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A Sociology of Values and Value

Project: Research

Description

A study of what happens when economic value is accumulated from spheres previously considered non-economic. For instance, Facebook makes considerable economic gain from commodifying friendship through the algorithmic conversion of 'likes' into advertising sales. Does this process reconfigure the value of friendship? What happens to values such as loyalty and care in this conversion? Do friends capitalise upon their own value, such as generating authority from 'like' conversion? Digital friendliness is conducted through rhythms of interaction driven by algorithms that artificially stimulate the intensity of exchange. Within this, affect is differently (digitally) co-present and authority is dispersed. Yet the encounter (technically and textually mediated by the design of the site) can be powerfully affective - people can be outraged and hurt by their digital encounters. What happens when everything they 'like' is ignored - attributed with no relational value? Value may be momentarily lost through one wrong sentence - but is this sustained over time? Is their person-value diminished or left intact?

Layperson's description

examining the link between moral values and economic value- and what happpens when areas of our life are subject to monetisation
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date1/09/1331/01/17

Research outputs