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Introduction Paragraph for Technology Essay: Effective Guide

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The introduction is an integral part of any essay and an excellent opportunity to impact your reader. It sets the tone for the argument and gives the reader an insight into the topic. A good  introduction of essay about technology  comprises three main parts.

The hook grabs the reader’s attention and encourages them to read on. Background presents more details on the topic, and the thesis statement summarizes the essay’s central focus. 

The introduction can be challenging to write, but with some guidance, anyone can master the art of writing a compelling introduction. This guide discusses how to write an effective introductory paragraph for a technology essay.

What is A Technology Essay?

Technology has a significant impact on our society. Its numerous benefits have become a vital part of our life. It has improved and is still improving the efficiency of medicine, transportation, education, entertainment, and more. Technology also impacts social interaction; you can easily find lost friends on social networks. 

A technology essay discusses a technological phenomenon or technological advancement. It could also discuss a personal experience related to a technological issue. Depending on your professor’s instructions, a technology essay could be argumentative, informative, persuasive, or otherwise.

How to Write An Introduction Paragraph For Technology Essay

Like other essays, a technology essay comprises three main parts: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. The introduction provides the reader with an overview of the argument you’ll develop in the body of your essay.

Body of the paper is where you discuss the details of the argument. The conclusion represents the logical ending you reach regarding the idea presented in the essay’s body.

The introduction paragraph of a technology essay should provide context for the technological trends you address and the argument you develop. It should include a hook that will pull the reader in and keep him/her interested.

Here’s how to write a good introduction paragraph .

1. Hook the reader

The essay’s opening sentence sets the tone for the entire piece; it should intrigue the readers and pull them in. Begin with a hook that will grab the reader’s attention, hold their interest and make them want to read the rest of your work.

The hook should be exciting and lead the reader into the essay, giving them an idea of the topic you’re writing about. It should also be clear, catchy, and concise and spark the reader’s curiosity. Here’s how you can grab the attention of your audience.

• Present a shocking statistic or fact.
• Offer an anecdote or a relevant example.
• Ask a thoughtful rhetorical question.

2. Create Context and Provide Background

Now that you have the reader’s attention, provide details on your topic. The next two to three sentences you make should explain how the hook connects to the rest of the essay.

Provide necessary background information to help the readers better understand your argument and the points you intend to make. If you include key terms that may be wrongly interpreted, let your readers know what the term means in your essay.

3. Present Your Thesis

A thesis is the pivot point of your paper, and the single most important idea that you convey in your work. Present the main points you intend to make throughout your essay.

Provide your readers with a roadmap of what you’ll cover in the rest of the paper to support your thesis statement. The last sentence of your introduction should allow smooth transition into the body of the essay.

Introduction of Essay About Technology

Technology has made our lives more comfortable. The products we use, our lifestyle, and our society are products of technology. Without technological advancements, the world would be different and most likely unrecognizable to us. Today, technology extends to every part of our life. Experts, business entrepreneurs, and non-professionals use technology to expand their livelihoods. However, with the good comes bad. Technology, quite frankly, harms society. Pollution, cybercrime, and war are only a few of the effects of technology on society. But does the good outweigh the bad? 

Technology has impacted modern life immensely. It has drastically changed our world. We now travel in planes and cars and have better health facilities and education. We also have ways to communicate with people worldwide in seconds. However, these increased levels of technology did not come about by accident. It resulted from planned and systematic research by a group of people. 

Technology is giving us a new shape. We’ve made more progress in the last 200 years than in the previous 20000 years. Earth has become a global village where most countries and people can connect through the internet, but it has some deadly consequences. Many countries have nuclear weapons, global warming and growing Co2 emissions threaten the existence of the whole population.

With the advent of technology, we are making such amazing developments that couldn’t even be imagined 100 or 200 years ago. We’ve found cures for deadly diseases, we’re constantly working on education, and most people have freedom to express themselves. Science has made huge leaps, but at the same time new diseases, deadlier than before, kill millions of people every year.

Technology is the application of information for building and developing devices and equipment that can be used in diverse ways. We live a very active day-to-day life with technology today. While technology has done a lot to make life easier for everyone, it has also had a few adverse effects that can’t be ignored. Here’s a look at how technology has affected our lives and how we can balance it to overcome it.

Example 6 

Technology has changed society drastically. Before modern technology came along, life was too hard, and everyday chores took up a lot of time. We’re getting many opportunities out of technologies that play a significant role in our lives. Access to medicine, education, industry, and transportation is easier. Our lives have changed dramatically. 

A technology essay can be tricky to write, but a good essay introduction paragraph is key to the successful execution of your topic .

The introduction to a technology essay must be clear, concise, and persuasive to draw the reader in. It should establish the topic and provide as much detail as possible to help readers understand and empathize with the topic. This guide on introduction of essay about technology would help you write a gripping essay introduction.

Abir Ghenaiet

Abir is a data analyst and researcher. Among her interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. As a humanitarian and educator, she actively supports women in tech and promotes diversity.

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Politics and privacy, private-sector influence and big tech, state competition and conflict, author biography, how is technology changing the world, and how should the world change technology.

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Josephine Wolff; How Is Technology Changing the World, and How Should the World Change Technology?. Global Perspectives 1 February 2021; 2 (1): 27353. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/gp.2021.27353

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Technologies are becoming increasingly complicated and increasingly interconnected. Cars, airplanes, medical devices, financial transactions, and electricity systems all rely on more computer software than they ever have before, making them seem both harder to understand and, in some cases, harder to control. Government and corporate surveillance of individuals and information processing relies largely on digital technologies and artificial intelligence, and therefore involves less human-to-human contact than ever before and more opportunities for biases to be embedded and codified in our technological systems in ways we may not even be able to identify or recognize. Bioengineering advances are opening up new terrain for challenging philosophical, political, and economic questions regarding human-natural relations. Additionally, the management of these large and small devices and systems is increasingly done through the cloud, so that control over them is both very remote and removed from direct human or social control. The study of how to make technologies like artificial intelligence or the Internet of Things “explainable” has become its own area of research because it is so difficult to understand how they work or what is at fault when something goes wrong (Gunning and Aha 2019) .

This growing complexity makes it more difficult than ever—and more imperative than ever—for scholars to probe how technological advancements are altering life around the world in both positive and negative ways and what social, political, and legal tools are needed to help shape the development and design of technology in beneficial directions. This can seem like an impossible task in light of the rapid pace of technological change and the sense that its continued advancement is inevitable, but many countries around the world are only just beginning to take significant steps toward regulating computer technologies and are still in the process of radically rethinking the rules governing global data flows and exchange of technology across borders.

These are exciting times not just for technological development but also for technology policy—our technologies may be more advanced and complicated than ever but so, too, are our understandings of how they can best be leveraged, protected, and even constrained. The structures of technological systems as determined largely by government and institutional policies and those structures have tremendous implications for social organization and agency, ranging from open source, open systems that are highly distributed and decentralized, to those that are tightly controlled and closed, structured according to stricter and more hierarchical models. And just as our understanding of the governance of technology is developing in new and interesting ways, so, too, is our understanding of the social, cultural, environmental, and political dimensions of emerging technologies. We are realizing both the challenges and the importance of mapping out the full range of ways that technology is changing our society, what we want those changes to look like, and what tools we have to try to influence and guide those shifts.

Technology can be a source of tremendous optimism. It can help overcome some of the greatest challenges our society faces, including climate change, famine, and disease. For those who believe in the power of innovation and the promise of creative destruction to advance economic development and lead to better quality of life, technology is a vital economic driver (Schumpeter 1942) . But it can also be a tool of tremendous fear and oppression, embedding biases in automated decision-making processes and information-processing algorithms, exacerbating economic and social inequalities within and between countries to a staggering degree, or creating new weapons and avenues for attack unlike any we have had to face in the past. Scholars have even contended that the emergence of the term technology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries marked a shift from viewing individual pieces of machinery as a means to achieving political and social progress to the more dangerous, or hazardous, view that larger-scale, more complex technological systems were a semiautonomous form of progress in and of themselves (Marx 2010) . More recently, technologists have sharply criticized what they view as a wave of new Luddites, people intent on slowing the development of technology and turning back the clock on innovation as a means of mitigating the societal impacts of technological change (Marlowe 1970) .

At the heart of fights over new technologies and their resulting global changes are often two conflicting visions of technology: a fundamentally optimistic one that believes humans use it as a tool to achieve greater goals, and a fundamentally pessimistic one that holds that technological systems have reached a point beyond our control. Technology philosophers have argued that neither of these views is wholly accurate and that a purely optimistic or pessimistic view of technology is insufficient to capture the nuances and complexity of our relationship to technology (Oberdiek and Tiles 1995) . Understanding technology and how we can make better decisions about designing, deploying, and refining it requires capturing that nuance and complexity through in-depth analysis of the impacts of different technological advancements and the ways they have played out in all their complicated and controversial messiness across the world.

These impacts are often unpredictable as technologies are adopted in new contexts and come to be used in ways that sometimes diverge significantly from the use cases envisioned by their designers. The internet, designed to help transmit information between computer networks, became a crucial vehicle for commerce, introducing unexpected avenues for crime and financial fraud. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, designed to connect friends and families through sharing photographs and life updates, became focal points of election controversies and political influence. Cryptocurrencies, originally intended as a means of decentralized digital cash, have become a significant environmental hazard as more and more computing resources are devoted to mining these forms of virtual money. One of the crucial challenges in this area is therefore recognizing, documenting, and even anticipating some of these unexpected consequences and providing mechanisms to technologists for how to think through the impacts of their work, as well as possible other paths to different outcomes (Verbeek 2006) . And just as technological innovations can cause unexpected harm, they can also bring about extraordinary benefits—new vaccines and medicines to address global pandemics and save thousands of lives, new sources of energy that can drastically reduce emissions and help combat climate change, new modes of education that can reach people who would otherwise have no access to schooling. Regulating technology therefore requires a careful balance of mitigating risks without overly restricting potentially beneficial innovations.

Nations around the world have taken very different approaches to governing emerging technologies and have adopted a range of different technologies themselves in pursuit of more modern governance structures and processes (Braman 2009) . In Europe, the precautionary principle has guided much more anticipatory regulation aimed at addressing the risks presented by technologies even before they are fully realized. For instance, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation focuses on the responsibilities of data controllers and processors to provide individuals with access to their data and information about how that data is being used not just as a means of addressing existing security and privacy threats, such as data breaches, but also to protect against future developments and uses of that data for artificial intelligence and automated decision-making purposes. In Germany, Technische Überwachungsvereine, or TÜVs, perform regular tests and inspections of technological systems to assess and minimize risks over time, as the tech landscape evolves. In the United States, by contrast, there is much greater reliance on litigation and liability regimes to address safety and security failings after-the-fact. These different approaches reflect not just the different legal and regulatory mechanisms and philosophies of different nations but also the different ways those nations prioritize rapid development of the technology industry versus safety, security, and individual control. Typically, governance innovations move much more slowly than technological innovations, and regulations can lag years, or even decades, behind the technologies they aim to govern.

In addition to this varied set of national regulatory approaches, a variety of international and nongovernmental organizations also contribute to the process of developing standards, rules, and norms for new technologies, including the International Organization for Standardization­ and the International Telecommunication Union. These multilateral and NGO actors play an especially important role in trying to define appropriate boundaries for the use of new technologies by governments as instruments of control for the state.

At the same time that policymakers are under scrutiny both for their decisions about how to regulate technology as well as their decisions about how and when to adopt technologies like facial recognition themselves, technology firms and designers have also come under increasing criticism. Growing recognition that the design of technologies can have far-reaching social and political implications means that there is more pressure on technologists to take into consideration the consequences of their decisions early on in the design process (Vincenti 1993; Winner 1980) . The question of how technologists should incorporate these social dimensions into their design and development processes is an old one, and debate on these issues dates back to the 1970s, but it remains an urgent and often overlooked part of the puzzle because so many of the supposedly systematic mechanisms for assessing the impacts of new technologies in both the private and public sectors are primarily bureaucratic, symbolic processes rather than carrying any real weight or influence.

Technologists are often ill-equipped or unwilling to respond to the sorts of social problems that their creations have—often unwittingly—exacerbated, and instead point to governments and lawmakers to address those problems (Zuckerberg 2019) . But governments often have few incentives to engage in this area. This is because setting clear standards and rules for an ever-evolving technological landscape can be extremely challenging, because enforcement of those rules can be a significant undertaking requiring considerable expertise, and because the tech sector is a major source of jobs and revenue for many countries that may fear losing those benefits if they constrain companies too much. This indicates not just a need for clearer incentives and better policies for both private- and public-sector entities but also a need for new mechanisms whereby the technology development and design process can be influenced and assessed by people with a wider range of experiences and expertise. If we want technologies to be designed with an eye to their impacts, who is responsible for predicting, measuring, and mitigating those impacts throughout the design process? Involving policymakers in that process in a more meaningful way will also require training them to have the analytic and technical capacity to more fully engage with technologists and understand more fully the implications of their decisions.

At the same time that tech companies seem unwilling or unable to rein in their creations, many also fear they wield too much power, in some cases all but replacing governments and international organizations in their ability to make decisions that affect millions of people worldwide and control access to information, platforms, and audiences (Kilovaty 2020) . Regulators around the world have begun considering whether some of these companies have become so powerful that they violate the tenets of antitrust laws, but it can be difficult for governments to identify exactly what those violations are, especially in the context of an industry where the largest players often provide their customers with free services. And the platforms and services developed by tech companies are often wielded most powerfully and dangerously not directly by their private-sector creators and operators but instead by states themselves for widespread misinformation campaigns that serve political purposes (Nye 2018) .

Since the largest private entities in the tech sector operate in many countries, they are often better poised to implement global changes to the technological ecosystem than individual states or regulatory bodies, creating new challenges to existing governance structures and hierarchies. Just as it can be challenging to provide oversight for government use of technologies, so, too, oversight of the biggest tech companies, which have more resources, reach, and power than many nations, can prove to be a daunting task. The rise of network forms of organization and the growing gig economy have added to these challenges, making it even harder for regulators to fully address the breadth of these companies’ operations (Powell 1990) . The private-public partnerships that have emerged around energy, transportation, medical, and cyber technologies further complicate this picture, blurring the line between the public and private sectors and raising critical questions about the role of each in providing critical infrastructure, health care, and security. How can and should private tech companies operating in these different sectors be governed, and what types of influence do they exert over regulators? How feasible are different policy proposals aimed at technological innovation, and what potential unintended consequences might they have?

Conflict between countries has also spilled over significantly into the private sector in recent years, most notably in the case of tensions between the United States and China over which technologies developed in each country will be permitted by the other and which will be purchased by other customers, outside those two countries. Countries competing to develop the best technology is not a new phenomenon, but the current conflicts have major international ramifications and will influence the infrastructure that is installed and used around the world for years to come. Untangling the different factors that feed into these tussles as well as whom they benefit and whom they leave at a disadvantage is crucial for understanding how governments can most effectively foster technological innovation and invention domestically as well as the global consequences of those efforts. As much of the world is forced to choose between buying technology from the United States or from China, how should we understand the long-term impacts of those choices and the options available to people in countries without robust domestic tech industries? Does the global spread of technologies help fuel further innovation in countries with smaller tech markets, or does it reinforce the dominance of the states that are already most prominent in this sector? How can research universities maintain global collaborations and research communities in light of these national competitions, and what role does government research and development spending play in fostering innovation within its own borders and worldwide? How should intellectual property protections evolve to meet the demands of the technology industry, and how can those protections be enforced globally?

