Research output per year
Research output per year
Personal profile
Research interests
David's work explores how transformations in technology and media reshape culture and society. His work often focuses upon questions of power. Amongst other things, this has included work on the politics of data and metrics, the social power of algorithms, the tensions of A.I. and the dynamics of digital popular cultures and social media. His key publications on these topics include the books The Tensions of Algorithmic Thinking (2023), The Data Gaze (2019), Metric Power (2016) and Popular Culture and New Media: The Politics of Circulation (2013). He is also co-author of New Media (2008, with Nick Gane) and Social Media and the Automatic Production of Memory (2021, with Benjamin Jacobsen).
Alongside this, he also works on the history and future of social thought, with a particular focus on questions of imagination, creativity and inspiration. This has included Georg Simmel’s Concluding Thoughts (2019) which explores the late works of Simmel, the short book Punk Sociology (2014) as well as articles, chapters and reviews exploring the social imaginaries from a range of cultural forms and thinkers.
He is on the editorial boards of the journals Theory, Culture & Society, Information, Communication & Society, Cultural Sociology, Dialogues on Digital Society and Big Data & Society.
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Algorithmic Tenancies and the Ordinal Tenant: Digital Risk-profiling in England’s Private Rented Sector
Wallace, A., Beer, D. G., Burrows, R., Ciocanel, A. & Cussens, J., 20 Jan 2026, In: Housing Studies. 41, 2, p. 331-351Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Artificial intelligence, conceptions of distillation and the reframing of reasoning
BEER, D. G. & JACOBSEN, B. N., 20 Apr 2026, In: Big Data and Society. 13, 2, p. 1-12Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Envisioning Mortgage Futures
Burrows, R., WALLACE, A., BEER, D. G., Ciocanel, A. & Cussens, J., 16 Feb 2026, (Accepted/In press) In: Housing, Theory and Society.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Projects
- 3 Finished
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Code encounters: algorithmic risk-profiling in housing
Ciocanel, A. (Researcher), WALLACE, A. (Principal investigator), BEER, D. G. (Co-investigator), Roger, B. (Co-investigator) & CUSSENS, J. (Co-investigator)
1/01/22 → 31/12/23
Project: Research project (funded) › Research
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AI Law and Ethics: The Challenge of AI Wrongdoing
MORGAN, P. D. J. (Principal investigator), McDermid, J. A. (Co-investigator), PORTER, Z. (Co-investigator), Kennedy, H. (Co-investigator), Muller , V. (Co-investigator), THIRUVALLORE THATTAI, A. (Co-investigator), BEER, D. G. (Co-investigator), O'LOUGHLIN, A. (Co-investigator), HALL, A. (Co-investigator), HABLI, I. (Co-investigator), BLACK, I. (Co-investigator), EFIRD, D. (Co-investigator), MCCALL, C. A. (Co-investigator), TSARAPATSANIS, D. (Co-investigator), Megone, C. (Co-investigator), Dow, J. (Co-investigator), Fox, C. (Co-investigator), Dimitrova, V. (Co-investigator), Richardson, R. (Co-investigator), D L’Hoiry, X. (Co-investigator), Pryce, G. (Co-investigator), Law , J. (Co-investigator), Hughes, N. (Co-investigator), Álvare, M. (Co-investigator), Sharkey, N. (Co-investigator), Sharkey, A. (Co-investigator), Frankish, K. (Co-investigator), Martin, P. (Co-investigator), de Saille, S. (Co-investigator), Bellaby, R. (Co-investigator), Goodley, D. (Co-investigator), Carusi, A. (Co-investigator), Szollosy, M. (Co-investigator), Aitken, J. (Co-investigator) & Bates, J. (Co-investigator)
1/09/19 → 1/09/20
Project: Research project (funded) › Research
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What Constitutes ‘Good Data’ in the Creative Economy? Case studies in media and cultural industries
BEER, D. G. (Principal investigator)
1/01/19 → 31/07/19
Project: Research project (funded) › Research
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The Recursive Self
BEER, D. G. (Invited speaker)
11 Jun 2026Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
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What Ought AI do?
BEER, D. G. (Invited speaker)
19 May 2026 → 20 May 2026Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
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The Recursive Self
BEER, D. G. (Invited speaker)
11 May 2026Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk