Research, Partnerships & Inquiry
Research Collaboration
I welcome opportunities to collaborate with researchers, universities, policymakers, and organisations interested in exploring the evolving dynamics of digital participation, digital communities, and future-proofed digital societies.
Research Collaboration & Partnerships
My work sits at the intersection of digital inclusion, online communities, civic participation, and emerging technologies, with a particular interest in understanding how individuals and communities form meaningful relationships with digital systems.
Through research, observations, and community practice, I explore questions such as:
- How does digital participation actually emerge in online environments?
- What social processes shape digital community formation?
- How can communities become resilient and future-ready in a digital age?
- What governance structures are needed for trustworthy digital systems?
Areas of Research Interest
Digital Participation Systems
Exploring how individuals enter, navigate, and sustain participation in digital environments, and how those pathways shape wider social inclusion.
Online Community Formation
Understanding how identity, belonging, collaboration, and social connection emerge within digital communities.
Gaming and Social Digital Environments
Examining multiplayer digital environments as spaces where social learning, digital participation, and community behaviour develop.
Future-Proofed Digital Communities
Applying the Seven Pillars framework to understand the broader ecosystem required for sustainable and inclusive digital societies.
Ethical Digital Systems
Exploring the design of responsible digital systems, including emerging technologies such as AI and conversational agents.
Place-Based Digital Inclusion
Investigating how communities, local partnerships, and lived experience shape effective digital inclusion strategies.
Current Conceptual Work
Two developing frameworks currently underpin much of my research and writing:
Multiplayer Online Social Formation Cycle (MOSFC)
A conceptual model exploring how individuals move from curiosity to belonging in digital communities, particularly through multiplayer and social digital environments.
The Seven Pillars of Future-Proofed Digital Communities
A framework describing the ecosystem required for sustainable and inclusive digital participation across society.
Together, these ideas contribute to a broader exploration of digital participation systems.
Opportunities for Collaboration
- Academic research partnerships
- Joint publications or working papers
- Digital participation studies
- Gaming and digital community research
- Community-based digital inclusion research
- Interdisciplinary exploration of digital society
Open to Working With
- Universities and research groups
- Doctoral researchers and postgraduate students
- Policy research organisations
- Digital inclusion networks
- Civic technology organisations
- Community-led innovation projects
Research Approach
My work blends conceptual reflection, community practice, digital observation, and systems thinking. I am especially interested in collaborations that connect theory with practice and that help generate useful insights for communities, institutions, and policymakers.
Where relevant, this may include community-based inquiry, virtual ethnographic observation, strategic framework development, and interdisciplinary exploration of emerging digital systems.
Get in Touch
If you are working on related themes and would like to explore potential collaboration, I would be pleased to hear from you.
Research conversations often begin with simple exchanges of ideas.