by Susan Halford and Dale Southerton
Digital technologies, devices and data are woven into the fabric of contemporary societies. The social and digital are co-evolving in a sociodigital world. Social Scientists are very good at understanding changes that have taken place to date. The more critical question, however, is how to understand sociodigital futures and what might be done to tip these towards fairer and more inclusive ways of life. This is the mission of the newly-established ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures.
What is Sociodigital?
When we use the word sociodigital, we’re referring to the way in which societies interact with digital technologies. When we talk about the sociodigital, we’re talking about the ways in which digital technologies are shaped by society and society is shaped by digital technologies. Often digital technologies are assumed to act on us. We’ve seen this during the last two years during the COVID pandemic. For example, as we educate our children through platforms like Zoom or get our food, or our clothes, brought to our front door through the use of online apps and delivery services. However, digital technologies are also shaped by society, they are shaped by the investment decisions that are taken, by the infrastructures that we build, by economic markets, and they are shaped by the decisions that people up and down the country make in their everyday lives about things that matter to them.
“Bringing together world leading expertise and creating an international hub of excellence for sociodigital futures research and collaboration is the start.”
Our ambitious research agenda will explore how digital devices, services and data are shaping (and being shaped by) everyday practices of consuming, caring, learning, moving (people and goods) and organising. At the same time, the Centre will explore how cutting-edge technologies – artificial intelligence, high performance networks, robotics, and augmented/virtual and extended reality – are imagined and innovated for a range of potential futures in each of the areas of social life.
Another way of thinking about the future
We know from the past that futures claimed rarely turn out as predicted. The interplay of digital technologies with the complex realities of everyday life produces multiple and unexpected outcomes, with far reaching implications for the economy, politics and social life. And, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, climate crisis, and widening inequalities, what lies ahead seems more uncertain than ever. The starting point for the Centre for Sociodigital Futures is, therefore, to shift attention from the future as something that is already out there, that can be known or predicted – to recognising that the future cannot be known.
“The future does not exist, but how we think about, imagine and act on the future in the present matters a great deal.”
However, claims about possible futures can be known. And we can trace how these drive government policy, large scale investments by big commercial companies, such as the Metaverse or Elon Musk’s rocket to Mars. How these claims about futures are acted on has very real consequences: for which technologies are developed, who is included, who is excluded and what kinds of possible futures are opened up and closed down. Understanding those futures in the making and the consequences that they have is the work of this Centre.
We will investigate, explain and engage directly with sociodigital future making processes – big and little – to tip the balance towards inclusive, reflexive and sustainable ways of life.
Key Questions to Answer
To do this the Centre will explore three questions across key areas of everyday life, looking at cutting edge digital technologies and working with our partners in government, industry and civil society to experiment and seek to understand how we might make positive sociodigital futures. These questions are:
- What claims are made about sociodigital futures and by who?
- How are those claims acted on?
- How do we develop the ideas and the tools that might drive those sociodigital futures towards fairer and more sustainable ways of life?
Our ambition for the Centre is to make emerging sociodigital futures intelligible and actionable with direct impact on policymaking, organizational practice, community participation, and technology design. Through strategic collaborations we will build capacity to identify, experiment with and utilise the potential of sociodigital future-making practices to support fair and sustainable societies.
Our Partners
The Centre for Sociodigital Futures is a £10m flagship investment from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). It brings together world leading expertise in the Social Sciences, Engineering and the Arts, led from the University of Bristol in collaboration with the Universities of Birmingham, Edinburgh, Goldsmiths (University of London), the University of the Arts London and Lancaster University. The Centre will be the hub for an international network of leading global Universities from four continents: the University of Naples Federico II (Italy), The New School (USA); OsloMet University (Norway), Stellenbosch University (South Africa), and University of New South Wales (Australia). The Centre will be delivered through collaboration with the Centre’s strategic partners: BT, Defra, Locality, the National Cyber Security Centre, UNESCO and Maybe*.
To keep up to date with our work track #sociodigitalfutures on Twitter, visit our webpage.