These conflicts between countries sometimes appear to challenge the feasibility of truly global technologies and networks that operate across all countries through standardized protocols and design features. Organizations like the International Organization for Standardization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and many others have tried to harmonize these policies and protocols across different countries for years, but have met with limited success when it comes to resolving the issues of greatest tension and disagreement among nations. For technology to operate in a global environment, there is a need for a much greater degree of coordination among countries and the development of common standards and norms, but governments continue to struggle to agree not just on those norms themselves but even the appropriate venue and processes for developing them. Without greater global cooperation, is it possible to maintain a global network like the internet or to promote the spread of new technologies around the world to address challenges of sustainability? What might help incentivize that cooperation moving forward, and what could new structures and process for governance of global technologies look like? Why has the tech industry’s self-regulation culture persisted? Do the same traditional drivers for public policy, such as politics of harmonization and path dependency in policy-making, still sufficiently explain policy outcomes in this space? As new technologies and their applications spread across the globe in uneven ways, how and when do they create forces of change from unexpected places?

These are some of the questions that we hope to address in the Technology and Global Change section through articles that tackle new dimensions of the global landscape of designing, developing, deploying, and assessing new technologies to address major challenges the world faces. Understanding these processes requires synthesizing knowledge from a range of different fields, including sociology, political science, economics, and history, as well as technical fields such as engineering, climate science, and computer science. A crucial part of understanding how technology has created global change and, in turn, how global changes have influenced the development of new technologies is understanding the technologies themselves in all their richness and complexity—how they work, the limits of what they can do, what they were designed to do, how they are actually used. Just as technologies themselves are becoming more complicated, so are their embeddings and relationships to the larger social, political, and legal contexts in which they exist. Scholars across all disciplines are encouraged to join us in untangling those complexities.

Josephine Wolff is an associate professor of cybersecurity policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Her book You’ll See This Message When It Is Too Late: The Legal and Economic Aftermath of Cybersecurity Breaches was published by MIT Press in 2018.

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How to write a fantastic thesis introduction (+15 examples)

The thesis introduction, usually chapter 1, is one of the most important chapters of a thesis. It sets the scene. It previews key arguments and findings. And it helps the reader to understand the structure of the thesis. In short, a lot is riding on this first chapter. With the following tips, you can write a powerful thesis introduction.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase using the links below at no additional cost to you . I only recommend products or services that I truly believe can benefit my audience. As always, my opinions are my own.

Elements of a fantastic thesis introduction

Open with a (personal) story, begin with a problem, define a clear research gap, describe the scientific relevance of the thesis, describe the societal relevance of the thesis, write down the thesis’ core claim in 1-2 sentences, support your argument with sufficient evidence, consider possible objections, address the empirical research context, give a taste of the thesis’ empirical analysis, hint at the practical implications of the research, provide a reading guide, briefly summarise all chapters to come, design a figure illustrating the thesis structure.

An introductory chapter plays an integral part in every thesis. The first chapter has to include quite a lot of information to contextualise the research. At the same time, a good thesis introduction is not too long, but clear and to the point.

A powerful thesis introduction does the following:

• It captures the reader’s attention.
• It presents a clear research gap and emphasises the thesis’ relevance.
• It provides a compelling argument.
• It previews the research findings.
• It explains the structure of the thesis.

In addition, a powerful thesis introduction is well-written, logically structured, and free of grammar and spelling errors. Reputable thesis editors can elevate the quality of your introduction to the next level. If you are in search of a trustworthy thesis or dissertation editor who upholds high-quality standards and offers efficient turnaround times, I recommend the professional thesis and dissertation editing service provided by Editage . 

This list can feel quite overwhelming. However, with some easy tips and tricks, you can accomplish all these goals in your thesis introduction. (And if you struggle with finding the right wording, have a look at academic key phrases for introductions .)

Ways to capture the reader’s attention

A powerful thesis introduction should spark the reader’s interest on the first pages. A reader should be enticed to continue reading! There are three common ways to capture the reader’s attention.

An established way to capture the reader’s attention in a thesis introduction is by starting with a story. Regardless of how abstract and ‘scientific’ the actual thesis content is, it can be useful to ease the reader into the topic with a short story.

This story can be, for instance, based on one of your study participants. It can also be a very personal account of one of your own experiences, which drew you to study the thesis topic in the first place.

Start by providing data or statistics

Data and statistics are another established way to immediately draw in your reader. Especially surprising or shocking numbers can highlight the importance of a thesis topic in the first few sentences!

So if your thesis topic lends itself to being kick-started with data or statistics, you are in for a quick and easy way to write a memorable thesis introduction.

The third established way to capture the reader’s attention is by starting with the problem that underlies your thesis. It is advisable to keep the problem simple. A few sentences at the start of the chapter should suffice.

Usually, at a later stage in the introductory chapter, it is common to go more in-depth, describing the research problem (and its scientific and societal relevance) in more detail.

You may also like: Minimalist writing for a better thesis

Emphasising the thesis’ relevance

A good thesis is a relevant thesis. No one wants to read about a concept that has already been explored hundreds of times, or that no one cares about.

Of course, a thesis heavily relies on the work of other scholars. However, each thesis is – and should be – unique. If you want to write a fantastic thesis introduction, your job is to point out this uniqueness!

In academic research, a research gap signifies a research area or research question that has not been explored yet, that has been insufficiently explored, or whose insights and findings are outdated.

Every thesis needs a crystal-clear research gap. Spell it out instead of letting your reader figure out why your thesis is relevant.

* This example has been taken from an actual academic paper on toxic behaviour in online games: Liu, J. and Agur, C. (2022). “After All, They Don’t Know Me” Exploring the Psychological Mechanisms of Toxic Behavior in Online Games. Games and Culture 1–24, DOI: 10.1177/15554120221115397

The scientific relevance of a thesis highlights the importance of your work in terms of advancing theoretical insights on a topic. You can think of this part as your contribution to the (international) academic literature.

Scientific relevance comes in different forms. For instance, you can critically assess a prominent theory explaining a specific phenomenon. Maybe something is missing? Or you can develop a novel framework that combines different frameworks used by other scholars. Or you can draw attention to the context-specific nature of a phenomenon that is discussed in the international literature.

The societal relevance of a thesis highlights the importance of your research in more practical terms. You can think of this part as your contribution beyond theoretical insights and academic publications.

Why are your insights useful? Who can benefit from your insights? How can your insights improve existing practices?

Formulating a compelling argument

Arguments are sets of reasons supporting an idea, which – in academia – often integrate theoretical and empirical insights. Think of an argument as an umbrella statement, or core claim. It should be no longer than one or two sentences.

Including an argument in the introduction of your thesis may seem counterintuitive. After all, the reader will be introduced to your core claim before reading all the chapters of your thesis that led you to this claim in the first place.

But rest assured: A clear argument at the start of your thesis introduction is a sign of a good thesis. It works like a movie teaser to generate interest. And it helps the reader to follow your subsequent line of argumentation.

The core claim of your thesis should be accompanied by sufficient evidence. This does not mean that you have to write 10 pages about your results at this point.

However, you do need to show the reader that your claim is credible and legitimate because of the work you have done.

A good argument already anticipates possible objections. Not everyone will agree with your core claim. Therefore, it is smart to think ahead. What criticism can you expect?

Think about reasons or opposing positions that people can come up with to disagree with your claim. Then, try to address them head-on.

Providing a captivating preview of findings

Similar to presenting a compelling argument, a fantastic thesis introduction also previews some of the findings. When reading an introduction, the reader wants to learn a bit more about the research context. Furthermore, a reader should get a taste of the type of analysis that will be conducted. And lastly, a hint at the practical implications of the findings encourages the reader to read until the end.

If you focus on a specific empirical context, make sure to provide some information about it. The empirical context could be, for instance, a country, an island, a school or city. Make sure the reader understands why you chose this context for your research, and why it fits to your research objective.

If you did all your research in a lab, this section is obviously irrelevant. However, in that case you should explain the setup of your experiment, etcetera.

The empirical part of your thesis centers around the collection and analysis of information. What information, and what evidence, did you generate? And what are some of the key findings?

For instance, you can provide a short summary of the different research methods that you used to collect data. Followed by a short overview of how you analysed this data, and some of the key findings. The reader needs to understand why your empirical analysis is worth reading.

You already highlighted the practical relevance of your thesis in the introductory chapter. However, you should also provide a preview of some of the practical implications that you will develop in your thesis based on your findings.

Presenting a crystal clear thesis structure

A fantastic thesis introduction helps the reader to understand the structure and logic of your whole thesis. This is probably the easiest part to write in a thesis introduction. However, this part can be best written at the very end, once everything else is ready.

A reading guide is an essential part in a thesis introduction! Usually, the reading guide can be found toward the end of the introductory chapter.

The reading guide basically tells the reader what to expect in the chapters to come.

In a longer thesis, such as a PhD thesis, it can be smart to provide a summary of each chapter to come. Think of a paragraph for each chapter, almost in the form of an abstract.

For shorter theses, which also have a shorter introduction, this step is not necessary.

Especially for longer theses, it tends to be a good idea to design a simple figure that illustrates the structure of your thesis. It helps the reader to better grasp the logic of your thesis.

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Preparing for the Revolution: Information Technology and the Future of the Research University (2002)

Chapter: 1. introduction, 1 introduction.

O ur society is now being reshaped by rapid advances in information technologies—computers, telecommunications networks, and other digital systems—that have vastly increased our capacity to know, achieve, and collaborate (Attali, 1992; Brown, 2000; Deming and Metcalfe, 1997; Kurzweil, 1999). These technologies allow us to transmit information quickly and widely, linking distant places and diverse areas of endeavor in productive new ways, and to create communities that just a decade ago were unimaginable.

Of course, our society has been through other periods of dramatic change before, driven by such innovations as the steam engine, railroad, telephone, and automobile. But never before have we experienced technologies that are evolving so rapidly (increasing in power by a hundredfold every decade), altering the constraints of space and time, and reshaping the way we communicate, learn, and think.

The rapid evolution of digital technologies is creating not only new opportunities for our society but challenges to it as well, 1 and institutions of every stripe are grappling to respond by adapting their strategies and activities. Corporations and governments are reorganizing to enhance productivity, improve quality, and control costs. Entire industries have been restructured to better align themselves with the realities of the digital age. It is no great exaggeration to say that information technology is fundamentally changing the relationship between people and knowledge.

Yet ironically, at the most knowledge-based entities of all— our colleges and universities—the pace of transformation has been relatively modest in key areas. Although research has in many ways been transformed by information technology, and it

is increasingly used for student and faculty communications, other higher-education functions have remained more or less unchanged. Teaching, for example, largely continues to follow a classroom-centered, seat-based paradigm.

Nevertheless, some major technology-aided teaching experiments are beginning to emerge, and several factors suggest that digital technologies may eventually drive significant change throughout academia (Newman and Scurry, 2000; Hanna, 2000; Noble, 2001). Because these technologies are expanding by orders of magnitude our ability to create, transfer, and apply information, they will have a profound impact on how universities define and fulfill their missions. In particular, the ability of information technology to facilitate new forms of human interaction may allow the transformation of universities toward a greater focus on learning. 2

American academia has undergone significant change before, beginning with the establishment of secular education during the 18 th century (Rudolph, 1991). Another transformation resulted from the Land-Grant College Act of 1862 (Morrill Act), which created institutions that served agriculture and industries; academia was no longer just for the wealthy but charged with providing educational opportunities to the working class as well. Around 1900, the introduction of graduate education began to expand the role of the university in training students for careers both scholarly and professional. The middle of the twentieth century saw two important changes: the G. I. Bill, which provided educational opportunities for millions of returning veterans; and the research partnership between the federal government and universities, which stimulated the evolution of the research university. Looking back, each of these changes seems natural. But at the time, each involved some reassessment both of the structure and mission of the university (Wulf, 1995).

Already, higher education has experienced significant technology-based change, particularly in research, 3 even though it presently lags other sectors in some respects. And we expect that the new technology will eventually also have a profound impact on one of the university’s primary activities—teaching— by freeing the classroom from its physical and temporal bounds and by providing students with access to original source materials (Gilbert, 1995). The situations that students will encounter as citizens and professionals can increasingly be

simulated and modeled for teaching and learning, and new learning communities driven by information technology will allow universities to better teach students how to be critical analyzers and consumers of information.

The information society has greatly expanded the need for university-level education; lifelong learning is not only a private good for those who pursue it but also a social good in terms of our nation’s ability to maintain a vibrant democracy and support a competitive workforce.

But while information technology has the capacity to enhance and enrich teaching and scholarship, it also appears to pose certain threats to our colleges and universities (Duderstadt, 2000a; Katz, 1999) in their current manifestations. We can now use powerful computers and networks to deliver educational services to anyone—any place, any time. Technology can create an open learning environment in which the student, no longer compelled to travel to a particular location in order to participate in a pedagogical process involving tightly integrated studies based mostly on lectures or seminars by local experts, is evolving into an active and demanding consumer of educational services. 4

Similarly, faculty’s scholarly communities are shifting from physical campuses to virtual ones, globally distributed in cyberspace. And technological innovations are stimulating the growth of powerful markets for educational services and the emergence of new for-profit competitors, which could also help reshape the higher-education enterprise (Goldstein, 2000; Shea, 2001).

Technological change also has the potential for transforming how the research university accomplishes its social mission. In an increasingly global culture linked together by technology, with no single cultural context to provide a “filter,” the role of traditional disciplinary canons is changing.

It is clear that the digital age poses many questions for academia. For example, what will it mean to be “educated” in the twenty-first century? How will academic research be organized and financed? As the constraints of time and space are relaxed by information technology, how will the role of the university’s physical campus change?

In the near term it seems likely that the campus, a geographically concentrated community of scholars and a center of culture, will continue to play a central role, though the current

manifestations of higher education may shift. For example, students may choose to distribute their college experience among residential campuses, commuter colleges, and online (virtual) universities. They may also assume more responsibility for, and control over, their education. 5 The scholarly activities of faculty will more frequently involve technology to access distant resources and enhance interaction with colleagues around the world. The boundaries between the university and broader society may blur, just as its many roles will become ever more complex and intertwined with those of other components of the knowledge and learning enterprise (Brown and Duguid, 1996).

Thus we must take care not simply to extrapolate the past but instead to examine the full range of options for the future, even though their precise impacts on society and its institutions will be difficult to predict. In any case, we must be ready for disruption. Just as these technologies have driven rapid, significant, and frequently discontinuous and unforeseen change in other sectors of our society, so too will they present university decision makers not only with exciting prospects but a decidedly bumpy ride.

CONTEXT FOR THE STUDY

Given their mandate from Congress to advise the federal government on scientific and technological matters, the presidents of the National Academies (National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine) acted on the above concerns. They launched a project in early 2000, through the National Research Council (NRC), to better understand the implications of information technology for the research university. This institution is a key element of the national research enterprise, a prime mover of the economy, and a critical source of scientists and engineers. Its wide range of academic functions also makes it an important model for analysis, with broad applicability elsewhere in the university community.

