DrJulian Prester

Project Opportunity 1: The Future of Digital Work — Ethnographic Studies of AI-Mediated Knowledge Work

Summary of opportunity: Understanding how artificial intelligence is reshaping professional knowledge work, with a focus on the lived experiences of workers navigating AI-augmented work settings.

Opportunity synopsis: The rapid integration of generative AI into knowledge work — writing, coding, analysis, design — is creating fundamentally new forms of professional practice. Yet we know very little about how workers actually experience, adapt to, and make sense of these changes in their daily work. This project uses ethnographic methods (participant observation, interviews, digital trace analysis) to study knowledge workers as they incorporate AI tools into their professional routines. Drawing on process-relational philosophy, the research examines how professional identity, expertise, and authority are being renegotiated in AI-mediated work settings. The project contributes to our understanding of the future of work and the emerging inequalities in AI-augmented professional practice. This opportunity builds on Julian's published work on identity performance in unsettled digital work and his ongoing research on human-AI configurations. Students with interests in qualitative research methods, digital work, or the sociology of professions are encouraged to apply. Contact Julian Prester to discuss.

Project Opportunity 2: Algorithmic Organising — How Bots, Code, and People Create Organisations

Summary of opportunity: Investigating how distributed, all-remote organisations use algorithms, bots, and transparent documentation to coordinate work without traditional managerial hierarchies.

Opportunity synopsis: A growing number of technology organisations operate with fully remote, distributed workforces and minimal managerial oversight. Instead, they rely on algorithmic tools — bots that triage issues, automated pipelines that enforce processes, and publicly editable handbooks that encode organisational norms. This project studies how such organisations work in practice: how decisions are made, how authority emerges, and what role human and non-human actors play in producing organisational order. The research draws on process theory, science and technology studies, and qualitative methods including digital ethnography and computational analysis. This opportunity builds on Julian's published work on digital platforms for knowledge work and his current research on algorithmic organising in open-source organisations. Students interested in organisation theory, digital platforms, open-source communities, or the future of management are encouraged to apply. Contact Julian Prester to discuss.

Project Opportunity 3: Video-Mediated Work — Analysing How Remote Organisations Meet, Govern, and Perform

Summary of opportunity: Using video analysis and multimodal conversation analysis to study how remote and distributed organisations conduct meetings, make decisions, and build organisational culture through video-mediated interaction.

Opportunity synopsis: The shift to remote and hybrid work has made video meetings the primary site where organisational life happens — from daily standups to board meetings, from one-on-ones to all-hands. Yet we still understand very little about how these interactions actually work: how participants coordinate turn-taking and attention across screens, how authority and accountability are performed on camera, and how the rituals of organisational governance are transformed when they move online. This project uses multimodal conversation analysis and video ethnography to study remote work meetings in depth. Drawing on approaches from Lorenza Mondada and the broader tradition of interaction analysis, students will work with video recordings of real organisational meetings to examine the embodied, material, and interactional dimensions of video-mediated work. This opportunity builds on Julian's current research on videoconferencing as labour, published in The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, and his ongoing study of publicly streamed board meetings in all-remote organisations. Students with interests in qualitative methods, conversation analysis, organisational communication, or the sociology of remote work are encouraged to apply. Contact Julian Prester to discuss.