Digital Society @ Manchester Met 2022
A biennial series of events exploring the impact of an increasingly digital society on play, research methods, politics, arts and the environment.
About
About these events
These events celebrate the exceptional and diverse research expertise in digital social science and arts at Manchester Met.
Each reflects a key aspect of digital research in the University’s Arts and Humanities Faculty, including games, methods, politics, arts and the environment.
Through this series of events, we aim to:
- connect with the public about the exciting and impactful digital research taking place in Manchester and beyond
- support emerging scholars to build their research reputation by connecting them with established authorities in the field
- create and consolidate international research partnerships and networks with digital social scientists and artists
Who should attend?
These events are open to academic researchers, students and members of the public interested in the digital society. It will be of particular interest to those studying digital social sciences, digital arts, and media and communication studies - and prospective applicants to our MSc Digital Society.
2022 programme
Monday 6 June: Digital society and politics
Geoffrey Manton Building, lecture theatre three
Main events
- 9:30am Registration
- 10am Event opening and welcome
- 10:15am Keynote. The Promise of Access — Dr Daniel Greene, University of Maryland
- 12pm Break
- 1pm Multimodal. A showcase of research into the working conditions and life experiences of platform food couriers in Manchester and Cluj-Napoca — Dr Cosmin Popan, Manchester Met
Tuesday 7 June: Digital society and play
Geoffrey Manton Building, lecture theatre three
Main events
- 9:30am Registration
- 10am Panel 1. Ecogames — Sonia Fizek, TH Köln; Joost Raessens, Utrecht University; Stefan Werning, Utrecht University
- 11am Break
- 11:30am Panel 2. Economic and political challenges within the Digital Games Industry — Poppy Curran Jones, IWGB Game Workers; Paolo Ruffino, Liverpool University; Dr Brendan Keogh, Queensland University of Technology; Aleena Chia, Goldsmiths University; Alison Harvey, York University
- 1pm Lunch
- 2pm Keynote. The Politics of Children’s Digital Playgrounds — Dr Sara Grimes, University of Toronto
- 3pm Break
- 3:30pm Panel 3. Theorising Playful Subjects in Digital Games — Feng Zhu, Kings College London; Stefano Gualeni and Daniel Vella, University of Malta; Rob Gallagher, Manchester Met; Tom Brock, Manchester Met
Wednesday 8 June: Digital society and methods
Geoffrey Manton Building, lecture theatre three
Main events
- 9:30am Registration
- 10am Keynote. Using the Walkthrough Method in a Multi-Method Study: An Example from the COVID Sex Lives Project — Ben Light, University of Salford
- 11am Break
- 11:30am Interactive Session. App Walkthroughs and Digital Health — Adi Kuntsman, Manchester Met
- 12:30pm Lunch
- 1:30pm Panel 1. App Walkthroughs: Key Challenges and Innovations — Stefanie Duguay, Concordia University; Jessamy Perriam, ITU Copenhagen; Sunniva Sandbukt, ITU Copenhagen; Lara Reime, ITU Copenhagen
- 2.30pm Break
- 3pm Panel 2. App Walkthroughs and Social Media Influence — Sophie Bishop, Sheffield University; Ysabel Gerrard, Sheffield University; Tim Highfield, Sheffield University
- 4pm Break
- 4:15pm App Walkthroughs and Platform Governance — Alex Ross and David Nieborg, University of Toronto; Daniel Joseph, Manchester Met; Lianrui Jia, University of Sheffield
Thursday 9 June: Digital society and arts
Geoffrey Manton Building, lecture theatre three
Main events
- 9:30am Registration
- 10am What is an NFT? A short film by students from BA (Hons) Future Media Production
- 10:15am NFTs and Intellectual Property: copying, theft and ownership — Marsha Courneya
- 10:35am Bloomin’ NFTs — Alasdair Swenson and Adam Cooke, SODA Research Lab
- 10:50am Symbolic Innovation in the NFT Space — Rob Potts
- 11:10am NFT industry perspectives — Andy Hirst, Moden English
- 11:30am Panel — Rob Potts, Hilde Heim, Marsha Courenya, Barbara Nigro, Alasdair Swenson, Andy Hirst, Joe Duffy and Adam Cooke. Hosted by Kirsty Fairclough
- 1pm Lunch
- 2pm Workshop. The City and Artificial Reality — Ben Gwalchmai
- 3pm Break
- 4pm Workshop. Ambisonics and Virtual Reality — Chris Whiter
Friday 10 June: Digital society and environment
Geoffrey Manton Building, lecture theatre three
Main events
- 9:30am Registration
- 10am Panel 1. Games and the Environment — Ben Abraham, UTS Climate Justice Research Centre and Alenda Chang, University of California
- 11am Break
- 11:30am Presentation. Manchester Met’s Digital Sustainability HUB and the RISE Grand Challenge Team — Adi Kuntsman and Liz Price
- 12:30pm Lunch
- 1:30pm Panel 2 and keynote. Are digital technologies good for the planet? — Benedetta Brevini, University of Sydney
- 2.30pm Break
- 3pm #OpenLight Spotlight: Screening and Discussion — Erinma Ochu and Naomi Mwasambili
Featured speakers
Aleena Chia
Aleena Chia is lecturer of media, communications, and cultural studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. She researches cultures of creativity in digital game production, social media disconnection, and Silicon Valley spiritual subcultures. Her work has been published in the Internet Policy Review, Journal of Fandom Studies, Television and New Media, and American Behavioral Scientist.
