Tommaso Venturini and Richard Rogers offer a critical and conceptual introduction to digital methods.

In a direct and accessible way, the authors provide hands-on advice to equip readers with the knowledge they need to understand which digital methods are best suited to their research goals and how to use them. Cutting through theoretical and technical complications, they focus on the different practices associated with digital methods to skillfully provide a quick-start guide to the art of querying, prompting, API calling, scraping, mining, wrangling, visualizing, crawling, plotting networks, and scripting. While embracing the capacity of digital methods to rekindle sociological imagination, this book also delves into their limits and biases and reveals the hard labor of digital fieldwork. The book also touches upon the epistemic and political consequences of these methods, but with the purpose of providing practical advice for their usage.

Digital Methods is a must-read for students and scholars of digital social research, media studies, critical data studies, digital humanities, computational social sciences, and for those who are interested in digital methods but do not know where to start.

This edited book explores the process of creating using the seven C's of creativity framework. It discusses the creative process as a collaboration between humans and Artificial Intelligence (AI), here identified as the cyber-creativity process. Through nine chapters written by leading scholars in the field, this collection delves into the rapidly emerging area of Generative-AI (Gen-AI) applications and sheds light on the parts of the creative process that will remain fundamentally human throughout the foreseeable future, as well as those that will benefit more from AI-augmentation.

Drawing on the dynamic definition of creativity, the contents encompass the Dynamic Universal Creative Process (DUCP) and the DA VINCI model, the design principles of Gen-AI algorithms, the cyber-creativity process in education, journalism, design, fashion, music, and its implications on intellectual property protection.

A timely reflection on the complex and evolving relation between creativity and technology, this volume will interest academics, researchers, and students alike across humanities, social and hard sciences.

The digital revolution has sparked a new wave of inequality, particularly in access to technology and its benefits. Understanding these disparities is vital for grasping their impact on contemporary society. One manifestation is through artificial intelligence, algorithms, and misinformation. AI-driven systems, used in decision-making like job applications and loan approvals, can exhibit biases due to skewed datasets. Algorithms also spread false information on social media platforms with minimal oversight.

Digital labor and the platform economy exacerbate inequality. While platforms like Uber and Airbnb offer income opportunities, workers lack basic protections like minimum wage laws. Additionally, personal data is often exploited without consent. Cybersafety and cybercrime further highlight digital inequalities. Some have access to robust security measures, while others lack basic knowledge, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation. Economic barriers also hinder participation in gaming and other digital spaces. Big data collection practices can deepen existing disparities, especially regarding socioeconomic status and demographics. Public policies must address these issues to ensure equal access to technology for all.

This book aims to shed light on these disparities and develop solutions for a more equitable technological landscape.

This open access book investigates human-environment relations in the context of the anthropocenic Arctic. Through an archaeological and anthropological study of landscape, it wields "weirding" - a creative mode of engagement with the world - as a means of coming to terms with the stranger, experiential dimensions of a planet populated by diverse non-human entities often bearing monstrous characteristics. Such entities are exemplified by climate change itself, at once human-induced and a force of its own volition that maintains an elusive "presence" as a co-inhabitant of the Anthropocene. The book focuses on the landscape of Ritnicohkka, a fjell in Sapmi, Finnish Lapland. Ritnicohkka is erstwhile home to a diminutive "glacier", whose "weird", anomalous characteristics crowned the fjell until it several years ago melted into history. Taking a broadly autoethnographic approach, it considers perceptions of, and affective experiences in, this rough and relatively remote, "otherworldly" environment, discussing diverse ways of encountering and relating to the Arctic in the context of scientific fieldwork.