Primary support for the National Academies project was provided by the National Research Council, with additional support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation.

The project was organized under the Policy and Global Affairs Division of the NRC, with staff and program support from the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable.

The premise of this study was simple. Although the rapid evolution of digital technology will present numerous challenges and opportunities to the research university, there is a sense that many of the most significant issues are not well understood by academic administrators, their faculty, and those who support or depend on the institution’s activities.

The study had two objectives:

To identify those information technologies likely to evolve in the near term (a decade or less) that could ultimately have major impact on the research university.

To examine the possible implications of these technologies for the research university—its activities (teaching, research, service, outreach) and its organization, management, and financing—and the impacts on the broader higher-education enterprise.

In addressing the second point, the panel examined those functions, values, and characteristics of the research university most likely to change as well as those most important to preserve.

In pursuit of these ends, a panel was formed consisting of leaders from industry, higher education, and foundations with expertise in the areas of information technology, the research university, and public policy. Since first convening in February 2000, the Steering Committee has held a number of meetings— including site visits to major technology-development centers such as Lucent (Bell) Laboratories and IBM Research Laboratories—to identify and discuss trends, issues, and options. The major themes addressed by these activities were:

The pace of evolution of information technology.

The ubiquitous character of the Internet.

The relaxation of the conventional constraints of space, time, and institution.

The pervasive character of information technology (the potential for near-universal access to information, education, and research).

The changing ways in which we handle digital data, information, and knowledge.

The growing importance of intellectual capital relative to physical or financial capital.

In January 2001 a two-day workshop was held at the National Academies—with the invited participation of about 80 leaders from higher education, industry, and government—to explore possible strategies for the research university and its various stakeholders and to provide input on possible follow-up initiatives. The presentations and discussions of the workshop were videotaped and broadcast on the Research Channel, and they are currently being videostreamed from its web site (programs.researchchannel.com) to help stimulate public discussion. Members of the panel also participated in a discussion of the project at the June 2001 meeting of the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable.

This report, finalized through a series of conference calls and email exchanges during the second half of 2001, discusses what the panel learned during the study process. Chapter 2 describes the likely near-future of information technology;

Chapter 3 discusses the implications of this technology for the research university; and Chapter 4 summarizes the panel’s findings and calls for a continued dialogue between the research university and its stakeholders on these issues.

The panel has tried to maintain a clear and focused presentation of the issues. In a number of places, it makes assertions based on its collective judgment, while taking care to alert readers and appropriately qualify those assertions. Where possible, the report references the growing literature on information technology and education in order to complement the panel’s opinions. Yet change is occurring so rapidly there is high risk that any specific assertion made by individual experts or a panel such as this one may be proved wrong within a few years. Indeed, a central theme of the report is that the research university must be prepared to cope with constant shifts and continued uncertainty regarding information technology and its implications.

In addition, while this report focuses on the 261 U.S. doctoral/research universities, one of the inevitable consequences of the march of information technology is that these universities will become much more interconnected with the rest of higher education. Therefore much of the discussion deals with the broader academic context, of which the research university is but one component.

However, in seeking to gain a broad view of the issues facing the research university and information technology, the panel was unable (given the available time and resources) to examine several issues in the depth it would have liked. Therefore some important topics, such as the service mission of the university, are discussed but briefly.

Finally, although its original charge was to provide specific conclusions and recommendations on a range of policy issues— including some, such as the altered funding environment for the research university and the changes to intellectual-property protection wrought by the digital revolution that are spurring legislative actions, roiling campuses, and finding their way to court—the panel ultimately decided that specificity at this point would be inappropriate and premature. Digital technology is evolving so rapidly that an overly prescriptive set of conclusions and recommendations would be in danger of becoming irrelevant soon after the report’s publication. However, the

priorities for action that the panel identified are in areas that institutions and the overall higher-education enterprise can themselves consider and begin to address. And academia might get some assistance in that regard. The digital revolution will undoubtedly create barriers and opportunities that permit new federal and state approaches to provide significant leverage in helping the research university anticipate and manage change.

The rapid evolution of information technology (IT) is transforming our society and its institutions. For the most knowledge-intensive entities of all, research universities, profound IT-related challenges and opportunities will emerge in the next decade or so. Yet, there is a sense that some of the most significant issues are not well understood by academic administrators, faculty, and those who support or depend on the institution's activities. This study identifies those information technologies likely to evolve in the near term (a decade or less) that could ultimately have a major impact on the research university. It also examines the possible implications of these technologies for the research university—its activities (learning, research, outreach) and its organization, management, and financing—and for the broader higher education enterprise. The authoring committee urges research universities and their constituents to develop new strategies to ensure that they survive and thrive in the digital age.

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How To Write A Dissertation Introduction Chapter:

The 7 essential ingredients of an a-grade introduction.

By: Derek Jansen (MBA). Reviewed By Dr Eunice Rautenbach (D. Tech) | March 2020

If you’re reading this, you’re probably at the daunting early phases of writing up the introduction chapter of your dissertation or thesis. It can be intimidating, I know. 

In this post, we’ll look at the 7 essential ingredients of a strong dissertation or thesis introduction chapter, as well as the essential things you need to keep in mind as you craft each section. We’ll also share some useful tips to help you optimize your approach.

Overview: How To Write An Introduction Chapter

• Understand the purpose and function of the intro chapter
• Craft an enticing and engaging opening section
• Provide a background and context to the study
• Clearly define the research problem
• State your research aims, objectives and questions
• Explain the significance of your study
• Identify the limitations of your research
• Outline the structure of your dissertation or thesis

A quick sidenote:

You’ll notice that I’ve used the words dissertation and thesis interchangeably. While these terms reflect different levels of research – for example, Masters vs PhD-level research – the introduction chapter generally contains the same 7 essential ingredients regardless of level. So, in this post, dissertation introduction equals thesis introduction.

Start with why.

To craft a high-quality dissertation or thesis introduction chapter, you need to understand exactly what this chapter needs to achieve. In other words, what’s its purpose ? As the name suggests, the introduction chapter needs to introduce the reader to your research so that they understand what you’re trying to figure out, or what problem you’re trying to solve. More specifically, you need to answer four important questions in your introduction chapter.

These questions are:

• What will you be researching? (in other words, your research topic)
• Why is that worthwhile? (in other words, your justification)
• What will the scope of your research be? (in other words, what will you cover and what won’t you cover)
• What will the limitations of your research be? (in other words, what will the potential shortcomings of your research be?)

Simply put, your dissertation’s introduction chapter needs to provide an overview of your planned research , as well as a clear rationale for it. In other words, this chapter has to explain the “what” and the “why” of your research – what’s it all about and why’s that important.

Simple enough, right?

Well, the trick is finding the appropriate depth of information. As the researcher, you’ll be extremely close to your topic and this makes it easy to get caught up in the minor details. While these intricate details might be interesting, you need to write your introduction chapter on more of a “need-to-know” type basis, or it will end up way too lengthy and dense. You need to balance painting a clear picture with keeping things concise. Don’t worry though – you’ll be able to explore all the intricate details in later chapters.

Now that you understand what you need to achieve from your introduction chapter, we can get into the details. While the exact requirements for this chapter can vary from university to university, there are seven core components that most universities will require. We call these the seven essential ingredients . 

The 7 Essential Ingredients

• The opening section – where you’ll introduce the reader to your research in high-level terms
• The background to the study – where you’ll explain the context of your project
• The research problem – where you’ll explain the “gap” that exists in the current research
• The research aims , objectives and questions – where you’ll clearly state what your research will aim to achieve
• The significance (or justification) – where you’ll explain why your research is worth doing and the value it will provide to the world
• The limitations – where you’ll acknowledge the potential limitations of your project and approach
• The structure – where you’ll briefly outline the structure of your dissertation or thesis to help orient the reader

By incorporating these seven essential ingredients into your introduction chapter, you’ll comprehensively cover both the “ what ” and the “ why ” I mentioned earlier – in other words, you’ll achieve the purpose of the chapter.

Side note – you can also use these 7 ingredients in this order as the structure for your chapter to ensure a smooth, logical flow. This isn’t essential, but, generally speaking, it helps create an engaging narrative that’s easy for your reader to understand. If you’d like, you can also download our free introduction chapter template here.

Alright – let’s look at each of the ingredients now.

#1 – The Opening Section

The very first essential ingredient for your dissertation introduction is, well, an introduction or opening section. Just like every other chapter, your introduction chapter needs to start by providing a brief overview of what you’ll be covering in the chapter.

This section needs to engage the reader with clear, concise language that can be easily understood and digested. If the reader (your marker!) has to struggle through it, they’ll lose interest, which will make it harder for you to earn marks. Just because you’re writing an academic paper doesn’t mean you can ignore the basic principles of engaging writing used by marketers, bloggers, and journalists. At the end of the day, you’re all trying to sell an idea – yours is just a research idea.

So, what goes into this opening section?

Well, while there’s no set formula, it’s a good idea to include the following four foundational sentences in your opening section:

1 – A sentence or two introducing the overall field of your research.

For example:

“Organisational skills development involves identifying current or potential skills gaps within a business and developing programs to resolve these gaps. Management research, including X, Y and Z, has clearly established that organisational skills development is an essential contributor to business growth.”

2 – A sentence introducing your specific research problem.

“However, there are conflicting views and an overall lack of research regarding how best to manage skills development initiatives in highly dynamic environments where subject knowledge is rapidly and continuously evolving – for example, in the website development industry.”

3 – A sentence stating your research aims and objectives.

“This research aims to identify and evaluate skills development approaches and strategies for highly dynamic industries in which subject knowledge is continuously evolving.”.

4 – A sentence outlining the layout of the chapter.

“This chapter will provide an introduction to the study by first discussing the background and context, followed by the research problem, the research aims, objectives and questions, the significance and finally, the limitations.”

As I mentioned, this opening section of your introduction chapter shouldn’t be lengthy . Typically, these four sentences should fit neatly into one or two paragraphs, max. What you’re aiming for here is a clear, concise introduction to your research – not a detailed account.

PS – If some of this terminology sounds unfamiliar, don’t stress – I’ll explain each of the concepts later in this post.

#2 – Background to the study

Now that you’ve provided a high-level overview of your dissertation or thesis, it’s time to go a little deeper and lay a foundation for your research topic. This foundation is what the second ingredient is all about – the background to your study.

So, what is the background section all about?

Well, this section of your introduction chapter should provide a broad overview of the topic area that you’ll be researching, as well as the current contextual factors . This could include, for example, a brief history of the topic, recent developments in the area, key pieces of research in the area and so on. In other words, in this section, you need to provide the relevant background information to give the reader a decent foundational understanding of your research area.

Let’s look at an example to make this a little more concrete.

If we stick with the skills development topic I mentioned earlier, the background to the study section would start by providing an overview of the skills development area and outline the key existing research. Then, it would go on to discuss how the modern-day context has created a new challenge for traditional skills development strategies and approaches. Specifically, that in many industries, technical knowledge is constantly and rapidly evolving, and traditional education providers struggle to keep up with the pace of new technologies.

Importantly, you need to write this section with the assumption that the reader is not an expert in your topic area. So, if there are industry-specific jargon and complex terminology, you should briefly explain that here , so that the reader can understand the rest of your document.

Don’t make assumptions about the reader’s knowledge – in most cases, your markers will not be able to ask you questions if they don’t understand something. So, always err on the safe side and explain anything that’s not common knowledge.

#3 – The research problem

Now that you’ve given your reader an overview of your research area, it’s time to get specific about the research problem that you’ll address in your dissertation or thesis. While the background section would have eluded to a potential research problem (or even multiple research problems), the purpose of this section is to narrow the focus and highlight the specific research problem you’ll focus on.

But, what exactly is a research problem, you ask?

Well, a research problem can be any issue or question for which there isn’t already a well-established and agreed-upon answer in the existing research. In other words, a research problem exists when there’s a need to answer a question (or set of questions), but there’s a gap in the existing literature , or the existing research is conflicting and/or inconsistent.

So, to present your research problem, you need to make it clear what exactly is missing in the current literature and why this is a problem . It’s usually a good idea to structure this discussion into three sections – specifically:

• What’s already well-established in the literature (in other words, the current state of research)
• What’s missing in the literature (in other words, the literature gap)
• Why this is a problem (in other words, why it’s important to fill this gap)

Let’s look at an example of this structure using the skills development topic.

Organisational skills development is critically important for employee satisfaction and company performance (reference). Numerous studies have investigated strategies and approaches to manage skills development programs within organisations (reference).

(this paragraph explains what’s already well-established in the literature)

However, these studies have traditionally focused on relatively slow-paced industries where key skills and knowledge do not change particularly often. This body of theory presents a problem for industries that face a rapidly changing skills landscape – for example, the website development industry – where new platforms, languages and best practices emerge on an extremely frequent basis.

(this paragraph explains what’s missing from the literature)

As a result, the existing research is inadequate for industries in which essential knowledge and skills are constantly and rapidly evolving, as it assumes a slow pace of knowledge development. Industries in such environments, therefore, find themselves ill-equipped in terms of skills development strategies and approaches.

(this paragraph explains why the research gap is problematic)

As you can see in this example, in a few lines, we’ve explained (1) the current state of research, (2) the literature gap and (3) why that gap is problematic. By doing this, the research problem is made crystal clear, which lays the foundation for the next ingredient.

#4 – The research aims, objectives and questions

Now that you’ve clearly identified your research problem, it’s time to identify your research aims and objectives , as well as your research questions . In other words, it’s time to explain what you’re going to do about the research problem.

So, what do you need to do here?

Well, the starting point is to clearly state your research aim (or aims) . The research aim is the main goal or the overarching purpose of your dissertation or thesis. In other words, it’s a high-level statement of what you’re aiming to achieve.

Let’s look at an example, sticking with the skills development topic:

“Given the lack of research regarding organisational skills development in fast-moving industries, this study will aim to identify and evaluate the skills development approaches utilised by web development companies in the UK”.

As you can see in this example, the research aim is clearly outlined, as well as the specific context in which the research will be undertaken (in other words, web development companies in the UK).

Next up is the research objective (or objectives) . While the research aims cover the high-level “what”, the research objectives are a bit more practically oriented, looking at specific things you’ll be doing to achieve those research aims.

Let’s take a look at an example of some research objectives (ROs) to fit the research aim.

• RO1 – To identify common skills development strategies and approaches utilised by web development companies in the UK.
• RO2 – To evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies and approaches.
• RO3 – To compare and contrast these strategies and approaches in terms of their strengths and weaknesses.

As you can see from this example, these objectives describe the actions you’ll take and the specific things you’ll investigate in order to achieve your research aims. They break down the research aims into more specific, actionable objectives.

The final step is to state your research questions . Your research questions bring the aims and objectives another level “down to earth”. These are the specific questions that your dissertation or theses will seek to answer. They’re not fluffy, ambiguous or conceptual – they’re very specific and you’ll need to directly answer them in your conclusions chapter .

The research questions typically relate directly to the research objectives and sometimes can look a bit obvious, but they are still extremely important. Let’s take a look at an example of the research questions (RQs) that would flow from the research objectives I mentioned earlier.

• RQ1 – What skills development strategies and approaches are currently being used by web development companies in the UK?
• RQ2 – How effective are each of these strategies and approaches?
• RQ3 – What are the strengths and weaknesses of each of these strategies and approaches?

