Martin Hand

Martin Hand is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Queen’s University. He has degrees in Applied Social Science, Cultural Studies, and a PhD in Sociology from the University of York, UK. Before coming to Queen’s in 2004 he was a research associate in the Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition at the University of Manchester, UK.

Martin Hand’s research tries to understand relationships between social theory and ordinary practice focused upon the consumption of technologies of varying kinds across a range of contexts. This has involved collaborative research on sustainable domestic technologies, Internet governance, use and appropriation, and most recently the rise and proliferation of digital photography. His research takes a largely ethnographic approach to studying consumption and use. His recent work has been about the shifting relationships between analogue and digital technologies. He is currently developing a new project which will look at how digitization relates to new mobilities in a range of institutional contexts.

He is currently completing a book called Ubiquitous Photography (forthcoming, Polity Press) stemming from the research on the digitization of photography. His previous book Making Digital Cultures: access, interactivity and authenticity (2008, Ashgate) focused upon how the ‘digital turn’ has been understood in theoretical and discursive terms and how such understandings have in turn shaped the ways in which institutions adopt and manage digitization. His co-authored book The Design of Everyday Life (2007, Berg) stems from collaborative research in the UK on intersections of technology, design and practice across a range of ordinary aspects of everyday life, such as kitchen renovation and DIY. He has also published in a range of journals and collections, including Theory, Culture & Society, Journal of Consumer Culture, and Environment and Planning.