Investigating the online and offline contexts of day-to-day democracy as participation spaces: newly published research by Ella Taylor-Smith and Colin Smith

Information, Communication and Society coverCongratulations to Centre for Social Informatics colleagues Dr Ella Taylor-Smith and Dr Colin Smith on the publication of their article ‘Investigating the online and offline contexts of day-to-day democracy as participation spaces’ in Information, Communication and Society.

The main theme of the article is citizen-led participation in democracy, and the online and offline spaces – introduced as ‘participation space’ – in which people work together to influence those in power, and to improve their communities. The findings draw upon a sociotechnical analysis of data from three case studies to expose the relationship between activities of local, grassroots democracy and the characteristics of the online and offline spaces in which it occurs. Continue reading

Register now for Research Impact Value and LIS (RIVAL) #lis_rival, Wednesday 11th July 2018, Edinburgh

RIVAL logoAll interested in library and information science (LIS) research are invited to register free of charge for a community event on the theme of LIS research impact and value to held in Edinburgh on Wednesday 11th July 2018. Continue reading

Practices of community representatives in exploiting information channels for citizen democratic engagement: paper available on OnlineFirst

File:Journal of Librarianship and Information Science.jpgThe first of the seven articles that I recently co-authored for the Journal of Librarianship and Information Science (JoLIS) has now been published as an OnlineFirst paper, with the option to download it as a PDF.

In the paper entitled ‘Practices of community representatives in exploiting information channels for citizen democratic engagement‘ my co-authors Peter Cruickshank and Bruce Ryan and I explore how elected (yet unpaid) community councillors in Scotland exploit information channels for democratic engagement with the citizens that they represent. Continue reading

Centre for Social Informatics at iConference 2018 #iconf18

iConference 2018 bannerHosted by the Information School at the University of Sheffield and the iSchool at Northumbria University, the 2018 iConference takes place in Sheffield this week from 25th to 28th March. Follow the conference remotely on Twitter using the hashtag #iconf18. Continue reading

Seven JoLIS paper acceptances for CSI #i3rgu

File:Journal of Librarianship and Information Science.jpgLast summer members of the Centre for Social Informatics delivered nine papers at Information: interactions and impact (i3) 2017. Following the conference, we were given the opportunity to develop this work into submissions for the Journal of Librarianship and Information Science (JoLIS). We took up this offer by working seven of the nine conference papers up to full journal article manuscripts. These were all submitted by the deadline of September 30th 2017. Following peer review and revisions all seven were accepted, and they will be published in JoLIS in due course. The manuscripts for all accepted articles have now been added to the Edinburgh Napier repository, and can be downloaded by clicking the article titles below. Continue reading

Applications invited for fully-funded PhD studentship on workplace skills development within the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University

ESRC-SDS-Napier studentship logos

We are currently advertising a fully-funded PhD studentship within the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University. (See the advertisement on FindAPhD.com and the studentship details on the Edinburgh Napier University careers pages.)

The title of the doctoral study is Meta-skills maturity for future workplaces.  

  • Applications are due by Friday 30th March 2018.
  • Interviews are scheduled for Wednesday 18th April 2018.
  • The studentship will start on Thursday 1st October 2018.

Continue reading

Applications invited for ESRC Scottish Graduate School of Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership studentship competition 2018

Esrc_logoThe Science, Technology, Innovation, Information and Communication Studies pathway of the ESRC Scottish Graduate School of Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (SGSSS-DTP) is currently inviting applications for the 2018 studentship competition. Successful applicants will start their doctoral studies in October 2018. Continue reading

Centre for Social Informatics at #ASIST2017

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The 80th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology  takes place from October 27th to November 1st 2017. Centre for Social Informatics PhD student Frances Ryan will be travelling to Washington, DC to present a poster at the conference. This work, which Frances has developed with the members of her supervision team (myself, Peter Cruickshank, and Alistair Lawson), is entitled ‘Building identity in online environments: an Information Science perspective‘. Continue reading