As you can see, the research questions mimic the research objectives , but they are presented in question format. These questions will act as the driving force throughout your dissertation or thesis – from the literature review to the methodology and onward – so they’re really important.

A final note about this section – it’s really important to be clear about the scope of your study (more technically, the delimitations ). In other words, what you WILL cover and what you WON’T cover. If your research aims, objectives and questions are too broad, you’ll risk losing focus or investigating a problem that is too big to solve within a single dissertation.

Simply put, you need to establish clear boundaries in your research. You can do this, for example, by limiting it to a specific industry, country or time period. That way, you’ll ringfence your research, which will allow you to investigate your topic deeply and thoroughly – which is what earns marks!

Need a helping hand?

#5 – Significance

Now that you’ve made it clear what you’ll be researching, it’s time to make a strong argument regarding your study’s importance and significance . In other words, now that you’ve covered the what, it’s time to cover the why – enter essential ingredient number 5 – significance.

Of course, by this stage, you’ve already briefly alluded to the importance of your study in your background and research problem sections, but you haven’t explicitly stated how your research findings will benefit the world . So, now’s your chance to clearly state how your study will benefit either industry , academia , or – ideally – both . In other words, you need to explain how your research will make a difference and what implications it will have.

Let’s take a look at an example.

“This study will contribute to the body of knowledge on skills development by incorporating skills development strategies and approaches for industries in which knowledge and skills are rapidly and constantly changing. This will help address the current shortage of research in this area and provide real-world value to organisations operating in such dynamic environments.”

As you can see in this example, the paragraph clearly explains how the research will help fill a gap in the literature and also provide practical real-world value to organisations.

This section doesn’t need to be particularly lengthy, but it does need to be convincing . You need to “sell” the value of your research here so that the reader understands why it’s worth committing an entire dissertation or thesis to it. This section needs to be the salesman of your research. So, spend some time thinking about the ways in which your research will make a unique contribution to the world and how the knowledge you create could benefit both academia and industry – and then “sell it” in this section.

#6 – The limitations

Now that you’ve “sold” your research to the reader and hopefully got them excited about what’s coming up in the rest of your dissertation, it’s time to briefly discuss the potential limitations of your research.

But you’re probably thinking, hold up – what limitations? My research is well thought out and carefully designed – why would there be limitations?

Well, no piece of research is perfect . This is especially true for a dissertation or thesis – which typically has a very low or zero budget, tight time constraints and limited researcher experience. Generally, your dissertation will be the first or second formal research project you’ve ever undertaken, so it’s unlikely to win any research awards…

Simply put, your research will invariably have limitations. Don’t stress yourself out though – this is completely acceptable (and expected). Even “professional” research has limitations – as I said, no piece of research is perfect. The key is to recognise the limitations upfront and be completely transparent about them, so that future researchers are aware of them and can improve the study’s design to minimise the limitations and strengthen the findings.

Generally, you’ll want to consider at least the following four common limitations. These are:

• Your scope – for example, perhaps your focus is very narrow and doesn’t consider how certain variables interact with each other.
• Your research methodology – for example, a qualitative methodology could be criticised for being overly subjective, or a quantitative methodology could be criticised for oversimplifying the situation (learn more about methodologies here ).
• Your resources – for example, a lack of time, money, equipment and your own research experience.
• The generalisability of your findings – for example, the findings from the study of a specific industry or country can’t necessarily be generalised to other industries or countries.

Don’t be shy here. There’s no use trying to hide the limitations or weaknesses of your research. In fact, the more critical you can be of your study, the better. The markers want to see that you are aware of the limitations as this demonstrates your understanding of research design – so be brutal.

#7 – The structural outline

Now that you’ve clearly communicated what your research is going to be about, why it’s important and what the limitations of your research will be, the final ingredient is the structural outline.The purpose of this section is simply to provide your reader with a roadmap of what to expect in terms of the structure of your dissertation or thesis.

In this section, you’ll need to provide a brief summary of each chapter’s purpose and contents (including the introduction chapter). A sentence or two explaining what you’ll do in each chapter is generally enough to orient the reader. You don’t want to get too detailed here – it’s purely an outline, not a summary of your research.

Let’s look at an example:

In Chapter One, the context of the study has been introduced. The research objectives and questions have been identified, and the value of such research argued. The limitations of the study have also been discussed.

In Chapter Two, the existing literature will be reviewed and a foundation of theory will be laid out to identify key skills development approaches and strategies within the context of fast-moving industries, especially technology-intensive industries.

In Chapter Three, the methodological choices will be explored. Specifically, the adoption of a qualitative, inductive research approach will be justified, and the broader research design will be discussed, including the limitations thereof.

So, as you can see from the example, this section is simply an outline of the chapter structure, allocating a short paragraph to each chapter. Done correctly, the outline will help your reader understand what to expect and reassure them that you’ll address the multiple facets of the study.

By the way – if you’re unsure of how to structure your dissertation or thesis, be sure to check out our video post which explains dissertation structure .

Keep calm and carry on.

Hopefully you feel a bit more prepared for this challenge of crafting your dissertation or thesis introduction chapter now. Take a deep breath and remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day – conquer one ingredient at a time and you’ll be firmly on the path to success.

Let’s quickly recap – the 7 ingredients are:

• The opening section – where you give a brief, high-level overview of what your research will be about.
• The study background – where you introduce the reader to key theory, concepts and terminology, as well as the context of your study.
• The research problem – where you explain what the problem with the current research is. In other words, the research gap.
• The research aims , objectives and questions – where you clearly state what your dissertation will investigate.
• The significance – where you explain what value your research will provide to the world.
• The limitations – where you explain what the potential shortcomings and limitations of your research may be.
• The structural outline – where you provide a high-level overview of the structure of your document

If you bake these ingredients into your dissertation introduction chapter, you’ll be well on your way to building an engaging introduction chapter that lays a rock-solid foundation for the rest of your document.

Remember, while we’ve covered the essential ingredients here, there may be some additional components that your university requires, so be sure to double-check your project brief!

Psst… there’s more (for free)

This post is part of our dissertation mini-course, which covers everything you need to get started with your dissertation, thesis or research project. 

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40 Comments

Thanks very much for such an insight. I feel confident enough in undertaking my thesis on the survey;The future of facial recognition and learning non verbal interaction

Glad to hear that. Good luck with your thesis!

Thanks very much for such an insight. I feel confident now undertaking my thesis; The future of facial recognition and learning non verbal interaction.

Thanks so much for this article. I found myself struggling and wasting a lot of time in my thesis writing but after reading this article and watching some of your youtube videos, I now have a clear understanding of what is required for a thesis.

Thank you Derek, i find your each post so useful. Keep it up.

Thank you so much Derek ,for shedding the light and making it easier for me to handle the daunting task of academic writing .

Thanks do much Dereck for the comprehensive guide. It will assist me queit a lot in my thesis.

thanks a lot for helping

i LOVE the gifs, such a fun way to engage readers. thanks for the advice, much appreciated

Thanks a lot Derek! It will be really useful to the beginner in research!

You’re welcome

This is a well written, easily comprehensible, simple introduction to the basics of a Research Dissertation../the need to keep the reader in mind while writing the dissertation is an important point that is covered../ I appreciate the efforts of the author../

The instruction given are perfect and clear. I was supposed to take the course , unfortunately in Nepal the service is not avaialble.However, I am much more hopeful that you will provide require documents whatever you have produced so far.

Thank you very much

Thanks so much ❤️😘 I feel am ready to start writing my research methodology

This is genuinely the most effective advice I have ever been given regarding academia. Thank you so much!

This is one of the best write up I have seen in my road to PhD thesis. regards, this write up update my knowledge of research

I was looking for some good blogs related to Education hopefully your article will help. Thanks for sharing.

This is an awesome masterpiece. It is one of the most comprehensive guides to writing a Dissertation/Thesis I have seen and read.

You just saved me from going astray in writing a Dissertation for my undergraduate studies. I could not be more grateful for such a relevant guide like this. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much Derek, this has been extremely helpful!!

I do have one question though, in the limitations part do you refer to the scope as the focus of the research on a specific industry/country/chronological period? I assume that in order to talk about whether or not the research could be generalized, the above would need to be already presented and described in the introduction.

Thank you again!

Phew! You have genuinely rescued me. I was stuck how to go about my thesis. Now l have started. Thank you.

This is the very best guide in anything that has to do with thesis or dissertation writing. The numerous blends of examples and detailed insights make it worth a read and in fact, a treasure that is worthy to be bookmarked.

Thanks a lot for this masterpiece!

Powerful insight. I can now take a step

Thank you very much for these valuable introductions to thesis chapters. I saw all your videos about writing the introduction, discussion, and conclusion chapter. Then, I am wondering if we need to explain our research limitations in all three chapters, introduction, discussion, and conclusion? Isn’t it a bit redundant? If not, could you please explain how can we write in different ways? Thank you.

Excellent!!! Thank you…

Thanks for this informative content. I have a question. The research gap is mentioned in both the introduction and literature section. I would like to know how can I demonstrate the research gap in both sections without repeating the contents?

I’m incredibly grateful for this invaluable content. I’ve been dreading compiling my postgrad thesis but breaking each chapter down into sections has made it so much easier for me to engage with the material without feeling overwhelmed. After relying on your guidance, I’m really happy with how I’ve laid out my introduction.

Thank you for the informative content you provided

Hi Derrick and Team, thank you so much for the comprehensive guide on how to write a dissertation or a thesis introduction section. For some of us first-timers, it is a daunting task. However, the instruction with relevant examples makes it clear and easy to follow through. Much appreciated.

It was so helpful. God Bless you. Thanks very much

I thank you Grad coach for your priceless help. I have two questions I have learned from your video the limitations of the research presented in chapter one. but in another video also presented in chapter five. which chapter limitation should be included? If possible, I need your answer since I am doing my thesis. how can I explain If I am asked what is my motivation for this research?

Thank you guys for the great work you are doing. Honestly, you have made the research to be interesting and simplified. Even a novice will easily grasp the ideas you put forward, Thank you once again.

Excellent piece!

I feel like just settling for a good topic is usually the hardest part.

Thank you so much. My confidence has been completely destroyed during my first year of PhD and you have helped me pull myself together again

Happy to help 🙂

I am so glad I ran into your resources and did not waste time doing the wrong this. Research is now making so much sense now.

Gratitude to Derrick and the team I was looking for a solid article that would aid me in drafting the thesis’ introduction. I felt quite happy when I came across the piece you wrote because it was so well-written and insightful. I wish you success in the future.

thank you so much. God Bless you

Thank you so much Grad Coach for these helpful insights. Now I can get started, with a great deal of confidence.

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How to write a good thesis introduction

1. Identify your readership

2. hook the reader and grab their attention, 3. provide relevant background, 4. give the reader a sense of what the paper is about, 5. preview key points and lead into your thesis statement, frequently asked questions about writing a good thesis introduction, related articles.

Many people struggle to write a thesis introduction. Much of your research prep should be done and you should be ready to start your introduction. But often, it’s not clear what needs to be included in a thesis introduction. If you feel stuck at this point not knowing how to start, this guide can help.

Tip: If you’re really struggling to write your thesis intro, consider putting in a placeholder until you write more of the body of your thesis. Then, come back to your intro once you have a stronger sense of the overall content of your thesis.

A good introduction draws readers in while providing the setup for the entire project. There is no single way to write an introduction that will always work for every topic , but the points below can act as a guide. These points can help you write a good thesis introduction.

Before even starting with your first sentence, consider who your readers are. Most likely, your readers will be the professors who are advising you on your thesis.

You should also consider readers of your thesis who are not specialists in your field. Writing with them in your mind will help you to be as clear as possible; this will make your thesis more understandable and enjoyable overall.

Tip: Always strive to be clear, correct, concrete, and concise in your writing.

The first sentence of the thesis is crucial. Looking back at your own research, think about how other writers may have hooked you.

It is common to start with a question or quotation, but these types of hooks are often overused. The best way to start your introduction is with a sentence that is broad and interesting and that seamlessly transitions into your argument.

Once again, consider your audience and how much background information they need to understand your approach. You can start by making a list of what is interesting about your topic:

• Are there any current events or controversies associated with your topic that might be interesting for your introduction?
• What kinds of background information might be useful for a reader to understand right away?
• Are there historical anecdotes or other situations that uniquely illustrate an important aspect of your argument?

A good introduction also needs to contain enough background information to allow the reader to understand the thesis statement and arguments. The amount of background information required will depend on the topic .

There should be enough background information so you don't have to spend too much time with it in the body of the thesis, but not so much that it becomes uninteresting.

Tip: Strike a balance between background information that is too broad or too specific.

Let the reader know what the purpose of the study is. Make sure to include the following points:

• Briefly describe the motivation behind your research.
• Describe the topic and scope of your research.
• Explain the practical relevance of your research.
• Explain the scholarly consensus related to your topic: briefly explain the most important articles and how they are related to your research.

At the end of your introduction, you should lead into your thesis statement by briefly bringing up a few of your main supporting details and by previewing what will be covered in the main part of the thesis. You’ll want to highlight the overall structure of your thesis so that readers will have a sense of what they will encounter as they read.

A good introduction draws readers in while providing the setup for the entire project. There is no single way to write an introduction that will always work for every topic, but these tips will help you write a great introduction:

• Identify your readership.
• Grab the reader's attention.
• Provide relevant background.
• Preview key points and lead into the thesis statement.

A good introduction needs to contain enough background information, and let the reader know what the purpose of the study is. Make sure to include the following points:

• Briefly describe the motivation for your research.

The length of the introduction will depend on the length of the whole thesis. Usually, an introduction makes up roughly 10 per cent of the total word count.

The best way to start your introduction is with a sentence that is broad and interesting and that seamlessly transitions into your argument. Consider the audience, then think of something that would grab their attention.

In Open Access: Theses and Dissertations you can find thousands of recent works. Take a look at any of the theses or dissertations for real-life examples of introductions that were already approved.

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How to Write a Thesis Introduction

What types of information should you include in your introduction .

In the introduction of your thesis, you’ll be trying to do three main things, which are called Moves :

• Move 1 establish your territory (say what the topic is about)
• Move 2 establish a niche (show why there needs to be further research on your topic)
• Move 3 introduce the current research (make hypotheses; state the research questions)

Each Move has a number of stages. Depending on what you need to say in your introduction, you might use one or more stages. Table 1 provides you with a list of the most commonly occurring stages of introductions in Honours theses (colour-coded to show the Moves ). You will also find examples of Introductions, divided into stages with sample sentence extracts. Once you’ve looked at Examples 1 and 2, try the exercise that follows.

Most thesis introductions include SOME (but not all) of the stages listed below. There are variations between different Schools and between different theses, depending on the purpose of the thesis.

Stages in a thesis introduction

• state the general topic and give some background
• provide a review of the literature related to the topic
• define the terms and scope of the topic
• outline the current situation
• evaluate the current situation (advantages/ disadvantages) and identify the gap
• identify the importance of the proposed research
• state the research problem/ questions
• state the research aims and/or research objectives
• state the hypotheses
• outline the order of information in the thesis
• outline the methodology

Example 1: Evaluation of Boron Solid Source Diffusion for High-Efficiency Silicon Solar Cells (School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering)

Example 2: Methods for Measuring Hepatitis C Viral Complexity (School of Biotechnology and Biological Sciences)

Note: this introduction includes the literature review.

