We live in a Sociodigital world – a world where society and digital technology are increasingly bound together. This opens up a range of possible ‘sociodigital futures’ across different areas of social life. While we can’t predict ‘the’ future, how we think about, imagine and act on possible futures in the present matters a great deal.

Founded in 2022, the Centre for Sociodigital Futures (CenSoF) is a flagship £10m research centre, funded by the ESRC and led by the University of Bristol in collaboration with 12 other Universities in the UK and globally. 

Our aims and purpose

We aim to generate new approaches to fairer and more sustainable societies by exploring sociodigital futures-in-the-making.

To do this, we've assembled a team of experts to investigate what kinds of sociodigital futures are being claimed and made, and who or what is shaping them.

Through our work we’re seeking to understand what impact these possible futures may have upon social and economic inequalities, and in relation to the climate crisis.

This is a new and developing field. We’re building its potential by supporting a new cohort of sociodigital futures expertise through our early career researchers, our visiting fellows programme and by creating tools, methodologies and theoretical frameworks to facilitate wider sociodigital futures research.

Our research

We’re delivering an integrated programme of research looking at how sociodigital futures are being imagined and materialised across different areas of everyday life.

Our research is highly interdisciplinary and by its nature and exists at the intersection of traditional disciplines. Our programme is structured around five Domains of Sociodigital Practice – caring, consuming, learning, moving and organizing – and four key fields of digital innovation, - AI, Immersive, High Performance Networks and Robotics – known as the Technical Affordance Projects.

We are pleased to be working with strategic and academic partners in the UK and overseas to highlight the importance of sociodigital futures research. We see collaboration as critical in allowing us to observe real-time examples of sociodigital futures in the making. Together with our partners, we are undertaking projects exploring a range of areas from the environmental impact of technology through to the shaping of educational sociodigital futures.