缅北禁地

Qualifications

• PhD - Bristol University
• MSc - Bristol University
• BA(hons) - Royal Holloway, University of London

Biography

James is a social scientist working at the intersections of media, cultural studies and human geography. James's research interests revolve around digital geographies and the cultures, economies and politics of smart technology and digital interfaces. He is author of (Bloomsbury 2017) and(Bloomsbury 2015), co-author of (Sage 2024) and co-editor of (Sage 2018). James has been principal investigator on a two year ESRC funded project with Dr Sarah Mills (Loughborough University) that examined (£351,903 2019-2021) and co-investigator on a one year EPSRC funded network, led by Dr Jen Bagelman (缅北禁地), which worked with migrant mothers to examine (£108,783 2020-21). Previously, James has been principal investigator on an eighteen month ESRC funded project that examined the role of (£202,657 2016-2018).

James currently sits on the Editorial Boards for the journals , and .

Publications

Please see James's for a complete list of their published books and papers.

PhD Supervision

James is currently co-supervising five PhD students:

• Jayne Dent is working on their PhD around communion and human-computer-interaction (co-supervised with Dr Tom Schofield and Dr Caroline Claisse).
• Min Li is researching idols and fandom on social media (co-supervised with Dr Clifton Evers and Dr Steve Walls).
• Kianoosh Mallaki is researching crypto-gambling and risk behaviour in young adults (co-supervised with Dr Josephine Jefferies and Dr Sohel Ahmed).
• Zimeng Zhang is researching social media and gender (co-supervised with Dr Sarah Hill).
• Huiwen Zhou is researching cosplay and gendered labour (co-supervised with Dr Sarah Hill and Dr Joss Hands).

James has supervised four students to completion of their PhDs:

• Dr Carl Olsson completed their PhD on Geography and the New Problem of Naturalism in 2024.
• Dr James Harper completed their AHRC Northern Bridge funded PhD research on Live Action Role Play (LARP) in 2020.
• Dr Altman Peng completed their PhD on Digital Social Norms and Mobile-Based Social Networking Applications in 2017.
• Dr Robin Bootes completed their PhD on Video Game Magazine Publishing in 2017.

James is keen to hear from students interested in pursuing a PhD in relation to topics including (but not limited to), digital interfaces, digital money and finance, app economies, phenomenology and new media, mobile media, media theory, new materialism, speculative realism and interdisciplinary projects across media studies and geography.

My research can be split into a number of projects that focus on digital interfaces and technology.

Between Gaming and Gambling: investigating children and young people’s experiences and understandings of gambling style systems in digital games (funded by ESRC, value £351,903, 2019-21)

I am currently principal investigator on an ESRC project with Dr Sarah Mills (Loughborough University) that is examining .

The digital games industry (broadly encompassing mobile, PC and console games) is increasingly adopting gambling style systems in their games in order to increase revenue. These gambling style systems take many forms, but primarily work to encourage players to unlock digital content in games that can only be accessed through systems of chance, which are purchased with real currency.

As Griffiths and King (2015) argue, there are a number of similarities between the techniques and mechanisms involved in the design of gambling style systems such as loot boxes in digital games and regulated gambling. For instance, both are designed to exploit desires for ‘one more go’ and the hope that the next box will have the item the player is looking for, thus making up for previous ‘failed’ purchases, where no desired or valuable item was present (Schull 2012). But, unlike gambling, which is a highly regulated activity in the UK and limited to people over the age of 18, gambling style systems in digital games are unregulated and regularly targeted at children and young people under 18.

Focusing on children’s experiences and practices and also engaging families and games designers, the project seeks to understand how young people use, make sense of and respond to gambling style systems in digital games in their everyday lives. Moving beyond purely legal or formal analyses of these systems, the project addresses the key societal question of whether these systems encourage gambling like behaviour and if they do then how can these systems and services be regulated? In doing so, the project will produce evidence to inform regulatory debate and influence public policy around gambling systems in digital games and changing definitions of digital gambling more broadly.