Now that you have read example 1 and 2, what are the differences?

Example 3: The IMO Severe-Weather Criterion Applied to High-Speed Monohulls (School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Example 4: The Steiner Tree Problem (School of Computer Science and Engineering)

Introduction exercise

Example 5.1 (extract 1): The effects of Fluoride on the reproduction of three native Australian plant Species (School of Geography)

Example 5.2 (extract 2): The effects of Fluoride on the reproduction of three native Australian plant Species (School of Geography)

Example 5.3

Example 5.4 (extract 4): The effects of Fluoride on the reproduction of three native Australian plant Species (School of Geography)

Example 5.5 (extract 5): The effects of Fluoride on the reproduction of three native Australian plant Species (School of Geography)

Example 5.6 (extract 6): The effects of Fluoride on the reproduction of three native Australian plant Species (School of Geography)

Well, firstly, there are many choices that you can make. You will notice that there are variations not only between the different Schools in your faculty, but also between individual theses, depending on the type of information that is being communicated. However, there are a few elements that a good Introduction should include, at the very minimum:

• Either Statement of general topic Or Background information about the topic;
• Either Identification of disadvantages of current situation Or Identification of the gap in current research;
• Identification of importance of proposed research
• Either Statement of aims Or Statement of objectives
• An Outline of the order of information in the thesis

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• How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples

How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples

Published on January 11, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on August 15, 2023 by Eoghan Ryan.

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . It usually comes near the end of your introduction .

Your thesis will look a bit different depending on the type of essay you’re writing. But the thesis statement should always clearly state the main idea you want to get across. Everything else in your essay should relate back to this idea.

You can write your thesis statement by following four simple steps:

• Start with a question
• Write your initial answer
• Develop your answer
• Refine your thesis statement

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Table of contents

What is a thesis statement, placement of the thesis statement, step 1: start with a question, step 2: write your initial answer, step 3: develop your answer, step 4: refine your thesis statement, types of thesis statements, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about thesis statements.

A thesis statement summarizes the central points of your essay. It is a signpost telling the reader what the essay will argue and why.

The best thesis statements are:

• Concise: A good thesis statement is short and sweet—don’t use more words than necessary. State your point clearly and directly in one or two sentences.
• Contentious: Your thesis shouldn’t be a simple statement of fact that everyone already knows. A good thesis statement is a claim that requires further evidence or analysis to back it up.
• Coherent: Everything mentioned in your thesis statement must be supported and explained in the rest of your paper.

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The thesis statement generally appears at the end of your essay introduction or research paper introduction .

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts and among young people more generally is hotly debated. For many who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its many benefits for education: the internet facilitates easier access to information, exposure to different perspectives, and a flexible learning environment for both students and teachers.

You should come up with an initial thesis, sometimes called a working thesis , early in the writing process . As soon as you’ve decided on your essay topic , you need to work out what you want to say about it—a clear thesis will give your essay direction and structure.

You might already have a question in your assignment, but if not, try to come up with your own. What would you like to find out or decide about your topic?

For example, you might ask:

After some initial research, you can formulate a tentative answer to this question. At this stage it can be simple, and it should guide the research process and writing process .

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Now you need to consider why this is your answer and how you will convince your reader to agree with you. As you read more about your topic and begin writing, your answer should get more detailed.

In your essay about the internet and education, the thesis states your position and sketches out the key arguments you’ll use to support it.

The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its many benefits for education because it facilitates easier access to information.

In your essay about braille, the thesis statement summarizes the key historical development that you’ll explain.

The invention of braille in the 19th century transformed the lives of blind people, allowing them to participate more actively in public life.

A strong thesis statement should tell the reader:

• Why you hold this position
• What they’ll learn from your essay
• The key points of your argument or narrative

The final thesis statement doesn’t just state your position, but summarizes your overall argument or the entire topic you’re going to explain. To strengthen a weak thesis statement, it can help to consider the broader context of your topic.

These examples are more specific and show that you’ll explore your topic in depth.

Your thesis statement should match the goals of your essay, which vary depending on the type of essay you’re writing:

• In an argumentative essay , your thesis statement should take a strong position. Your aim in the essay is to convince your reader of this thesis based on evidence and logical reasoning.
• In an expository essay , you’ll aim to explain the facts of a topic or process. Your thesis statement doesn’t have to include a strong opinion in this case, but it should clearly state the central point you want to make, and mention the key elements you’ll explain.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

• It gives your writing direction and focus.
• It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

Follow these four steps to come up with a thesis statement :

• Ask a question about your topic .
• Write your initial answer.
• Develop your answer by including reasons.
• Refine your answer, adding more detail and nuance.

The thesis statement should be placed at the end of your essay introduction .

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McCombes, S. (2023, August 15). How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved March 18, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-essay/thesis-statement/

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1 Introduction to the Oxford Handbook of Digital Technology and Society: Terms, Domains, and Themes

Ronald E. Rice (PhD, Stanford University, 1982) is the Arthur N. Rupe Chair in the Social Effects of Mass Communication in the Department of Communication at University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Rice has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate from University of Montreal (2010), an International Communication Association (ICA) Fellow, selected President of the ICA (2006–2007), awarded a Fulbright Award to Finland (2006), and appointed as the Wee Kim Wee Professor at the School of Communication and Information and the Visiting University Professor, both at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (Augusts 2007–2009 and June 2010). His co-authored or co-edited books include Organizations and unusual routines: A systems analysis of dysfunctional feedback processes (2010); Media ownership: Research and regulation (2008); The Internet and health care: Theory, research and practice (2006); Social consequences of internet use: Access, involvement and interaction (2002); The Internet and health communication (2001); Accessing and browsing information and communication (2001); Public communication campaigns (1981, 1989, 2001, 2012); Research methods and the new media (1988); Managing organizational innovation (1987); And The new media: Communication, research and technology (1984). He has published over 150 refereed journal articles and 70 book chapters. Dr. Rice has conducted research and published widely in communication science, public communication campaigns, computer-mediated communication systems, methodology, organizational and management theory, information systems, information science and bibliometrics, social uses and effects of the Internet, and social networks. http://www.comm.ucsb.edu/people/ronald-e-rice

Simeon J. Yates (PhD, Open University UK, 1993) is Professor of Digital Culture and Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research Environment and Postgraduate Research at University of Liverpool. His research on the social, political, and cultural impacts of digital media includes a long-standing focus on digital media and interpersonal interaction. More recently, he has worked on projects that address issues of digital inclusion and exclusion. He was seconded to the UK Government’s Department of Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) in 2017 to act as research lead for the Digital Culture team. He remains the joint-chair of the DCMS Research Working Group on Digital Skills and Inclusion. His prior work covered topics such as the use of digital technologies in the workplace, digital media use during crises, and ICT use by the security services. The majority of his research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), EU, and industry. Simeon’s work has often been interdisciplinary and has predominantly involved creative and digital industry partners. He led on a major Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded interdisciplinary program (Engineering for Life) while at Sheffield Hallam. Simeon has been researching the impacts of the internet and digital media on language and culture since 1990. His PhD thesis (1993) is a large-scale linguistic comparison of speech, writing, and online interaction. Subsequent published work has covered analyses of gender differences in computer-mediated communication (CMC), gender and computer gaming, email and letter writing, and science in the mass media. Simeon has written text books on social research methods—in particular, linguistic and discourse analytic methods. https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/communication-and-media/staff/simeon-yates/

Jordana Blejmar is a lecturer in visual media and cultural studies at the University of Liverpool. She is the author of Playful Memories: The Autofictional Turn in Post-Dictatorship Argentina (2016) and coeditor of three books: Instantáneas de la memoria: Fotografía y dictadura en Argentina y América latina (2013), El pasado inasequible: Desaparecidos, hijos y combatientes en el arte y la literatura del nuevo mileno (2018), and Entre/telones y pantallas: Afectos y saberes en la performance argentina contemporánea (forthcoming). She is an editor of Bulletin of Hispanic Studies and of Bulletin of Contemporary Hispanic Studies.

• Published: 06 August 2020
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This chapter summarizes the main themes associated with relationships between digital technology and society. It first proposes four central characteristics of digital technology that differentiate this concept from the more general term “information society.” Then it maps the growth of the use of terms associated with digital technology in articles in academic databases from 1972 through 2018, and in books from 1967 through 2008. However, the main focus is on summarizing the emergent themes associated with 89 recent books on digital technology society: (A) theory and conceptualization of this vast social change; (B) technology (venues and characteristics), (C) issues (content, creation; big data; civic issues; participation, engagement; inclusion, exclusion, discrimination; ethics, ethical issues; and managing the digital experience), (D) contexts (digitization of self and others; health; relationships; user groups; culture, everyday life, education, learning; work and organizations; and law, policy, regulation), and (E) effects (negative; positive; societal; contradictions, paradoxes, tensions, unintended). Finally, it describes the origins and motivations for this handbook and its main themes.

Introduction

Many developed countries have become information or knowledge societies , whereby cognitive activities, symbolic and data analysis, and information resources are replacing agriculture and manufacturing as the primary sectors of developed countries’ economies. This idea of the information society or economy has been identified, discussed, and analyzed since the 1960s. For example, Machlup’s ( 1962 ) analysis of the US economy identified an information sector, primarily devoted to information activities necessary to produce physical goods and services. Porat ( 1971 ) reanalyzed Machlup’s data to define the key components of the growing information society. Bell ( 1973 ) explained the post-industrial economy, whereby knowledge becomes the primary resource, allowing freedom from constraints of labor, land, and machines.

But we can argue that the concept of an information society does not, in itself, require computers or digitization (Beniger, 1989 ). The extensive collection and analysis of information, especially about transactions and inventory, but also about local and regional administration, has existed from early civilizations (Egypt, Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia). Nevertheless, it can be argued that the information society as we see it now has roots in the growth of the British Empire and systematic organizational management (Yates, 1993 ); the need to control and market industrial revolution technologies and products (Beniger, 1989 ); and even the development of dictionaries, maps, and classification schemes during the “age of enlightenment” (Headrick, 2002 ). The core argument is that the basis of wealth is shifting to the collecting, management, analysis, and application of data and information (Daley, 2015 ; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995 ). This shift is also a manifestation of the rise of information capitalism and the exploitation of knowledge labor (Castells, 2000 ; Curtin & Sanson, 2016 ; Fuchs, 2014 ). Thus, information is a crucial aspect of modern economies, as well as everyday life, in most countries, although with considerable disparities across countries and even within regions, cities, and towns.

But the digital society involves additional dimensions. While mainframe digital computers had played major roles in WWII and after in telephone switching, office automation, and manufacturing in the 1960s and 1970s, the advent of end-user computing, widescale social uses of computing, and networked communication such as email and the Internet required the interaction of several factors. Although literature on the history of computing, transmission networks, the Internet, and programming is vast, we need to note only four basic components that underpin the transformative nature of the digital world.

The first is digitization , or more specifically, the encoding of information into bits (binary digits). Negroponte ( 1995 ) was an early (but not the first) popularizer of the understanding that “being digital” was the foundation for widespread, pervasive, and unique changes in our social, economic, and political world. He articulated the main difference between the analog and digital world: the first, traditional, world was based on atoms (physical material), while the second, digital, world was based on bits , standing for “binary digits”: symbolic or electronic signals indicating presence or absence, “on” or “off,” or more colloquially, “0s” and “1s.” By converting information from analogue to digital representation the information contained within or collected about a process or artefact (Zuboff, 1985 ), one could “free” the information from its material “packaging.” For example, in the analog world, a book means the paper-based bound set of pages on which words and images are printed. However, in the digital world, the content becomes independent of any particular physical form. So digital information is freed from the analog, material world. In 1987 (though he had earlier raised this point in a 1984 Hacker’s Conference; http://www.rogerclarke.com/II/IWtbF.html) , Brand ( 1987 ) claimed that “Information wants to be free,” in a slightly different way. First, its cost approaches zero because it is freed from material resources and so is easily storable, copyable, and distributable—although today we can recognize the infrastructural and environmental costs of moving data around. He also noted at the same time that information wants to be expensive because it may require exceptional resources to create initially, and can be extremely valuable if held privately or used in combination with other information. Importantly, he noted that there seemed to be a tension between these two tendencies, which may rise or fall in different contexts. He also noted that information sought to be politically free as access to high-quality information and free speech fosters political freedom—though we might today note that propaganda and misinformation are just as easily distributed. The key point is that digitizing information—converting frequencies, symbols, material dimensions, etc. to bits in a flow of information—means that content in general is wholly or partly independent from the material used to convey the information (such as a the text in a printed book). This is one of the foundations for digital convergence: the same or different portions of content can appear via multiple devices, at the same or different times; and all digital media can partake of the same content in different forms.

The second component is computing . Digitization also means that this content can now be treated as data by computer processes, vastly increasing what can be done with, or by, that content. For example, instead of one or two “see also” cards in a library’s card catalog associating a given book with other books, now almost any content in a digitized source can be searched and associated with similar or related content in the same or other sources. At present it is not perfect for all content (such as images, sounds, smells) but iterations of improved computing power and algorithms make this easier and easier. Thus, any kind of content (information in various forms) can be processed through computing programs. Information becomes a powerful raw resource and can be transformed, combined, integrated, and analyzed. This is the essence of datafication and digitization: anything that can be formally and systematically represented in a digital form can then be processed, combined, and analyzed, for a vast and growing range of purposes.

Practically related but conceptually distinct, the third component is microprocessors via integrated circuits , the increasingly small and powerful devices for performing a wide array of computer processes. The integration of basic computing functions into one chip increased computing functionality, speed, and power, yet reduced computing size and computing power cost, leading to the ability to embed computing power into ever smaller objects. Current smartphones and games consoles easily outperform super computers of the 1980s and early 1990s (as measured by calculations per second). Recent developments in massive multiprocessing and quantum computing, and embedding of computing power onto and into tiny devices and our bodies, will extend this growth in power and decrease in size.

The fourth component is digital networking , or transmission of digitized information among nodes that are themselves computers. Information can be conveyed in analog form, through material carriers (books, photographs), and amplitude or frequency modulation (pre-digital radio, television). But digital networks allow much faster, more error-corrected, more distant, and more robust ways of processing, accessing, and distributing information (content of any form). Digital networks can interconnect with local, “last-mile” analog transmission lines. The Internet is a vast interconnected set of subnetworks, using various protocols to standardize and facilitate exchange of digital information from source to receiver. Wireless networking allows devices and people to communicate with each other without constraints of physical wiring, also enabling computing power to be distributed throughout space (such as in the Internet of things, radio-frequency identification [RFID], and mobile phones).

The transformative power of the digital comes from combining these elements. If we put these together, we can move artefacts and ideas around the globe, and at increasing speed. We can undertake a 3D scan of a contemporary artwork or new product, send the data around the world, and print it out on a 3D printer minutes later. Citizen journalists can live-stream news events as they happen. Doctors can diagnose patients from thousands of miles away. Consumers can watch almost any film or listen to almost any music ever recorded. Grandparents can see and talk to the grandkids in Australia. Politicians can directly message followers to their heart’s content. The examples are ever expanding.

Terms and Growth of These Developments

The smart mobile phone has become the most general exemplar of the integration of these four transformative components in one device. However, our focus in this book is not on these four crucial components of digital technologies, or any one technology, but, rather, on how their integration shapes, and is shaped by, social factors. Hence the title is the Handbook of digital technology and society . While technology has developed, and continues to evolve over time, we become more aware of the implications of these changes—positive and negative, intended and unintended, short-term and long-term, individual and collective, and straightforward and contradictory—for digital technology, individuals, groups, communities, organizations, societies, nations, and the world. So along with increasing mention of the technologies in the academic and general literature, ways of characterizing the role and implications of digital technologies have also arisen.

The four primary terms that have been used to refer to such changes are digital age, digital era, digital society, and digital technology . In the spirit of some of the literature analyses to follow that utilize digital tools to extract and evaluate academic discussions about the social impacts of digital , we have used databases to explore how these terms were first used. Tables 1.1 through 1.4 show the first entries that used these terms in major academic reference, news, and periodicals databases (Web of Science, Science Direct, Nexis Uni News, and Proquest Periodicals Index Online, respectively). While in general all four terms began being mentioned in publications covered by these four sources between 1972 and 1983, the earliest terms used were “digital technology” (1967) and “digital society” (1968), followed by “digital era” (1970) and then “digital age” (1982). Naturally, most were mentioned in reference to the growth and development of computers and digitization. For example, “digital technology” typically referred to computers, computerized control, data flow, and the computer-based telephone switching network. “Digital society” noted the diffusion of technology use in everyday contexts. “Digital era” highlighted the introduction of the personal computer, digital satellites, and industrial automation; while the “digital age” referenced the transition of technology to digital forms, and twice with specific reference to analog models. However, not all mentions of these terms related only to new technological developments at the time. Both “digital technology” and “digital society” were associated with new training and education, and the first discussion of “digital technology” (in 1967) specifically emphasized its potential social and economic impacts. Some of these impacts of the “digital age” were quite novel: for example, an early concern about the switch to digital clocks was that people would no longer know what “clockwise” meant. So we see that right from the beginning that social aspects and implications (both positive and negative) were part of the discussion, even though the very first uses of these four terms were stimulated by technological developments.

Note : Based on Topics (in title)

Note : Based on Abstract, Title, Keywords, Text in Research Articles

Table 1.5 lists the earliest mentions of these same four terms in books that Google has digitized and indexed, and that were retrieved through their Ngram Viewer ( https://books.google.com/ngrams ). For some of these, the plots do indicate entries before 1967, but either those do not retrieve an entry, do not retrieve a book entry, or are snippets from journals whose starting publishing date was in that time range, but the document with the term occurred in a much later issue. Ngram Viewer provides results through 2008. Figure 1.1 shows the trends in these four sets of terms over time. In books, the “digital technology” focus is the most frequently mentioned over time, really increasing during 1975–1995. However, the terms “digital society” (1965) and “digital era” (1969) appeared a bit earlier. The term “digital age” was the last to be introduced, around 20 years later, but quickly became the most used term indicating the societal aspects of digital technology.

Trends over time in mention of four major digital terms in books through 2008, based on Google Ngram Viewer.

Main Digital Technology and Society Issues and Contexts in Recent Books

Presuming that books integrate and distill considerable prior work, and represent topics that are important, salient, and likely of broad and timely concern, we turn to recent books for indicators of the main issues and contexts about digital technology and society. Using the same four sets of terms, we searched Amazon Books for relevant titles, and relevant recommended titles, in the past decade. We ended up with 89 books, from 2009 to 2018 ( M = 2015.2). There are of course many more books related to various aspects of digital technology and society, both those retrievable through other terms and from earlier years, but this seems a reasonable sample (in both size and source) to represent the most frequent and important issues and contexts. Within this sample 77 were (co)authored, and 12 were edited (including one encyclopedia); 16 were general (i.e., textbook, overview or coverage of many issues), and 73 were specific (about an identifiable issue or topic; e.g., youth and media, or Internet governance). Again, as our goal was to identify main issues and contexts, we did not analyze the text of each book; rather, we collected information about each book, including summaries, reviews, prefaces, and table of contents; that is, what do the authors and others think the book is “about,” or what topics do they emphasize? We combined all those materials about each book into a file for each book. The total text across all books constituted around 29,000 words. We read each file, compiling a list of possible issues and contexts from each one. We then reviewed that compilation, reorganizing, regrouping, and combining terms into an alphabetized list of main codes and subcodes. This grouped list provided our initial a priori coding scheme. Needless to say, others might have developed a more or less different list, many of the subcodes could have been included with other main codes, and more or less different main codes could have been developed. We will return to a possible different grouping of the main codes later on. The purpose of the following overview is to identify some of the primary themes and topics of recent books in this domain.

We entered those 89 book summary files and the initial coding taxonomy into NVivo 11. Then we re-read each book file and coded the materials using the initial codes, as well as adding new codes as they arose. After coding all files, we revisited the coding taxonomy and again reorganized, regrouped, and combined terms, and then re-coded the book files. For the following overview of the issues and contexts covered in these books, we re-organized the main codes by general themes: (A) Theory and Conceptualization, (B) Digital Technology, (C) Issues, (D) Contexts, and (E) Effects. Table 1.6 lists the general themes, their main codes and their subcodes, along with the number of sources that used that code and the number of times (references) that code was used.

Note : [# times code was referenced], aggregated from # times each subcode was referenced (number of the specific publication referenced); see References of Books for Issues and Contexts Analysis for correspondence between number and reference.

A. Theory and Conceptualization

A1. Theory. Theoretical perspectives are not likely to be highlighted in book summaries or reviews, especially in edited books. However, of those mentioned, several appear multiple times. A socio-technical approach appears in Athique’s ( 2013 ) overview of digital media and society; Beyes, Leeker, and Schipper’s ( 2017 ) analysis of digital performance: and Dourish and Bell’s ( 2011 ) discussion of ubiquitous computing. Network theory is an obvious framework for considering digital technologies due to their networked nature and the rise of a global network society, and how they connect people through social networks and social networking sites (González-Bailón, 2017 ; Graham & Dutton, 2014 ; Krieger & Belliger, 2014 ; Lindgren, 2017 ). Similarly, as digital technologies provide mediated communication, representation, and interaction, mediation and materiality theories are relevant (Cubitt, 2016 ; Fotopoulou, 2017 ; Gillespie, Boczkowski, & Foot, 2014 ). Other specified theoretical approaches include critical studies, sociological theories, and others ranging from public goods and social capital to diffusion of innovations and digital divide. Several books emphasize multiple theories, related to areas such social media, cyber-optimism, social interaction, social change, identity, development, education, and participation (Lindgren, 2017 ; Livingstone, 2009 ).

Names for new social era . Based on the article and NGram analysis, we might refer to the emergence of relationships between digital technology and society as the “Digital Age.” Indeed, several books use some variant of that (Bauerlein, 2011 ; Bennett, Chin, & Jones, 2015 ; Berry, 2015 ; Lindgren, 2017 ). However, in recent books authors have used a wide variety of terms. Some refer to a broad phenomenon (culture of connectivity, digital age/society/revolution, ecosystem of connective media in a culture of connectivity, fourth industrial revolution, global information/network society, the familiar term information society, next Internet, the participatory condition, second machine age, super connected society, and third wave of computing technologies). Several of these emphasize the increased opportunities for connecting, communicating, and networking (Barney et al., 2016 ; Castells, 2015 ; Chayko, 2017 ; Chun, 2017 ; James, 2014 ; Van Dijck, 2013 ).

Barney et al. ( 2016 ) refers to this as the “participatory condition,” whereby participation has become the theme for most everyday activities; similarly, Van Dijck ( 2013 ) shows how social media in particular have created a “culture of connectivity,” and Chayko ( 2017 ) argues that the Internet and digital media in general have made social life “superconnected.” Others indicate more specific aspects (age of big data, the attention economy, mass surveillance society, new mobile age, and the “softwarization” of society; Berry, 2015 ; Kvedar, Colman, & Cella, 2017 ; Lynch, 2016 ; Schneier, 2015 ; Wu, 2017 ). Note that all but one of these are concerned with how large-scale collection of user behavior both fuels the economy as well as enables individual, corporate, and government surveillance. More common, however, is a general reference to the integration of biological, cultural, economic, environmental, political, psychological, social, and technological dimensions. Athique ( 2013 ) and Berry ( 2015 ), for example, discuss how digital systems pervade all aspects of our lives, especially given vast global information and communication networks (Castells, 2015 ). Many of these broader approaches emphasize how the technological and the social are interrelated (e.g., Graham & Dutton, 2014 ).

B. Digital Technology

B1. Technology venues . Many other books explain and study specific digital technologies, but those mentioned in the context of societal concerns in these books range from 3D printing/fabrication to online gaming and ubiquitous computing. More frequent are associations with algorithms, cloud computing, Internet of things, mobility, robots (including social robots), smart homes and cities, social media, and wearable computing devices/sensors. Algorithms are both based on, and influence, our search behaviors, news viewing, online friends, and shopping (Cheney-Lippold, 2017 ; Turow, 2017 ), shape who gets access to social services (Eubanks, 2018 ), and affect how race and gender are portrayed in search engine results (Noble, 2018 ). Cloud computing seems abstract and ethereal, yet requires massive infrastructure and energy (Hu, 2015 ), and raises issues of privacy (Graham & Dutton, 2014 ). The miniaturization of computing power and the increasing reach and strength of wireless networking provide the foundations for the Internet of things (Bunz & Meikle, 2017 ), ranging from interactive refrigerators to worldwide tracking of shipping containers (Dourish & Bell, 2011 ), as well as “smart” cities and governments (Barney et al., 2016 ; Hanna, 2016 ). Robots have already replaced many manufacturing jobs (Ford, 2015 ), while social robots can provide physical, and emotional support to patients, the elderly, and coworkers (Mosco, 2017 ). Turkle ( 2011 ) argues that mobile phones are social robots.

B2. Technology characteristics . While not much mentioned at the general level of our source documents, some work does approach digital technologies not from their purely physical or technical aspects, but, rather, from their main functions or capabilities, the ways in which they mediate. The argument here is that particular technologies and their manifestations are always changing, so a more conceptual approach is more enduring and generalizable. This approach is variously labeled here as affordances, habit, materiality, and mediation. For example, from a patient’s or a physician’s perspective, persistent awareness of the patient’s condition is more crucial than a particular medical device (Rains, 2018 ), or from a project team’s perspective, searchability of a database in order to share knowledge is critical independent of the system used (Rossignoli, Virili, & Za, 2017 ). Continuing, everyday use of a digital technology may, however, make these capabilities and affordances become taken-for-granted, habitual, and invisible (Chun, 2017 ).

C1. Content, creation . Digital technologies make it possible for all kinds of people to find, create, share, reshape, and link a dizzying array of existing and unforeseeable content. Familiar content issues include produsage, crowdfunding/sourcing, digital media production, and online expression. Yet less common topics are discussed as well. Software, computing, devices, and networks enable new kinds of and ways of presenting, art, performance, dance, music, and design (Beyes, Leeker, & Schipper, 2017 ; Gronlund, 2016 ). New kinds of digital images (from space and the deep sea) may foster more engaged responses to environmental threats (Cubit, 2016 ). A major motivation for creating, viewing, and sharing online content is its humorous nature (Phillips & Milner, 2018 ), while considerable research attempts to understand the power and rapid diffusion of certain memes (Shifman, 2014 ). Digital storytelling can be multi-modal, collaborative, and interactive (Barney et al., 2016 ).

C2. Big data, data mining, data storage, analytics, user data . Transforming information and communication from analog to digital has a major, inherent implication: the content is (potentially, depending on the context and laws) now easily captured, stored, analyzed, associated, separated, (re)combined, transmitted, and networked. Thus, there is considerable recent coverage of issues relating to both specific and very large scale (big) user data. Such data capture and mining provide the economic model for much digital media, marketers, and vendors (think social media and search engines, especially), leading to terms such as the attention economy or the attention market, and fundamental changes in the nature of media audiences (Anand, 2016 ; Daley, 2015 ; Napoli, 2011 ; Schneier, 2015 ; Turow, 2012 , 2017 ; Webster, 2014 ).

But big data, from personal biosensors to Google searches, also allow both scientific and commercial analyses of topics otherwise not possible (González-Bailón, 2017 ; Graham & Dutton, 2014 ; Lupton, 2016 ; Rudder, 2014 ). For example, Webster ( 2014 ) argues that the expansion of multiple media sources and content allows audiences to both concentrate attention on, as well as overlap with other audiences across, some outlets and content. The generation, access, analysis, and selling of such personal data also lead to concerns about anonymity, privacy, and surveillance. Several have noted the irony in the fact that while digital technology inspires so much participation and sharing, that very participation generates information that may be used to control, influence, or otherwise shape us and our possibilities (Barney et al., 2016 ; Bunz & Meikle, 2017 ). As Turkle ( 2011 , p. 243) wrote, “Facebook looks like ‘home,’ but you know that it puts you in a public square with a surveillance camera turned on.”

C3. Civic issues . For some, civic issues are at the heart of debates about digital technology and society. Awareness, participation, freedom of speech, and exposure to diverse ideas are crucial for the practice and maintenance of democracy. The public sphere is now online, but not necessarily civil. Digital and online technology can both facilitate and constrain, improve and harm, these activities. It provides opportunities for political engagement and citizen marketing as well as tools for political message targeting, and opinion control by both governments and corporations (Anduiza et al., 2012 ; Athique, 2013 ; Penney, 2017 ; White, 2014 ), but increasingly also by interest groups and individuals. Offline divides by class, disability, ethnicity, gender, and race potentially may be overcome online, but often are reinforced (Reed, 2014 ). Online spaces provide meeting ground, support, and solidarity for countercultural communities (Lingel, 2017 ), and citizen and political activism and collective action, from small towns to governments, and from nations to global regions, sometimes successful, sometimes not (Castells, 2015 ; Graham & Dutton, 2014 ). Online citizen engagement also represents opportunities for and means of identity expression (Penney, 2017 ). Some work discusses implications of site and system design, accessibility, and use on the nature of civic engagement (Godron & Mihailidis, 2016 ). Underlying these civic issues are questions about power and politics shape and are shaped by new forms of participation and their actors (Barney et al., 2016 ; Hu, 2015 ).

C4. Participation, engagement . As noted in the overview about labeling this changing social condition, a central underlying theme is the increased amount, diversity, forms, and actors in online participation in general (i.e., other than civic or political). Social media in particular enable people to engage in communication and activities in multiple ways, continuously (boyd, 2014 ), often leading to over-dependence and disconnection from ethical and moral behavior (James, 2014 ). Yet features and designs, as well as online attitudes and behavior, still limit participation by those with disabilities (Ellcessor, 2016 ).

