We investigate how digital transformations may shape the future, and how we might best use new technologies to build inclusive and productive futures for society.
We work to better understand digital inequalities and learn how to effectively support digital inclusion, democratic innovation and civic participation.
Our research has included:
- interdisciplinary investigations by the Work Futures Research Centre on the impact of advances in digital technologies on careers and professions, working practices, working lives and organisational processes
- social media analytics, which combines innovative computational and social science research methods to get real-world insights from the digital traces of people and oganisations in social media data
- multidisciplinary research into social machines, which are web-scale systems where humans and machines play complementary roles in achieving a desirable outcome (Wikipedia, for example)
Contact us
If you’re a researcher, policymaker or industry representative and you have a project proposal or other need related to this theme, please contact theme lead Pauline Leonard.
Related groups and centres
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SOCIAM: The Theory and Practice of Social MachinesA collaborative 6-year project on understanding and designing social machines. Funded by EPSRC and run by the University and 3 other partner institutions.
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Work Futures Research CentreOur research tackles some of the most pressing challenges facing the world of work, both paid and unpaid.