- University of Canberra, Arts & Design, Faculty Memberadd
- Medical Sociology, Digital Sociology, The Abject Body, Digital Cultures, Digital Media, Cultural Studies, and 31 moreChildren and Families, Sociology of the Body, Sociology of Health and Illness, Ideologies of Motherhood, Media Studies, Sociology of Risk, Parenting, Affect Studies, Social emotions, The Body, Anthropology of the Body, Phenomenology of the body, Sociology of Emotion, Critical Medical Studies, Sociology of Children and Childhood, Fat Studies, Sociology, Anthropology of Biomedicine, Medical Anthropology, Science and Technology Studies, Computer Networks, Databases, Software, Social Media, Internet & Society, Sociology of Health, New Media, Quantified Self, Internet Studies, Digital Culture, and Critical Medical Anthropologyedit
- I am a SHARP Professor at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, working across the Centre for Social Research in Health and the Social Policy Research Centreedit
This is the Introduction to my book The Quantified Self: A Sociology of Self-Tracking Cultures, (2016). Cambridge: Polity Press.
Research Interests: Medical Sociology, Human Computer Interaction, Medical Anthropology, New Media, Internet Studies, and 8 moreAnthropology of the Body, Sociology Of Technology (Science And Technology Studies), Sociology of Health, Sociology of the Body, New Media Studies, Sociology of Health and Illness, Subjectivity, and Digital Sociology
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This book examines the ways in which human embryos and foetuses are created, represented, commodified and treated across the social worlds they inhabit: the maternal body, the medical surgery, the laboratory, the cryogenic storage... more
This book examines the ways in which human embryos and foetuses are created, represented, commodified and treated across the social worlds they inhabit: the maternal body, the medical surgery, the laboratory, the cryogenic storage facility, the abortion clinic, the social and news media and so on. It incorporates discussion both of unborn entities outside the human body and those that are created and exist within the body, and covers such contentious topics as abortion politics, stem cell research and regenerative medicine and the disposal of surplus IVF embryos. It also looks at women's experiences of their unborn, prenatal testing, the representation of the unborn as endangered and the commodification of unborn entities.
Research Interests: Sociology, Medical Sociology, Gender Studies, Medical Anthropology, Feminist Theory, and 11 moreBioethics, Bioethics, Stem cell and Regenerative medicine, Computer Networks, Critical Medical Anthropology, Sociology of Health, Human Pregnancy, Birth And Breastfeeding, Bioethics Reproductive Technology, Databases, Software, and Science and Technology Studies
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Sociology, Medical Sociology, Social Change, Medical Anthropology, Health Promotion, and 25 moreSocial epidemiology, Feminist Theory, Public Health Nutrition, Sociology of Food and Eating, Anthropology of the Body, Obesity, Fat Studies, Anthropology of Food, Stigma, Sexuality, HIV/AIDS, Collective Action, Critical Medical Anthropology, The Body, Sociology of Health, Food and Nutrition, Social Exclusion, Sociology of the Body, Phenomenology of the body, Public Health, Community Participation, Social Inequality, Sociology of Health and Illness, Malnutrition, and Power and Empowerment
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Cultural Studies, Medical Sociology, Psychology, Social Psychology, Media Studies, and 16 moreMedia and Cultural Studies, Corporate Communication, HIV and AIDS education, HIV/AIDS, Consumer Behavior, Public Health, History, politics, and culture of HIV/AIDS, Sociology of Health and Illness, Advertisement, Body and culture, Critical Medicine Studies, Media and Culture, Consumption Culture, Sociology of Journalism, News Analysis, and News ethics
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Fabricated food using 3D printing technologies has the potential to address challenges that have been identified by food activists and those contributing to scholarship on the politics of food. These include food sustainability, food... more
Fabricated food using 3D printing technologies has the potential to address challenges that have been identified by food activists and those contributing to scholarship on the politics of food. These include food sustainability, food waste, ethical consumption, environmental degradation and world hunger issues. 3D printed food is such a new phenomenon that very little research has been conducted on what members of the public make of it and how receptive they may be to the idea of consuming it. In this chapter, we draw on responses to an online discussion group with 30 Australian participants that examined these issues. The participants’ responses revealed an initial lack of knowledge about 3D printers in general and even less about 3D printed food. Once they had been introduced to some examples and asked to respond to them, a range of attitudes was expressed. These attitudes drew on longstanding cultural meanings around food, particularly those relating to ideas of ‘natural’ food, what food should look like, what matter is considered edible and the processing of this matter. Key challenges to accepting 3D printed food evident in the participants’ responses include how the technology redefines what ‘food’ is, how food should be made or manufactured and the limits of the manipulation of edible ingredients. We conclude that those who promote the concept of fabricating food with 3D printers, including activists for sustainability and ethical consumption, need to come to terms with these cultural meanings and dilemmas when they are seeking to naturalise what is perceived to be a very ‘unnatural’ way of producing edible matter.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a novel digital technology that has gathered momentum and public recognition over the past few years. In this chapter, I examine the sociocultural and political dimensions of 3D printing technologies. I... more
Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a novel digital technology that has gathered momentum and public recognition over the past few years. In this chapter, I examine the sociocultural and political dimensions of 3D printing technologies. I begin with an overview of the third wave human-computer interaction (HCI) approach to digital technologies and contributions made by social and cultural theory that are relevant to understanding the broader contexts of 3D printing technologies and how they are represented, discussed and experienced. This is followed by a discussion of the sociotechnical imaginaries that animate speculations about their possibilities and the agential capacities identified by research investigating the lived experiences of those who have tried using these technologies. The chapter ends with some brief reflections on future research directions.
