Even though the postural mechanism invoked here makes sense, it’s hard not to wonder about the psychosocial costs of our communications systems when reading about things like this: While we have a greater tendency toward email apnea or screen apnea,… Read More ›
Digital Sociology 
The Research Companion
by Petra Boynton 10 years ago I published a book called ‘The Research Companion’. It was based on talks and teaching I’d been doing with social scientists and healthcare staff that were supposed to be about the ‘how to’s’ of… Read More ›
The comfort of a smartphone
By David Beer Last month I made the mistake of putting my mobile phone in the washing machine. Despite being quickly retrieved, the phone died. I left it to dry out for a few days, but nothing. There was an… Read More ›
Online Misogyny and Sexual Harassment Event
Online Misogyny and Sexual Harassment Gender & Sexualities Research Forum (GSRF) at City University London Wednesday 17 June 5-7pm Rooms A107 and A108, College Building St John Street London EC1V 4PB Online spaces such as blogs, forums and Twitter are invaluable… Read More ›
PhD Studentship: Gender, Bodies and Technology, Engendered bodily practices and self-monitoring in the digital age
http://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/research/research-degrees/research-studentships-and-fees-only-bursaries/ Title: Gender, Bodies and Technology, Engendered bodily practices and self-monitoring in the digital age There has been a significant uptake in the use of ‘body tracking’, m-health and e-health devices in recent years. There are many body tracking apps… Read More ›
Web Science 2015: Call for Late Breaking Research
Call for Late Breaking Research ACM Web Science 2015 Sunday June 28th – Wednesday 1st July University Of Oxford At WebSci15 we will hold an exciting and interactive session for Late Breaking Research: analysis, demos and concepts that are not… Read More ›
Science, Security and the Future of Freedom
Science, Security and the Future of Freedom Wednesday 3rd June 2015 – All day event Venue: MS.01. Maths Building, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/research/clusters/irs/wif/event/ The twenty-first century will be shaped by cyber security. In 2012, the world sent… Read More ›
When corporations try too hard on social media
OMG Mega Lolz, FML, I can haz KitKat? I’ve just been writing about this KitKat post in my social media book. It’s a great example of a corporate brand trying too hard when engaging on social media. But as Kate… Read More ›
How to live tweet effectively at academic conferences
This useful post on the Pickle Jar blog offers some pointers about effective live tweeting. I agree it’s important to remember that most (?) people reading your live tweets won’t be in the room with you and thus will be confused by any features… Read More ›
Big Data & Society – Early Career Researcher Forum
As part of its effort to expand beyond traditional types of academic publication, Big Data & Society has introduced an Early Career Researcher Forum targeted to scholars finishing or having recently completed advanced graduate degrees. More specifically the ECR forum… Read More ›
The 5th ICTs & Society Conference
The 5th ICTs & Society Conference: The Internet and Social Media at a Crossroads: Capitalism or Commonism? Perspectives for Critical Political Economy and Critical Theory. Vienna University of Technology. Vienna, Austria June 3-7, 2015. Programme: http://fuchs.uti.at/wp-content/programme_ict&s5.pdf http://icts-and-society.net/events/5th-icts-and-society-conference/ Given that the… Read More ›
Is human culture collapsing under the weight of its own verbiage?
I just quoted this article from Charlie Brooker in the section of Social Media for Academics about ‘how to ensure you’re not wasting your time when you should be doing real work’. I’ve begun to feel like this about social… Read More ›
Routines and Reflexivity in Organisational Life
In this podcast recorded at a Centre for Social Ontology seminar in March 2014, Alistair Mutch (Nottingham Trent University) discusses routines and reflexivity in organisations. Much of the debate occasioned by the development of ideas about reflexivity and morphogenesis has… Read More ›
Algorithms and Accountability
Algorithms and Accountability took place in the Department of Law at New York University in February. Here’s the description of the symposium: Scholars, stakeholders, and policymakers question the adequacy of existing mechanisms governing algorithmic decision-making and grapple with new challenges… Read More ›
Call for Papers: Mediated Intimacies: Relationships, Bodies and Technology
Mediated Intimacies: Relationships, Bodies and Technology Call for Papers: Special Issue of Journal of Gender Studies to be published March 2017 edited by Alison Winch, Feona Attwood, Jamie Hakim. We are looking for 7000 word completed essays by 31st December… Read More ›
Job Opportunity – Digital Culture Program Officer/Director
Job Opportunity – Digital Culture Program Officer/Director http://www.ssrc.org/about/employment/listings/digital-culture-program-officer-director/ Summary The SSRC seeks a Program Officer/Director for its new Digital Culture program. The program engages the opportunities and challenges presented to the social sciences, and scholarship more broadly, by the digital revolution. In… Read More ›
Senior Lecturership in Digital Cultures
Job vacancy: https://www.hirewire.co.uk/HE/1061247/MS_JobDetails.aspx?JobID=60631 Closing date: 19 May 2015 The post-holder will contribute to the continuing success of the MA Digital Culture and Society, and will join the team teaching on and further developing the BA Digital Cultures. They will be… Read More ›
Working in the on-demand economy
An interesting though remarkably uncritical discussion of working in the on-demand economy:
Sussex Humanities Lab Doctoral Research Scholarships (2015)
The Sussex Humanities Lab at the University of Sussex is pleased to invite applications to study for a PhD. We are offering 4 Home/EU fully funded scholarships and 1 International fully funded scholarship OR 5 Home/EU fully funded scholarships depending on… Read More ›
Early retirement blogging
Would you like to retire? While many might have this thought as a fleeting whim on a bad day at work, the internet is giving rise to a subculture in which strategies to achieve retirement earlier are shared and refined…. Read More ›
The Social Ontology of Digital Data & Digital Technology, July 8th in London
This innovative conference brings together leading figures from a variety of fields which address issues of digital technology and digital data. We’ve invited speakers with a range of intellectual perspectives and disciplinary backgrounds who engage with questions relating to digital… Read More ›
The burden of continual assessment in a digital age
Due to my current reliance upon a laptop that’s unsuitable for my work, I presently find myself running a disk cleaning utility on a near daily basis. It’s a very useful bit of software that very quickly wipes caches and… Read More ›
Some brief thoughts about digital social ontology
A few years ago I sat in a publishing workshop in London listening to a presentation about ontology. My confusion grew as the presenter continued to make all manner of claims about ontology that I didn’t understand. As someone who… Read More ›
The On-Demand Diaries: Micro-tasking and the Future of Work
For those unfamiliar with it, Microtasking could be the future of work. As well as digitised tasks that can literally be minutes long (see Amazon Mechanical Turk) companies like TaskRabbit unbundle what might have previously been temporary jobs and allow… Read More ›
What will micro-publishing look like in higher education?
A few weeks ago I was browsing a photography bookshop in London and came across the term ‘micro-publisher’ for the first time. The friend I was with seemed slightly bemused that I hadn’t encountered the term and explained that it… Read More ›
The Social Ontology of Digital Data & Digital Technology, July 8th in London
This innovative conference brings together leading figures from a variety of fields which address issues of digital technology and digital data. We’ve invited speakers with a range of intellectual perspectives and disciplinary backgrounds who engage with questions relating to digital… Read More ›
The Journal of Academic Videos
What a brilliant idea! See more here: Audiovisual Thinking is a leading journal of academic videos about audiovisuality, communication and media. The journal is a pioneering forum where academics and educators can articulate, conceptualize and disseminate their research about audiovisuality… Read More ›