Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol

I am an associate professor at the Faculty of Information and Communication Sciences, Open University of Catalonia (UOC) and a senior researcher at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3-UOC).
Mobile communication has been my entry point into the study of the peripheries of digital society – those segments that, voluntarily or not, find themselves excluded from the hyper-digitalized society due to lack of representation or resources. Currently, my primary research focus is digital (mobile) communication in the case of older people, a social group now gaining considerable interest. I approach old age by considering the diversity of this life stage, which is culturally under re-definition. Additionally, I am interested in the critical analysis of the effects of hyper-datafication and digital methodologies. What are the potentials and limitations entailed by the quantitative methods inherent to big data paradigms? How do these approaches create, reinforce, or eliminate social peripheries?