C5. Inclusion, exclusion, discrimination . Thus an explicit or implicit thread running throughout much of the discussions about digital technology concerns inclusion, exclusion, and discrimination, both in terms of accessing and using these technologies, as well as in how designs, data mining, site features or policies, and other users affect which people and what content are allowed online. The major throughline here is about the general digital divide (Graham, 2014 , discussing African Americans’ digital practices; Graham & Dutton, 2014 ); but other specific distinctions appear too, such as disability, ethnicity, gender, and race (Ellcessor, 2016 ; Reed, 2014 ). And a wide variety of factors affects forms of inclusion and exclusion, including algorithms shaping data mining and search engine results (Cheney-Lippold, 2017 ; Eubanks, 2018 ). Noble ( 2018 ), for example, shows how algorithm design, commercial interests, and oligopolies of search engine and social media companies serve to privilege whiteness while discriminating against people of color (especially women). Young users, while nearly continuously online, nonetheless experience exclusion and disconnections due to their pre-existing networks, digital literacy, and attitudes (Livingstone, Sefton, & Green, 2016 ; Wiesinger & Believau, 2016 )). However, online communities and social media provide opportunities for digital activism on the basis of gender, feminism, LBGTQ, among others (Dey, 2018 ; Fotopoulou, 2017 ; Gordon & Mihailidis, 2016 ), and are empowering people around the world (Mosco, 2017 ). Blockchain technology may both increase and circumvent exclusion (Tapscott & Tapscott, 2018 ), by concentrating wealth and increasing energy demands, while bypassing control by financial institutions and intermediaries.

C6. Ethics, ethical issues . As most commenters note, ethical issues receive limited coverage in digital technology discussions. The online environment provides extensive and new challenges to professional journalism ethics (Elliott & Spence, 2017 ), data mining and algorithms distance consequences from ethical criteria (Eubanks, 2018 ), and youth users seldom make connections between their online behaviors and more general moral ethical implications, experiencing ethical blind spots (James, 2014 ). The very process of mediation often distances awareness or knowledge of ethical implications (Palfrey & Gasser, 2016 ), and the beneficial use of social robots nonetheless has ethical implications such as emotional dependency and privacy (Kvedar, Colman, & Cella, 2017 ).

C7. Managing the digital experience . While nearly all books on digital technology and society have sections on policy, implementation, and individual recommendations, some specifically focus on advice, based on research, on how to manage and improve one’s digital experience. James ( 2014 ), for example, explicates the concept of conscientious connectivity, which involves both ethical thinking as well as awareness of and sensitivity to online dilemmas. Other approaches include exercises for mindful technology use (Levy, 2016 ), and thriving online (Rheingold, 2012 ). Johnson ( 2015 ) develops the idea of an information diet, or how to evaluate and balance one’s online behaviors and use of information. Other guides are designed for parents interested in protecting their family from the negative aspects of the digital age (Steiner, Adair, & Barker, 2013 ), attempting to protect your online data and identity (Schneier, 2015 ), and reducing online shame and hate (Scheff & Schorr, 2017 ). Rowan-Kenyon, Aleman, and Savitz-Romer ( 2018 ) specifically honed in on how universities can improve the experience and retention of first-generation college students through their engagement with digital technology.

D. Contexts

D1. Digitization of self and others . As devices become smaller, and more powerful, wireless, and connected, very personalized uses have developed, creating the quantified self movement. People use biosensors (such as fitness trackers, smartphones, eye- and face-scanners, and even implants) to record their activities and responses, both for personal interest and health monitoring (Kvedar, Colman, & Cella, 2017 ; Lupton, 2016 ), but also for advertising and consumer user behavior (Turow, 2017 ). Interestingly, while in one way this allows people to develop a more detailed sense of their own identity, shared quantified self data creates online communities who compare and even compete (including, for example, brain scans; Barney et al., 2016 ). To some extent, this is one form of the cyborg or the singularity , or the melding of humans and machines (Beyes, Leeker, & Schipper, 2017 ; Kember & Zylinska, 2012 ; Mosco, 2017 ). Further, large-scale collection of such data can be used for medical diagnoses, genetic and epidemiological analyses, and possible threats to insurance and employment. As a form of the Internet of things , these applications extend to animals as well, for tracking their diet and health, as well as provenance, ownership, location, and migration, from cats to cattle to whales (Pschera & Lauffer, 2016 ). As a complement to this digital data collection via bodily devices and social media, Humphreys ( 2018 ) shows how people have been recording and commenting on their personal information for ages, through baby books, photo albums, pocket diaries, and postcards, to account for their everyday lives.

D2. Health . Health is another major context for digital technology, including computerized medical instrumentation, digital device implants, data collection and analysis, health information monitoring, digital records, network sharing of medical information, online health information seeking, and mediated communication within support communities and between patients and caregivers (Rains, 2018 ; Turkle, 2011 ). Such technologies can be used for large-scale as well as personalized health interventions, improve one’s life-span and health-span (Kvedar, Colman, & Cella, 2017 ), as well as help manage end-of-life and bereavement (Rains, 2018 ).

D3. Relationships . From a communication and interaction perspective, personal and social relationships are a major context for the use and implications of digital technologies. A frequent focus is on how people create, manage, promote, and try to protect, their (multiple) online identities and selfhood (Lindgren, 2017 ). This is especially salient for youth users (boyd, 2014 ; Ito et al., 2009 ; Palfrey & Gasser, 2016 ; Turkle, 2011 ), in their social and classroom lives (Livingstone, Sefton, & Green, 2016 ). Other central foci are about online ethnic, gender, racial, and sexual identities (Graham, 2014 ; Reed, 2014 ), and about how data mining entities construct and constrain our online and even offline identities (Cheney-Lippold, 2017 ). Online communities and services also hold the promise for bringing together individual identities to create a more powerful and positive (or negative) collective identity (González-Bailón, 2017 ; Rheingold, 2012 ), but also blur the distinctions between public and private, and offline and online, identities (White, 2014 ).

Digital technology and society of course involve far more than just individual-level identity. More relational contexts include engaging in online intimacy even though the content may be public (Ito et al., 2009 ). Yet our technologies may be distorting intimacy; as Turkle ( 2011 ) notes, immersion in social media and mobile phones may create an illusion of intimacy while distancing actual personal relationships. The mobile phone and social media may help maintain family relationships, especially when children move away to college (Rowan-Kenyon, Aleman, & Savitz-Romer, 2018 ), but also serve to wrest control away from parental monitoring and socialization (Graham, 2014 ; Ito et al., 2009 ; Livingstone & Green, 2016 ), both by youth and by their peers and marketing companies (Steiner, Adair, & Barker, 2013 ). And, of course, much work concerns the nature, engagement in, and effects of online communities, ranging from political to health and culture (Lindgren, 2017 ).

D4. User groups . Different kinds of audiences, groups, or users have different motivations for and experiences with online and digital technology, so some books focus on specific user groups. These include how African Americans use such technologies to deal with inequalities (Graham, 2014 ), how students engage with technology to manager their transition from home to their first year at college (Rowan-Kenyon, Aleman, & Savitz-Romer, 2018 ), how the elderly can manage the end of their lifespan (Rains, 2018 ), how LGBTQ members engage in media activism, promote visibility, and work to combat suicide (Fotopoulou, 2017 Gordon & Mihailidis, 2016 ), and how worshippers participate in mediated liturgy practices, such as digital prayer chapels and live-streaming of religious services (Berger, 2017 ). Much work looks at how youth use digital media, with both positive and negative implications (Bauerlein, 2011 ). For example, boyd ( 2014 ) considers why youth share so much online and why they are so obsessed with social media, Graham and Dutton’s book ( 2014 ) includes chapters on children’s Internet use and next generation digital divides, and Steiner, Adair, and Barker ( 2013 ) consider how the digital age is significantly affecting childhood.

D5. Culture, everyday life, education, learning . More general daily concerns include the ways in which ubiquitous computing might affect the form and meaning of domesticity (Dourish & Bell, 2011 ) and everyday life practices, such as how society is becoming embedded in software (Berry, 2015 ), the digital experiences of African Americans (Graham, 2014 ), and how the Internet is interwoven throughout children’s lives at home, school, and play (Livingstone, 2009 ). Research investigates the role of digital technology in education and learning, such as the participatory potential for education (Barney et al., 2016 ; Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2014 ), the need for greater civic education (Gordon & Mihailidis, 2016 ), how young people do, or do not, learn through digital media within their daily class contexts (Livingstone, Sefton, & Green, 2016 ), the need for greater digital literacy (Johnson 2015 ; Rheingold, 2012 ) and ways in which educational technologies such as MOOCs and scholarly publishing are changing the nature of teaching and research (Reed, 2014 ). Concerns about digital culture include how digital technology shapes and is influenced by broad societal culture (Wiesinger & Beliveau, 2016 ), artistic and creative culture (Reed, 2014 ), and the culture(s) associated with particular media, such as mobile phones (Lindgren, 2017 ).

D6. Work and organizations . Another major context, work and organizations, is considered much more in the management and information systems literature. However, recent digital technology and society books discuss how business models, industries, and economies are being transformed, such as through crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, and microcelebrity (Bennett, Chin, & Jones, 2015 ); the “gig” economy such as Uber and Airbnb (Daley, 2015 ); and the ability to identify and monetize attention (Wu, 2017 ). They also discuss how the very nature of organizations and industries is changing, towards more networked, virtual, and distributed forms (Graham & Dutton, 2014 ).

Note that these opportunities and challenges also apply to not necessarily commercial or for-profit contexts, such as health provision and caregiving (Kvedar, Colman, & Cells, 2017 ), and smart cities and technology parks (Hanna, 2016 ). Not only are innovation processes crucial to the development and diffusion of new digital technologies, but such technologies are also necessary for implementing other innovations. For example, innovations in medical technologies can transform experiences and possibilities for the disabled (Ellcessor, 2016 ), patients (Sonnier, 2017 ), and caregivers (Rossignoli, Virili, & Za, 2017 ), and innovative designs for egovernment (such as ways to visualize data, involvement in open policymaking, engaging young and feminist activists) can foster greater civic engagement (Gordon & Mihailidis, 2016 ). Digital innovations are making work-life boundaries more permeable (Alter, 2017 ; Schwab, 2017 ), increasing the ability to share and manage knowledge (Botto & Resende, 2017 ), and threatening the loss of traditional and even knowledge work through artificial intelligence, algorithms, blockchain technology, and robots (Ford, 2015 ; Tapscott & Tapscott, 2018 ).

D7. Law, policy, regulation . As many have noted, technology develops and diffuses faster than laws, policy, and regulation can keep up with. Should the Internet and social media be regulated as a common carrier, or subject to the same regulations and liabilities as other publishers (Graham & Dutton, 2014 )? Who should govern what aspects of the Internet (Mueller, 2010 )? What are the effects of supporting or removing net neutrality? Should algorithms affecting search results and service provision be regulated and made explicit (Eubanks, 2018 )? What policies and regulations best stimulate public ICT provision (Hanna, 2016 )? Is a HIPAA sufficient to protect personal digital medical records (Sonnier, 2017 )?

E1. Negative effects . An enduring research, policy, and popular topic is the extent to which digital technologies are associated with negative or positive effects. The list of possible implications is endless. The books included here refer to just a few. Addiction is at the top of many people’s list, both alphabetically and behaviorally (Alter, 2017 ). As Turkle ( 2011 , p. 154) notes, “Always on and (now) always with us, we tend the Net, and the Net teaches us to need it.” But she argues that addiction is not inherent to the technology; rather it’s to how we practice the use of that technology. For example, social pressures to be constantly accessible and to respond quickly create stress and reinforce dependencies (Turkle, 2011 ). Excessive use also ends up wasting considerable time, often fostering feelings of guilt (Goldsmith, 2016 ). Watching YouTube music videos, and endlessly scrolling friends’ text messages, do not strengthen personal relations or get one’s (home) work done.

As noted in the terms associated with digital technology and society, attention has gained a lot of attention, not only in regard to the commercial focus on collecting and analyzing user attention, but also about the cognitive effects of excessive screen use and multitasking on attention span (Bauerlein, 2011 ; Carr, 2011 ). Further, excessive attention to our devices reduces our attention to those people around us (Turkle, 2011 , p. 268). Research has identified a wide array of possible dangers, harms, and risk, including cyberbullying (Bauerlein, 2011 ), information overload (Johnson, 2015 ), threats to children (Livingstone, 2009 ), and loss of control over one’s identity in the present and the future. Turkle ( 2011 ), for example, notes people’s vulnerability is not just limited to their communication or site content, but also to anyone taking a photo of them or posting comments about them. There is thus a constant worry about one’s offline behavior being recorded and distributed. This leads some to self-censor and self-surveil both their online and offline comments and behavior. Another kind of harm is online harassment, shaming, hating, and trolling (Scheff & Schorr, 2017 ), negatively affecting everyone from children to CEOs and celebrities.

E2. Positive effects . Needless to say, digital technologies are associated with many positive benefits. Chief among these is the ability to connect and communicate with others, from family and friends to fellow group members, and with people and organizations otherwise unknown and inaccessible, allowing the co-creation of meaning and sharing of resources, from emotional support to complex information (Barney et al., 2016 ). Computing and networking support new and distributed forms of collaboration and cooperation, increasingly between humans and machines, necessary for accomplishing tasks, creating content, and generating innovative ideas (Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2014 ; Rheingold, 2012 ; Rossignoli, Virili, & Za, 2017 ). Tools such as mobile phones and GPS also improve one’s safety (boyd, 2014 ), and keep others aware of your locations and activities (Turkle, 2011 ). This support for connectivity and relationships also develops social and cultural capital (Graham, 2014 ).

E3. Societal effects . More societal negative effects include the uses of digital technologies for crime, including hacking and identity theft, fomenting hate crimes, and drug and sex trafficking, among many others (Goodman, 2015 ). Also, little understood is the increasingly devastating environmental implications of digital technology, including cloud computing (with its need for massive server farms consuming increasingly more energy) and toxic materials recycling (Cubitt, 2016 , Hu, 2015 , Mosco, 2017 ). Digital, networked ICTs have a wide range of negative and positive implications for economies and economics, such as facilitating rapid and global financial crises, and threats to particular industries and jobs, but also making information and transactions more transparent and efficient, and supporting micro-economic and entrepreneurial activities and produsage (Graham & Dutton, 2014 ; Hanna, 2016 ; Martin, 2017 ). ICTs have held great promise for the developing world, from markets and health, to farming and education (Hanna, 2016 ; White, 2014 ). Other global impacts include occasions for (more or less successful) citizen participation (Castells, 2015 ), and broader intercultural communication (Cover, 2015 ).

E4. Contradictions, paradoxes, tensions, and unintended effects . Interwoven throughout discussions of effects of digital technology is the awareness of contradictions, paradoxes, tensions, and unintended consequences. The very concept of online expression is ambivalent, indicating helpful as well as harmful intent and content (Phillips & Milner, 2018 ). Both positive and negative implications may be associated with a particular technology or use, often simultaneously, and paradoxically. Online feminist and queer activist communities can use the same technologies that mis-portray or exclude them as ways to construct and promote valued identities (Fotopoulou, 2017 ). Digital technologies are both highly useful and entertaining, but also create stress, overload, and complications (Levy, 2016 ); they blur boundaries between work and home, private and public (Krieger & Belliger, 2014 ). Online and social media communication can strengthen relationships and promote intimacy while also generating user data that are processed by other digital technologies and software around the world to group, categorize, and target audiences (Beyes, Leeker, & Schipper, 2017 ). For example, Turkle ( 2011 ) identifies the following paradoxes (p. 176, 280):

Connectivity brings us closer, but some use technology to hide from others

In order to feel like themselves, users must be connected to their devices and others

It is easy to find others to interact with, but also to become tired by demands to perform

It is possible to make many new connections, but they are often tentative and temporary

Mobile phones enable as well as inhibit separation from parents, partners, work

Nonstop connection also means limited attention by self or others

People can play with identity but are less free from their past

People like online linkages and features that are based on knowledge about one’s use, but they are also concerned about the loss of privacy and are constrained by externally created online identity

People reject real-time phone but get lost in real-time online gaming

Providing online content may be available to immediate and broad audiences, but the content is often depersonalized and abbreviated

The ability to work from anywhere means one cannot escape work

Users develop expectations of instant connections to and response from others, but they themselves are then expected to always be available and respond ourselves

Users themselves acknowledge tensions between good and bad aspects, and often say they are resigned to this condition.

