Social Informatics

Social informatics examines how society is influenced by digital technologies and how digital technologies are shaped by political, economic, and socio-cultural forces. The chapters in this edited volume use social informatics approaches to analyze recent issues in our increasingly data-intensive society.

Taking a social informatics perspective, this edited volume investigates the interaction between society and digital technologies and includes research that examines individuals, groups, organizations, and nations, as well as their complex relationships with pervasive mobile and wearable devices, social media platforms, artificial intelligence, and big data. This volume’s contributors range from seasoned and renowned researchers to upcoming researchers in social informatics. The readers of the book will understand theoretical frameworks of social informatics; gain insights into recent empirical studies of social informatics in specific areas such as big data and its effects on privacy, ethical issues related to digital technologies, and the implications of digital technologies for daily practices; and learn how the social informatics perspective informs research and practice.

Social Informatics provides the first book-length overview of Social Informatic research in recent years and will be essential reading for academics and students engaged in the study of information science, internet studies, emerging technologies, digital media, new media studies, computer science, the sociology of communication, and data science.

Noriko Hara is Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Information & Library Science in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Pnina Fichman is a Professor of Information Science in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering and the Director of the Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics at Indiana University, Bloomington.