Vincent Miller
University of Kent, SSPSSR, Faculty Member
- Sociology, Information Technology, Cultural Studies, Cultural Theory, Geography, Social Media, and 71 moreSocial Networking, Digital Media, Web 2.0, Phenomenology, Globalization, Cultural Sociology, Human Geography, Urban Geography, Cultural Geography, Digital Culture, Video Games, Space and Place, Social Philosophy, Transnationalism, Virtual Worlds, Culture Studies, Urban Sociology, Digital Divide, Posthumanism, Technology and Society, Diasporas, Social Geography, Structuralism/Post-Structuralism, Critical Social Theory, Privacy, Information/Communication Technologies and Development, Subcultures, Virtual Environments, Digital Journalism, Digital Rhetorics, Community Organizing, Urban Culture, Mobile Web 2.0, Cyberstudies, Collective Behavior, Sociology of Everyday Life, Jean Baudrillard, Social Exclusion, Second Life, Global cities, Web Studies, The Internet of Things, Henri Lefebvre, Digitization, Michel de Certeau, Urban, User-Generated Content, Technoculture, Vagueness, New Media Studies, Technology & Culture, Telepresence, Social Imaginaries, Segregation, Internet Sociology, Internet Geography, Social Network Sites, Mashups, Spatial Sociology, Game studies (Technology), De Certeau, Cyber-Representations, Imagined Community, Schutz, City and Performance, Internet Studies (Sociology), Urban Experience, Facebook, Jurgen Habermas, Mobility/Mobilities, and Urban Studiesedit
- I am a Reader (somewhere between Associate Professor and Professor in North American terms) in Sociology and Cultural... moreI am a Reader (somewhere between Associate Professor and Professor in North American terms) in Sociology and Cultural Studies at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
My current research interests focus on four broad themes:
Digital culture, media and new media
Social theory of space
Belonging, community and forms of association
Theories of urban social change and fragmentation:
In terms of my history, I previously completed my PhD in Sociology at Lancaster University (under John Urry and Bulent Diken), where I also taught for a time and worked on a number of research projects, the largest one being 'Biographies of Cultural Objects' with Scott Lash, Celia Lury, Dan Shapiro and Dede Boden. The results of this project can be seen in the book 'Global Culture Industry: The Mediation of Things', by Scott Lash and Celia Lury (Polity, 2007) and available here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Global-Culture-Industry-Mediation-Things/dp/0745624839.
The results of another project I worked on at Lancaster, 'Housing decisions in old age' can be seen in my 'books' list.
Before that, I completed my BA and MA in Geography at the University of Alberta, Canada.
Some media things i have done:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011y87c
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8219000/8219466.stm
http://theengagingbrand.typepad.com/the_engaging_brand_/2009/09/sociologyofcommunity.htmledit
This paper examines a new form of philanthropic fundraising as pioneered by the YouTuber MrBeast. We argue that MrBeast, by harnessing the advertising revenue sharing model of YouTube’s Partner Program, has created an innovative model of... more
This paper examines a new form of philanthropic fundraising as pioneered by the YouTuber MrBeast. We argue that MrBeast, by harnessing the advertising revenue sharing model of YouTube’s Partner Program, has created an innovative model of philanthropic giving funded by mobilising what Marxist communication theorists refer to as the ‘audience’ or ‘prosumer commodity’. Through this method, MrBeast has been able to use the algorithmically managed, revenue sharing model of YouTube, and the spectacle of philanthropy, to draw in ever larger audiences and thus create large amounts of advertising and sponsorship revenue to fund philanthropic activities. This revenue in turn funds even larger philanthropic acts in subsequent videos, drawing more audiences and revenue. Unlike previous media-based fundraising, which would ask audience members to contribute their own money or time to a cause, MrBeast positions his audiences as a knowing audience commodity whose viewership funds direct contributions of other people’s money to good causes, merely by watching and being entertained. We assess the implications of this both for current debates around the ‘work’, labour’, and ‘exploitation’ of audience and prosumer commodities, and their monetisation for philanthropic giving.
Research Interests:
Geography has seen a rebirth of interest and appreciation of the ruined and abandoned spaces of industrial modernity. This work has often considered such ruins largely in terms of the phenomenological or affectual experiences of material... more
Geography has seen a rebirth of interest and appreciation of the ruined and abandoned spaces of industrial modernity. This work has often considered such ruins largely in terms of the phenomenological or affectual experiences of material decay, disorder, and blight. This chapter is an investigation into ruined spaces that do not have materiality or temporality: digital ruins. Existing in a kind of eternal present, such spaces do not decay, yet still demonstrate many affective and phenomenological experiences of what we understand to be ruin. Using ethnographic research of three abandoned and nearly abandoned virtual worlds, these landscapes provide a unique opportunity for a critical analysis of digital ruins as spaces of disconnection: particularly in their relationship with time, their algorithmic disconnection from the social imaginary of the Internet, the phenomenological disconnection one experiences in these places, and their founding premise as spaces of utopian disconnection from the limitations of materiality.
Research Interests:
This is a draft of the introduction to the second edition of Understanding Digital Culture (Sage: 2020)
Research Interests:
This is a draft of the introduction to the above book, which will be released In December 2015. Please do not reference or quote without permission.
