Research group: Digital Society
Exploring how digital technologies influence every aspect of our lives – their force for good and the challenges they create.
About us
About our research
We investigate how digital technologies influence every aspect of our lives and the challenges and opportunities this presents.
Among our group are experts in digital sociology, digital politics, media studies, game studies, cultural studies, consumer studies, and digital qualitative and quantitative methods.
Key areas of interest include games commerce, Internet cultures, esports, gig economy, fake news, and digital environmental sustainability.
We also develop innovative methods and analyses to unlock valuable insights from the Internet and other platforms, combining our social science expertise with skills and insights from colleagues in arts, engineering, computer science and business.
We also team up with researchers across the world to further global understanding of digital societies. We have active partnerships with international research groups, networks and centres, including:
- the App Studies Initiative at the University of Toronto
- the Aleksanteri Institute and the Centre for Consumer Cultures at the University of Helsinki
- the Club for Internet Enthusiasts in Moscow
Our innovative approach also supports and fuels debate about the role and impact of digital technologies. It also ensures our students and publics benefit from quality, cutting-edge research.
Research themes
Games
Investigating the sociological, cultural and experiential features of digital gameplay and online communities.
Economies
Examining the political and economic implications of platform technologies and cultures on cultural production and consumption, work, employment and society.
Politics
Studying the role of the internet and social media in national and international politics, with a focus on political communication, digital militarism, and digital diplomacy.
Environment
Looking into ways in which digital technologies can both support and harm environmental sustainability and developing new toolkits to reduce the impact.
Methods
Developing innovative ways to undertake social, cultural and political research on the internet and online technologies and platforms.
Degrees and events
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Selected publications
- Brock, T and Johnson, M (2021) Videogaming as Craft Consumption Journal of Consumer Culture
- Brock, T (2021) Counting Clicks: Esports, Neoliberalism and the Affective Power of Gameplay Metrics in Dal Yong Jin (ed) Global Esports Transformation of Cultural Perceptions of Competitive Gaming. Bloomsbury
- Brock, T and Johnson, M (2021) The Gamblification of Digital Games Journal of Consumer Culture
- Brock, T and Johnson, M (2020) The ‘Gambling Turn’ in Digital Game Monetization Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, 12(2) pp 145-163
- Brock, T and Fraser, E (2018) Is Gaming a Craft? Prehension, Practice and Puzzle-Solving in Gaming Labour Information, Communication & Society 21(9) pp 1219-1233
- Johnson, M, Carrigan, M and Brock T (2019) The Imperative to be Seen: The Moral Economy of Celebrity Video Game Streaming First Monday, 24 (8)
- Brock, T (2017) Roger Caillois and E-Sports: On the Problems of Treating Play as Work Games and Culture
- Brock, T (2016) Videogame Consumption: The Apophatic Dimension Journal of Consumer Culture
- Joseph, D (2021) Battle pass capitalism Journal of Consumer Culture
- Nieborg, DB, Young, CJ, and Joseph, D (2020) App Imperialism: The Political Economy of the Canadian App Store Social Media and Society, 6(2)
- Kuntsman, A (2017) Selfie Citizenship. Springer
- Kuntsman, A and Stein, R (2015) Digital Militarism Israel’s Occupation in the Social Media Age. Stanford University Press
- Kuntsman, A and Miyake, E (2019) The paradox and continuum of digital disengagement: denaturalising digital sociality and technological connectivity Media, Culture and Society, 41(6), pp 901-913
- Kuntsman, A and Rattle, I (2019) Towards a paradigmatic shift in sustainability studies: a systematic review of peer reviewed literature and future agenda setting to consider environmental (un)sustainability of digital communication. Environmental Communication, 13(5), pp 567-581
- Luo, T and Lv, A (2021) Nine dragons run the water in Haggart, B, Tusikov, N and Scholte, JA (eds) Power and Authority in Internet Governance. Routledge, pp 123-146
- Stockmann, D, Garten, F and Luo, T (2020) Who is a PRC user? Comparing Chinese social media user agreements. First Monday, 25(8)
- Stockmann, D, Hartman, K and Luo, T (2020) The political position generator—A new instrument for measuring political ties in China. Social Networks, 63, pp 70-79
- Stockmann, D, Luo, T and Shen, M (2020) Designing authoritarian deliberation: how social media platforms influence political talk in China Democratization, 27(2), pp 243-264
- Luo, T (2018) Explaining incumbent re-election in authoritarian elections: evidence from a Chinese county Democratization 25(7), pp 1291-1309
Contact
Contact us
You can contact individual members of the team through their staff profiles.
For general enquiries, please contact our research group leads Dr Tom Brock and Dr Adi Kuntsman.