Dr Huw C. Davies
Researcher
- huw.davies@oii.ox.ac.uk
- 01590 616995
- Profile
- Research
- Publications
- Blog
- Press
- Integrity
Profile
Research interests:
- Digital inequalities particularly relative to educational inequalities.
- Young people’s digital skills and literacies.
- Filter bubbles, mis/disinformation & conspiracy theories.
- Digital methodologies including graph databases and ontologies.
- Social theory; especially Bourdieu, Foucault, and Critical Realism.
- Children’s safety & privacy online relative to the Internet of Toys.
- The sociology of crowd working and freelancing that is mediated by digital platforms.
- The relationship between AI and education now and in the future.
Huw is a co-convenor of the BSA’s Digital Sociology Study Group which seeks to provide a forum for sociologists who are using digital methods and critically examining digital technology’s impact on society. Because technology doesn’t exist outside of society, Huw is committed to helping to make the sociology of race, gender, and class central to the study of digital technology,
Positions held at the OII
- Researcher, June 2015 –
Research
Current projects
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Skills formation and skills matching in online platform work: Practices and policies for promoting crowdworkers’ continuous learning (CrowdLearn)
Participants: Professor Vili Lenhdonvirta, Professor Anoush Margaryan, Dr Huw C. Davies, Laura Larke, Sian Brooke, Julian Albert
Despite the rapid growth of online platform labour, little is known about how crowdworkers acquire and develop their skills. This project seeks to address this important gap in our knowledge.
Past projects
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Using graph databases to conceptualise social class: a proof of concept study
Participants: Professor Rebecca Eynon, Dr Huw C. Davies
This study will critically examine the value of graph databases for the social sciences through a focus on social class.
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Child safety on the Internet: looking beyond ICT actors
Participants: Dr Vicki Nash, Dr Huw Davies
This project will map the range of non-ICT companies engaging digitally with children and identify areas where their actions might affect a child’s exposure to online risks such as data theft, adverse online experiences or sexual exploitation.
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Transmedia Literacy
Participants: Professor Rebecca Eynon, Dr Cristobal Cobo, Dr Huw C. Davies, Laura Larke
The transliteracy project aims to examine how young people use technology to learn outside formal educational settings.
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Tackling Digital Inequality Amongst Young People: The Home Internet Access Initiative
Participants: Professor Rebecca Eynon, Dr Huw C. Davies, Laura Larke
This participatory research project explores a two year initiative that provides all year 10 students with a laptop and Internet connection if they require one at home in three secondary schools.
Journal Publications
Davies, H. C., & Eynon, R. (2018). Is digital upskilling the next generation our ‘pipeline to prosperity’? New Media & Society: 1461444818783102 DOI: 10.1177/1461444818783102
Davies, H.C. (2018) Redefining Filter Bubbles as Socio-Technical Recursion. Sociological Research Online 23(2): 136078041876382 DOI: 10.1177/1360780418763824
Davies, H.C. (2017) Learning to Google: Understanding classed and gendered practices when young people use the Internet for research. New Media & Society 20(8): 146144481773232 DOI: 10.1177/1461444817732326
Davies, H. C., Eynon, R., & Wilkin, S. (2017). Neoliberal gremlins? How a scheme to help disadvantaged young people thrive online fell short of its ambitions. Information, Communication & Society, 20(6), 860–875.
Wilkin S, Davies H & Eynon R (2017) Addressing digital inequalities amongst young people: Conflicting discourses and complex outcomes. Oxford Review of Education, 43(3), 332-347.
Davies, H.C. (2014) Social media and personal relationships: online intimacies and networked friendship. Information, Communication & Society, 17(2), 543-568.
Conference Presentations & Proceedings
Davies H.C., & Eynon R. (2019) Reversing the data gaze in education. European Conference on Information Systems. Stockholm.
Davies H.C. (2019) Data as a commodity v data as tool for social justice
How are they co-existing? Data Justice Week. University of Edinburgh.
Davies H.C., & Eynon R. (2018) Alternative futures? Teenagers’ digital practices, social mobility and schooling. American Educational Researchers Association’s Annual Meeting. New York.