Research Interests:
In recent times, sociocultural theorists have turned their attention to examining the role played by concepts of 'risk'in contemporary western societies. It has been argued that discourses on risk have... more
In recent times, sociocultural theorists have turned their attention to examining the role played by concepts of 'risk'in contemporary western societies. It has been argued that discourses on risk have become pervasive, and are now widely used to explain deviations from the norm, misfortune and frightening events. Unlike in previous times, when misfortunes were often attributed to something out of individuals' control, such as the gods or fate, the concept of risk in late modernity assumes that 'something can be done'to prevent ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In recent years, a plethora of visualising and other monitoring technologies directed at female fertility and reproduction have emerged. The introduction of new software applications and hardware devices has led to novel ways of... more
In recent years, a plethora of visualising and other monitoring technologies directed at female fertility and reproduction have emerged. The introduction of new software applications and hardware devices has led to novel ways of portraying and surveilling the fertile female body. Consonant with these technologies is the emergence of a discourse that valorises self-tracking, or the voluntary monitoring of one’s body for health, wellbeing and self-optimisation, often employing digital devices. These discourses and technologies configure the subject of the digitised reproductive citizen, or the woman who uses digital technologies as part of an ethos of devoting a high level of attention to monitoring and managing her reproductive functioning and health. In this chapter, I focus on the numerous digital technologies that have been developed to monitor, visualise and regulate female fertility and pregnancy. I argue that this genre of software is intensifying an already fervid atmosphere o...
Research Interests: Sociology, Medical Sociology, Gender Studies, Internet Studies, Digital Media, and 11 moreGender and Sexuality, Gender, Fertility, Sociology of Health, Midwifery, Sociology of Health and Illness, Pregnancy, Social Science Research Network, Reproduction and human fertility, Digital Sociology, and Digital Health
Previous research has found that pregnant women and women in the early years of parenthood now often turn to digital media sources of information and support. One recent form of digital media to which they have access is the mobile... more
Previous research has found that pregnant women and women in the early years of parenthood now often turn to digital media sources of information and support. One recent form of digital media to which they have access is the mobile software applications (‘apps’) available for smartphones and other mobile devices. There are now hundreds of such apps available on the market for both pregnancy and parenting. This article reports the findings of the online survey designed to investigate how Australian women use pregnancy and parenting apps, their attitudes about the information provided and data privacy and security related to such use, and what features they look for in these apps. A total of 410 women from around Australia completed the survey. The use of pregnancy and parenting apps was common among the respondents. Almost three quarters of respondents had used at least one pregnancy app, while half reported using at least one parenting app. The vast majority of respondents who had e...
Research Interests:
The developers of public health campaigns have often attempted to elicit the emotion of disgust to persuade members of their target audiences to change their behaviour in the interests of their health. This article identifies and analyses... more
The developers of public health campaigns have often attempted to elicit the emotion of disgust to persuade members of their target audiences to change their behaviour in the interests of their health. This article identifies and analyses the dominant types of disgust that were employed in a collection of public health campaign texts. It was found that ‘animal reminder’ disgust, ‘liminality’ disgust, ‘matter out of place’ disgust and ‘moral’ disgust were all used in various ways in the campaign materials examined. The implications for how the human body, health and illness are conceptualised and understood and the moral meanings that are related to disgust responses are discussed. It is argued that the use of disgust in public health campaigns has serious political and ethical implications. Advocates of using such tactics should be aware of the challenge they pose to human dignity and their perpetuation of the Self and Other binary opposition that marginalises and stigmatises alread...
Research Interests:
Digital transformations are well underway in all areas of life. These have brought about substantial and wide-reaching changes, in many areas, including health. But large gaps remain in our understanding of the interface between digital... more
Digital transformations are well underway in all areas of life. These have brought about substantial and wide-reaching changes, in many areas, including health. But large gaps remain in our understanding of the interface between digital technologies and health, particularly for young people. The Lancet and Financial Times Commission on governing health futures 2030: growing up in a digital world argues digital transformations should be considered as a key determinant of health. But the Commission also presses for a radical rethink on digital technologies, highlighting that without a precautionary, mission-oriented, and value-based approach to its governance, digital transformations will fail to bring about improvements in health for all.