Digital Interfaces, Credit and Debt (funded by ESRC, value £202,657, 2016-18)

I was primary investigator on an ESRC funded project entitled with co-investigators Dr Ben Anderson, Dr Paul Langley and Dr Rachel Gordon that ran between 2016-18.

This 18 month project sought to understand how consumers access HCSTC (High Cost Short Term Credit), such as cash and pay day loans through digital interfaces, on personal computers and mobile devices and in turn how these interfaces shape decision making processes regarding the purchasing of credit. The project developed a novel approach to debt as an everyday phenomenon that is mediated through the relationship between technology and embodied practice. Understanding how people become indebted through digital interfaces is critical to analysing and explaining contemporary indebtedness because 82% of cash and pay day loans, a key form of HCSTC, are now applied for and managed via digital interfaces on laptops, tablets and smart phones (Competition and Markets Authority, 2015). Through original empirical investigation with designers and users of mobile interfaces, debt support charities and financial regulators, the research generated new evidence about everyday experiences of debt and indebtedness and contributes to important societal and academic debates about emerging forms of credit and problematic forms of economic subjectivity.

The project produced a and , an educational smart phone app for Apple and devices and a range of academic publications including articles in , and.

Game Interfaces (funded by ESRC 1 3 PhD studentship, value £61,500, 2004-08)

My ESRC funded MSc and PhD research at Bristol University examined how videogame environments are designed to capture and hold attention and generate positive affective and emotional states for players. This research drew upon qualitative data including interviews, observant participation and video ethnography with players and games designers. Since completing my PhD in 2009 I have published a range of work on videogames and games design from the project. This concern with videogames has lead to a broader interest in the role of the digital interface in everyday life, which culminated in a monograph entitled 'The Interface Envelope: Gaming, Technology, Power' published with Bloomsbury in 2015. The book develops a new theoretical model to understand how interfaces shape humans capacity to sense space and time. In doing so I argue interface designers attempt to manipulate spatio-temporal perception to generate new forms of affective value in the products they create.

Module leader:

MCH1023 'Introduction to Media'

MCH3081 'Digital Culture in a Networked World'

MCH3073 'Themes and Issues in Media and Cultural Studies'

Contributor:

MCH8057 'Media Analysis'

MCH3073 'Research Dissertation'

MCH8199 'Research DIssertation'

• Articles

  • Mills S, Ash J, Gordon R. . Children's Geographies 2024, 22(5), 778-794.
  • Mills S, Ash J, Gordon R. . Annals of the American Association of Geographers 2024, 114(1), 200-217.
  • Ash J. . Dialogues in Human Geography 2024, 14(1), 76-79.
  • Ash J, Gordon R, Mills S. . Cultural Geographies 2023, 30(1), 3-18.
  • Ash J. . Dialogues in Human Geography 2020, 10(3), 378-381.
  • Ash J. . Dialogues in Human Geography 2020, 10(3), 345-361.
  • Anderson B, Langley P, Ash J, Gordon R. . Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 2020, 45(2), 420-433.
  • Ash J. . Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 2019, 45(1), 181-193.
  • Ash J, Simpson P. . GeoHumanities 2019, 5(1), 139-156.
  • Langley P, Anderson B, Ash J, Gordon R. . Economy and Society 2019, 48(1), 30-51.
  • Ash J, Anderson B, Gordon R, Langley P. . Cultural Geographies 2018, 25(1), 165-181.
  • Ash J. . Annals of the American Association of Geographers 2018, 109(1), 161-172.
  • Ash J, Kitchin R, Leszczynski A. . Progress in Human Geography 2018, 42(1), 25-43.
  • Ash J, Anderson B, Gordon R, Langley P. . Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 2018, 36(6), 1136-1153.
  • Ash J. . Geoforum 2017, 82, 206-207.
  • Ash J. . Emotion, Space and Society 2015, 14, 84-90.
  • Ash J, Valiaho P. . Theory Culture & Society 2015, 32(7-8), 291-300.
  • Ash J, Simpson S. . Progress in Human Geography 2014.
  • Ash J. . Body and Society 2013, 19(1), 27-51.
  • Ash J. . Geoforum 2013, 49, 20-28.
  • Ash J. . Environment and Planning A 2012, 44(1), 187-203.
  • Ash J. . Theory, Culture and Society 2012, 29(6), 3-26.
  • Ash J, Gallacher L. . Geography Compass 2011, 5(6), 351-368.
  • Ash J. Teleplastic Technologies: charting practices of orientation and navigation in videogaming. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 2010, 35(3), 414-430.
  • Ash J. . Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 2010, 28(4), 653-671.
  • Ash J, Trigg M, Romanillos J. Videogames, visuality and screens: reconstructing the Amazon in physical geographical knowledge. Area 2009, 41(4), 464-474.
  • Ash J. Emerging spatialities of the screen: video games and the reconfiguration of spatial awareness. Environment and Planning A 2009, 41(9), 2105-2124.