Research Interests: Web 2.0, Digital Humanities, Digital Media, Digital Culture, Émmanuel Lévinas, and 21 moreBernard Stiegler, Martin Heidegger, The Internet of Things, Cyberbullying, Online social networks, Social Presence, The Internet, Heidegger and Technology, Derrida and Ethics, Émmanuel Lévinas on ethics and the other, Online Identity and Presence, Presence, Surveillance, personal data, social sorting, privacy, camera surveillance, identification systems, internet surveillance, biometrics, Online Media, Brian Rotman, Social Networking Security and Privacy, Social Media Ecology and CyberBullying, Trolling, Presence/absence, Online Social Networks Ethics, and Social Media and Freedom of Speech and Expression
This book investigates three issues in particular which have captured the public imagination as ‘problems’ emerging directly from the contemporary use of communications technology: online anti-social behaviour; the problem of privacy; and... more
This book investigates three issues in particular which have captured the public imagination as ‘problems’ emerging directly from the contemporary use of communications technology: online anti-social behaviour; the problem of privacy; and the problem of free speech online. Through a critical and philosophical examination of each of these cases in turn, I will argue that these problems have at their root the issue of presence, and are evoking what I call a ‘crisis of presence’. I argue that the use of ubiquitous communication technologies has created a disjuncture between how we think we exist in the world, (how we understand our presence in time, place and in proximity to one another, and the typical social actions and ethical stances which stem from such assumptions) and how we actually do exist in the world through our use of such devices. The main problem here, I suggest, is a lack of awareness of our own and others’ presence in the world through these technologies, and thus the inability to make proper judgements about the consequences of our social actions and ethical stances in online contexts.
By focussing on the concept of presence, and the challenges that our changing presence poses to our ethics, privacy and public discourse, I argue that the real task for networked humanity is the recognition that these problems are at least in part the result of a certain ‘stance’ taken to the world and enabled by technology. The solution therefore, is not to focus exclusively on content and its regulation as much as it is to examine the alienating aspects of the media itself by understanding and resisting the more destructive tendencies in technological ordering, metaphysical abstraction, disembodiment and mediation which increasingly appear in our social encounters and presences. I suggest that such resistance involves several ambitious revisions in our ethical, legal and technological regimes.
By focussing on the concept of presence, and the challenges that our changing presence poses to our ethics, privacy and public discourse, I argue that the real task for networked humanity is the recognition that these problems are at least in part the result of a certain ‘stance’ taken to the world and enabled by technology. The solution therefore, is not to focus exclusively on content and its regulation as much as it is to examine the alienating aspects of the media itself by understanding and resisting the more destructive tendencies in technological ordering, metaphysical abstraction, disembodiment and mediation which increasingly appear in our social encounters and presences. I suggest that such resistance involves several ambitious revisions in our ethical, legal and technological regimes.
Research Interests: Web 2.0, Digital Humanities, Internet Studies, Digital Media, Digital Culture, and 25 moreÉmmanuel Lévinas, Bernard Stiegler, Martin Heidegger, The Internet of Things, Cyberbullying, Online social networks, Social Networking Sites (SNS), Social Presence, The Internet, Heidegger and Technology, Derrida and Ethics, Émmanuel Lévinas on ethics and the other, Online Identity and Presence, Presence, Surveillance, personal data, social sorting, privacy, camera surveillance, identification systems, internet surveillance, biometrics, Online Media, Brian Rotman, Social Networking Security and Privacy, Freedom of speech and media ethics,defamtion laws in pakistan, Social Media Ecology and CyberBullying, Trolling, Anonymity, Internet Governance, Freedom of Expression, Presence/absence, Online Social Networks Ethics, and Social Media and Freedom of Speech and Expression
“When capital enlists science into her service, the refractory hand of labour will always be taught docility” (Marx, 1990 [1867]: 564) Contents Introduction Revolutionary Technologies? Chapter 1: Key Elements of Digital Media... more
“When capital enlists science into her service, the refractory hand of labour will always be taught docility” (Marx, 1990 [1867]: 564)
Contents
Introduction
Revolutionary Technologies?
Chapter 1: Key Elements of Digital Media
Case Study: What Are Video Games? A Conundrum of Digital Culture
Chapter 2: The Economic Foundations of the Information Age
Chapter 3: Convergence and the Contemporary Media
Experience
Case Study: The Changing Culture Industry of Digital Music
‘Mash-ups’ and the crisis of authorship in digital culture
Chapter 4: Digital Inequality: Social, Political and Infrastructural Contexts
Chapter 5: “Everyone is Watching”: Privacy and Surveillance in Digital Life
Chapter 6: Information Politics, Subversion and Warfare
Chapter 7: Digital Identity
Case Study: Cybersex, Online Intimacy and the Self
Chapter 8: Social Media and the Problem of Community: Space, Relationships, Networks
Case Study: Social Networking, Microblogging, Language and Phatic Culture
Chapter 9: The Body and Information Technology
Conclusion : Base, Superstructure, Infrastructure, Revisited
References
Contents
Introduction
Revolutionary Technologies?
Chapter 1: Key Elements of Digital Media
Case Study: What Are Video Games? A Conundrum of Digital Culture
Chapter 2: The Economic Foundations of the Information Age
Chapter 3: Convergence and the Contemporary Media
Experience
Case Study: The Changing Culture Industry of Digital Music
‘Mash-ups’ and the crisis of authorship in digital culture
Chapter 4: Digital Inequality: Social, Political and Infrastructural Contexts
Chapter 5: “Everyone is Watching”: Privacy and Surveillance in Digital Life
Chapter 6: Information Politics, Subversion and Warfare
Chapter 7: Digital Identity
Case Study: Cybersex, Online Intimacy and the Self
Chapter 8: Social Media and the Problem of Community: Space, Relationships, Networks
Case Study: Social Networking, Microblogging, Language and Phatic Culture
Chapter 9: The Body and Information Technology
Conclusion : Base, Superstructure, Infrastructure, Revisited
References
Research Interests:
Deciding where to live at any age is stressful and complex. In later life people imagine their own ageing and whether they will be able to cope in their current house. Drawing on research material from over 1000 older people, the authors... more
Deciding where to live at any age is stressful and complex. In later life people imagine their own ageing and whether they will be able to cope in their current house. Drawing on research material from over 1000 older people, the authors unravel this experience. People cannot know their future: some move early to houses that will be easier to manage; others avoid thinking of a life that appears problematic or painful. Housing Decisions in Later Life is essential reading for all who want to understand better the housing experiences of older people, the involvement of older people in research, the place of emotions in decision-making and, indeed, ageing itself. Older people demand more space in specialist housing to live fulfilled lives rather than solely to manage decline. The linking of housing stories with theory makes it valuable for those in planning or policy, architects and managers, academics and students.
