Technology and Digital Society

Phone — Image credit: Photo by Rodion Kutsaev

Studying all things sociotechnical – including but not limited to sociodigital – from their design, building and maintenance (domains of expert knowledge) to their everyday use.

Our group

The group combines SPAIS expertise in Science and Technology Studies and Digital Sociology to examine the social dimensions of sociotechnical systems. We play leading roles in both the Bristol Digital Futures Institute and the ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures - two major initiatives premised on the centrality of sociological and wider social scientific and humanities knowledges and methods to understanding and shaping sociodigital futures. Some members work in collaboration with Migration Mobilities Bristol (MMB).

Our motives

The research group is set up as a response to the burgeoning scholarship in the field of sociology, scienceand technology studies (STS), politics and IR that focuses on all things technological (including but not restricted to the digital) at SPAIS. The growing number of academics whose research is concerned with the topic comprise an intellectual hub to provide space for academic exchanges and to facilitate the growth of the research community.

Our goals

The primary goal of the group is to create and maintain an intellectual space to explore and conceptualise socio-technical transformations. The research group will support, and be supported by, a forthcoming SPAISMSc programme –Digital and Technological Society – and also a new PGR South WestDoctoral TrainingPartnership (SWDTP) Pathway in Socio-Technical Futures. Together with these programmes, the group will reflect the university’s “Sociodigital / data science / technology” strategic research priority. The group aims to promote PGR recruitment, and intellectually nurture ESRC and EPSRC grant applications. It will also facilitate international collaborations.