Speaker(s): Professor Susan Halford | It is now well-established that digital devices, techniques and new forms of data are deeply implicated in the re-working of social life, and this has only just begun. At the same time, these devices, techniques and data are shaping what we know about social life, fuelling stark questions about the value of the established academic disciplines. Most famously, it has been claimed that only mathematics and computer science will be necessary in this Brave New World. Such disciplinary troubles are not new. Tracing their roots undermines both the imperialist tendencies of data evangelists and any temptation to insist on stabilising the recognised academic disciplines of the pre-digital era. Instead, this talk argues that we must stay with the disciplinary troubles that have been provoked by the digital era. Moving beyond any simple call for interdisciplinary collaboration, the talk explores computational thinking to reveal surprising similarities as wel
