Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Jathan Sadowski is a senior research fellow in the Emerging Technologies Research Lab and an associate investigator for the Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making in Society, both at Monash University. He is currently working on a DECRA fellowship from the Australian Research Council for a three-year project (2022-2025) researching the formation, applications, and implications of the insurance technology (insurtech) sector.
Jathan's work focuses on the political economy and social impacts of digital systems that are data-driven, networked, and automated. He investigates the often hidden interests, imperatives, and ideologies that influence the design and use of these “smart” technologies. Who benefits, who’s represented? Who loses, who’s left out? Why are things made in certain ways, for certain purposes—and how can we realise alternative pathways?
Jathan's book – Too Smart: How Digital Capitalism is Extracting Data, Controlling Our Lives, and Taking Over the World (2020, The MIT Press) – analyzes how the pursuit of power and profit is being materialized through smart tech. He outlines the impacts that are already emerging as our lives, homes, and cities are made smarter. He then offer a series of tactics for how to unmake and remake technology, putting it under democratic control so that it serves truly progressive and socially beneficial purposes.
In addition to publishing research in a wide-range of academic journals, Jathan also regularly writes and speaks about the politics of technology in many major media outlets. He is the co-host of a weekly podcast on technology and political economy: This Machine Kills.
Education/Academic qualification
Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology, Doctor of Philosophy, Arizona State University
Award Date: 9 Aug 2016
Research area keywords
- smart technology
- digital technology
- automation
- data and society
- political economy
- inequality
- urban geography
- social theory
Network
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VSL Project: City of Melbourne: Visual Sensing Language
Sadowski, J., Lanzeni, D., Dahlgren, K. & Pink, S.
Melbourne City Council (City of Melbourne)
12/06/20 → 21/09/20
Project: Research
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Beyond the driverless car: a typology of forms and functions for autonomous mobility
Jones, R., Sadowski, J., Dowling, R., Worrall, S., Tomitsch, M. & Nebot, E., 22 Nov 2021, (Accepted/In press) In: Applied Mobilities. 21 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
1 Citation (Scopus) -
How smart cities are made: a priori, ad hoc and post hoc drivers of smart city implementation in Sydney, Australia
Dowling, R., McGuirk, P., Maalsen, S. & Sadowski, J., 2021, In: Urban Studies. 58, 16, p. 3299-3315 17 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
4 Citations (Scopus) -
More work for Big Mother: revaluing care and control in smart homes
Sadowski, J., Strengers, Y. & Kennedy, J., 14 Jun 2021, (Accepted/In press) In: Environment and Planning A. 16 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
3 Citations (Scopus) -
Personalization and the Smart Home: questioning techno-hedonist imaginaries
Dahlgren, K., Pink, S., Strengers, Y., Nicholls, L. & Sadowski, J., 2021, (Accepted/In press) In: Convergence. 15 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
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What can HCI learn from sexual consent? a feminist process of embodied consent for interactions with emerging technologies
Strengers, Y., Sadowski, J., Li, Z., Shimshak, A. & Mueller, F. F., 2021, Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Bjørn, P. & Drucker, S. (eds.). New York NY USA: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 13 p. 405Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review
Prizes
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Most cited article – Antipode
Sadowski, Jathan (Recipient), 2022
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Most cited article – Big Data & Society
Sadowski, Jathan (Recipient), 2022
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Most cited article – Science, Technology & Human Values
Sadowski, Jathan (Recipient), 2022
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Press / Media
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The energy costs of staying at home
Kari Dahlgren, Jathan Sadowski, Yolande Strengers, Larissa Nicholls & Sarah Pink
21/08/20
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Article/Feature