Join panelists Taina Bucher (University of Oslo), Brian Jefferson (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), and Niall Docherty (Microsoft Research) to discuss digital temporalities as they intersect with apparatuses of power and knowledge.

Monday April 12th — 9am CDT/3pm BST/4pm CEST — Online

Hosted by the Social Media Collective

Each speaker will give a ten-minute presentation, followed by interactive break-out rooms and a participatory discussion. The event will be held virtually and is scheduled to last 90 minutes. The event is free and open to the public. Please visit the Eventbrite page to register to attend, and receive a Teams link:

Digital Time/Power Symposium: tickets, Mon 12 Apr 2021 at 15:00 | Eventbrite

Event Description

This is an interactive event, with discussions in the breakout rooms providing the grounds for a collective conversation surrounding digital time/power to emerge. The talks will invite dialogue amongst participants by questioning the way temporality is targeted, discursively produced, and materially managed in distinct sociotechnical environments.

Taina Bucher will examine the specific temporal regime of algorithmic media as characterized by a logic of right-time, or kairos. Bucher is an associate professor in media and communication at the University of Oslo.

How do media platforms determine when the time is right, with what implications? Where does right-time materialize in digital media and could we address the empirical realities of this fabrication?

Brian Jefferson will discuss how the digital revolution has both accelerated geographic development and underdevelopment. Brian is an associate professor of geography and geographic information systems at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.

In what ways has the digital revolution upended and reproduced established inequalities? What does this tell us of technological progress?  

Niall Docherty will explore how tools of digital well-being promise a certain future of human flourishing inflected by neoliberal discourses of responsibilization and self-control. Niall is a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft Research New England, within the Social Media Collective.

What are the political, economic, and social futures promised to users through adopting “healthy” digital habits? How do narratives of the good life condition action online?

In collectively examining these types of questions and more, the symposium will cultivate an interdisciplinary discussion able to explore varied experiences of digital temporality and power. This will be a great chance to meet with other critical digital theorists and share ideas with the broader research community.

We look forward to your participation!