This book retraces the intellectual career of committed sociologist and maverick, Charles Wright Mills (1916-1962), whose work is considered "classic" in the USA. Unlike some existing works that focus primarily on Mills' theoretical contributions or political commitments, this book weaves together the personal, intellectual, and political dimensions of Mills' life, providing readers a comprehensive point of view. The authors show how Mills developed a coherent intellectual framework against which he could undertake an analysis of the unequal distribution of power. They re-read the works of C. Wright Mills within an epistemological framework that gives pride of place to classical sociology and its great authors. They also build bridges between the critical sociology of Pierre Bourdieu and the "politics of truth" proposed by Mills. The book emphasizes the contemporary relevance of Mills' ideas. By drawing parallels between Mills' insights and current sociological works, it offers readers reading grids for a better understanding of today's world. Rediscovering the sociological work of C. Wright Mills allows us to revisit the history of American sociology and to identify research orientations for today: on power, institutions, social stratification and the methods used to study them.

The book is crafted in an engaging, narrative style making complex sociological concepts accessible without sacrificing depth.

This open access book presents groundbreaking research, offering new empirical findings, showcasing a range of different methods, and advancing theoretical perspectives relating to science communication and trust. The investigation of science communication and trust is enhanced by the many international scholars and disciplinary approaches featured. The book includes three thematic sections: the first focuses on the role of trustworthy science communicators, the second is concerned with the varying contexts of science communication for trust, while the third unpacks various features of trust in science. The volume thus provides the reader with invaluable insights into the highly salient topic of science communication and trust.

This book delivers a powerful argument for the centrality of sport in culture, exploring how fine sports writing bestows meaning upon the human world. Literary Sports Journalism: Beyond the Boundaries explores the multiple and fertile interconnections between sports writing and mainstream creative writing, including the works of Ernest Hemingway, Hunter S. Thompson, Joyce Carol Oates and Martin Amis. In so doing, it delivers a reappraisal of a number of key writers. As such, the book aims to unite journalism studies with both literary analysis and philosophy. At root it is an inquiry into aesthetics: an exploration of the beauty of words, the beauty (and ugliness) of sport, and the distinctive beauty that arises when words are used to capture sport. Tom Bradshaw argues that it is the writing around sport rather than about sport that is often the most profound, perceptive, and beautiful, and which tells us much about what it is to be human.

This new collection of Rosa's essays provides an overview of his work and explores key topics and concepts in depth. Among the subjects discussed are Charles Taylor's account of alienation, self-interpretation and social critique; the theory of acceleration and the challenges for identity formation and democratic politics in the high-speed society; the theory of resonance and its relation to alienation and uncontrollability; and the relation between social theory and moral philosophy. Among other things, this volume highlights the influence of Taylor's social philosophy on Rosa's work and brings out the architecture of Rosa's social theory, in particular the opposition between the concepts of resonance and alienation.

This book by one of the most creative and influential social theorists writing today will be essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary social theory, critical theory and the sociology of late modernity.

This book critiques creativity as a 'keyword' in contemporary society. This is illustrated through an analysis of the uses of creativity within cultural, urban and educational policy. While there have been critiques and debates of the uses of creativity within these fields, the author innovatively bridges these disciplines by providing both an overview of the philosophical and ideological underpinnings of these debates and illustration of how they manifest in these distinct, yet interrelated policy spheres. Drawing on Raymond Williams' theory of culture as social communication and keyword approach, the book illustrates how the creative turn in contemporary policy can divert attention from structural analysis and provide a rhetorical gloss for inequitable social policies. It will appeal to academics, students and practitioners involved in education, cultural and urban studies.

A multidisciplinary study of power in Central Africa.

Central Africa has long been a fertile ground for engendering new concepts and innovative research, exerting significant influence on African studies and beyond. This edited volume offers groundbreaking, multidisciplinary reflections on power in Central Africa, from the Atlantic slave trade era to the present. By bringing together emerging and leading scholars, Textures of Power builds on the rich epistemic legacies of (Central) African studies, and opens new research avenues across history, anthropology, and cultural and political studies. It offers fresh perspectives on colonial and postcolonial power structures, drawing on new findings while critically engaging with earlier theoretical frameworks.

