The University of Sheffield
Interdisciplinary Centre of the Social Sciences

ICOSS Centres

Interdisciplinary Research in Socio-Digital Worlds

The Centre addresses the ways in which dimensions of social and technological worlds interact in economic, political, social, and cultural life. The development of digital services is interacting with broader social change often subsumed in terms such as Information Society, Knowledge Economy and Digital Culture. The complexity of these developments is pushing the demand for interdisciplinary research to address new, hybrid, and established socio-technical forms in cultural context. The Centre currently is focusing on 3 cross cutting themes with 4 vertical themes that cut through the cross cutting themes. These themes are considered in terms of social participation and social computing, which is a core focus of the centre.

Cross cutting themes:
  • Digital Regions
  • Green issues and Digital environments
  • Security, authentication and Digital Services

Vertical themes:
  • Telecare and Telehealth
  • Cultural and Creative Industries and cultural engagement
  • Ethical ICT and Young People
  • Learning, skills and employment

Selected recent research

  • ‘Augmenting Participation in the Cultural sector’ - Humanities Research Institute (HRI) and Sociology with the Courtauld Institute
  • ‘Mainstreaming Assisted Living Technology’ – School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) with Sociology partner and Leeds University
  • ‘Machine Learning Methods for Personalised, Abstractive Summarisation of Consumer-Generated Media’ – Kalina Bontcheva, Computer Science with advisory group in Sociology
  • ‘Promoting independence through personalised interactive technologies’ – Departments of Computer Science, Human Communication, Sociology and ScHARR
  • Cultural Movements, Digital Economy and Mediapolis – Sociology with the Nottingham University Digital Economy Hub and funded by them
  • ARchive COmmunities MEMories – Hamish Cunningham, Computer Science

Find out more

IRiS To learn more about Interdisciplinary Research in Socio-Digital Worlds (IRiS) please visit the Centre's website at http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/iris