• Authored Books

  • Ash J, Kitchin R, Leszczynski A. . London: Sage Publishing, 2024.
  • Ash J. . New York: Bloomsbury, 2017.
  • Ash J. . New York, NY, USA: Bloomsbury, 2015.

• Book Chapters

  • Ash J. . In: Ashutosh I; Winders J, ed. The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Cultural and Social Geography. London: Wiley Blackwell, 2025, pp.425-434.
  • Simpson P, Ash J. Phenomenology and Phenomenological Geography. In: Kobayashi, A, ed. International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. London: Elsevier, 2020, pp.79-84.
  • Ash J. . In: Kitchin, R; Graham, M; Mattern, S; Shaw, J, ed. How to Run a City Like Amazon, and Other Fables. London: Meatspace Press, 2019.
  • Ash J. . In: Hansmann, S; Geipel, F, ed. Raummaschine: Exploring Manifold Spaces. Berlin: Jovis Press, 2019, pp.114-117.
  • Ash J. . In: Farias, I; Wilkie, A, ed. Studio Studies: Operations, Topologies & Displacements. New York, NY, USA: Routledge, 2016, pp.91-104.
  • Ash J. . In: Hillis, K; Paasonen, S; Petit, M, ed. Networked Affect. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press, 2015, pp.119-134.
  • Ash J, Gallacher L. . In: Perry, M; Medina, C, ed. Methodologies of Embodiment: Inscribing Bodies in Qualitative Research. London, UK: Routledge Publishing, 2015, pp.69-85.
  • Anderson B, Ash J. . In: Vannini, P, ed. Non-Representational Methodologies: Re-Envisioning Research. London, UK: Routledge Publishing, 2015, pp.34-51.
  • Ash J. . In: Dittmer, J., Craine, J., Adams, P, ed. Ashgate Research Companion to Media Geography. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2013. In Press.
  • Ash J. . In: Bragg, S., Kehily, M.J, ed. Children and Young People's Cultural Worlds. London: Policy Press, 2013, pp.219-268.

• Edited Book

  • Ash J, Kitchin R, Leszczynski A, ed. . London, UK: Sage Publications Ltd, 2018.

• Reviews

  • Ash J, Taylor L, Attoh K, Pickles J, Thatcher JE, Dalton CM. . The AAG Review of Books 2024, 12(3), 54-66.
  • Ash J. . The AAG Review of Books 2023, 11(1), 54-64.
  • Ash J. . New Formations 2022, 104-105, 247-249.
  • Ash J. The Age of Disruption: Technology and Madness in Computational Capitalism. The AAG Review of Books 2020, 211-212.
  • Ash J. Netflix Nations: The Geography of Digital Distribution. Cultural Geographies 2019, 27, 2.
  • Ash J. For a techno-geography of sensing objects. Dialogues in Human Geography 2019, 9, 115-117.
  • Ash J. Starworlds: freedom vs control in online gameworlds. Cultural Geographies 2017, 3, 509.
  • Ash J. . Information, Communication & Society 2014, 17(9), 1173-1175.
  • Ash J. . Cultural Politics 2012, 8(3), 496-497.