This article contributes to current discussions of the spatial inspired by complexity theories that emphasize the multiple and relational qualities of space. It introduces the concept of vagueness and “vague objects” and relates these to... more
This article contributes to current discussions of the spatial inspired by complexity theories that emphasize the multiple and relational qualities of space. It introduces the concept of vagueness and “vague objects” and relates these to spatial theory through the intersubjective theory of Alfred Schutz. The author argues that a consideration of vagueness, especially as constructed in Schutz’s version of intersubjectivity, can provide insights (outside complexity theorizations) into the continuous and multivalent nature of social space and the relationships between spatial experience, practice, representation, and power.
Research Interests: Sociology, Epistemology, Vagueness, Intersubjectivity, Multidisciplinary, and 7 moreHT, Hm, BC, Space Culture, G, Representation Politics, and GF
Research Interests:
In recent years, Geography has seen a rebirth of interest and appreciation of ruins, abandoned and neglected spaces of industrial modernity. This work has often emphasised the sensuousness of the material contextualisation of industrial... more
In recent years, Geography has seen a rebirth of interest and appreciation of ruins, abandoned and neglected spaces of industrial modernity. This work has often emphasised the sensuousness of the material contextualisation of industrial ruins largely in terms of the phenomenological experience of decay, disorder and blight, or the affective elements of these spaces through concepts such as ‘ghostliness’ and ‘haunting’. This article is an investigation into ruins or abandoned spaces which do not have materiality or temporality: digital ruins. Existing in a kind of eternal present, such spaces do not decay, yet still demonstrate many of the affective, phenomenological and existential experiences of what we understand to be ruin, abandonment or blight. Using autoethnographic research of a variety of abandoned and nearly abandoned virtual worlds, this article will reconsider the notions of ‘ruin’ within the increasingly important context of digital spaces, the utopian rhetoric which fra...
Research Interests:
This paper considers the recent phenomenon of the vehicle-ramming attack (VRA): i.e. the act of purposely driving a vehicle into pedestrians and populated vehicles. It documents the recent (2015–2017) rise in the prevalence of ramming... more
This paper considers the recent phenomenon of the vehicle-ramming attack (VRA): i.e. the act of purposely driving a vehicle into pedestrians and populated vehicles. It documents the recent (2015–2017) rise in the prevalence of ramming attacks and how these incidents challenge some of the assumptions we have about terrorism and its causes. Typically, criminologists and terrorist scholars tend to focus on either the ‘psychology’ of individual terrorists or wider structural or ethno-political issues, such as religion, ideological doctrine or the role of terrorist organizations in converting and recruiting people to violence. This paper will adopt a different position, one which focusses less on structure and individual psychology, and more on the act itself, as something that is not merely an expression of an individual or an ideology, but something that has a lure and force all of its own, as something that travels through our contemporary mediascape, to be internalized and imitated by an increasingly varied set of subjects with varying motivations, psychologies, ideologies and circumstantial backgrounds.
Research Interests:
This paper is a theoretical investigation into the question of affinity and belonging in everyday life contexts. I argue that Sociology had tended to focus attention on the conceptual binaries of ‘individual/community’ or... more
This paper is a theoretical investigation into the question of affinity and belonging in everyday life contexts. I argue that Sociology had tended to focus attention on the conceptual binaries of ‘individual/community’ or ‘individual/social structure’ when discussing experiences of inclusion, solidarity or belonging in social life. This has meant that such experiences are generally conceived in terms of ‘a part of’ or ‘apart from’. Such a focus has meant that incidents of belonging or affinity which lie between these extremes and which may be intense, intimate and meaningful, but at the same time fluid, ephemeral or tenuous tend to escape sociological analysis. Largely inspired by sociological phenomenology, but multi-disciplinary in nature, this paper will try to address this issue by positing ‘resonance’ as a useful concept by which sociologists and social scientists more generally, can engage with the more fluid forms of belonging and affinity achieved in everyday life contexts.
Research Interests:
This article will demonstrate how the notion of 'phatic communion' has become an increasingly significant part of digital media culture alongside the rise of online networking practices. Through a consideration of the new media... more
This article will demonstrate how the notion of 'phatic communion' has become an increasingly significant part of digital media culture alongside the rise of online networking practices. Through a consideration of the new media objects of blogs, social networking profiles and microblogs, along with their associated practices, I will argue, that the social contexts of 'individualization' and 'network sociality', alongside the technological developments associated with pervasive communication and 'connected presence' has led to an online media culture increasingly dominated by phatic communications. That is, communications which have purely social (networking) and not informational or dialogic intents. I conclude with a discussion of the potential nihilistic consequences of such a culture.
Research Interests:
This article examines social media challenges that emerged in 2013, focusing on Neknomination, the Ice-Bucket Challenge and SmearForSmear. We understand them as ‘viral challenge memes’ that manifest a set of consistent features, making... more
This article examines social media challenges that emerged in 2013, focusing on Neknomination, the Ice-Bucket Challenge and SmearForSmear. We understand them as ‘viral challenge memes’ that manifest a set of consistent features, making them a distinctive phenomenon within digital culture. Drawing upon Tarde’s concept of the imitative-encounter, we highlight three central features: their basis in social belonging and participation; the role of prestigious people and groups in determining the spread of challenges; and the distinctive techniques of self-presentation undertaken by participants. Based upon focus group interviews, surveys and visual analysis we suggest that viral challenge memes are social practices that diffuse in a wave-like fashion. Negotiating tensions between the social and individual, imitation and innovation, continuity and change, viral challenge memes are best thought of as creative practices, rather than sheep-like acts of conformity, and affirm the usefulness o...
