Dr Daniel Joseph

My profile

Biography

Academic and professional qualifications

PhD (2017) Toronto Metropolitan & York Universies, Communication and Culture: Distributing Productive Play: A Materialist Analysis of Steam.

MA (2012) Toronto Metropolitan & York Universities, Communication and Culture

BA (2009) Wilfrid Laurier University, History & Communication Studies, Honours 

Personal website address

danieljamesjoseph.net

Interests and expertise

I am digital sociologist researching  the political economy of digital culture. I have published papers on gamblification and loot boxes in games, advertising and social media platforms, cultural and industrial policy, game and app distrbution platforms. I have also worked as an organizer to advocate unionization in the games industry with Game Workers Unite and have written as a freelance writer for magazines such as Vice’s Waypoint, Jacobin, Real Life Mag, and Briarpatch.

Teaching

Undergraduate teaching

I am the unit leader on our level 4 units Digital Society and Social Theory.

Postgraduate teaching

I am the unit leader for Digital Global Society, a core unit for our new MSc in Digital Society. 

Subject areas

Digital Sociology

Research outputs

Press and media

Media appearances or involvement

Journalism

Delivering People” - writing about the commodification of audiences at Real Life Magazine 

Two-Faced: The Culture of Platform Capitalism” - A discussion of the political economy of multi-sided markets for Real Life Magazine

Code of Conduct: Platforms are taking over capitalism, but code convenes class struggle as well as control” - more ruminations on platforms at Real Life Magazine

Platforms for people, not profit” in Briarpatch Magazine writing about how the left in Canada needs to get serious about democratic platforms

The Time Canada Wanted Its Own Internet Because It Thought the US Would Mess It Up” A piece I wrote over at Vice’s Motherboard writing about the Science Council of Canada’s 1971 report on the “Trans-Canada Computer Communications Network”

Digital Games: A Canary in the Coal Mine of Capital” - A recording on YouTube of my talk in Toronto for The Capitalism Workshop at the Workers Action Centre

Media appearances

The Great Consolidation of the Video Game Industry” - Lewis Gordon interviewed me for a long piece on market concentration in the games industry 

Organizing against precarity” an interview with me about organizing with Game Workers Unite over at The People’s Voice.

My dissertation was discussed by Will Partin in his Waypoint review of Steam’s card game, Artifact.

I was interviewed by freelance journalist Matthew Gault for this story about Fortnite’s business model.

I make a brief appearance over here in a recent CBC report about labour conditions in the digital games industry CBC report here, representing Game Workers Unite.

I also make a brief appearance (based on the footage above) in this recent episode of Patriot Act about labour conditions in the digital games industry.