Davies H. C. & Nash V. (2018) What does its (un)ethical approach to children tell us about digital capitalism’s circuits of practice. In WebSci ’18: Proceedings of the 4th Annual ACM Web Science Conference. Amsterdam.
Davies H.C., & Eynon R. (2017) Levelling (the digital) playing field with The Home Access Scheme: a grounded account of the processes of neoliberalisation. The British Sociological Association’s Annual Conference. Manchester.
Davies H.C., & Eynon R. (2016) Levelling (the digital) playing field with The Home Access Scheme: a grounded account of the processes of neoliberalisation. The Association of Internet Researcher’s Annual Conference. Berlin.
Davies H.C., & Eynon R. (2016) Learning to Google: understanding classed and gendered practices when young people use the Internet for research. The British Sociological Association’s Annual Conference. Glasgow.
Davies H.C., (2015) Learning to Google: understanding classed and gendered practices when young people use the Internet for research. European Sociological Association’s Annual Conference, Prague.
Davies, H. C., Halford, S. J., & Gibbins, N. (2012). Digital Natives? Investigating young people’s critical skills in evaluating web based information. In WebSci ’12: Proceedings of the 4th Annual ACM Web Science Conference. Evanston, Illinois.
Book Chapters
Davies, H.C., (2015) How do youth interpret misinformation online: operationalising Bourdieu’s Habitus in The Art of Application: Bourdieu, Habitus and Social Research, Palgrave.
Reports
Nash V., Davies, H.C., Mishkin, A. (2019). Digital Safety in the Era of Connected Cots and Talking Teddies for The Oak Foundation.
V. Lehdonvirta, A. Margaryan, H.C. Davies (2019). Skills formation and skills matching in online platform work: policies and practices for promoting crowdworkers’ continuous learning (CrowdLearn) for The European Centre of Vocational Training.
S. Bhullar, E. Helsper, G. Loudon, R. Linnington, S. Davies, and H.C. Davies (2014). Generation 2000: The Internet and Digital Media Habits of Year 9 Pupils (13 and 14 year olds) in Wales for the Children’s Commissioner for Wales.
Invited Talks
2019 Data as a commodity v data as tool for social justice: how are they co-existing? Data Justice Week. University of Edinburgh
2019 Digital Anthropology, Digital Geography, and Digital Sociology: what are their affinities? Sage Publishing. London.
2018 Why do we research what young people are doing online?
BSA Presidential Event, House of Commons. London
2018 Isn’t it all about structure v agency? Or, thinking through the study of tech with (digital) sociology. University of Gothenburg.
2018 Trust us, we share your values: tentative methods to expose digital capitalism’s strategic use of agnotology. University of Salford.
2018 Democracy: a hackable socio-technical system? University of Swansea.
2017 Radical Digital Citizenship: what is Digital Sociology’s contribution?University of Edinburgh.
2017 The (im)possibility of capturing young people’s socio-technical ecosystems. Brunel University of London.
2017 What We Don’t Want to Know About Teenagers Online. EdTech Winter School. Uruguay.
2017 Diversity v compliance: how do we want young people to use digital technology? Children, Youth and Online Media Summit, Cardiff.
Blog
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From private profit to public liabilities: how platform capitalism’s business model works for children
14 September 2017
Author: Huw Davies
Young people choose to use platforms for play, socialising and expressing their identity. Image by Brad Flickinger (Flickr: CC BY 2.0) Two concepts have recently ... Read More From private profit to public liabilities: how platform capitalism’s business model works for children
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How and why is children’s digital data being harvested?
10 May 2017
Author: Huw Davies
“Whether your child is an artist, a storyteller, a singer or a scientist, I’m the lovable little friend that will bring that out!” says ... Read More How and why is children’s digital data being harvested?
Press
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Why education is the only antidote to fake news
19 February 2018 The New Statesman
Opinion piece by OII's Dr Huw Davies on how education may be the only way to combat disinformation, and what provisions currently exist in England and Wales
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Five ways politicians can win over young voters
25 June 2017 BBC News
Surveillance, misuse of data, privacy and hacking are all issues that Dr Huw Davies of the Oxford Internet Institute believes young voters of the future will be concerned about.
Integrity Statement
I conduct my research in line with the University's academic integrity code of practice.