Hi all, excited to announce the first set of speakers for the ANU Sociology Seminar Series for 2025. Our first speakers are A/Prof Julia Coffey and A/Prof Steven Threadgold presenting their paper "Young people, platform practices and dimensions of the ‘data gaze’" Hope you can join us! All the best, Thao --- *Sociology Seminar Series 2025* "Young people, platform practices and dimensions of the ‘data gaze’" A/Prof Julia Coffey, University of Newcastle A/Prof Steven Threadgold, University of Newcastle *Date:* Monday 17 Feb, 12 – 1pm *Location:* 4.69 RSSS Building & Online (Zoom) *Full details: * https://sociology.cass.anu.edu.au/events/young-people-platform-practices-and... <https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsociology.cass.anu.edu.au%2Fevents%2Fyoung-people-platform-practices-and-dimensions-data-gaze&data=05%7C02%7Cu1168196%40anu365.mail.onmicrosoft.com%7C568a020e35b445d24ae608dd464863c9%7Ce37d725cab5c46249ae5f0533e486437%7C0%7C0%7C638743998934606374%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=ZqjDFZB7P3RJ6Td6Dbnan8VH6z1FCFK9MIbzEfsrtKM%3D&reserved=0> *Abstract* Data is now central to how we experience the social world. The concept of the ‘data gaze’ helps to understand how everyday life is viewed through data ‘in ever more forensic, strategic, predictive, and knowing ways’ (Beer 2018, p.25). In this presentation we present preliminary theorising from a range of projects to explore different dimensions of the data gaze where the classificatory logics of algorithmic and machinic gazes intersect with (and sometimes cross over) with young people’s own capacities to see and know themselves. Careful curation of images and content is an increasingly common-sense way for young people to negotiate the intense pressures of visibility in a digitally-networked world. This context requires developing ever-finer capacities to differentiate and classify images and individuals. Drawing from a study of young people’s selfie editing practices, we discuss the image-reading and classificatory systems young people use. This provides new understandings of how normalising logics of visibility and popularity shape how young people view themselves, their peers, and the world around them. We use the ‘data gaze’ to examine how young people critically engage with the with digital platforms central to their daily lives; and to also critically examine how platforms function to extract data and value from young people’s everyday practices. We ask: how are young people imagined by this data gaze? How does the data gaze inform their own practices, subjectivities, and orientations to their lives? *Bios* Julia Coffey is Associate Professor in Sociology at University of Newcastle, Australia. Her research focuses on youth and gender, with particular interests in feminism, embodiment and body work practices; and how bodies and identity is mediated through digital technologies and environments. She currently leads an Australian Research Council Discovery Project exploring young people's digital presentation and image-editing practices. She is on the editorial boards of Journal of Youth Studies, Qualitative Research, and Journal of Applied Youth Studies. She is the author of Body Work: Youth, Gender and Health (Routledge) and edited or coauthored titles Learning Bodies(Springer, with Helen Cahill and Shelley Budgeon), Youth Sociology (Red Globe Press, with Steve Roberts, Alan France and Cathy Waite) and Gender in an Age of Post-truth Populism (Bloomsbury, with Penny Jane Burke, Rosalind Gill and Akane Kanai. Her latest book is Everyday Embodiment: Rethinking Youth Body Image (2021, Palgrave Macmillan). Steven Threadgold is Associate Professor of Sociology the Director of the Newcastle Youth Studies Centre at University of Newcastle, Australia. His research focuses on youth and class, with particular interests in unequal and alternative work and career trajectories; underground and independent creative scenes; cultural formations of taste, and financial practices. Steve an Associate Editor of Journal of Youth Studies, and on the Editorial Boards of The Sociological Review, DIY, Alternative Culture & Society, and Journal of Applied Youth Studies. His latest book is Bourdieu and Affect: Towards a Theory of Affective Affinities (Bristol University Press). Youth, Class and Everyday Struggles (Routledge) won the 2020 Raewyn Connell Prize for best first book in Australian sociology. His latest edited collection with Jessica Gerrard is Class in Australia. This seminar will be chaired by A/Prof Gavin Smith (ANU)