Employing the concept of "texture" as a red thread, the book showcases the central importance of power as an analytical tool in the humanities and the social sciences. It fosters dialogues between emotions and technology, colonialism and its aftermath, and between non-humans and the invisible world. Drawing on stories about women, social rebellions, digital technologies, slavery, languages, forest management, charms, care and bio-medicine, urban life, radio, music, witchcraft, homosexuality, and environmental pollution, this volume emphasizes bottom-up, long-term and emic approaches as well as local theories about power.

This work will appeal to students and scholars in African studies, colonial and postcolonial studies, and those interested in Africa's longue duree history. Beyond its spatial focus, it will also be relevant to those studying power dynamics, cultural studies, queer and gender studies, and environmental humanities.

This open access book explores how polycrises not only generate new forms of inequality and social exclusion but also inspire new political activism, solidarity, and citizenship. It examines how social movement organizations frame their responses to exclusionary policies and regimes, and sheds light on their strategies for mobilization. By focusing on contemporary movements and their framing of social issues in times of crisis, the book offers valuable insights into social movement studies, urban studies, political communication, and frame analysis. It also engages with broader theoretical and public discussions on solidarity and citizenship. This book is ideal for scholars and students interested in social movements, political struggles, and fields such as migration, housing, and care.

In the current urban development debate, the vision of a diverse urban neighborhood is often linked with social cohesion as a target aspect of favorable community development. This initially euphemistic connection is in need of explanation, as valid empirical findings suggest that with increasing socio-economic and socio-cultural differentiation, the probability of conflict becomes more pronounced, and social cohesion is likely to decrease. Nevertheless, this connection should be maintained, as social science findings on social polarization and segregation, social segmentation, and fragmentation indicate that urban spatial structures should be designed in such a way that social diversity among residents not only coexists but can also become cooperatively action-oriented within the framework of a community. The resulting conflicts of interest can, in their constructive version, serve as impulses for democratic understanding and decision-making. However, this requires integrative and manageable components, which a well-planned urban neighborhood can provide more effectively than urban sprawl or additive high-density residential silos developed solely for economic yield. How a diverse neighborhood could be planned, designed, implemented, and supported in its community-building process is illustrated and reflected upon using the example of a new neighborhood emerging in Mannheim.

Indian democracy is in trouble. A still widely popular, democratically elected leader stands athwart it, dangerously authoritarian and disrespectful of civil liberties, the independence of the courts and the press, and disputatious vis-a-vis organized counter-powers. Leading intellectuals, Indian and Western, write about the death of Indian democracy and the passage to despotism. Despite these clear and present dangers, this volume suggests that the death of Indian democracy has been greatly exaggerated. To understand why, we must move beyond democracy narrowly understood as a governmental form to a broader theory of the cultural, associational, and institutional life necessary to sustain it.

Building on the insights of civil sphere theory, this volume presents a complex understanding of the progress, reaction, and upheaval that has buffeted independent India. The vitality of India's civil sphere nourished vast waves of anti-caste movements that energized Indian politics, creating civil repairs that brought it closer to its founding promise to become a less hierarchical society. Yet, the very success of these progressive movements triggered tsunamis of backlash reaction - Hindu revivalism, Muslim exclusion, horrific outbreaks of communal violence. Narendra Modi and the BJP rode these reactionary waves to power, but, as the 2024 election demonstrated, it is a power still hedged in by the continued vitality of India's civil sphere. Despite pressures from big business and big government, print and digital media continue to broadcast powerful critical interpretations, speaking truth to power at critical junctures. The Indian legal order, despite enormous problems, continues to protect speech, association, the right to vote and the right to have those votes counted accurately.

A powerful demonstration of both the richness of civil sphere theory and the vitality of Indian democracy, The Indian Civil Sphere will be of interest to students and scholars in sociology, politics and Asian studies and to anyone interested in the politics of the world's largest democracy.