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'Media @ Sydney' and Digital Cultures presents</div>
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<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri">Dr Bridgette Wessels (Sheffield), 'Exploring Human Agency and Digital Systems: Service, Personalisation and Participation'</font></p>
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2-3.30pm, Friday 17 July 2012</div>
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<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">Rogers Room, Woolley Building (A20), University of Sydney -- see map: <a href="http://db.auth.usyd.edu.au/directories/map/building.stm?location=12E">http://db.auth.usyd.edu.au/directories/map/building.stm?location=12E</a><span style="background-color: transparent; "><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">Abstract:</font></p>
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<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">The paper explores the relationship between human agency and digital services. The capacity of digital services to create knowledge from a range of sources has led some commentators to argue that digital
services are a factor in redefining human agency because these services link, combine and compute data to create new knowledge (e.g. Lash, 1999; Lyotard, 1984). This, they argue is resulting in non-human knowledge systems rather that knowledge created by humans
within cultural frameworks.<span> </span>The paper critically engages with these debates to explore the ways in which digital services are made meaningful through the way individuals interpret and use them. It focuses on three contexts in which agency and
digital services interact to provide insights into the framework and characteristics of agency in these settings.<span> </span>The three areas that are addressed are: virtual city modelling (VCM), digital or electronic assisted living technology (EAT), and
Second Life (SL). The conclusion points out that human agency is influential in these services in that it is situated in particular spaces and contexts, reflects on the past, assesses the present,<span> </span>and<span> </span>looks to the future.<span> </span>The
agency of individuals is also important in generating knowledge in digital services, and is part of a personalised form of participation in consumer culture. </font></p>
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<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">About the presenter:</font></p>
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<span lang="EN-US"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri">Bridgette Wessels is Director of the Interdisciplinary network of Socio-digital Research and is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Sheffield. She has conducted funded research that
addresses digital technology in</font> <font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri">public services, everyday life, public sphere, new media, and identity. She was expert on EU Fifth Framework IST programme, OST/DTI and Royal Society cybertrust programmes
and is expert for the EU on the Social Web and communication in Europe. Her current projects are: Mainstreaming Telehealth(ESRC and TSB); Participating in Search Design: a study of George Thomason'</font></span><span lang="EN-US"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri">s
Newsbooks (AHRC); Augmenting participation in the arts (DCMS & KT); and QCinema (Hefce). Her books include: <i>Inside the Digital Revolution: policing and changing communication with the publi</i>c (Ashgate, 2007);
<i>Information and joining up services: the case of an information guide for parents of disabled children</i> (Policy Press, 2002);
<i>Understanding the Internet: a socio-cultural perspective </i>(Palgrave, 2010);
<i>The Cultural Dynamics of the Innovation of New Media; the Case of Telematics</i> (VDM Verlag: Saarbrucken), and an edited book
<i>Mediating Europe</i> (Berghahn). She has published on digital worlds in journals such as
<i>New Media and Society</i>, <i>The Information Society</i>, and the <i>Journal of Computer Supported Communication</i>.</font></span></p>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium; ">An advance copy of the paper is available — just email Gerard Goggin (<a href="mailto:gerard.goggin@sydney.edu.au">gerard.goggin@sydney.edu.au</a>)</span></p>
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<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: rgb(18, 18, 18); ">Contact details: Dr Bridgette Wessels, Department of Sociological Studies, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(18, 18, 18); ">University
of Sheffield, Elmfield Building, Northumberland Rd,</span></font></p>
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<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: rgb(18, 18, 18); ">Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S10 2TU </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: rgb(18, 18, 18); ">Email: </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="mailto:b.wessels@sheffield.ac.uk">b.wessels@sheffield.ac.uk</a>; </span><a href="http://www.shef.ac.uk/socstudies/staff/staff-profiles/wessels">http://www.shef.ac.uk/socstudies/staff/staff-profiles/wessels</a></font></p>
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<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3"><span style="background-color: transparent; ">Media @ Sydney is presented by the Department of Media and Communications (</span><a href="http://sydney.edu.au/arts/media_communications/">http://sydney.edu.au/arts/media_communications/</a>) and
the Digital Cultures Program (<a href="http://sydney.edu.au/arts/digital_cultures/">http://sydney.edu.au/arts/digital_cultures/</a>), University of Sydney</font></p>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri" size="3">For further information, contact Gerard Goggin (<a href="applewebdata://92548607-E383-49F0-A473-59C3349C0CF6/gerard.goggin@sydney.edu.au">gerard.goggin@sydney.edu.au</a>).</font></span></p>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial; ">Gerard Goggin<br>
Professor and Chair<br>
Department of Media and Communications<br>
University of Sydney <br>
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Adjunct Professor, Social Policy Research Centre<br>
University of New South Wales<br>
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e: <a href="applewebdata://58CAECF0-6F6E-47A3-9980-953EE0F9094E/gerard.goggin@sydney.edu.au">gerard.goggin@sydney.edu.au</a><br>
p: +61 2 9114 1218 <br>
m: +61 428 66 88 24<br>
w: <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/arts/media_communications/staff/ggoggin">http://sydney.edu.au/arts/media_communications/staff/ggoggin</a></span></div>
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