Research Interests: Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology, Digital Media, Digital Technology, Global Health, and 15 moreGovernance, Public Health Policy, Health Equity, Public Health, Technology Governance, Global Health Governance, Data Governance, Health and Digital Literacy, Digital Governance, Elsevier, Digital Health, Digital Transformation, Digital Health and Skills, The Lancet, and Medical and Health Sciences
Since their introduction in 2008, software applications for mobile devices (“apps”) have become extremely popular forms of digital media. Mobile apps are designed as small bits of software for devices such as smartphones, tablet... more
Since their introduction in 2008, software applications for mobile devices (“apps”) have become extremely popular forms of digital media. Mobile apps are designed as small bits of software for devices such as smartphones, tablet computers, smartwatches, and other wearable devices. This chapter presents a sociological analysis of apps through the lens of three major theoretical perspectives: (1) the political economy approach, (2) Foucauldian perspectives, and (3) sociomaterialism. Each perspective adopts a different focus, but all elucidate important aspects of the sociocultural and political dimensions of apps. Relevant empirical research is incorporated into the discussion to illustrate how apps are designed, developed, and promoted by a range of actors and agencies and to provide examples of the ways in which people incorporate apps into the routines of their everyday lives. The chapter ends with identifying directions for further sociological research and theorizing related to a...
Research Interests:
This chapter addresses the use of social media platforms and digital visual media (selfies, hashtags, videos, GIFs and memes) in micro-political and macro-political engagements related to food and embodiment. The analysis has its... more
This chapter addresses the use of social media platforms and digital visual media (selfies, hashtags, videos, GIFs and memes) in micro-political and macro-political engagements related to food and embodiment. The analysis has its theoretical foundation in feminist material perspectives, particularly the scholarship of Haraway, Barad, Bennett and Braidotti. I identify the agentive capacities, affects and vitalities generated in and through the body/food assemblages configured in these new media. These do not all work in progressive political ways, however. Digital media body/food assemblages tend to represent idealised bodies as those that are highly contained and controlled, privileging disciplined, ‘clean’ and healthy eating, ethical food choices, and lean, physically fit bodies. Uncontained, out-of-control bodies and appetites, and choices such as meat-eating, are typically positioned as disgusting, repellent and morally and ethically inferior. This mode of representation is taken to its extreme in pro-anorexia and vegetarian/vegan social media engagements. At the same time, however, many digital media assemblages acknowledge and celebrate the carnivalesque and transgressive power of carnal and visceral appetites, often as a direct political resistance to ideals of fleshly and sensual containment. These portrayals are sometimes underpinned with disturbing gendered representations, in which men are depicted as aggressive meat eaters and animals and women as objects for men’s carnal appetites.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
IntroductionLike other forms of embodiment, pregnancy has increasingly become subject to representation and interpretation via digital technologies. Pregnancy and the unborn entity were largely private, and few people beyond the pregnant... more
IntroductionLike other forms of embodiment, pregnancy has increasingly become subject to representation and interpretation via digital technologies. Pregnancy and the unborn entity were largely private, and few people beyond the pregnant women herself had access to the foetus growing within her (Duden). Now pregnant and foetal bodies have become open to public portrayal and display (Lupton The Social Worlds of the Unborn). A plethora of online materials – websites depicting the unborn entity from the moment of conception, amateur YouTube videos of births, social media postings of ultrasounds and self-taken photos (‘selfies’) showing changes in pregnant bellies, and so on – now ensure the documentation of pregnant and unborn bodies in extensive detail, rendering them open to other people’s scrutiny. Other recent digital technologies directed at pregnancy include mobile software applications, or ‘apps’. In this article, we draw on our study involving a critical discourse analysis of ...
Research Interests:
Background A diverse array of digital technologies are available to children and young people living in the Global North to monitor, manage, and promote their health and well-being. Objective This article provides a narrative literature... more
Background A diverse array of digital technologies are available to children and young people living in the Global North to monitor, manage, and promote their health and well-being. Objective This article provides a narrative literature review of the growing number of social research studies published over the past decade that investigate the types of digital technologies used by children and young people in the Global North, in addition to investigating which of these technologies they find most useful or not useful. Key findings as well as major gaps and directions for future research are identified and discussed. Methods A comprehensive search of relevant publications listed in Google Scholar was conducted, supported by following citation trails of these publications. The findings are listed under type of digital technology used for health: cross-media, internet, social media, apps and wearable devices, sexual health support and information, and mental health support and informat...
Research Interests:
In this chapter, I take up the vital materialism perspective, particularly as it is used in political theorist Jane Bennett’s scholarship, to discuss the entanglements of digital data with humans and the work of sense-making. I emphasise... more
In this chapter, I take up the vital materialism perspective, particularly as it is used in political theorist Jane Bennett’s scholarship, to discuss the entanglements of digital data with humans and the work of sense-making. I emphasise the importance of understanding how digital data about human bodies work to generate new knowledges and the implications of this for how people learn about their bodies, including states of health and illness. To demonstrate how vital materialism can be applied to empirical research material as an analytical lens, I will use a vignette from my empirical research on people who use digital devices to engage in self-tracking of their bodies. I focus in my analysis on illustrating how vital materialist theory can provide insights into how and why people take up self-tracking practices for health-related purposes and how they learn from their data.
