My research explores how digital technologies shape everyday life and how we experience the world around us. I study the “geography” of digital systems—where they are built, how they operate, and how they affect people differently depending on place, policy, and power. A central focus of my work is how technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and automation mediate everyday activities, from work and communication to government services.
Through my research I have supported creative public engagement with technology, including collaborations with the Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol and the UK in a Changing Europe programme. In 2015, I was awarded the Progress in Human Geography Best Paper Prize for my article “The matter of ‘virtual’ geographies.”
My work brings together two main areas of research:
1. How claims about digital technologies shape society
I examine how governments, companies, and consultants talk about technologies such as algorithms, AI, robots, and “the digital,” and how these claims influence policy and public debate. This includes research on digital immigration systems such as the UK’s EU Settlement Scheme, and on claims about job losses linked to automation. I have also studied how ideas and information spread through digital systems, and how technologies such as smart cities are said to capture and monetise human attention and memory. Earlier research explored smart city development in Portugal and technology research in Silicon Valley.
2. The hidden material systems behind everyday technologies
This strand of research focuses on the people, devices, data, and infrastructures that make digital systems work, but which often remain invisible. I study everyday technologies such as home voice assistants (e.g. Amazon Alexa), examining issues such as gendered design and social norms. I have also researched digital systems used by governments to verify immigration status. This work draws on ideas from the philosophy of technology to better understand how digital systems shape daily life.
My research speaks to audiences across the social sciences and beyond academia, contributing to public and policy debates about automation, AI, digital governance, and the growing role of technology in everyday decision-making.
Selected Projects
Algorithmic Politics after Brexit (ESRC, 2021–2024)
This project examined the EU Settlement Scheme, the UK’s digital-only system for confirming immigration status after Brexit. It focused on how automated and digital systems can be efficient for governments while being confusing or opaque for the people required to use them.
Contagion (ESRC, 2013–2015)
This project explored how both diseases and ideas spread through societies. Using data on influenza, social media, and financial markets, the research compared how “contagion” operates across biological, social, and economic systems.