Table of Contents

PART 1: Theorising Digital Societies
Chapter 1: The Emerging Contours of Digital Society: Remastering, Reconsideration, Reorientation and New Socio-Digital Domains - William Housley, Adam Edwards, Roser Benito-Montagut and Richard Fitzgerald
Chapter 2: Digital stratification: Class, status group, and party in the age of the Internet - Massimo Ragnedda and Glenn W. Muschert
Chapter 3: Crime, Control, and the Ambiguous Gifts of Digital Technology - Michael R. McGuire
Chapter 4: Digital Mobilities and Digital Society - Robin Smith
Chapter 5: Disconnection and Digital Society: Perspectives on how Citizens Deal with Media Technology - Maria José Brites and Rita Figueiras
PART 2: Researching Digital Societies
Chapter 6: Developing Tools and Interdisciplinary Collaboration for Digital Social Research - Rob Procter
Chapter 7: Quantitative Research Methods Teaching in a Digital Age - Malcolm Williams, Charlotte Brookfield, Luke Sloan
Chapter 8: The Research Stack: A Framework for Data-Driven Humanities and Social Science - Dennis Leeftink and Daniel Angus
Chapter 9: Ethnography and Digital Society - Alexia Maddox
Chapter 10: Understanding Identity and Platform Cultures - Harry T Dyer and Crystal Abidin
Chapter 11: Instagram Aesthetics for Social Change: A Narrative Approach to Visual Activism on Instagram - Gemma San Cornelio
Chapter 12: Researching Digital Discourse and Interaction - Joanne Meredith
Chapter 13: Researching Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence - Phillip Brooker and Michael Mair
PART 3: Sociotechnical Systems and Disruptive Technologies in Action
Chapter 14: Social Media Analytics: Boom and Bust? - Axel Bruns
Chapter 15: Games and Mediated Playful Practices - Larissa Hjorth and Ingrid Richardson
Chapter 16: Algorithmic Configurations of Sexuality: Theoretical Foundations and Methodological Approaches - Shuaishuai Wang
Chapter 17: Drones as Disruptive Sociotechnical Systems: A Case Study of Drone Crime and Control - Mike Coliandris
Chapter 18: The Internet of Things and New Frontiers of Datafication - Andrés Domínguez Hernández
PART 4: Digital Society and New Social Dilemmas
Chapter 19: Digital Racism - Pamela M. Hong and Fabio G. Rojas
Chapter 20: Social Media, Gender and Online Discrimination - Charlotte Nau
Chapter 21: Online Safeguarding of Adults with an Intellectual Disability: How do we Ensure that Participation and Protection Rights are Adequately Met in Digital Society? - Emma Bond
Chapter 22: Clickbait in the Commodification of Sympathy: Disability, Inspiration Porn and the Possibilities for New Narratives - Gwyneth Peaty, Jordan Alice and Katie Ellis
Chapter 23: Political Communication in the Digital Age - Sharon Meraz
PART 5: Governance and Regulation
Chapter 24: Algorithmic Governance: Technology, Knowledge, and Power - Rik Peeters and Marc Schuilenburg
Chapter 25: Digital (Dis)information Operations and Misinformation Campaigns - Martin Innes, David Rogers, Nora Jansen and Viorica Budu
Chapter 26: Frauds in Digital Society - Michael Levi
Chapter 27: The Responsible Innovation of Disruptive Technologies - Philip Inglesant, Helena Webb, Carolyn Ten Holter, Menisha Patel, Marina Jirotka
Chapter 28: Governing through Infrastructural Control: Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing in the Data-Intensive State - Ben Williamson
Chapter 29: Freedom of Speech and Online Harm in Liberal Democracies: a Triadic Concept - Adam Edwards, William Housley, Roser Beneito-Montagut and Richard Fitzgerald
PART 6: Digital Futures
Chapter 30: Digital Transformation and the Future of Work - Phillip Brown, Manuel Souto-Otero and Sahara Sadik
Chapter 31: Conversational AI: Respecifying Participation as Regulation - Stuart Reeves and Martin Porcheron
Chapter 32: Critical Data Futures - Neil Selwyn
Chapter 33: Mediating the Message in Digital Society - Steve Fuller

About the Author

William Housley PhD, DSc.Econ. FAcSS is Professor of Sociology at Cardiff University. He is an internationally recognised expert in qualitative and social research methods, sociological theory, the study of practical reason, science and technology studies, ethnomethodology, membership categorization analysis, social interaction and digital sociology. His contribution to Sociology was confirmed through the award of a DSc Econ. by Cardiff University in 2012 for his internationally recognized work in the field of interaction, communication and social organization. He has served as an editor of Qualitative Research (SAGE) and the editorial board of Big Data and Society (SAGE). Professor Housley was awarded the prestigious Vincent Wright Chair, at Sciences Po, Paris, for 2017. He has published numerous papers and books, including Society in the Digital Age: An Interactionist Perspective (2021, SAGE).


Adam Edwards is Reader in Politics and Criminology at Cardiff University School of Social Sciences. He is interested in collaborative and inter-disciplinary research including work with lawyers, political scientists, computer scientists and sociologists interested in the impact of emergent technologies, such as social media and machine learning, on issues of law, governance and regulation in relation to problems of crime, security and justice. He also has a track record of research into the politics of security in European city-regions, the organisation of serious crimes and a methodological interest in deliberative forecasting.


  Roser Beneito-Montagut is Senior Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University (UK).  She is a sociologist working at the crossroads of media, communication and technology studies. Her research interests include the study of digital technologies, particularly in relation to the topics of social connectedness, later life and care infrastructures in the networked society. She has written extensively about the socio-cultural and material dimensions of ‘being’ and interacting online; emotions and affects; methodological innovations in relation to the availability of digital data; and about later life and about later life and ageing.

 

Richard Fitzgerald is Professor of Communication at the University of Macau, China (SAR). Before joining the University of Macau in 2014 he has held posts at Cardiff University and the University of Queensland. He has researched and written extensively on broadcast and digital media and methods of qualitative Discourse Analysis. His recent major publications include Advances in Membership Categorization Analysis (2015, Sage) co-edited with William Housley, and On Sacks. Methodology, Materials and Inspirations (2021, Routledge) co-edited with Robin Smith and William Housley. He is a former Editor in Chief of Discourse, Context and Media where he remains an Honorary Member of the Editorial Board and is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Macau.

Reviews

Digital technologies not only catalyse processes of social change, they also call forth new ways of understanding social phenomena. Resisting the temptation to focus on digital social research methods in isolation, this timely and highly original collection demonstrates how digital societies offer a unique opportunity to remaster classic sociological questions and to reorientate the study of social life. The individual contributions cover an impressive range of topics that cross disciplinary silos, scales of analysis, methodological approaches, and theoretical traditions. Together they make for essential reading on the dynamics of social problems and the contours of contemporary society.   Professor David M. Evans, ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures, University of Bristol UK
*David M. Evans*