Research Interests: Sociology, Medical Sociology, New Media, Internet Studies, Digital Media, and 12 moreMobile Technology, Sociology of Health, Mobile Computing, Sociology of Health and Illness, New Materialism, Vital Materiality, New Materialisms, Digital Sociology, Quantified Self, Feminist new materialism, Routledge, and Internet Society
Humans have become increasingly datafied with the use of digital technologies that generate information with and about their bodies and everyday lives. The onto-epistemological dimensions of human–data assemblages and their relationship... more
Humans have become increasingly datafied with the use of digital technologies that generate information with and about their bodies and everyday lives. The onto-epistemological dimensions of human–data assemblages and their relationship to bodies and selves have yet to be thoroughly theorised. In this essay, I draw on key perspectives espoused in feminist materialism, vital materialism and the anthropology of material culture to examine the ways in which these assemblages operate as part of knowing, perceiving and sensing human bodies. I draw particularly on scholarship that employs organic metaphors and concepts of vitality, growth, making, articulation, composition and decomposition. I show how these metaphors and concepts relate to and build on each other, and how they can be applied to think through humans’ encounters with their digital data. I argue that these theoretical perspectives work to highlight the material and embodied dimensions of human–data assemblages as they grow ...
Research Interests:
Humans have become increasingly datafied with the use of digital technologies that generate information about them. The onto-epistemological dimensions of personal digital data assemblages and their relationship to bodies and selves have... more
Humans have become increasingly datafied with the use of digital technologies that generate information about them. The onto-epistemological dimensions of personal digital data assemblages and their relationship to bodies and selves have yet to be thoroughly theorised. In this essay, I adopt various sociomaterialist perspectives, particularly those espoused in feminist materialism, vital materialism and the anthropology of material culture, to examine the ways in which these assemblages operate as part of knowing, perceiving and sensing human bodies. My aim is to reflect on the enactments of the human-nonhuman assemblages that are personal digital data. In so doing, I position these assemblages as things which are made and used by humans, involving processes of creativity, articulation and improvisation, and draw attention to the vitality of data things (their thing-power). I argue that these theoretical perspectives work to highlight the material dimensions of human-data assemblages as they are made, grown, enacted, articulated and incorporated; and emphasise the intertwined nature of known, knower and knowing. This approach is both reflexive (identifying shared tacit norms, assumptions and discourses underpinning practices) and diffractive (showing the emergent entanglements of practices and agents, what is different or resistant, what are new or alternative possibilities). It is able to demonstrate how digital data assemblages assume importance and significance in people’s lives.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
New digital devices monitoring the body are increasingly used as research devices. As highly intimate new media objects, placed next to our skin, they challenge our notions of privacy and contribute to the generation of affects—disrupting... more
New digital devices monitoring the body are increasingly used as research devices. As highly intimate new media objects, placed next to our skin, they challenge our notions of privacy and contribute to the generation of affects—disrupting considerations of “successful” research. In this article, we offer an auto-ethnographic study of (not) using a wearable sleep-tracking device, the ŌURA smart ring, as a research device. We discuss the unexpected, intense affects we experienced when attempting to use the ring during a “failed” research process, feeling enchanted and harassed by it in turn. Reflecting on our affects enables us to identify different forms of intimacy: those related to disrupting the bodily norms of academia, and those disrupting the privacy of the sleeping body. To conclude, we discuss the potential of these disruptions to offer a better understanding of the significant role of the thing-power of research devices in qualitative research process.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Post-Snowden, several highly-publicised events and scandals have drawn attention to the use of people’s personal data by other actors and agencies, both legally and illicitly. In this article, we report the findings of a project in which... more
Post-Snowden, several highly-publicised events and scandals have drawn attention to the use of people’s personal data by other actors and agencies, both legally and illicitly. In this article, we report the findings of a project in which we used cultural probes to generate discussion about personal digital dataveillance. What emerged from our focus groups is a somewhat diffuse but quite extensive understanding on the part of the participants of the ways in which data may be gathered about them and the uses to which these data may be put. We found that the participants tended to veer between recognising the value of both personal data and the big aggregated data sets that their own data may be part of, particularly for their own convenience, and expressing concern or suspicion about how these data may be used by others. Our findings suggest that experimenting with innovative approaches to elicit practices and understandings of personal digital data offers further possibilities for gr...
Research Interests:
Telemedicine technologies have been presented as solutions to the challenges of equitable, cost-effective and efficient health service provision for over two decades. The ways in which the sensory dimensions of medical care and the... more
Telemedicine technologies have been presented as solutions to the challenges of equitable, cost-effective and efficient health service provision for over two decades. The ways in which the sensory dimensions of medical care and the doctor-patient relationship are mediated via telemedicine can be important contributors to the success, failure or unintended consequences of telemedicine. In this article, we present a review of the relevant literature in social research that provides insights into the sensory dimensions of telemedicine. In addition to considering important relevant work undertaken in the sociology of health and illness, we incorporate perspectives and research from other disciplines and fields that we believe can contribute to the development of scholarship on this topic. We contend that when doctors, patients and other healthcare workers enact telemedicine, sensory judgements have become, in part, a sensing of sensors. Viewing healthcare practitioners and patients as a...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This article develops and mobilises the concept of ‘mundane data’ as an analytical entry point for understanding Big Data. We call for in-depth investigation of the human experiences, routines, improvisations and accomplishments which... more
This article develops and mobilises the concept of ‘mundane data’ as an analytical entry point for understanding Big Data. We call for in-depth investigation of the human experiences, routines, improvisations and accomplishments which implicate digital data in the flow of the everyday. We demonstrate the value of this approach through a discussion of our ethnographic research with self-tracking cycling commuters. We argue that such investigations are crucial in informing our understandings of how digital data become meaningful in mundane contexts of everyday life for two reasons: first because there is a gap in our understanding of the contingencies and specificities through which big digital data sets are produced, and second because designers and policy makers often seek to make interventions for change in everyday contexts through the presentation of mundane data to consumers but with little understanding of how people produce, experience and engage with these data.
