Digital Economies

Multidisciplinary research projects being in fashion with academic funders, I was able to spend a couple of days at a project incubator workshop organized by one of the clusters supported through the Digital Economies initiative led by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. This brought together computer and social scientists, art and design practitioners and academics, and people from companies that design and make digital technologies to develop projects together that are concerned with health, transport and the creative industries. I took part in a number of conversations, in particular one concerned with researching the idea of a digital nexus for a post-car future, drawing on work by John Urry. Initiated by Monika Buscher, Daniela Sangiorgi and other colleagues from Lancaster University, this is an ambitious idea that seeks to develop and test product and service ideas, and policies, that are a preferable scenario for the future of a digital media economy enabling mobility.