Prof Ben Light
+44 (0)161 295 5443
Ben joined the University in 1999 after working at the University of Manchester.
He is Professor of Digital Media, Director of the Information Systems, Organisations and Society Research Centre and a member of the University's Digital Cluster Executive.
You can also find versions of Ben on Facebook and Gaydar.co.uk - you'll need to look hard to find the latter!
Before working in higher education, he undertook several administrative jobs within the UK's National Health Service and even spent some time as a Health Promotion worker with MESMAC, a sexual health organisation.
Ben is interested in how people get different kinds of technologies to work for them on an everyday basis. He started looking at this in the 1990s, generally in the workplace. Since then he has found that developments outside work have tended to hold his attention more.
He still does research about people and work, but given the way life is being played out in many (but not all) parts of the world, he thinks there's more to do beyond this.
His current research agenda centres on analysing the development and use of social media such as those that support romantic relationships - internet dating (specifically Gaydar), those that are more focussed upon platonic relationships (such as Facebook), and Digital Gaming artefacts.
Ben's current projects include:
• A study of Facebook
• An ongoing ethnography of Gaydar
• With Marie Griffiths - A study of 'Habbo'
• With Gordon Fletcher - A gaming oriented study of SingStar
• With Elaine Ferneley and Gordon Fletcher - A social network oriented study of SingStar
• With Zeeshan Amin - A study of PlayStation Portable (PSP) device appropriation
• With Eileen Whattam - An investigation into ICTs and community empowerment
You can find some of Ben's recent papers and presentations in these areas listed below. For more detailed information see benlight.org
Journal Papers
Ferneley, E. and Light, B. (2008) Unpacking End-User Relations in an Emerging Ubiquitous Computing Environment: Introducing the Bystander, Journal of Information Technology 23(3), 163-175.
Fletcher, G. and Light, B. (2007) Going Offline: An Exploratory Cultural Artifact Analysis of an Internet Dating Site's Development Trajectories, International Journal of Information Management, 27(6), 422-431.
Griffiths, M. and Light, B. (2008) Social Networking and Digital Media Convergence: Classification and its Consequences for Appropriation, Information Systems Frontiers 20(4), 447-459.
Light, B. Fletcher, G. and Adam, A. (2008) Gay Men, Gaydar and the Commodification of Difference, Information Technology and People, 21(3), 300-314.
Light, B. (2007) Introducing Masculinity Studies to Information Systems Research: the Case of Gaydar, European Journal of Information Systems, 16(5), 658-665.
Conferences and Workshops
Ferneley, E., Fletcher, G. and Light, B. (2008) Access All Areas? The Evolution of SingStar from the PS2 to PS3 Platform, Association of Internet Research Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Griffiths, M. and Light, B. (2008) Social Networking and Digital Gaming Media Convergence: Consequences for Appropriation in Habbo Hotel, Under the Mask: Perspectives on the Gamer Conference, the Research Institute for Media, Art and Design, University of Bedfordshire.
Griffiths, M., Light, B. and McGarrie (2008) Antisocial Behaviour Orders: Unanticipated Directions in Social Network Site Development, European Conference on IS, Galway, Ireland.
Fletcher, G. and Light, B. (2008) Tech's, Drugs and Rock and Roll: Technological Complicity in the Domestication of Gaming, European Association for the Study of Science and Technology/Society for Social Studies of Science Joint Meeting.
Fletcher, G. and Light, B. (2008) Making the Game work? Lessons from Ethnographies of SingStar, CITASA workshop, American Sociological Association, Boston, U.S.A.
Fletcher, G. and B. Light (2007). Gaydar on the Radar: Sexualities, Technologies and Cultures. Paper Presented at The Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Annual Conference Montreal, Canada.
Light, B. (2007) (Social) Construction Workers on the Net: Gaydar and the Shaping of Masculinities, Gender, Work and Organization, Keele, UK.
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