Research Interests:
In recent years, Geography has seen a rebirth of interest and appreciation of ruins, abandoned and neglected spaces of industrial modernity. This work has often emphasised the sensuousness of the material contextualisation of industrial... more
In recent years, Geography has seen a rebirth of interest and appreciation of ruins, abandoned and neglected spaces of industrial modernity. This work has often emphasised the sensuousness of the material contextualisation of industrial ruins largely in terms of the phenomenological experience of decay, disorder and blight, or the affective elements of these spaces through concepts such as ‘ghostliness’ and ‘haunting’. This article is an investigation into ruins or abandoned spaces which do not have materiality or temporality: digital ruins. Existing in a kind of eternal present, such spaces do not decay, yet still demonstrate many of the affective, phenomenological and existential experiences of what we understand to be ruin, abandonment or blight. Using autoethnographic research of a variety of abandoned and nearly abandoned virtual worlds, this article will reconsider the notions of ‘ruin’ within the increasingly important context of digital spaces, the utopian rhetoric which framed the development of these worlds, and situate the digital ruin within a wider critique of digital prosumerism.
Research Interests:
This paper considers the recent phenomenon of the vehicle-ramming attack (VRA): i.e. the act of purposely driving a vehicle into pedestrians and populated vehicles. It documents the recent (2015–2017) rise in the prevalence of ramming... more
This paper considers the recent phenomenon of the vehicle-ramming attack (VRA): i.e. the act of purposely driving a vehicle into pedestrians and populated vehicles. It documents the recent (2015–2017) rise in the prevalence of ramming attacks and how these incidents challenge some of the assumptions we have about terrorism and its causes. Typically, criminologists and terrorist scholars tend to focus on either the ‘psychology’ of individual terrorists or wider structural or ethno-political issues, such as religion, ideological doctrine or the role of terrorist organizations in converting and recruiting people to violence. This paper will adopt a different position, one which focusses less on structure and individual psychology, and more on the act itself, as something that is not merely an expression of an individual or an ideology, but something that has a lure and force all of its own, as something that travels through our contemporary mediascape, to be internalized and imitated by an increasingly varied set of subjects with varying motivations, psychologies, ideologies and circumstantial backgrounds.
Keywords: Affect, contagion, Gabriel Tarde, terrorism, (crime) waves, vehicle-ramming attacks, virality.
British Journal of Criminology. (doi:10.1093/bjc/azy017)
https://academic.oup.com/bjc/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/bjc/azy017/5052837?redirectedFrom=fulltext
A draft of this article is currently under restricted access at https://kar.kent.ac.uk/67097/, or feel free to contact one of the authors.
Keywords: Affect, contagion, Gabriel Tarde, terrorism, (crime) waves, vehicle-ramming attacks, virality.
British Journal of Criminology. (doi:10.1093/bjc/azy017)
https://academic.oup.com/bjc/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/bjc/azy017/5052837?redirectedFrom=fulltext
A draft of this article is currently under restricted access at https://kar.kent.ac.uk/67097/, or feel free to contact one of the authors.
Research Interests:
This chapter will engage with the notion that one of the key defining features of digital being, at least in terms of ethical engagement with others via technological interfaces and networks, is a heightened state of both invulnerability... more
This chapter will engage with the notion that one of the key defining features of digital being, at least in terms of ethical engagement with others via technological interfaces and networks, is a heightened state of both invulnerability and vulnerability. Merleau-Ponty suggested that embodied existence in the world is defined by a stance of vulnerability and the anticipation of ‘dangerous surprises’. In digital existence, I suggest that our continuous, archived, digital presence, distributed in a multitude of networks, archives, databases and servers, opens us up to increased vulnerabilities of which we are only partially aware. These vulnerabilities become more present to us when we hear of, or are the victims of trolling, a data breach, hacking scandal or other form of ‘dangerous surprise’. This chapter looks in detail at two incidents: the five-year long trolling campaign against Nicola Brookes, and the ‘Ashley Madison hack’ of 2015. Using these examples, this paper will investigate the notion of vulnerability as one way to investigate being in the digital age. I argue that digital being consists of a contradictory stance to the world: of heightened invulnerability in our social encounters with others, alongside a heightened vulnerability to a host of unknown ‘dangerous surprises’. I suggest further that the negotiation of this stance is fundamental to any development of an ethics for the digital age.
Keywords: Trolling, Cybercrime, Vulnerability, Merleau-Ponty, Online extortion, Data breach, Hacking, Existentialism, Being, Cybersecurity
Miller, Vincent (2018) The ethics of digital being: vulnerability, invulnerability, and ‘dangerous surprises’. In: Lagerqvist, Amanda, ed. Digital Existence: Ontology, Ethics and transcendence in Digital Culture. Routledge Studies in Religion and Digital Culture . Routledge, London, pp. 171-186. ISBN 9781138092433. E-ISBN 9781315107479. (In press)
Please contact the author for a draft copy.
Keywords: Trolling, Cybercrime, Vulnerability, Merleau-Ponty, Online extortion, Data breach, Hacking, Existentialism, Being, Cybersecurity
Miller, Vincent (2018) The ethics of digital being: vulnerability, invulnerability, and ‘dangerous surprises’. In: Lagerqvist, Amanda, ed. Digital Existence: Ontology, Ethics and transcendence in Digital Culture. Routledge Studies in Religion and Digital Culture . Routledge, London, pp. 171-186. ISBN 9781138092433. E-ISBN 9781315107479. (In press)
Please contact the author for a draft copy.
Research Interests:
This article examines social media challenges that emerged in 2013, focusing on Ne-knomination, the Ice-Bucket Challenge and SmearForSmear. We suggest understand them as ‘viral challenge memes’ and manifest a set of consistent features... more
This article examines social media challenges that emerged in 2013, focusing on Ne-knomination, the Ice-Bucket Challenge and SmearForSmear. We suggest understand them as ‘viral challenge memes’ and manifest a set of consistent features that make them a distinctive phenomenon within digital culture. Drawing upon Tarde’s (1903, 2010/1888) concept of the imitative-encounter, we highlight three central features: their basis in social belonging and participation, the role of prestigious people and groups in determining the spread of challenges, and the distinctive techniques of self-presentation undertaken by participants. Based upon focus group interviews, surveys and visual analysis we suggest that viral challenge memes are social practices that dif-fuse in a wave-like fashion. Negotiating tensions between the social and individual, imitation and innovation, continuity and change, viral challenge memes are best thought of as creative practices, rather than sheep-like acts of conformity, and affirm the usefulness of analytical principles drawn from Tarde.