Research Interests:
This commentary is an attempt to begin to identify and think through some of the ways in which sociocultural theory may contribute to understandings of the relationship between humans and digital data. I develop an argument that rests... more
This commentary is an attempt to begin to identify and think through some of the ways in which sociocultural theory may contribute to understandings of the relationship between humans and digital data. I develop an argument that rests largely on the work of two scholars in the field of science and technology studies: Donna Haraway and Annemarie Mol. Both authors emphasised materiality and multiple ontologies in their writing. I argue that these concepts have much to offer critical data studies. I employ the tropes of companion species, drawn from Haraway, and eating data, from Mol, and demonstrate how these may be employed to theorise digital data–human assemblages.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Abstract The concept of datafication - which refers to the idea that many aspects of life can be rendered into digital data which can subsequently be analysed and used to understand, predict and guide interventions in society - has been... more
Abstract The concept of datafication - which refers to the idea that many aspects of life can be rendered into digital data which can subsequently be analysed and used to understand, predict and guide interventions in society - has been both enthusiastically engaged with and critically deconstructed in recent literatures. In this article, we explore the relevance of datification for understanding the spatiality of everyday life. In doing so, we argue for a refigured concept of datafication through theoretical and empirical scholarship focused on affect. We suggest that a renewed concept of datafication - that is, of datafied space - offers a framework for how we dwell in and move through a world where digital data about humans have an increasing presence. To make our arguments, we offer an account of a recent study of cycle-commuting and self-tracking in Melbourne and Canberra, Australia. We used helmet-mounted action cameras and video interviews in a ‘digital sensory ethnography’ to explore the entanglement of bodies, bicycles, digital devices, data and affect that shape how people move through and make sense of what we call ‘datafied space’.
Research Interests:
Many women in countries in the global North access digital media information sources during pregnancy and the early years of motherhood. These include websites, blogs, online discussion forums, apps and social media platforms. Little... more
Many women in countries in the global North access digital media information sources during pregnancy and the early years of motherhood. These include websites, blogs, online discussion forums, apps and social media platforms. Little previous research has sought to investigate in detail how women use the diverse range of digital media now available to them and what types of information they value. A qualitative study using focus groups was conducted to address these issues. Four focus groups were held in Sydney, Australia, including a total of 36 women who were either pregnant or had given birth in the previous three years. The participants were asked to talk about the types of digital media they used for pregnancy and parenting purposes, why they used them and in what ways they found them useful or helpful (or not). Group discussions were transcribed and thematically analysed, identifying the dominant information characteristics identified by women as valuable and useful. Nine char...
Research Interests: Medical Sociology, Nursing, New Media, Digital Media, Focus Groups, and 15 moreMidwifery, Consumer Health Information, Medicine, New Media Studies, Mass Communication and New Media, Humans, Female, Gynecology and Obstetrics, Mothers, Nursing and midwifery, New South Wales, Digital Sociology, Adult, Internet, and Digital Health
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In this chapter I examine the concepts and uses of data as they are expressed in representations of self-tracking (otherwise known as life logging, the quantified self or personal informatics).Self-tracking is not only a technology of the... more
In this chapter I examine the concepts and uses of data as they are expressed in representations of self-tracking (otherwise known as life logging, the quantified self or personal informatics).Self-tracking is not only a technology of the self, but it is also a data practice. Self-tracking may be further conceptualised as a data practice that produces data assemblages. Most recently and noticeably, detailed quantifiable data has become valorised above other forms of information about one’s life, health and wellbeing. I will discuss the valorisation of quantification as a self-tracking data practice, but I also go on to examine alternative data practices with which some people are experimenting as part of self-tracking strategies.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
A range of digitized health promotion practices have emerged in the digital era. Some of these practices are voluntarily undertaken by people who are interested in improving their health and fitness, but many others are employed in the... more
A range of digitized health promotion practices have emerged in the digital era. Some of these practices are voluntarily undertaken by people who are interested in improving their health and fitness, but many others are employed in the interests of organizations and agencies. This article provides a critical commentary on digitized health promotion. I begin with an overview of the types of digital technologies that are used for health promotion, and follow this with a discussion of the socio-political implications of such use. It is contended that many digitized health promotion strategies focus on individual responsibility for health and fail to recognize the social, cultural and political dimensions of digital technology use. The increasing blurring between voluntary health promotion practices, professional health promotion, government and corporate strategies requires acknowledgement, as does the increasing power wielded by digital media corporations over digital technologies and...
