Simeon J. Yates and Ronald E. Rice (eds) Oxford Handbook of Digital Technology and Society

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/prometheus.38.3.0356
• Pages: 356-364
• Published date: 20 December 2022
• Date: 20 December 2022
• Author: José María Zavala Pérez

Prometheus 356

BOOK REVIEW

The Oxford Handbook of Digital Technology and Society, Simeon J. Yates and Ronald E. Rice

(eds) (2020) 800pp., £97 hardback, Oxford University Press, Oxford, ISBN 9780130932596

Overview

Data have frequently been described as ‘digital gold’ or as the ‘new oil’. I cannot disagree more. Oil

and gold are limited resources with high market value and a remarkable but limited presence in our

lives. Moreover, they have a questionable future in our societies. But data are virtually unlimited:

imagination is the only boundary for digitization pretensions and thus, digital information affects a

huge and growing part of life. No one would question the future importance of the role that data

play in everyday situations. Understanding the patterns and impacts of digitalization, especially in

society, is complex. The striking importance of the outputs, tensions and changes generated by

digital technologies triggers research needs and requests.

The origin of this handbook lies in the scoping review of Ways of Being in a Digital Age,1

a project commissioned in 2016 by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in the UK.

This scoping review, led by the University of Liverpool in collaboration with 17 other universities

and organizations from the UK, the EU, the US and Singapore, was aimed at increasing the aware-

ness of ESRC initiatives on the mutual impact of society and digital technologies. The project

sought to identify present and future research questions and challenges for the social sciences posed

by the impact of digital media and technology.

The structuring of the Handbook was derived from the initial ESRC questions for future

research, but also from comprehensive literature reviews and analyses, Delphi surveys and discus-

sions, and stakeholder workshops. Even though the final report of the project organized analysis in

six domains; the Handbook reverts to the original ESRC domain chapters, or ‘ESRC reviews’:

(1) health and well-being, (2) communication and relationships, (3) economy and organizations,

(4) communities and identities, (5) citizenship and politics (6) data and representation and (7) gov-

ernance and security.

In addition to these reviews, responses to an open call as part of the Ways of Being

Conference (2017) developed into complementary chapters which, headed by their closest ESRC

domain chapters, form the corresponding sections of the Handbook. These additional chapters,

selected as complements to the seven main themes, address more specific research gaps and chal-

lenges for social research in the digital age, covering issues within one of the seven foci of the

project. Altogether, they result in 25 chapters organized in nine sections, with the following final

structure:

1. overview

2. health, age and home

3. communication and relationships

4. organizational contexts

5. communities, identities, and class

6. citizenship, politics and participation

7. data, representation, and sharing

1More on the project is available at https://waysofbeingdigital.com/

DOI:10.13169/prometheus.38.3.0356