Research Interests:
This article examines social media challenges that emerged in 2013, focusing on Ne-knomination, the Ice-Bucket Challenge and SmearForSmear. We suggest understand them as 'viral challenge memes' and manifest a set of consistent features... more
This article examines social media challenges that emerged in 2013, focusing on Ne-knomination, the Ice-Bucket Challenge and SmearForSmear. We suggest understand them as 'viral challenge memes' and manifest a set of consistent features that make them a distinctive phenomenon within digital culture. Drawing upon Tarde's (1903, 2010/1888) concept of the imitative-encounter, we highlight three central features: their basis in social belonging and participation, the role of prestigious people and groups in determining the spread of challenges, and the distinctive techniques of self-presentation undertaken by participants. Based upon focus group interviews, surveys and visual analysis we suggest that viral challenge memes are social practices that diffuse in a wave-like fashion. Negotiating tensions between the social and individual, imitation and innovation, continuity and change, viral challenge memes are best thought of as creative practices, rather than sheep-like acts of conformity, and affirm the usefulness of analytical principles drawn from Tarde.
Research Interests:
This chapter examines the problem of privacy and surveillance within contemporary society. Inspired by the work of Rotman, Steigler, Heidegger and Marx, this chapter discusses the problem of our own contemporary being/presence in terms of... more
This chapter examines the problem of privacy and surveillance within contemporary society. Inspired by the work of Rotman, Steigler, Heidegger and Marx, this chapter discusses the problem of our own contemporary being/presence in terms of our awareness of distributed presence in digital networks. It will approach the problem of privacy and surveillance as a problem of ethics related to presence and abstraction, that is, a problem of how we exist as abstracted 'data', as profiles, avatars, databases, bits of text and otherwise, simultaneously in many different virtual and physical locations.
Here I suggest that the problem lies in how such presences are not encountered as 'being', but instead as abstract 'data'. Indeed, I argue that contemporary being is subject to five different modes of abstraction (commodification, informatisation, depersonalisation, decontextualisation and dematerialisation), which work to separate information produced by beings, from beings themselves. Thus, as data, this virtual matter is mistakenly conceived of as 'information about' beings as opposed to 'the matter of being' in contemporary environments. I argue that this 'information about’ beings carries with it little ethical weight, and thus the handling of personal data is therefore largely freed from any kind of ethical or moral responsibility. This separation encourages the rampant collection of data, the spread of personal information, invasions of privacy, and violations of autonomy.
To work against these trends, I propose that we consider expanding the notion of 'self' or 'being' to include the presences we achieve through technology. This means including the virtual presences of profiles, avatars, databases as part of the 'matter of being' or the self. Such a shift would give 'ethical weight' to an otherwise ethically weightless set of mathematical data conceived of purely in instrumental terms by re-establishing and emphasising the link between ‘data’ and its human origins.
Here I suggest that the problem lies in how such presences are not encountered as 'being', but instead as abstract 'data'. Indeed, I argue that contemporary being is subject to five different modes of abstraction (commodification, informatisation, depersonalisation, decontextualisation and dematerialisation), which work to separate information produced by beings, from beings themselves. Thus, as data, this virtual matter is mistakenly conceived of as 'information about' beings as opposed to 'the matter of being' in contemporary environments. I argue that this 'information about’ beings carries with it little ethical weight, and thus the handling of personal data is therefore largely freed from any kind of ethical or moral responsibility. This separation encourages the rampant collection of data, the spread of personal information, invasions of privacy, and violations of autonomy.
To work against these trends, I propose that we consider expanding the notion of 'self' or 'being' to include the presences we achieve through technology. This means including the virtual presences of profiles, avatars, databases as part of the 'matter of being' or the self. Such a shift would give 'ethical weight' to an otherwise ethically weightless set of mathematical data conceived of purely in instrumental terms by re-establishing and emphasising the link between ‘data’ and its human origins.
Research Interests: Privacy, Bernard Stiegler, The Internet of Things, Communication Ethics, Critical Media Studies, and 9 moreOnline social networks, Information Security and Privacy, Heidegger and Technology, Brian Rotman, Social Networking Security and Privacy, Data Privacy, Big Data / Analytics / Data Mining, Quantified Self, and Big Data Security
Apart from the exchanging of information, an important role of conversation and communication is to promote social harmony through the maintenance of relationships. This is referred to as the ‘phatic’ function of communication. Indeed,... more
Apart from the exchanging of information, an important role of conversation and communication is to promote social harmony through the maintenance of relationships. This is referred to as the ‘phatic’ function of communication. Indeed, digital communications technologies, and social media in particular, have been lauded for their potential to promote activism and social change through ‘raising awareness’ of injustices, their ability to motivate people into political action, and the facility to organise and co-ordinate that action for maximum effect.
In this paper, I build upon previous arguments which suggested that the rise of social networking demonstrated that online culture and communication had become increasingly ‘phatic’ and less dialogic. Here I use previous empirical work to challenge the above claims of digital politics enthusiasts. I then suggest an alternative theoretical account of the function of digital media activism which better suits these empirical findings. I suggest that digital politics demonstrates a rise of ‘phatic communion’ in social media. Incorporating Heidegger’s notion of ‘idle talk’, I further suggest that the rise of a phatic online culture in social media activism has atrophied the potential for digital communications technologies to help foster social change by creating a conversational environment based on limited forms of expressive solidarity as opposed to an engaged, content-driven, dialogic public sphere.
Keywords: Phatic, Heidegger, Clicktivism, Social Media, Online Politics, Multitude, Arab Spring, Occupy, Twitter, Facebook.
Please see the link below to access the paper. If you do not have access to Convergence, feel free to send me a message and i will e-mail you a copy.
