Posts Tagged ‘social theory’

Just as an additional part of my interview on data has come out on SFR Player, I am preparing to attend a major conference on data and statistics next week in Brussels, with participation of national statistical institutes from European and other countries. Official statisticians who mainly used to do surveys, now fully realize the […]


I was yesterday at the Just-in-Time-Sociology (JITSO) workshop in Lausanne (oh, how I still like this town, after such a long time!). JITSO was a small-scale, nice and friendly event for like-minded social researchers, who feel the urge to use their baggage of theories and techniques to provide science-informed responses to today’s fast-paced social, political […]


Hello everyone, You have probably reached this page after listening to my talk on Mobs and mobiles – the “dark side” of social media in relation to the 2011 UK riots, which was broadcast yesterday on BBC Radio 3 as part of its transmission “The Essay“, in a 5-episode series entitled “At the speed of […]


The IAOS conference in Kiev, now just over, has been a great opportunity to discuss the “open data” movement and how it is radically transforming policy-making. Data, it is hoped, enable citizens to make more informed choices and hold the government to account: expenses, contracts, decisions and even meetings with lobbyists are now subject to […]


What does economics have to do with riots, some may think: isn’t economics all about markets, employment and inflation? Well, the answer is NO under many respects. It is no mere coincidence that a resurgence of mass protest has accompanied the recent financial turmoil and austerity measures in many countries – from anti-government demonstrations in […]


Hello everyone, You have probably reached this page after reading an article about our study “Social Media Censorship in Times of Political Unrest – A Social Simulation Experiment with the UK Riots” (published in the journal Bulletin of Sociological Methodology, vol. 115, n. 1). This post will provide some background information. Read the study First […]


The rise of social media has brought a new life to the academic field of social network analysis (commonly referred to as SNA). Traditionally grounded in sociology with applications to neighbouring fields such as management and education, it has now expanded to a variety of other disciplines including economics, geography, psychology, science studies and even […]


I participated today in a panel discussion at Voice of Russia London, on freedom of Web speech – the future of the Internet, possible restraints, what is and isn’t currently allowed. My angle was that on the unintended effects of censorship, based on research I have done in the last few years. You may remember […]


I was yesterday at a nice, small symposium organised by my Humanities and Social Science colleagues at the University of Greenwich on “Rethinking Resistance“. The symposium asked a simple, but crucial question: do we need new tools or new paradigms to understand the recent riots in Britain and Europe, the Arab spring, the Occupy movement? […]


I have just come back home from the annual conference of the British Sociological Association in Leeds. Lots of participants, excellent organisation, and a surprisingly nice (though rainy and chilly!) town with a modern, functional, well-equipped campus. Overall, however, a sense of unease prevailed. Perhaps it was the very theme of the conference: “Sociology in […]



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