Policy Press

Technology, data and society

Reflecting on UN Sustainable Development Goal 9: Industries, Innovation and Infrastructure, Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities and Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, our list looks at the potential for innovation and creative solutions to global social problems, whilst critically engaging with the risks, such as worsened social inequality and damage to human rights.

Subjects covered include the development of sustainable technology to help combat climate change, the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse data more efficiently, the way social media creates a space for people to organise international social activism and the need to balance our digital lives and retain data sovereignty, especially for the most vulnerable in society.

Bristol University Press and Policy Press are signed up to the UN SDG Publishers Compact. In Technology, data and innovation, we aim to address the following goals:

SDG Publishers compact logoSDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructureSDG 10: Reduced inequalitiesSDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

Showing 13-24 of 87 items.

Digital Technologies, Smart Cities and the Environment

In the Ruins of Broken Promises

Examining the environmental impacts of digitalisation in smart cities, this book asks how we can reconcile the adoption of smart technologies into sustainable projects.

It traces the material and environmental costs of daily realities for smart cities and asks how promises are broken when cities become ‘smart.’

Bristol Uni Press
  • ForthcomingHardbackGBP 40.00 Pre-order
  • Currently not availableEPUBGBP 14.99

Dialogues in Data Power

Shifting Response-abilities in a Datafied World

Edited by Juliane Jarke and Jo Bates

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

Written in an engaging dialogue format, this book introduces readers to emerging themes and future directions in the interdisciplinary field of data studies. It will be a key resource for scholars and students who require a cutting-edge guide to this rapidly evolving area of research.

Bristol Uni Press
  • ForthcomingPaperbackGBP 27.99 Pre-order
  • Currently not availableEPUB
  • Currently not availablePDF

The Politics and Ethics of Transhumanism

Techno-Human Evolution and Advanced Capitalism

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence

This book interrogates the promises of transhumanism, arguing that it is deeply entwined with capitalist ideology. It casts doubt on a utopian techno-capitalist narrative of unending progress and shows how an alternative ethical framework might foster a more inclusive future.

Bristol Uni Press
  • ForthcomingPaperbackGBP 27.99 Pre-order
  • Currently not availableEPUB
  • Currently not availablePDF

Biomedical Innovation in Fertility Care

Evidence Challenges, Commercialization and the Market for Hope

Available Open Access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

This book analyses the clashes between evidence-based medicine and the dynamics of an increasingly privatised fertility care industry. With a unique focus on "add-on" treatments, it reveals how these controversial treatments are now widespread and can border on hopemongering.

Bristol Uni Press
  • ForthcomingHardbackGBP 45.00 Pre-order
  • Currently not availableEPUB

Brexit, Tweeted

Polarization and Social Media Manipulation

Dissecting 45 million tweets posted by 265.000 users in the five years that followed the Brexit referendum, this book presents an extensive and nuanced analysis of social media manipulation and Brexit.

Bristol Uni Press
  • ForthcomingHardbackGBP 47.99 Pre-order
  • Currently not availableEPUBGBP 16.99

The Economic Lives of Platforms

Rethinking the Political Economy of Digital Markets

This interdisciplinary collection rethinks the political economy of the digital market by asking what came before platforms and suggesting what might come after them. Addressing themes like internet decolonisation, the book makes a timely assessment of the impact of evolving connections between technology, information, society and markets.

Bristol Uni Press
  • ForthcomingHardbackGBP 80.00 Pre-order
  • Currently not availableEPUBGBP 27.99

The Digital Transformation of the European Border Regime

The Powers and Perils of Imagining Future Borders

This book offers an in-depth investigation into the digitizsation processes of Europe’s border regime.

With a focus on the European Union agency eu-LISA, one of the most significant actors in the digital border regime, it shows how sociotechnical imaginations drives the future of borders and European governance of mobility.

Bristol Uni Press
  • ForthcomingHardbackGBP 80.00 Pre-order
  • Currently not availableEPUBGBP 27.99

Just Here for the Comments

Lurking as Digital Literacy Practice

This book challenges the conventional perspective of what ‘counts’ as participatory online culture. Presenting ‘lurking’ on social media newsfeeds as a communication and literacy practice that resists dominant power structures, it offers an innovative approach to digital qualitative methods.

Bristol Uni Press
  • ForthcomingPaperbackGBP 24.99 Pre-order
  • ForthcomingHardbackGBP 85.00 Pre-order
  • Currently not availableEPUBGBP 24.99

Activists in the Data Stream

The Practices of Daily Grassroots Politics in Southern Europe

Available Open Access digitally under CC-BY-ND licence

This book pulls back the curtain on the link between technology and activism, showing shows how activists navigate the impact of digital media on today’s grassroots politics.

Bristol Uni Press

The Crime Data Handbook

Crime research has grown substantially over the past decade, with a rise in evidence-informed approaches to criminal justice. The fuel that has driven this growth is data and one of its most pressing challenges is the lack of research on its use and interpretation. This accessible book closes that gap for researchers, practitioners and students.

Bristol Uni Press

Remaking Money for a Sustainable Future

Money Commons

Engaging imaginatively with the future of money, this book examines the real-life efforts of grassroots movements and activists from across the world who are reclaiming power by designing, organising and implementing complementary currencies. It will be of interest to all who are interested in constructing a more sustainable and just world.

Bristol Uni Press

The Economy of Algorithms

AI and the Rise of the Digital Minions

Bristol Uni Press