Science, Technology and Society

Mareile Kaufmann, author of 'Making Information Matter', examines the rise of ancestry research and how it fosters new cultures of genomic data collection, with businesses capitalising on its commercialisation.…Read more

Merete Monrad explores how AI shapes emotional expression and imposes norms in digital interactions, highlighting the political implications of these technologies.…Read more

As part of the Academics Stand Against Poverty blog series, Georgia van Toorn, Joanna Redden, Lina Dencik, Jess Brand and colleagues challenge Labour to resist the temptation to rely on technological solutions such as AI to tackle the structural problems of poverty and inequality.…Read more

Jules Boykoff, author of 'What Are the Olympics For?', reminds us of the dark side of the Olympics: more than 12,500 people have been forcibly displaced by authorities before the games.…Read more

A migrant, a Brit and a robot walk into a bar. Kostas Maronitis and Denny Pencheva, authors of 'Robots and Immigrants', discuss who will get the job. …Read more

On World Oceans Day, Ryan MacNeil discusses the crucial role that the public sector can play in ocean-saving technology. Such innovations must not be left purely to the private sector. …Read more

Lurking, or reading the comments in an online group without writing a comment, is a common practice. But what does it mean to be a lurker? In this podcast Gina Sipley challenges our assumptions about lurking, revealing it to be a complex and valuable form of online engagement.…Read more

Scott Timcke considers the impact of AI systems on democratic politics, as our lives become managed experiences optimised for efficient data extraction, and our social relations mediated by computer engineering.…Read more

Lars Evertsson, Ann-Sofie Henrikson and Charlott Nyman describe the alarming weapon that a smartphone can become when controlled by an abusive partner. …Read more

Emre Eren Korkmaz, author of 'Smart Borders, Digital Identity and Big Data', considers the use of ‘smart border’ surveillance technology tested on Palestinians for many years and now used in the war on Gaza. …Read more