In this paper, I build upon previous arguments which suggested that the rise of social networking demonstrated that online culture and communication had become increasingly ‘phatic’ and less dialogic. Here I use previous empirical work to challenge the above claims of digital politics enthusiasts. I then suggest an alternative theoretical account of the function of digital media activism which better suits these empirical findings. I suggest that digital politics demonstrates a rise of ‘phatic communion’ in social media. Incorporating Heidegger’s notion of ‘idle talk’, I further suggest that the rise of a phatic online culture in social media activism has atrophied the potential for digital communications technologies to help foster social change by creating a conversational environment based on limited forms of expressive solidarity as opposed to an engaged, content-driven, dialogic public sphere.
Keywords: Phatic, Heidegger, Clicktivism, Social Media, Online Politics, Multitude, Arab Spring, Occupy, Twitter, Facebook.
Please see the link below to access the paper. If you do not have access to Convergence, feel free to send me a message and i will e-mail you a copy.
Research Interests:
This paper is a theoretical investigation into the question of affinity and belonging in everyday life contexts. I argue that Sociology has tended to focus attention on the conceptual binaries of ‘individual/community’ or... more
This paper is a theoretical investigation into the question of affinity and belonging in everyday life contexts. I argue that Sociology has tended to focus attention on the conceptual binaries of ‘individual/community’ or ‘individual/social structure’ when discussing experiences of inclusion, solidarity or belonging in social life. This has meant that such experiences are generally conceived in terms of ‘a part of’ or ‘apart from’. Such a focus has meant that incidents of belonging or affinity which lie between these extremes and which may be intense, intimate and meaningful, but at the same time fluid, ephemeral or tenuous tend to escape sociological analysis.
Largely inspired by sociological phenomenology, but multi-disciplinary in nature, this paper will try to address this issue by positing ‘resonance’ as a useful concept by which sociologists and social scientists more generally, can engage with the more fluid forms of belonging and affinity achieved in everyday life contexts.
Keywords: resonance; everyday life; intimacy; anonymity; collective effervescence; communitas; Durkheim; affect; Schutz; Ingold.
Largely inspired by sociological phenomenology, but multi-disciplinary in nature, this paper will try to address this issue by positing ‘resonance’ as a useful concept by which sociologists and social scientists more generally, can engage with the more fluid forms of belonging and affinity achieved in everyday life contexts.
Keywords: resonance; everyday life; intimacy; anonymity; collective effervescence; communitas; Durkheim; affect; Schutz; Ingold.
Research Interests:
"""This paper is a discussion about presence and its relationship to ethical and moral behaviour. In particular, I problematise the notion of presence within a contemporary culture in which social life is increasingly lived and... more
"""This paper is a discussion about presence and its relationship to ethical and moral behaviour. In particular, I problematise the notion of presence within a contemporary culture in which social life is increasingly lived and experienced through networked digital communication technologies alongside the physical presence of co-present bodies. Using the work of Heidegger, Levinas, Bauman and Turkel (among others), I suggest that the increasing use of these technologies and our increasing presence in online environments challenges our tendencies to ground moral and ethical behaviours in face-to-face or materially co-present contexts. Instead, the mediated presences we can achieve amplify our cultural tendency to objectify the social world and weaken our sense of moral and ethical responsibility to others.
In that sense, an important disjuncture exists between the largely liminal space of online interactions and the ethical sensibilities of material presence which, as these two spheres become more intensely integrated, has potential consequences for the future of an ethical social world and a civil society. I use the examples of online suicides, trolling, cyberbullying to illustrate these ethical disjunctures.
"""
In that sense, an important disjuncture exists between the largely liminal space of online interactions and the ethical sensibilities of material presence which, as these two spheres become more intensely integrated, has potential consequences for the future of an ethical social world and a civil society. I use the examples of online suicides, trolling, cyberbullying to illustrate these ethical disjunctures.
"""
Research Interests: Social Theory, New Media, Digital Media, Jurgen Habermas, Continental Philosophy, and 24 moreDigital Culture, Gilles Deleuze, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jacques Lacan, Émmanuel Lévinas, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Communication Ethics, Jacques Derrida, Cyberbullying, Facebook, Online Journalism, Social Networking Sites (SNS), Phenomenology of Space and Place, Google, Online Identity and Presence, Youtube, Presence, Digital Marketing, Digital Story Telling, Iphones, Trolling, Paywalls, and Virtual Revolution
Many critical theorists from the Frankfurt School onward have echoed Weber’s argument that the development of modern capitalism has been tied to the development of an instrumental rationality in human relations and communication. This... more
Many critical theorists from the Frankfurt School onward have echoed Weber’s argument that the development of modern capitalism has been tied to the development of an instrumental rationality in human relations and communication. This view asserts that thinking, planning and action have become more focussed on the most efficient means to achieve a specific end, with little critical reflection on the end itself, or the context in which that end is embedded. In this regard, maps are perhaps the most powerful and pervasive tool of instrumental rationality.
Keywords: Maps, Power, Harley, Lefebvre, Baudrillard, Phenomenology, Non-Representational Theory.
Keywords: Maps, Power, Harley, Lefebvre, Baudrillard, Phenomenology, Non-Representational Theory.
Research Interests:
In this chapter we engage with the complex relationships between space, knowledge and power through a consideration of vagueness, vague practices and vague spaces. We argue that interlinked modern processes of the state and capital... more
In this chapter we engage with the complex relationships between space, knowledge and power through a consideration of vagueness, vague practices and vague spaces. We argue that interlinked modern processes of the state and capital constitute hegemonic power through processes of fixing and enclosure of space, meaning and practice. In such operations, the strange and the vague are represented in a pejorative or marginalised manner, and become the target of order, control and rationalisation. Thus we see the possibilities in strangeness and vagueness, and the practices associated with them (such as wandering, rambling, borderless existence), as political activities that run counter to the hegemonic powers of modernity, opening up possibilities for other forms of space and practice. In the five substantive sections which follow, we will first examine the notion of vagueness and its relationship to spatial practices though its etymological origins. We will then examine the relationship between vagueness, representation and modern capitalism primarily though an examination of the work of Henri Lefebvre. The third section will consider vagueness and the practice of everyday life, seeing the vague as an inherently pragmatic understanding of the world with radical possibilities. We will then illustrate the concept of vague spaces through two examples: representations of the strange possibilities of terrain vague in urban photographic practice, and a discussion of Jewish ‘eruvim’ as a form of re-enchantment in contemporary urban space.
