Cardiff School of Social Sciences

Research Interests

My research interests reflect a theoretically informed commitment to empirical sociological research that makes connections with other fields and disciplines. My current research interests can be divided into five strands. They are as follows:

• Computational and Digital Sociology,  COSMOS
• Political Communication, Citizenship, Interaction and the Mediated Public Sphere
• Ethnography, Theory Culture and Interpretive Analysis
• Team Work, Expertise and Professional Interaction
• Alternative Dwelling Construction, Lifestyle and Green Expertise
• Wales, Identity, Culture and Place
• Art and Devolution in Wales

I am co-founder of the Collaborative Online Social Media Observatory (COSMOS) that is currently funded by both the ESRC and JISC. I am currently involved in five ongoing research projects that relate to digital and computational sociology including as principal investigator: Hate Speech and Social Media: Understanding Users, Networks and Information Flows' and as co-investigator 'Social Media and Prediction: Crime Sensing, Data Integration and Statistical Modelling' (ESRC); ‘Digital Social Research Tools, Tension Indicators and Safer Communities: A demonstration of COSMOS’ (ESRC); ‘Supporting Empirical Social Science Research with a Virtual Research Environment’ (JISC) and  ‘Requirements Analysis for Social Media Analysis Research Tools’ (ESRC).

In addition to the above I have conducted work funded by the British Academy on art and devolution in Wales and alternative dwelling and green expertise. I have also carried out extensive research on collaborative and professional team work, political communication and innovation in social research methods.

I have published widely in these and related areas (see publications). Forthcoming books include Digital Society: Theory, Method and Data (with Edwards, Williams and Burnap, Sage, 2015) and Advances in Membership Categorization Analysis (with Fitzgerald, Sage, 2014). I was the lead editor of a special issue for the International Journal of Social Research Methodology entitled Computational Social Science: Research Strategies, Design and Methods (2013).

My contribution to Sociology was confirmed through the award of a DSc Econ. by Cardiff University in the Spring of 2013.