Research Interests: Medical Anthropology, Health Promotion, Health Behavior, Internet Studies, Digital Media, and 15 moreObesity, Political Science, Health Education, Social Media, Public Health, Medicine, Biomedical Technology, Mhealth, Humans, eHealth, Digital Sociology, Curriculum and Pedagogy, mHealth and eHealth, Internet, and Public health practice
Research Interests: Sociology, Medical Sociology, Medical Anthropology, Sociology of Children and Childhood, Child health, and 10 moreChildren and Families, Parenting, Critical Medical Anthropology, Risk, Sociology of Health, Public Health, Biopolitics, Medicine, Sociology of Health and Illness, and Social Science Research Network
The advent of 3D printing technologies has generated new ways of representing and conceptualising health and illness, medical practice and the body. There are many social, cultural and political implications of 3D printing, but a critical... more
The advent of 3D printing technologies has generated new ways of representing and conceptualising health and illness, medical practice and the body. There are many social, cultural and political implications of 3D printing, but a critical sociology of 3D printing is only beginning to emerge. In this article I seek to contribute to this nascent literature by addressing some of the ways in which 3D printing technologies are being used to convert digital data collected on human bodies and fabricate them into tangible forms that can be touched and held. I focus in particular on the use of 3D printing to manufacture non-organic replicas of individuals’ bodies, body parts or bodily functions and activities. The article is also a reflection on a specific set of digital data practices and the meaning of such data to individuals. In analysing these new forms of human bodies, I draw on sociomaterialist perspectives as well as the recent work of scholars who have sought to theorise selfhood, embodiment, place and space in digital society and the nature of people’s interactions with digital data. I argue that these objects incite intriguing ways of thinking about the ways in digital data on embodiment, health and illnesses are interpreted and used across a range of contexts. The article ends with some speculations about where these technologies may be headed and outlining future research directions.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
A new form of representing selfhood and embodiment has emerged in the wake of the development of 3D printing technologies. This is the 3D printed self replica, a fabrication using digital 3D body scans of people that produces a material... more
A new form of representing selfhood and embodiment has emerged in the wake of the development of 3D printing technologies. This is the 3D printed self replica, a fabrication using digital 3D body scans of people that produces a material artefact of a person’s entire body or parts thereof. The technologies to generate these artefacts are rapidly moving into a range of leisure domains, including sporting events, shopping centres, airports, concerts and amusement parks as well as fan cultures and marketing programs. 3D printed self replicas can even be fabricated at home using a software package developed for the Xbox Kinect game box and a home 3D printer. As I argue in this chapter, there are deeper implications of these artefacts for the ways in which we understand not only the body, selfhood and social relations and the engagement of people in leisure cultures but also people’s entanglements with personal digital data. The 3D self replica as a case study offers an opportunity to think through some of these intersections. As personal digital data ‘made solid’, these artefacts offer new ways of thinking about the ways in which digital data can be employed to represent bodies/selves and become biographical objects, mementos and signifiers of important or intimate events in people’s lives. Their use provides insights into data practices, or how people interact with and make sense of digital data in an era in which such ‘lively’ data are ceaselessly collected about them.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In this chapter I examine the ways in which human bodies interact with and are configured by digital technologies and how these technologies generate new knowledges and practices in relation to bodies. I use infants and young children as... more
In this chapter I examine the ways in which human bodies interact with and are configured by digital technologies and how these technologies generate new knowledges and practices in relation to bodies. I use infants and young children as a case study to explain these aspects. From before they are even born, children’s bodies are now frequently represented and monitored by digital technologies, including medical imaging and monitoring devices as well as social media sites, surveillance and self-tracking technologies. In my discussion I draw on literature from sociocultural theorising of the body, childhood, digital technologies and big data, particularly that by scholars adopting the sociomaterial perspective. The chapter is divided into two main parts. The first presents a general overview of theoretical approaches to conceptualising the interactions between bodies and technologies, while the second part is devoted to outlining the ways in which infants’ and young children’s bodies are digitised.
Research Interests:
An increasing number of smartphone and software applications (“apps”) have been developed and marketed to assist in the process of diagnosis, yet little attention has been paid to their content, claims, potential risks, limitations or... more
An increasing number of smartphone and software applications (“apps”) have been developed and marketed to assist in the process of diagnosis, yet little attention has been paid to their content, claims, potential risks, limitations or benefits of their use. This study sought to describe and catalogue available diagnosis apps and explore their impact on the diagnostic process. We undertook a content analysis of the app descriptions and developers’ websites using the descriptions provided for 131 medical diagnosis smartphone apps that were available in the Google Play and Apple App stores. Each app was reviewed for its content and approach, and its claims to medical authority. Four major categories of apps were identified: 1. apps for diagnosing; 2. diagnosis coding apps; 3. books, journals, or other publications in app format; 4. apps for medical education. Our analysis found that while these apps provide access to medical information previously widely not available to lay users and ...
Research Interests:
Digital health technologies are playing an increasingly important role in healthcare, health education and voluntary self-surveillance, self-quantification and self-care practices. This paper presents a critical analysis of one digital... more
Digital health technologies are playing an increasingly important role in healthcare, health education and voluntary self-surveillance, self-quantification and self-care practices. This paper presents a critical analysis of one digital health device: computer apps used to self-track features of users' sexual and reproductive activities and functions. After a review of the content of such apps available in the Apple App Store and Google play™ store, some of their sociocultural, ethical and political implications are discussed. These include the role played by these apps in participatory surveillance, their configuration of sexuality and reproduction, the valorising of the quantification of the body in the context of neoliberalism and self-responsibility, and issues concerning privacy, data security and the use of the data collected by these apps. It is suggested that such apps represent sexuality and reproduction in certain defined and limited ways that work to perpetuate normati...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Information Science, New Media, Web 2.0, Higher Education, Digital Media, and 17 moreDigital Preservation, Social Media, Academia Research, Facebook, Online Journalism, E-Government, Google, Youtube, Web 3.0, Digital Marketing, Digital Sociology, Digital Era, Digital Story Telling, Iphones, Paywalls, Virtual Revolution, and Library and Archival Science
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This blog post offers a list of research questions as a way of kick-starting a social research agenda for a COVID and post-COVID world. (Please note the important caveat that these are only my initial thoughts based on the current... more
This blog post offers a list of research questions as a way of kick-starting a social research agenda for a COVID and post-COVID world. (Please note the important caveat that these are only my initial thoughts based on the current situation in these early months of the pandemic where conditions are rapidly changing.) Researching these topics will generate better understandings not only of the current social impact of COVID, but also continuing or new impacts into the future. Findings will have immediate and long-term applications for contributing to policy and service delivery and development to better support publics as they deal with and recover from the myriad challenges they are experiencing to their ways of life and health status. They will also offer ways forward for how to deal with and manage new large-scale health crises in ethical and effective ways.
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Sociology, Medical Sociology, Gender Studies, Communication, Media Studies, and 12 moreNew Media, Health Communication, Internet Studies, Digital Media, Anthropology of the Body, Fat Studies, Social Media, Sociology of Health, Sociology of the Body, Sociology of Health and Illness, Health communication and mass media, and Digital Sociology
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Sociology, Visual Sociology, Information Technology, Technology, New Media, and 24 moreCultural Sociology, Instructional Design, Educational Technology, Social Research Methods and Methodology, Distance Education, Research Methodology, Digital Media, Wearable Computing, Virtual Communities, Mobile Technology, Instructional Technology, Social Media, Facebook, Online Learning, Online Journalism, Distance Learning, Google, Youtube, Virtual Learning, Digital Marketing, Digital Story Telling, Iphones, Paywalls, and Virtual Revolution
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Medical Sociology, Information Technology, New Media, Health Promotion, Digital Media, and 8 morePrimary Health Care, Digital Culture, Sociology Of Technology (Science And Technology Studies), Social Media, Sociology of Health, Public Health, Sociology of Health and Illness, and Mobile Computing and Wireless Communications, Information Security and Privacy, Digital Enterprises, Digital Governments, Digital Health.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Emotion, Human Computer Interaction, New Media, Cyborg Theory, Digital Humanities, and 16 moreSociology of Emotion, Digital Media, Computer-Mediated Communication, Digital Culture, Social Media, Facebook, Social Computing, Online Journalism, Google, Youtube, Digital Marketing, Digital Sociology, Digital Story Telling, Iphones, Paywalls, and Virtual Revolution
Research Interests: Sociology, Information Science, New Media, Web 2.0, Open Access, and 19 moreOpen Access Publishing, Digital Media, Open Source/Open Access and Libraries, Digital Preservation, Social Media, Facebook, Online Journalism, Digital Archives, E-Government, Google, Youtube, Web 3.0, Digital Marketing, Digital Era, Digital Story Telling, Iphones, Paywalls, Virtual Revolution, and Library and Archival Science
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
To fully understand the sociocultural implications of the COVID-19 crisis, it is important to be aware of the substantial body of research in sociology, anthropology, history, cultural geography and media studies on previous major... more
To fully understand the sociocultural implications of the COVID-19 crisis, it is important to be aware of the substantial body of research in sociology, anthropology, history, cultural geography and media studies on previous major infectious disease outbreaks. This chapter 'sets the scene' by providing this context with an overview of the relevant literature. The perspectives offered by social histories, political economy perspectives, social constructionism, Foucauldian theory, risk theory, postcolonial and sociomaterial approaches are explained and examples of research using these approaches are provided. Analyses of the COVID crisis should acknowledge and build on this extensive body of work, taking inspiration from the valuable insights that are offered and working to contextualise the current pandemic within its frameworks.