Alison Harvey
Alison Harvey is an Assistant Professor of Communications. She holds a PhD in Communication and Culture from York University. Her research focuses on issues of inclusivity, justice, and accessibility in digital culture, with an emphasis on games, social media platforms, and creative work.
Ben Light
Ben Light is Professor of Digital Society at Salford University. His research concerns people’s everyday experiences of digital media with a focus on (non)consumption, gender and sexuality, digital methods, and digital media engagement for arts, culture, health and wellbeing. He is author (with Susanna Paasonen and Kylie Jarrett) of NSFW: Sex and Humor in Social Media (2019 MIT Press) and Disconnecting with Social Networking Sites (Palgrave 2014). Ben has published widely in journals such as New Media and Society, First Monday, Information Communication and Society, Cultural Sociology, Information Technology and People, Convergence and Continuum.
Brendan Keogh
Brendan Keogh is a researcher and critic of videogame play and production cultures. He is a chief investigator at the Digital Media Research Centre and a senior lecturer in the School of Communication, Queensland University of Technology. He is the author of A Play of Bodies: How We Perceive Videogames (MIT Press), The Unity Game Engine and the Circuits of Cultural Software (Palgrave, co-authored with Benjamin Nicoll), and the forthcoming The Videogame Industry Does Not Exist (MIT Press).
Daniel Greene
Daniel Greene is an Assistant Professor of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. His ethnographic, historical, and theoretical research explores how the future of work is built and who is included in that future. He published his first book, The Promise of Access: Technology, Inequality, and the Political Economy of Hope, with MIT Press in 2021. His research has also appeared in such venues as Research in the Sociology of Work, New Media and Society, and the International Journal of Communication.
Joost Raessens
Prof Joost Raessens holds the chair of Media Theory at Utrecht University. His research focuses on the understanding of how green media — in the broadest sense, including digital media, theatre, film, television, art and literature — contribute to ecological thought and facilitate different forms of civic engagement (global ecological citizenship) on a micro, meso and macro level. In general, his research interests include digital media and the ludification of culture, and the role of games and virtual reality in dealing with issues such as global warming and forced migration.
Sara Grimes
Dr Sara M Grimes is Director of the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) and Semaphore Labs, as well as an associate professor in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. Her research and teaching are centred in the areas of children’s digital media culture(s) and critical theories of technology, with a focus on digital games. Her published work explores the commercialization of children’s play culture and creative expression, discussions of intellectual property and fair dealing in child-specific digital environments, as well as the legal and ethical dimensions of marketing to children online. Her book Digital Playgrounds: The Hidden Politics of Children’s Online Play Spaces, Virtual Worlds, and Connected Games was published by the University of Toronto Press in August 2021.
Sonia Fizek
Sonia Fizek is an associate professor of media and game studies at the Cologne Game Lab at Technical University of Cologne. Sonia is co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds. Her research focuses on media aesthetics of computer play, work and play, and the sustainability of gaming - green game studies. In her book Playing at a Distance (MIT Press 2022), she explores the borderlands of video game aesthetic with focus on automation, artificial intelligence and post-human forms of play.
Stefan Werning
Stefan is an associate professor for Digital Media and Game Studies at Utrecht University, where he organizes the annual Multidisciplinary Game Research summer school and coordinates the special interest group Thinking Through Games. He obtained a PhD (2010) in media studies from Bonn University and his venia legendi at Bayreuth University (2015). Stefan was a visiting scholar (2005) and fellow (2006-2010) at the program in Comparative Media Studies at MIT. He has worked in the digital games industry, most notably at Codemasters (2005) and Nintendo of Europe (2007-09).
Stefanie Duguay
Stefanie Duguay is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, Canada. She is a Concordia University Research Chair and Director of the Digital Intimacy, Gender and Sexuality (DIGS) Lab where her research focuses on the intersection of digital technologies and media with representations and practices pertaining to intimate life, relationships, gender, and sexuality. This has involved studies of LGBTQ+ people’s social media participation, dating apps, platform appropriation and governance, discourses of automation and algorithmic neutrality, and the role of platforms and mobile media in queer social landscapes. @DugStef
Contact us
Contact us
For event enquiries, contact organiser Dr Tom Brock.
For more information about our Digital Society research group, contact its leads Dr Tom Brock and Dr Adi Kuntsman.