DIGSUM, at the Department of Sociology, welcomes Lina Eklund who will give a seminar entitled Post-critique in practice: using interactive fiction to explore the future of human-AI relations. Lina will speak about speculative design as post-critique to explore alternative human-AI futures.

DIGSUM is happy to present a new issue of The Journal of Digital Social Research, our open access journal. This special issue, with guest editors Fenwick McKelvey, Jonathan Roberge, Joanna Redden and Luke Stark, focus on “(Un)Stable Diffusions: The Publics, Publicities, and Publicizations of Generative AI”.

Simon Lindgren and Anne Kaun have recently published an article that introduces “programmable politics” as a new concept and perspective for understanding the complex relationship between technology, society, and politics in the 21st century.

On the 28th of January, Humlab invites you to a seminar where Frans Mäyrä, Tampere University, will talk about “The Future of Game Culture in Society”.

Here is some recommended (Swedish) listening in relation to Simon Lindgren’s book on Critical Theory of AI.

DIGSUM, Humlab, and TAIGA are co-hosting a seminar with Thomas Nygren, professor of history and civics education, Uppsala University.

DIGSUM Director and Professor Simon Lindgren was the lead author of a debate piece, published at the WASP-HS blog. Lindgren, together with Jason Tucker and Virginia Dignum, argue that the Swedish AI Commission’s roadmap, “Färdplan för Sverige”, prioritises an AI-first mindset rooted in urgency and global competitiveness, which risks framing AI as an inevitable force and a one-size-fits-all solution to complex societal problems.

Internetdagarna, one of Sweden’s premier conferences on the impact of digital technology on society, placed a spotlight on AI this year. Umeå University, via DIGSUM, made a strong contribution to the discussions by hosting three seminars in collaboration with the Swedish Research Council and Internetstiftelsen.

Early in December, DIGSUM researcher Samuel Merrill took part in a panel discussion on Technology, Memory and Ethics alongside Rik Smit and Yael Richler Friedman and moderated by Martin Winstone.

On the 29th of November, DIGSUM and the Department of Sociology at Umeå University are hosting a seminar where Amanda Lagerkvist, Uppsala University, will talk about “Parsing the AI Apocalypse”.

On the 22nd of November, DIGSUM is hosting a seminar where Cornelia Brantner, Karlstad University, will talk about her project “How Sourcing Behaviors of Generative AI-powered Search Engines Could Hurt Journalism and Democracy: A Comparative Study of Political News Retrieval in Five Languages”.

Markus Naarttijärvi has together with Ingvild Bruce (University of Oslo) received funding from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond for a three year project on The Digital Monopoly of Force.

Simon Lindgren and Moa Eriksson Krutrök have received funding from the Swedish Research Council for the project "Dynamics of Danger: The Role of Digital Platforms in Crisis Communication".

Humlab and DIGSUM at Umeå University invite PhD students to take part in our PhD course Digital Research (7.5 credits). The course runs, in hybrid format (online and on location in Umeå), February and March.

This weekend, Professor Helen Kennedy of the University of Sheffield was appointed honorary doctor at Umeå University’s Faculty of Social Sciences. The award was conferred at the university’s 2024 Annual Celebration to recognise her pioneering contributions to the field of digital sociology.

DIGSUM researcher Samuel Merrill and Professor Ann Rigney of Utrecht University have recently co-edited a special issue of the the SAGE Memory Studies Journal called Remembering Activism: Explorations in the memory-activism nexus (17:5).  

We are excited to announce that one of Umeå University’s Honorary Doctors at the Faculty of Social Sciences for 2024 will be Professor Helen Kennedy, University of Sheffield. She will be awarded the title at the 2024 Annual Celebration.

DIGSUM’s research group in digital sociology has recently appointed Kalle Eriksson, who has a background as a doctorate student and board member of DIGSUM, as a new postdoctoral fellow. Kalle holds a doctorate in political science and has written the doctoral thesis “Politicising Automation: Ideas on Work, Technology, and Agency in the Swedish Political Debate”.

The DIGSUM board wants to thank everyone who contributed to our recent symposium, Researching the Digital: Methods, Mess, Myths, Madness, held on 11-12 September 2024.

TAIGA – Centre for Transdisciplinary AI at Umeå University, in collaboration with Bildmuseet and UmArts – Research Centre for Architecture, Design and the Arts at Umeå University, invites everyone interested to a 2-day symposium on 17-18 October 2024 to examine and discuss the role AI plays in both generating new wicked problems to solve, contributing to the wickedness of already existing problems, but also the way AI can contribute to our better understanding of the wicked problems we face and the pathways towards their mitigation.