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 25-36 of 87 items.

The Digital Health Self

Wellness, Tracking and Social Media

Putting the spotlight on neoliberalism as a pervasive tool that dictates wellness as a moral obligation, this book critically analyses how users navigate relationships between self-tracking technologies, social media and health management.

Bristol Uni Press

Kids online

Opportunities and risks for children

As children spend more time online there are increasing questions about its social implications and consequences. The risks they face and the proposed solutions are all subject to continual change. This book which reports on the findings of the EU Kids Online project is a vital resource in today's rapidly changing internet environment.

Policy Press

The Age of Low Tech

Towards a Technologically Sustainable Civilization

A best-seller in France, this English language edition introduces readers to an alternative perspective on our technological future. Bihouix skilfully goes against the grain to argue that ‘high’ technology will not solve global problems and envisages a different approach to manage our resources and build a more resilient and sustainable society.

Bristol Uni Press

Connecting Families?

Information & Communication Technologies, Generations, and the Life Course

Taking a life course and generational perspective, this collection examines topics such as work-life balance, transnational families, digital storytelling and mobile parenting. It offers tools that allow for an informed and critical understanding of ICTs and family dynamics.

Policy Press

Blinded by Science

The Social Implications of Epigenetics and Neuroscience

This timely book critically examines the capabilities and limitations of new areas of biology, especially epigenetics and neuroscience, that are used as powerful arguments for developing social policy in a particular direction, exploring their implications for policy and practice.

Policy Press

Encountering the World with I-docs

Interactive Documentary as a Research Method

This book examines the values of interactive documentary as a social research method, exploring their exciting potential for illuminating and communicating pressing social issues. Providing a template for planning an i-doc, the novel book shows how the planning process alone can open new ways of understanding social research topics.

Policy Press
  • ForthcomingPaperbackGBP 16.99 Pre-order
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  • Currently not availableEPUBGBP 16.99

Social Media and the Automatic Production of Memory

Classification, Ranking and the Sorting of the Past

Social media platforms hold vast amounts of data about our lives. Content from the past is increasingly being presented in the form of ‘memories’. Critically exploring this new form of memory making, this unique book asks how social media are beginning to change the way we remember.

Bristol Uni Press

Expertise in Crisis

The Ideological Contours of Public Scientific Controversies

As the crisis of expertise continues to be a global issue, this book shows that it is not a ‘scientific’ controversy, but an ideological dispute with believers on both sides. If the advocates of consensus science acknowledge the uncertainties of even the best science, it is possible to open a pathway towards communication between world views.

Bristol Uni Press

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

Digital Sociologies

This is the first book to connect digital media technologies in digital sociology to traditional sociological and offers a much needed overview of it. It includes problems of the digital age in relation to inequality and identity, making it suitable for use for a global audience on a variety of courses.

Policy Press

The Pre-Crime Society

Crime, Culture and Control in the Ultramodern Age

We live in a pre-crime society where technological strategies and techniques are employed to achieve hyper-securitization. Exploring theories, technologies and institutional practices, this pioneering book explains how the pre-crime society operates in the ‘ultramodern’ age and proposes new directions in crime control policy.

Bristol Uni Press

Social alarms to telecare

Older people's services in transition

Social policy agendas have generally failed to take account of the actual or potential role played by social alarms and telecare.

This book draws on research and practice throughout the developed world. It documents the emergence of these important technologies and considers their potential in healthcare, social welfare and housing.

Policy Press