Leighton Evans is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA), National University of Ireland, Maynooth working as part of the ERC funded Programmable City Project. Leighton’s research focus is on how software has transformed modes of working and the nature and forms of work in software-mediated work environments. Leighton was previously a researcher and lecturer at the department of media studies at Swansea University, and has researched smart logistics at Cardiff University. In 2013, Leighton received his PhD from Swansea University. Leighton is the author of the book Locative Social Media: Place in the Digital Age.

Prior to studying and working at Swansea University, Leighton was a further education lecturer in England and has worked in the field of logistics as well as in social housing and the charity sector. Leighton has worked on a number of research projects since 2008, including work on deaf and hard-of-hearing television audiences and the digital switchover in Wales, the Icelandic financial crash and discourses of financialisation, and the media industry in Somalia.

Research Interests:

Leighton’s current research interests are on the role of software in the workplace and the transductions of the work environment due to the kinds of code and software used in workplaces. This research will consist of four in-depth case studies that will form the basis of ethnographies of the software-mediated workplace, to be conducted in Dublin and Boston. Leighton’s research background is in the Philosophy of Technology and new media, and Leighton has published work on social media, location-based social networking, phenomenology, webnography, management systems, smart logistics and contingencies in ICT-enabled supply chains.

Publications:

Books:

Evans, L (2015), Locative Social Media: Place in the Digital Age, London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Papers:

Evans, L., Wu, Y. and Price, E. (2015). A new hope: Experiences of accessibility of services in deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences post-digital television switchover. International Journal of Digital Television, 6 (3), pp. 347-366.

Evans, L. (2015). Being-Towards the Social: mood and orientation to location-based social media, computational things and applications. New Media and Society, 17 (6), pp. 845-860. doi: 10.1177/1461444813518183.

Wang, Y., Sanchez-Rodrigues, V. and Evans, L. (2015). The Use of ICT in road freight transport for CO2 reduction – an exploratory study of UK’s grocery retail industry. The International Journal of Logistics Management, 26 (1), 2-29.

Evans, L. (2014). Maps as Deep: Reading the Code of Location-based Social Networks. IEEE Technology and Science Magazine, 33 (1), 73-80.

Wang, Y.,  Evans, L., Owusu, G. and McCormick, A. (2013) Data Integrity Issue in Asset-Intensive Industry. Journal of Advanced Management Science, 1 (3), 338-343.

Evans, L. (2011). Location-based Services: Transformation of the experience of space.Journal of Location Based Services, 5 (3-4), pp. 242-260.

Evans, L. (2010). Thus Sang the Manic Street Preachers. Philosophy Now, 80, pp. 26-27.

Book Chapters:

Wang, Y., Naim, M. and Evans, L. (2013). Enabling Smart Logistics for Service Operations. In Owusu, G., O’Neill, P., McCall, J. and Doherty, N. F. (Eds.) Transforming Field and Service Operations. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 237-256.

Evans, L. (2013). How to Build a Map for Free: immaterial labour and location-based social networking. In Lovink, G. and Rasch, M. (eds.) Unlike Us: Social Media Monopolies and Their Alternatives, Amsterdam: Institute for Network Cultures.

Evans, L., and Rees, S. (2012). An interpretation of the Digital Humanities. In Understanding Digital Humanities (ed. Berry, D.M.). London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 21-41.

Evans, L. (2010). A Phenomenological Analysis of Social Networking. In Humanity in Cybernetic Environments (ed. Riha, D.). Oxford: Inter-disciplinary Press.

Evans, L. (2010). Authenticity Online: Using Webnography to Address Phenomenological Concerns. In New Media and the Politics of Online Communities (ed. Mousoutzanis, A. and Riha, D.). Oxford: Inter-disciplinary Press.

Presentations and Conferences

2015 – Surveillance and Citizenship, Cardiff University. The Privacy Parenthesis: Citizenship in Late Capitalism and the Digital World. 19/6/2015

2015 – Bradshaw, R and Evans, L. STS Conference, Graz, Austria, Exploring Design in the Bike Share Sector. 12/5/2015.

2015 – Wu, Y, Evans, L and Price, E. MeCCSA, Northumbria University, Generations of Deaf/Hard of Hearing Audiences for Television: A Study of the Impact of the Digital Switchover. 7/1/2015.

2014 – Conference of Irish Geographers, UCD. Cows and Code: A literature review of Software and Farms. 

2014 – Code and the City Workshop, Maynooth University. Feeling Place in the City. 

2013 – Conditions of Mediation: Phenomenological Approaches to Media, Technology and Communication, Birbeck, University of London. The Importance of Being-Towards Social: mood and orientation to things and applications in social media.

2013 – Unlike Us #3, Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam. Buying and Selling People and Places: The Political Economy of Mobile Social Media.

2013 – BILETA, University of Liverpool. The right to be forgotten against the possibility: forgetting the user in the digital media age.

2011 – MeCCSA postgraduate conference, Bournemouth University. Assembling the location.

2011 – AISB Philosophy and Computing symposium, University of York. Object-oriented Philosophy: the nature of relations between humans and computational objects.

2010 – 5th Global Conference: Cybercultures, Salzburg, Austria. Authenticity Online: using webnography to address phenomenological concerns.

2009 – MeCCSA postgraduate conference, Bangor University. Networked Alterity.

2008 – Visions of Humanity in Cyberculture, Cyberspace and Science Fiction, Mansfield College, Oxford University. The phenomenology of Social Networking.

2007 – Royal Institute of Philosophy Student Conference, University of the West of England. What value attaches to a restored landscape?

Awards

Evans, L. and Murphy, M. H. (2014). Award of £1160 for one-day workshop on privacy and technology issues, “Privacy: gathering insights from Lawyers and Technologists”. Held at Maynooth University, 1st July 2015.

Blogs

Evans, L. (2014) Wearing the Self (September BLOG Article)