Principal Investigator, Dr James Ash
Dr James Ash is Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at Newcastle University. James is a social scientist working at the intersections of media, cultural studies and human geography. James’ research interests revolve around digital geographies and the cultures, economies and politics of smart technology and digital interfaces. He is author of ‘Phase Media: Space, Time and the Politics of Smart Objects’ (2017, Bloomsbury), ‘The Interface Envelope: Gaming, Technology, Power’ (2015, Bloomsbury) and co-editor of Digital Geographies (2018, Sage).

Co-Investigator, Dr Sarah Mills
Dr Sarah Mills is Reader in Human Geography at Loughborough University. Sarah specialises in children and young people’s geographies, focusing in particular on the geographies of youth citizenship, informal education, and volunteering in both contemporary and historical contexts. Sarah was called to give evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on Citizenship and Civic Engagement in 2017, drawing on her ESRC-funded research on the National Citizen Service (NCS). She is co-editor of ‘Informal Education, Childhood & Youth’ (2014, Palgrave Macmillan) and ‘Politics, Citizenship and Rights’ (2016, Springer).

Researcher, Dr Rachel Gordon
Dr Rachel Gordon is Research Associate at Newcastle University. Her experience includes ethnographic and ethnomethodological studies of technology use and practice in workplace settings. This has included detailed observations of operators in a number of control rooms, from motorway traffic management to emergency services. She is interested in people’s everyday problem solving and decision making through technology and how disruptive events of all kinds are responded to and managed.