahr 2015. Online.#01:10:05# Heinz von Foerster zu seinem Eindruck von Wissenschaft heute. Online.#01:11:37# Zur strukturellen Rahmung der Bildung von benachteiligten Jugendlichen in Portugal siehe die Disseration: Roger Meintjes, Heidi Schelhowe, 2016: Inclusive Interactives: the Transformative Potential of Making and Using　 Craft-Tech Social Objects Together in an After-School Centre. In: IDC’16 Proceedings oft he 15th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children. Online.[alle Links aktuell März/April 2017] Dauer 01:15:13 Folge direkt herunterladen

How do we do sociology in the digital era? In Digital Sociologies (Policy Press, 2016) Jessie Daniels, Professor of Sociology at Hunter College and The Graduate Center, CUNY, Karen Gregory a Lecturer in Digital Sociology at the University of Edinburgh, and Tressie McMillan Cottom, assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, have brought together a wealth of scholarship to explore the challenge of digital. The book engages with a range of theoretical questions, including challenging the digital/traditional sociology binary, the role of institutions, digital’s impact on eduction, the racialized practices of Twitch, the meaning of motherhood, the quantified self, the question of the body, and the digital sociological imagination. The eclectic range of scholars, offering perspectives from across the academic life course and deploying examples from across the world, create an important intervention into our understanding of this emerging, and perhaps as a result of this book, established, field of study. Ultimately the book is a call for a new community of scholars to engage with this most important element of contemporary life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do we do sociology in the digital era? In Digital Sociologies (Policy Press, 2016) Jessie Daniels, Professor of Sociology at Hunter College and The Graduate Center, CUNY, Karen Gregory a Lecturer in Digital Sociology at the University of Edinburgh, and Tressie McMillan Cottom, assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, have brought together a wealth of scholarship to explore the challenge of digital. The book engages with a range of theoretical questions, including challenging the digital/traditional sociology binary, the role of institutions, digital’s impact on eduction, the racialized practices of Twitch, the meaning of motherhood, the quantified self, the question of the body, and the digital sociological imagination. The eclectic range of scholars, offering perspectives from across the academic life course and deploying examples from across the world, create an important intervention into our understanding of this emerging, and perhaps as a result of this book, established, field of study. Ultimately the book is a call for a new community of scholars to engage with this most important element of contemporary life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do we do sociology in the digital era? In Digital Sociologies (Policy Press, 2016) Jessie Daniels, Professor of Sociology at Hunter College and The Graduate Center, CUNY, Karen Gregory a Lecturer in Digital Sociology at the University of Edinburgh, and Tressie McMillan Cottom, assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, have brought together a wealth of scholarship to explore the challenge of digital. The book engages with a range of theoretical questions, including challenging the digital/traditional sociology binary, the role of institutions, digital’s impact on eduction, the racialized practices of Twitch, the meaning of motherhood, the quantified self, the question of the body, and the digital sociological imagination. The eclectic range of scholars, offering perspectives from across the academic life course and deploying examples from across the world, create an important intervention into our understanding of this emerging, and perhaps as a result of this book, established, field of study. Ultimately the book is a call for a new community of scholars to engage with this most important element of contemporary life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do we do sociology in the digital era? In Digital Sociologies (Policy Press, 2016) Jessie Daniels, Professor of Sociology at Hunter College and The Graduate Center, CUNY, Karen Gregory a Lecturer in Digital Sociology at the University of Edinburgh, and Tressie McMillan Cottom, assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, have brought together a wealth of scholarship to explore the challenge of digital. The book engages with a range of theoretical questions, including challenging the digital/traditional sociology binary, the role of institutions, digital’s impact on eduction, the racialized practices of Twitch, the meaning of motherhood, the quantified self, the question of the body, and the digital sociological imagination. The eclectic range of scholars, offering perspectives from across the academic life course and deploying examples from across the world, create an important intervention into our understanding of this emerging, and perhaps as a result of this book, established, field of study. Ultimately the book is a call for a new community of scholars to engage with this most important element of contemporary life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do we do sociology in the digital era? In Digital Sociologies (Policy Press, 2016) Jessie Daniels, Professor of Sociology at Hunter College and The Graduate Center, CUNY, Karen Gregory a Lecturer in Digital Sociology at the University of Edinburgh, and Tressie McMillan Cottom, assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, have brought together a wealth of scholarship to explore the challenge of digital. The book engages with a range of theoretical questions, including challenging the digital/traditional sociology binary, the role of institutions, digital’s impact on eduction, the racialized practices of Twitch, the meaning of motherhood, the quantified self, the question of the body, and the digital sociological imagination. The eclectic range of scholars, offering perspectives from across the academic life course and deploying examples from across the world, create an important intervention into our understanding of this emerging, and perhaps as a result of this book, established, field of study. Ultimately the book is a call for a new community of scholars to engage with this most important element of contemporary life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices