Digital Studies – serie

Algorithms have risen to become one, if not the central technology for producing, circulating, and evaluating knowledge in multiple societal arenas. In this book, scholars from the social sciences, humanities, and computer science argue that this shift has, and will continue to have, profound implications for how knowledge is produced and what and whose knowledge is valued and deemed valid. To attend to this fundamental change, the authors propose the concept of algorithmic regimes and demonstrate how they transform the epistemological, methodological, and political foundations of knowledge production, sensemaking, and decision-making in contemporary societies. Across sixteen chapters, the volume offers a diverse collection of contributions along three perspectives on algorithmic regimes: the methods necessary to research and design algorithmic regimes, the ways in which algorithmic regimes reconfigure sociotechnical interactions, and the politics engrained in algorithmic regimes.

Digital Precarity: Platform Power and Posthuman Vulnerability examines how precarity is reconfigured in the digital age through platform capitalism, algorithmic governance, and data extraction. It reveales digital precarity as a defining condition of contemporary mediated life.Moving beyond conventional understandings of precarity as economic insecurity or unstable work, the author analyses how platform capitalism, algorithmic governance, data extraction and the attention economy produce new forms of vulnerability, dispossession and affective modulation. The book argues that digital precarity is not simply a by-product of technological change but a defining condition of mediated life, in which human subjectivity, labour, sociality and desire are continually captured, quantified and commodified. Through engagement with theories of precarity, postcolonial critique, racial capitalism, digital labour and posthuman capitalism, it illuminates the ways digital systems reproduce older hierarchies while generating novel forms of insecurity and dependency.This book is essential reading for scholars and advanced students in digital culture, labour studies, media studies, sociology, political economy, and critical theory. It is particularly suited to researchers examining platform capitalism, algorithmic governance, digital labour, and the social implications of technological change, as well as those interested in postcolonial critique, racial capitalism, and critical approaches to understanding contemporary forms of inequality and vulnerability in digital societies.

The future of work is at the centre of debates related to the emerging digital society. Concerns range from the inclusion, equity, and dignity of those at the far end of the value chain, who participate on and off platforms, often in the shadows, invisible to policymakers, designers, and consumers. Precarity and informality characterize this largely female workforce, across sectors ranging from artisanal work to salon services to ride hailing and construction. A feminist reimagining of the futures of work—what we term as “FemWork” —is the need of the day and should manifest in multiple and various forms, placing the worker at the core and drawing on her experiences, aspirations, and realities. This volume offers grounded insights from academic, activist, legal, development and design perspectives that can help us think through these inclusive futures and possibly create digital, social, and governance infrastructures of work that are fairer and more meaningful.

This book offers a unique methodological guide for social and marketing scholars interested in understanding and using digital methods to explore the processes of platformisation of consumer culture unfolding on digital media. The book introduces the reader to key digital methods concepts, strategies, and techniques through a set of ad hoc case studies focused on the most prominent digital platforms (such as Facebook, Spotify, or TripAdvisor) as well as emerging trends in digital consumer culture (such as, the consumption of nostalgia, the radicalisation of taste, or ephemeral consumption).

This collection of essays, written by authors from diverse countries across four continents, explores the similarities and differences in technological expansionism. It examines how technology companies establish themselves in new markets and sectors and charts how technology projects increasingly capture public functions and infrastructures, raising critical concerns for democratic legitimacy and accountability. Starting from the changes in technology politics and governance brought by the pandemic, the book charts technology firms’ entry into critical public sectors such as healthcare, welfare, and education. The chapters demonstrate how market capture and other forms of expansion—often framed as emergency measures—are facilitated by diminished ethical, legal, and sector-specific oversight, as well as weakened transparency and public contestability. These ‘sector transgressions’ have enabled technology companies to consolidate power through accelerated privatisation, reduced public sector control over digital infrastructure, and increased dependency on private actors for policymaking and regulation. Through a series of case studies, the essays examine how this phenomenon emerges in different parts of the world, analysing its implications for data governance, public interest, and human rights. The book offers strategies for civil society and policymakers to address these challenges and ultimately argues for rethinking digital governance structures to safeguard the public interest. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license

Digital Precarity: Platform Power and Posthuman Vulnerability examines how precarity is reconfigured in the digital age through platform capitalism, algorithmic governance, and data extraction. It reveales digital precarity as a defining condition of contemporary mediated life.Moving beyond conventional understandings of precarity as economic insecurity or unstable work, the author analyses how platform capitalism, algorithmic governance, data extraction and the attention economy produce new forms of vulnerability, dispossession and affective modulation. The book argues that digital precarity is not simply a by-product of technological change but a defining condition of mediated life, in which human subjectivity, labour, sociality and desire are continually captured, quantified and commodified. Through engagement with theories of precarity, postcolonial critique, racial capitalism, digital labour and posthuman capitalism, it illuminates the ways digital systems reproduce older hierarchies while generating novel forms of insecurity and dependency.This book is essential reading for scholars and advanced students in digital culture, labour studies, media studies, sociology, political economy, and critical theory. It is particularly suited to researchers examining platform capitalism, algorithmic governance, digital labour, and the social implications of technological change, as well as those interested in postcolonial critique, racial capitalism, and critical approaches to understanding contemporary forms of inequality and vulnerability in digital societies.

Governing the Digital Societypresents a range of governance approaches, focusing on online platforms, artificial intelligence, and the public values that underpin these technologies.

Analyzing the innovative and popular uses of digital media technologies across many African countries, African Digital Cultures reveals how digitization, through its inherent computational and epistemological logics, is deeply embedded in the daily lives of millions of people, producing new structures of feeling and new possibilities for political participation, cultural expression, and creative agency.This book grapples with the affective elements of mediatized social relations and consciousness, as platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, and TikTok increasingly inform the construction of diverse kinds of publics—from the religious and political to the sexual and the literary. Focusing on the creative and disruptive uses of social media platforms, financial technologies, digital infrastructures, and artificial intelligence, this collection brings together scholars whose work challenges the notion of Africa as a place of technological lack, underscoring the rich histories and contributions of the continent to global digital media.This interdisciplinary volume offers an essential and decolonizing understanding of digital media cultures and histories from an African perspective.

Content Moderation Across Social Media Platforms examines the challenges, methods, and practices of moderating digital content, offering critical insights into platform-specific moderation strategies and their societal implications.This book provides readers with advanced digital research methods to study content moderation, including analysis of moderation traces, performance metrics, and user experience simulations. It explores moderation histories and practices across platforms such as X/Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Telegram, and AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini. The book highlights problematic areas, such as uneven policy enforcement, data gaps, illegal trade, and election misinformation, while proposing a sustainable moderation philosophy for the public agenda.Designed for researchers, educators, policymakers, and students in digital media studies, this book is an essential resource for those seeking to understand and address the complexities of content moderation in the digital age.

This book offers an interdisciplinary introduction to data journalism, offering a unique combination of critical reflection and practical insight into the field, including how data journalism is done around the world and the broader consequences of datafication in the news.

Across sixteen chapters, the volume offers a diverse collection of contributions along three perspectives on algorithmic regimes: the methods necessary to research and design algorithmic regimes, the ways in which algorithmic regimes reconfigure sociotechnical interactions, and the politics engrained in algorithmic regimes.