Digital Life and Social Engagment
In the context of an increasingly algorithmic, datafied and platformized world, most areas in life – at least in the global North/‘West’ – are fast becoming digital by default. Part of this process has also meant the social medialization of digital infrastructures (e.g. logging into a service via social media, the need to interact and collect data through online social networks), where digital engagement and social engagement have become almost synonymous.
These techno-social developments can be exciting, innovative, and even crucial at times, as the recent global digital responses to the COVID-19 pandemic proved. But what are the social, cultural, political, ethical, economic and environmental implications of our increasingly digital and social mediatized life? Can we uncouple the digital from the social? Such questions become even more pertinent as AI and non-human actors are entering our digital-social sphere.
Through theoretical and empirical contributions, this Collection explores the following themes:
-
Digital (in)equality and power (especially those between the global North/South)
-
Identity, intersectionality, representation
-
Technology/smart technology and design
-
Digital intimacy, sexuality and love
-
Virtual spaces and communities
-
Algorithmic/AI decision-making
-
Politics of refusal, digital disengagement/disconnection/reduction
-
Digital rights, justice and ethics (e.g. surveillance, consent, privacy and data-mining)
-
New digital and platform economies
Guest advisors
Esperanza Miyake(University of Strathclyde)
Dr. Esperanza Miyake is a Chancellor’s Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Media and Communication at the University of Strathclyde. With a wide range of publications, Esperanza specializes in the interdisciplinary and critical analysis of gender, race and digital media/technology. Esperanza is currently a member of Ofcom's Making Sense of Media Research Working Group, and recently was part of the Scottish Government 's Independent Expert Group working on the value of public data.