Keywords: Space, Enclosure, Vagueness, Terrain Vague, Photography, Eruv, Lefebvre, Eruvim.
This ipaper is an early draft of the above paper. Try to reference the above paper if possible, or better yet, buy the book! There are some great chapters in it.
Keywords: Space, Enclosure, Vagueness, Terrain Vague, Photography, Eruv, Lefebvre, Eruvim.
This ipaper is an early draft of the above paper. Try to reference the above paper if possible, or better yet, buy the book! There are some great chapters in it.
Research Interests:
This article will demonstrate how the notion of 'phatic communion' has become an increasingly significant part of digital media culture alongside the rise of online networking practices. Through a consideration of the new media objects of... more
This article will demonstrate how the notion of 'phatic communion' has become an increasingly significant part of digital media culture alongside the rise of online networking practices. Through a consideration of the new media objects of blogs, social networking profiles and microblogs, along with their associated practices, I will argue, that the social contexts of 'individualization' and 'network sociality', alongside the technological developments associated with pervasive communication and 'connected presence' has led to an online media culture increasingly dominated by phatic communications. That is, communications which have purely social (networking) and not informational or dialogic intents. I conclude with a discussion of the potential nihilistic consequences of such a culture.
Key Words: blogging • database culture • microblogging • network sociality • phatic • post-social • social networking
Key Words: blogging • database culture • microblogging • network sociality • phatic • post-social • social networking
Research Interests:
In this chapter we engage with the complex relationships between space, knowledge and power through a consideration of vagueness, vague practices and vague spaces. We argue that interlinked modern processes of the state and capital... more
In this chapter we engage with the complex relationships between space, knowledge and power through a consideration of vagueness, vague practices and vague spaces. We argue that interlinked modern processes of the state and capital constitute hegemonic power through processes of fixing and enclosure of space, meaning and practice. In such operations, the strange and the vague are represented in a pejorative or marginalised manner, and become the target of order, control and rationalisation. Thus we see the possibilities in strangeness and vagueness, and the practices associated with them (such as wandering, rambling, borderless existence), as political activities that run counter to the hegemonic powers of modernity, opening up possibilities for other forms of space and practice. In the five substantive sections which follow, we will first examine the notion of vagueness and its relationship to spatial practices though its etymological origins. We will then examine the relationship between vagueness, representation and modern capitalism primarily though an examination of the work of Henri Lefebvre. The third section will consider vagueness and the practice of everyday life, seeing the vague as an inherently pragmatic understanding of the world with radical possibilities. We will then illustrate the concept of vague spaces through two examples: representations of the strange possibilities of terrain vague in urban photographic practice, and a discussion of Jewish ‘eruvim’ as a form of re-enchantment in contemporary urban space.
Keywords: Space, Enclosure, Vagueness, Terrain Vague, Photography, Eruv, Lefebvre, Eruvim.
Copyright obligations preclude me from providing a download, but if you would like a copy of this paper, feel free to send me a message or e-mail me.
Keywords: Space, Enclosure, Vagueness, Terrain Vague, Photography, Eruv, Lefebvre, Eruvim.
Copyright obligations preclude me from providing a download, but if you would like a copy of this paper, feel free to send me a message or e-mail me.
This article contributes to current discussions of the spatial inspired by complexity theories that emphasize the multiple and relational qualities of space. It introduces the concept of vagueness and “vague objects” and relates these to... more
This article contributes to current discussions of the spatial inspired by complexity theories that emphasize the multiple and relational qualities of space. It introduces the concept of vagueness and “vague objects” and relates these to spatial theory through the intersubjective theory of Alfred Schutz. The author argues that a consideration of vagueness, especially as constructed in Schutz’s version of intersubjectivity, can provide insights (outside complexity theorizations) into the continuous and multivalent nature of social space and the relationships between spatial experience, practice, representation, and power.
Keywords: Vagueness, Space, Schutz, Power, Lefebvre, Phenomenology, Habermas.
Keywords: Vagueness, Space, Schutz, Power, Lefebvre, Phenomenology, Habermas.
Research Interests:
This paper challenges Lefebvre’s distinction between Representations of Space and Spaces of Representation. Most current work in this area has assumed modernist conceptions of power, thereby interpreting representations of space... more
This paper challenges Lefebvre’s distinction between Representations of Space and Spaces of Representation. Most current work in this area has assumed modernist conceptions of power, thereby interpreting representations of space (conceived space) as the property of the powerful who alone possess the ability to abstract space for their particular ends. Contrary to Lefebvre, I suggest that representation and abstraction are not the agents of state capitalism alone but are also manifested in ‘counter’ discourses. As an example of a ‘counter discourse’ I draw upon a series of editorial articles written in a local gay-oriented newspaper about a gay enclave in Vancouver, Canada. I argue that these depictions cloud the distinctions as practised between conception, abstraction and the imaginary in urban space. They also serve to promote one interpretation of space above others, and in that sense they colonize the experience of everyday life in their own way. The act of ‘speaking for’ presupposes a certain power, and in these cases, highlights the fact that the power of representation and abstraction does not only occur at the state or ‘system’ level. I suggest that by overcoming the assumption of a zero-sum ontology of power, one can see how a variety of agents in the urban context engage in the attempt to carve out their ‘own’ spaces of stability in the urban social imaginary.
Key words: space, representation, power, newspapers, gay space, Lefebvre.
Key words: space, representation, power, newspapers, gay space, Lefebvre.