What some researchers or users may perceive as a positive aspect may be considered negative by others. For example, increased ability to participate online may take the form of reading and posting only to groups with the same interest or political position, thus limiting exposure to diverse ideas and strengthening polarization (though Webster, 2014 , argues that audiences are fragmented, but also participate in various venues, creating overlapping audiences). By accident or user intent, technology may be used in ways that designers, vendors, or implementers did not intend, expect, or imagine (Lingel, 2017 ). For example, González-Bailón ( 2017 ) shows how data mining and network analysis can reveal unintended consequences of individual behavior for collective outcomes. Even use of digital technology that might be critiqued as “wasting time” can provide a context for allowing thoughtfulness and creativity (Goldsmith, 2016 ). The same systems and features can promote support and caring (Rains, 2018 ) as well as international crime and terrorism (Goodman, 2015 ), democratization as well as authoritarianism (Berry, 2015 ), learning as well as fragmented attention (Bauerlein, 2011 ), empowerment as well as addiction (Alter, 2017 ). ICTs may increase the pace of development and economic growth, but also increase inequities, work dislocation, and environmental degradation (Cubitt, 2016 ; Gershenfeld, Gershenfeld, & Cutcher-Gershenfeld, 2017 ; Hanna, 2016 ).

The preceding sections reviewed the main arguments and concerns about digital technology and society, organized by the emergent coding of subthemes and then the main codes of Theory and Conceptualization, Technology, Issues, Contexts, and Effects. This provides a subjective conceptual framework for identifying the most noted and discussed topics of 89 recent books. Another way to identify general arguments and concerns is to assess how those coded themes co-occur across the material about the 89 books. Figure 1.2 shows the hierarchical clustering of the coded themes, based on the Jaccard similarity coefficients derived from the co-occurrence of the codes in each source text (provided through NVivo 11). What constitutes a cluster, or main theme, depends on the cutoff between sets of codes one wants to use. The most general distinction is among three primary clusters.

Hierarchical clustering of main codes based on co-occurrence (correlation) of main and subcodes within each source text.

The first cluster includes Content, creation; Digitization of self & others; Ethics, ethical issues; Participation, engagement; and Manage digital experience. Given that many of the Ethics, ethical issues have to do with personal data privacy, much of the Content, creation material has to do with individual use or production of content, and Manage digital experience emphasizes how individual can (more, or less, effectively) attempt to manage their own digital usage, this cluster could be considered to represent a major general theme of Individual uses .

The second cluster contains two subclusters. The first subcluster consists of Theory; Culture, everyday life, education, learning; Relationships; and User groups. This as a somewhat diverse grouping, but seems to represent the central social and theoretical contexts of digital technology: groups, relationships, culture. The second subcluster reflects more societal issues, such as policy, societal effects, civic and public sphere behavior, inequalities, organizations and technology, and very broad issues of the nature of the developing societal changes, along with big data. Thus, the entire two-fold cluster might be labeled Societal and technological issues .

The third cluster is mostly about Effects , notably in the health arena, as well as aspects of technologies that might shape or influence those effects. Note that specific negative or positive effects are subsumed within the more complex topic of contradictory and unintended effects.

Related Work

A detailed analysis of the full content of these books would provide a comprehensive review of topics associated with digital technology and society, to say nothing of what individual articles and chapters discuss. There is, of course, a huge range of review articles, chapters, books, and handbooks on the many aspects of digital media and society. There are journals in specific disciplines that publish reviews, and there are handbooks in a wide variety of related research areas. Almost all of those, however, focus on one discipline (e.g., management, information systems, sociology), or one dimension (organizational communication, privacy, identity), or one technology (e.g., Internet, social media, videogames). Further, edited books or handbooks in these areas bring together diverse, expert authors who contribute on the topic of their own specialty, often without an underlying integrative foundation. Finally, many books on the “digital age” are more popular, applied, or oriented toward marketing, technology, management, or consulting practice.

For example, Salganik’s Bit by bit: Social research in the digital age (2017) is about the conduct and design of research in the digital environment, such as using big data, experiments, and collaborative studies. Baym’s Personal connections in the digital age (2015) emphasizes the communication discipline and relationships. Similarly, the book edited by Wright and Web, Computer-mediated communication in personal relationships (2011) exclusively focuses on relational communication. Other books, such as Noble and Tynes’ (2016) The intersectional Internet: Race, sex, class, and culture online do take a more interdisciplinary and multi-dimensional approach, applied to a range of digital media, platforms, and infrastructures, in more global and social contexts, but is primarily focused on the issue of intersectionality instead of on more general life in the digital age. Perhaps the single best overview is that of Mansell et al. ( 2015 ) International encyclopedia of digital communication and society , which covers 150 topics, ranging in length from 2,000 to 10,000 words.

More relevant to this book, there are also handbooks on specific topics and media such as The Oxford handbook of Internet studies (Dutton, 2014); Routledge handbook of Internet politics (Chadwick & Howard, 2009); Oxford handbook of Internet psychology (Joinson & McKenna, 2009); Internet studies (Consalvo & Ess, 2012)–their book’s chapters do cover a number of similar topics, such as society, and culture, but again focus on the Internet; and Economics of the Internet (Bauer & Latzer, 2016). The two-volume Handbook of research on computer-mediated communication (Kelsey & St.-Amant, 2008) also covers some similar areas, such as identity (though from a credibility perspective), community and information exchange, and culture, but also different areas, such as instruction, design, discourse, and libraries, as well as chapters on specific technology contexts. Similarly, more handbooks on the mobile phone are appearing: Handbook of mobile communication studies (Katz, 2008) and Research on human social interaction in the age of mobile devices (Xu, 2016); as well as for related new media, such as Handbook of digital games (Angelides & Angus, 2014), and Sage handbook of social media (Poell & Marwick, 2018). Some handbooks are focused on particular populations, such as Handbook of children and the media (Singer & Singer, 2011). Sundar’s (2015) Handbook of the psychology of communication technology covers a wider array of digital contexts than many of the other books but does take a primarily individual and group perspective (reasonable, given the title), though also includes health issues. However, our book does not in any way overlap with the intriguing Handbook of porous media (Vafal, 2015).

The only recent book that provides a similar multi-dimensional, interdisciplinary, and thematic review of recent research on life in the digital age is Graham and Dutton’s ( 2014 , Oxford University Press) edited book Society & the Internet: How networks of information and communication are changing our lives . That excellent book frames the work as a major foundation for the new field of Internet studies (along with Dutton’s 2014   Oxford Handbook of Internet studies ). Somewhat similar to the UK Economic and Social Research (ESRC) project theme chapters in our book (see the next section), the chapters in Graham and Dutton’s book evolved from research work and a lecture series at the Oxford Internet Institute. Their 23-chapter book covers some of the same main areas as our book (with main sections called: Internet studies of everyday life; Information and culture on the line; Networked politics and governments; Networked businesses, industries, and economics; and Technological and Regulatory histories and futures). That book complements this book, but is primarily focused on the Internet, and does not have the organizing framework of the ESRC project reviews.

Purpose and Origins of This Book

Purpose and domains.

The purpose of chapters in this handbook is to provide detailed reviews of central topics about digital technology and society within our seven domain sections. It includes interdisciplinary, comprehensive reviews on central aspects of the current digital age. After the following chapter on project methodology, the next sections move from more individual and relational domains ( Section 2: Health, Age, and Home ; Section 3: Communication and, Relationships ) to more organizational, community, and citizenship domains ( Section 4: Organizational Contexts ; Section 5: Communities, Identities, and Class ; Section 6: Citizenship, Politics, and Participation ), and then to more societal and governance domains ( Section 7: Data, Representation, and Sharing ; and Section 8: Governance and Accountability ). It ends with Section 9: Synthesis . The chapters within each section provide a solid foundation for understanding the current state of research and theory in each of these areas and for grounding future research, theory, and practice. They also bring to bear literature from a wide variety of disciplines, necessary for understanding the interrelationships between digital technology and society.

How did these chapters come to life? In 2016, the UK Economic and Social Research Council ( http://www.esrc.ac.uk/ ) noted that

“[t]he 21st century has witnessed significant changes due to digital technological advancements, which impacts the way we communicate, receive, consume and process information, travel, shop and do our work. The presence of digital technology mediates our perceptions, behaviours and practices across these areas and influences our ways of living, learning, sharing, engaging and seeing the world around us. This raises a number of fundamental questions about our ways of being in a digital age, the risks and opportunities associated with digital living, and our understanding of the individual, community and society [. …] It is apparent that there is a real need for meta-analytic work to synthesise and interpret the existing literature and data, to refine and consolidate existing understanding of the social, cultural, economic, political, psychological and other effects of digitalisation. This will enable the development of new insights, ideas and methods to be applied to a practical context. This approach will facilitate the exploitation of existing research, but also build new knowledge on synthetic work” (p. 2).

The University of Liverpool, in collaboration with a core project team, and 17 other partner Universities and organizations from the UK, EU, USA and Singapore, lead the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) scoping review on Ways of Being in a Digital Age (see https://waysofbeingdigital.com/ for details on the project, people, events, and reports). That scoping study developed a multi-domain holistic view of how digital technology mediates our lives, and of the way technological and social change co-evolve and shape each other. The project involved an interdisciplinary research team across the social sciences, arts and humanities, engineering, physical sciences and health. The final report included reviews and analyses in six domains: Communication, community, and identity; Citizens, politics, and governance; Understanding the platform economy; Data and digital literacies for engaged and included citizens; Everyday digital health and well-being; and Digital inequalities.

Conclusions and Recommendations from the ESRC Project

The final ESRC report recommended funding initiatives to emphasize these six core areas. The work should have a strongly social science focus, even where it is interdisciplinary. The topics should avoid areas that are already well researched or have been supported by recent or current funding programs. Research efforts need to look more holistically at the social, economic, political, cultural, and community impacts and roles of digital technologies. The ESRC report proposed the following six areas, each with associated research topics derived from the literature reviews and analyses, the Delphi surveys and discussions, and the stakeholder workshops and discussions.

Communication, community, and identity

The norms and values of digital communication and relationships

The “affordances” different platforms provide for digital communication and relationships

The quality of relationships and communication supported by digital media and technologies

The management of relationships via digital media and technologies

Social and community aspects of everyday digital technology use

Digital community exclusion/inclusion

Digital community participation, action and social change

Power in online communities

Understanding global diaspora as digital communities

Understanding function of aspects of identity online (Gender/Race/Ethnicity/Sexuality)

Citizens, politics, and governance

Digital technologies, radicalization, mobilization and political action

Digital technologies and the disruption of current political institutions

Digital technologies and new forms of citizenship

Digital technologies, political communication, debate and media

Digital technologies and state control–especially in non-democratic regimes

Impact of social media on governance

Success factors in digital governance at local, national and international level

Privacy, citizenship, the state and surveillance in the digital age

Regulation and governance of automated systems

Understanding the platform economy

Role and impact of major corporate digital platforms (Impacts on firms of digital platforms, Role of digital monopolies and large corporations)

Forms of digital labor (Impacts of digital labor on people’s life experience, Gig economy, linked to platforms)

Data and digital literacies for engaged and included citizens

Citizen and community use of data

Citizen interaction with data and algorithms

Data literacy in everyday life

Power and accountability for data and algorithms

Social construction of data and algorithms

Citizens/everyday life experiences and uses of data

Understanding open data/algorithm transparency/accountability

Digital identity and data

Data Exclusion/Inclusion/Divides

Everyday digital health and well-being

Understanding and addressing the governance of digital health technologies.

Need for detailed systematic evidence of the impact and lived experience of everyday health technologies (e.g., fitbits).

Questions of health and well-being in the digital workplace.

Digital technologies and health communication and health behavior change.

Digital inequalities

The two-way interaction between digital inequities and other areas of social inequity

Data exclusion/inclusion/divides

Digital cultural capital and cultural exclusion/inclusion

Digital governance, policy and inclusion

Digital health inequalities

For this book, these have been reorganized into the following seven ESRC domain chapters:

Chapter 3 . ESRC Review: Health and well-being

Chapter 8 . ESRC Review: Communication and relationships

Chapter 11 . ESRC Review: Economy and organizations

Chapter 14 . ESRC Review: Communities and identities

Chapter 16 . ESRC Review: Citizenship and politics

Chapter 18 . ESRC Review: Data and representation

Chapter 22 . ESRC Review: Governance and security

Beyond the ESRC Project

As culmination of this project, a conference to present project findings and provide a context for debate was held on October 10 and 11 2017 at the University of Liverpool ( https://waysofbeingdigital.com/conference/ ). To complement and critique the work of the ESRC project reviews, a call was publicized (through association email lists and websites, and the conference website) to invite others to submit their extended abstracts for presentation at the conference. Each presentation was attended by at least one of the editors. After the conference, the editors went through the program and decided which of the other researchers to invite to prepare their abstracts, presentations, or papers as full reviews for the edited book. We were particularly interested in papers that built on reviews to offer analysis of research gaps and challenges for social research in the digital age. Contributions come from established, early career, and PhD scholars who systematically reviewed a research issue within one of the seven foci of the ESRC project.

Two further workshops developed a closer focus on issues of work and automation. The joint UK ESRC and Defence Science and Technology Laboratory workshop held on 7th and 8th of October 2016 at University of Liverpool in London considered the topic of The Automation of Future Roles . This meeting brought together 33 academics, policy makers, and industry stakeholders to explore the likely future impact of digital tools in the workplace, in particular the possible implications of the continued “automation” of human tasks, roles, and jobs; knowledge, skills, and attributes; organizational structures, cultures, and development; workforce training, recruitment, engagement, and motivation; and decision-making in organizations. A joint UK ESRC and US National Science Foundation workshop was held on October 12 and 13 2017 at the University of Liverpool on the topic of Changing Work, Changing Lives in the New Technological World . This brought together 35 experts from the academic and professional community, as well as top executive and program directors from the U.K. Economic and Social Research Council and the U.S. National Science Foundation to discuss shared programmatic research. In both cases the two days consisted of intensely interactive group activities, generating extensive information about issues, research programs, and timelines for possible impacts. The write-up and analysis of these insights provided the basis for chapter 24 , which synthesizes the implications of the domains for research and practice.

Thus, two primary contributions of the book’s review chapters are their unifying approach and review focus, as well as the diversity of the authors’ expertise and disciplines. The central ESRC domain reviews are the product of extensive, multi-method, cumulative work, and provide a macro context for the associated more focused reviews of specific areas within that section. The non-ESRC chapters hone in on more specific topics within each of the domains, bringing to bear multi-disciplinary reviews and analyses. Overall, the sections and chapters provide a multi-dimensional perspective on one of the most consequential aspects of contemporary times: relationships between digital technology and society.

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