Meet the bloggers
Hello! I’m in the final year of my PhD in the Dept. of Sociology & Anthropology at Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada. My research interests can be found at the intersections of space, culture and technology–and my thesis examines cities as interaction design spaces and publics as co-creators in emerging pervasive computing and locative media design. When I’m not working madly to finish that off, I can be found teaching undergraduate courses in social studies of science and technology and critical cultural theory, including power and everyday life. I’ve had the pleasure of presenting and publishing my work internationally, and since late 2001 I’ve maintained a weblog called Purse Lip Square Jaw.
Hi! I’m currently doing my PhD in Sociology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and I work as an editorial assistant for the Space and Culture journal. I’m interested in culture that is ‘normal,’ the way we imagine and represent these social cultural practices and forms, and why they’re so normal–or not. Specifically, my dissertation project is about ‘suburbia‘ and I look at the on-going social and cultural influence of suburbia by suggesting ways of making sense of the proliferation of the suburban form and lifestyle. My other area of substantive research is the “white wedding.” Recently, Heidi Bickis and I presented our thoughts on How abstract thinking and “irrelevant” research makes the world better for everyone, and I’m also actively engaged in community-based social justice and arts groups.
Hello! In my official capacity I’m Henry Marshall Tory Chair and Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Department of Art and Design at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Canada. My research career focus has been urban cultural studies. By focusing on shopping malls, markets, theme parks, tourist attractions, and other embodied sites, my research seeks insights into the implications that spatialization, the metropolis and architecture have for personal identity and sociability, pleasure and taste, the cultures of public institutions, cities, and for ‘knowledge’ and ‘innovation’ societies. I co-founded the Space and Culture journal in 1995, and my books include The Virtual (2003), Lefebvre: Love and Struggle (1999) and Places on the Margin (1992).
Hi! I’m currently a SSHRC/Killam Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Sociology and Department of Art & Design interdisciplinary program at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Canada. My dissertation examines creativity and innovation by considering painting as a site where the invisible is made visible as a consequence of actual and virtual, material and immaterial factors. My publications and conference presentations have focused on pressing contemporary issues within technology and society, art and culture, theories of mobility, speed and space-time compression. In my free time I’m a practicing artist and keen traveler.
Hello! I’m Dutch but work and live in the UK at Nottingham Trent University, where I am a professor of media analysis and Head of the Centre for Research in Culture and Communication. I’ve also been with Space and Culture from the beginning, and currently serve as the journal’s Editor-in-Chief. My research interests are diverse and include fields such as risk, epidemiology, apocalypse, religion, airports, mobility, media, technology, sexuality, embodiment and networks. I’m the author of Risk and Technological Culture, and my latest book, Media Technology: Critical Perspectives, is now available.