Research Interests:
This chapter examines the two divergent thesis of 'friction-free captialism' and 'oligopolisation' with regard to the development of the Internet. I examine these theories by looking at two examples of how the Internet has been a focus of... more
This chapter examines the two divergent thesis of 'friction-free captialism' and 'oligopolisation' with regard to the development of the Internet. I examine these theories by looking at two examples of how the Internet has been a focus of capital speculation about 'the future', and investment trends which have involved Internet frims. The first example shows how the Web has been viewed as an increasingly powerful marketing tool, epitomised in the development, hype and investment boom surrounding 'Web portals'. I thin discuss the example of corporate 'convergence' strategies. Here i show how powerful commercial actors from more established industrial sectors have recently seen the Internet as a source of increasing profits through its potential as a distribution tool.
Both cases show the importance of speculation and rhetoric in the commercialisation of the Web; that capital investment, while inevitably leading to oligopoly, is enacted in a haphazard pursuit of 'future profits' which, to a great extent, has controlled the continuing financial saga of the information highway.
Key words: Convergence, Portals, Search Engines, Political Economy, ICT, Internet.
If you would like a pdf of this paper, feel free to send me a message or e-mail me.
Both cases show the importance of speculation and rhetoric in the commercialisation of the Web; that capital investment, while inevitably leading to oligopoly, is enacted in a haphazard pursuit of 'future profits' which, to a great extent, has controlled the continuing financial saga of the information highway.
Key words: Convergence, Portals, Search Engines, Political Economy, ICT, Internet.
If you would like a pdf of this paper, feel free to send me a message or e-mail me.
Research Interests:
In recent urban studies literature, it has been recognised that ethnic settlements in cities have undergone significant transformations, largely as a result of the 'globalisation' process. The term ethnoburb, for example, has begun to be... more
In recent urban studies literature, it has been recognised that ethnic settlements in cities have undergone significant transformations, largely as a result of the 'globalisation' process. The term ethnoburb, for example, has begun to be used recently in reference to new suburban Chinese settlements in North American cities (particularly Los Angeles). These settlements have proved to be quantitatively different from traditional 'Chinatowns' in a number of ways. While accepting this new model of the Chinese ethnoburb (Li 1998), this paper goes on to ask how these changes, resulting largely from globalisation, and the rise of transnationalism and cosmopolitanism, impact on the experience of this new space of immigration. That is, how is living and being in an ethnoburb different from living in a Chinatown?
Through the use of in-depth interview data of Chinese-Canadian residents and users of the Richmond, British Columbia Chinese ethnoburb, I argue in this paper that the fundamental experiential characteristic of the Chinese ethnoburb is one of mobility (Urry 2000), which results in a fundamentally different ethnic social space, characterised by the experience of movement and the ability to be 'elsewhere'. In this sense, Richmond can be seen as a 'space of flows' rather that an 'ethnic enclave'. This is illustrated through and an examination of the mobilities of bodies, objects, and imaginations within the 'space' of the Richmond ethnoburb.
Through the use of in-depth interview data of Chinese-Canadian residents and users of the Richmond, British Columbia Chinese ethnoburb, I argue in this paper that the fundamental experiential characteristic of the Chinese ethnoburb is one of mobility (Urry 2000), which results in a fundamentally different ethnic social space, characterised by the experience of movement and the ability to be 'elsewhere'. In this sense, Richmond can be seen as a 'space of flows' rather that an 'ethnic enclave'. This is illustrated through and an examination of the mobilities of bodies, objects, and imaginations within the 'space' of the Richmond ethnoburb.
Research Interests:
This chapter examines the claim made by Michael Dawson and John Bellamy-Foster that the Internet will fail to produce a perfect marketplace. Their claim lies in the political and economic history of communications, an indistry... more
This chapter examines the claim made by Michael Dawson and John Bellamy-Foster that the Internet will fail to produce a perfect marketplace. Their claim lies in the political and economic history of communications, an indistry increasingly dominated by oligopoly. They believe that the information highway will be no exception to this trend, especially considering its increasing attractiveness to global capital. My argument is that within the development of portals and search engines, we can see Foster and Dawson's thesis played out. These companies show how the development of the Internet has been one of commercial interests, how they have the potential to be powerful marketing tools and how thier continuing financial saga is evidence of a trend towards oligopoly on the information highway.
Keywords: Search Engines, Portals, Political Economy, Globalisation, ICT, Internet.
If you would like a pdf of this paper, feel free to send me a message or e-mail me.
Keywords: Search Engines, Portals, Political Economy, Globalisation, ICT, Internet.
If you would like a pdf of this paper, feel free to send me a message or e-mail me.
Research Interests:
This paper critically engages with perspectives on globalisation, and the globalisation of sport in particular, in the light of research conducted on the European football championships held in England in the summer of 1996 (Euro '96).... more
This paper critically engages with perspectives on globalisation, and the globalisation of sport in particular, in the light of research conducted on the European football championships held in England in the summer of 1996 (Euro '96). Our research focusses on two aspects of Euro '96. Firstly, we indicate the problems and sucesses entailed in the attempt to intervene on the English football 'imaginaire' in order to structure subjectivity around the event. Secondly, we investigate the relationships between the organisers and one of the localities, Manchester, in which the event was staged, and where antagonistic relationships between local organisers and international governing bodies led to a series of tactical semiotic moves on the part of Manchester local authorities to carve out a share of sponsorship revenues from the event, while international football governing bodies followed a strategy of having the burden of the costs distributed down to localities like Manchester, while securing for thermselves large profits through exclusive sponsorship deals.
Keywords: De Certeau, Tactics, Strategies, Sport, Globalisation, FIFA, UEFA, International Sporting Events, Sponsorship, ISL Marketing
If you would like a copy of this paper, feel free to send me a message or e-mail me.
Keywords: De Certeau, Tactics, Strategies, Sport, Globalisation, FIFA, UEFA, International Sporting Events, Sponsorship, ISL Marketing
If you would like a copy of this paper, feel free to send me a message or e-mail me.
Research Interests:
The guts of this paper are in 'resonance as a social phenomenon' above.