ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures

Digital technologies, devices and data are now woven into the fabric of contemporary societies. To describe this, we can say that we live in a 'sociodigital' world. This has become especially visible during the COVID-19 pandemic, during which we have seen rapid shifts to online education, healthcare and work, the extension of algorithmic decision making by government (e.g. A' Level results), and changes to shopping habits that may transform the high street for ever.

Social Science provides excellent resources for understanding the changes that have taken place to date. The question remains: what will our sociodigital futures look like? What kinds of futures are in the making? Who or what is shaping possible futures and what will this mean for currently widening social and economic inequalities and for the climate change crisis? These are challenging questions. We know, from the past, that we cannot make deterministic assumptions about new technologies or predict sociodigital futures with any certainty. However, this does not mean that we should abandon attention to the future. To the contrary, the stakes have never been higher. With a global recession looming, widening socio-economic inequalities and an underlying climate crisis, it is essential that we establish a new approach, one that will create actionable knowledge for reflexive, inclusive and sustainable sociodigital futures.

The ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures begins from the premise that while the future is unknowable, how the future is enacted in the present - discursively, materially and by whom - matters enormously. This shifts the focus of attention towards the social relations of future making in the present: what claims are made about sociodigital futures, how do these drive investments, policies and expectations? What futures do these open up, and close down? And which of these start to shape 'actual futures', through the changing practices of communities, businesses, policy makers and others? Answering these questions presents an ambitious agenda, and a unique proposition for UK and international Social Science. To address this agenda we will deliver a distinctive programme of high impact empirical research and capacity building, by drawing together four distinct forms of expertise: (i) expertise in specific domains of everyday life - caring, consuming, learning, moving and organizing; (ii) expertise in the theories, methodologies and practices of future making; (iii) technical expertise in Artificial Intelligence, Virtual/Alternative Realities, Robotics and High Performance Networks; and (iv) co-production expertise to drive participatory, inclusive and sustainable future-making.

The Centre has been designed and will be implemented with strategic partners well-placed to deliver on the creation of inclusive and sustainable sociodigital futures. Our partners have a significant influence on the environment (UK Department for Farming, Environment and Rural Affairs), digital service delivery (British Telecom -serving 170 countries), security (the National Cybersecurity Centre), community (Locality - 1300 members support 307,000+ people/week), education and culture (the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization - supporting peace through international cooperation, and leaders of the UN Foresight Network). Working with these partners, we will build the capacity to engage with sociodigital futures-in-the-making, to anticipate possible risks and opportunities, and tip the balance towards more positive futures.