Research Interests:
Since their introduction in 2008, software applications for mobile devices ('apps') have become extremely popular forms of digital media. Mobile apps are designed as small bits of software for devices such as smartphones, tablet... more
Since their introduction in 2008, software applications for mobile devices ('apps') have become extremely popular forms of digital media. Mobile apps are designed as small bits of software for devices such as smartphones, tablet computers, smartwatches, and other wearable devices. This chapter presents a sociological analysis of apps through the lens of three major theoretical perspectives: i) the political economy approach; ii) Foucauldian perspectives; and iii) sociomaterialism. Each perspective adopts a different focus, but all elucidate important aspects of the sociocultural and political dimensions of apps. Relevant empirical research is incorporated into the discussion to illustrate how apps are designed, developed, and promoted by a range of actors and agencies, and to provide examples of the ways in which people incorporate apps into the routines of their everyday lives. The chapter ends with identifying directions for further sociological research and theorising related to apps.
Research Interests:
Parents, and particularly mothers, are increasingly using digital media and devices to monitor the progress of pregnancy and the health and development of their children. A plethora of apps is available for these purposes, including those... more
Parents, and particularly mothers, are increasingly using digital media and devices to monitor the progress of pregnancy and the health and development of their children. A plethora of apps is available for these purposes, including those designed for monitoring pregnancy and the health, development and wellbeing of infants and young children. This chapter examines and analyses the implications of these types of monitoring apps for women’s experiences of pregnancy and the care of children, drawing on the findings of two empirical studies involving Australian women. In doing so, two major literatures – dataveillance and feminist new materialism – are brought together to offer new insights into digitised caring practices in relation to children.
Research Interests:
In this chapter, I take up the vital materialism perspective, particularly as it is used in political theorist Jane Bennett’s scholarship, to discuss the entanglements of digital data with humans and the work of sense-making. I emphasise... more
In this chapter, I take up the vital materialism perspective, particularly as it is used in political theorist Jane Bennett’s scholarship, to discuss the entanglements of digital data with humans and the work of sense-making. I emphasise the importance of understanding how digital data about human bodies work to generate new knowledges and the implications of this for how people learn about their bodies, including states of health and illness. Working with Bennett’s concept of ‘thing-power’, I explore the agential capacities flowing from digital data assemblages built from and with human bodies. From this perspective, digital data about humans are one medium by which bodies are known, enacted, materialised, extended and lived.
To demonstrate how vital materialism can be applied to empirical research material as an analytical lens, I will use a vignette from my empirical research on people who use digital devices to engage in self-tracking of their bodies. I focus in my analysis on illustrating how vital materialist theory can provide insights into how and why people take up self-tracking practices for health-related purposes and how they learn from their data.
To demonstrate how vital materialism can be applied to empirical research material as an analytical lens, I will use a vignette from my empirical research on people who use digital devices to engage in self-tracking of their bodies. I focus in my analysis on illustrating how vital materialist theory can provide insights into how and why people take up self-tracking practices for health-related purposes and how they learn from their data.
Research Interests: Medical Sociology, New Media, Internet Studies, Digital Media, Mobile Technology, and 10 moreSociology of Health, Internet & Society, Mobile Computing, Sociology of Health and Illness, New Materialism, Vital Materiality, New Materialisms, Digital Sociology, Quantified Self, and Feminist new materialism
This is a preprint version of an essay I have written about self-tracking for a book on information keywords. It includes an overview of theoretical perspectives that can be used to understand self-tracking and personal data, with a... more
This is a preprint version of an essay I have written about self-tracking for a book on information keywords. It includes an overview of theoretical perspectives that can be used to understand self-tracking and personal data, with a particular focus on vital materialism as espoused in the scholarship of Donna Haraway and Jane Bennet. Reference is also made to some findings from empirical studies colleagues and I have conducted on self-tracking rationales and practices.
Research Interests:
This is a brief tabular overview of the key approaches, researchers and theorists working across new materialisms. The current version is the 5th revision.
Research Interests:
Introduction Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a process of fabricating objects using computer-aided design software and hardware that responds to instructions from the software. In this working paper, I provide an overview of 3D... more
Introduction
Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a process of fabricating objects using computer-aided design software and hardware that responds to instructions from the software. In this working paper, I provide an overview of 3D printing technologies, including their current and proposed uses. It has been suggested that these technologies offer a way of contributing to the reduction of environmental pollution by reducing the need for transporting goods and minimising waste and energy use in production and may lead to third industrial revolution, including in developing countries. The technologies have also been heralded as promoting open knowledge sharing and creative coding and as potentially contributing to participatory design opportunities and the democratisation of invention, as well as education and cultural heritage. The paper addresses the social, cultural, political and ethical issues concerning 3D printing and outlines directions for future sociological research on these technologies.
Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a process of fabricating objects using computer-aided design software and hardware that responds to instructions from the software. In this working paper, I provide an overview of 3D printing technologies, including their current and proposed uses. It has been suggested that these technologies offer a way of contributing to the reduction of environmental pollution by reducing the need for transporting goods and minimising waste and energy use in production and may lead to third industrial revolution, including in developing countries. The technologies have also been heralded as promoting open knowledge sharing and creative coding and as potentially contributing to participatory design opportunities and the democratisation of invention, as well as education and cultural heritage. The paper addresses the social, cultural, political and ethical issues concerning 3D printing and outlines directions for future sociological research on these technologies.
Research Interests:
Position paper. First Workshop of the Digital Ethnographies Lab, RMIT.