Research Agenda
My research investigates the sociotechnical entanglements through which emergent systems—ranging from civilian unmanned aerial vehicles, to social media platforms and artificial intelligence—reconfigure labor, communication, social dynamics, modalities of governance, and the production of knowledge. Grounded in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and qualitative sociology, I employ multi-sited ethnographic methods, digital research methods, and archival methods to examine these systems in both Global North and South contexts. My work spans four domains: civilian drone cultures (the “Drone Society”), the cultural and governing logics of algorithms and platforms, the genealogies and methods of STS itself, and theoretical engagements with cybernetics. Across my publications, ongoing book projects, and teaching, I foreground the experiences of marginalized publics and seek to build frameworks for more equitable and democratic technological futures.
I have several manuscripts and book chapters currently under review or in preparation, including, but not limited to, articles on cybernetics, AI and ethnographic articles on drone-enabled labour. If you’re interested in seeing pre-print drafts or discussing potential collaborations, please visit the Contact page to reach out.
A training drone on a preparation table at a Remote Pilot Training Organization, emblematic of the pedagogy behind drone labor and surveillance practices. (Author’s own image)
Peer Reviewed Publications
2025: From Paradigms to Pluralities: A Comprehensive Review of Science and Technology Studies
This article offers a three-phase genealogy of STS—pre-Kuhnian empiricism, Mertonian–Kuhnian paradigms, and post-Kuhnian constructivism. It then analyzes how neoliberal globalization reshaped the field, before turning its attention to the epistemic pluralities forged by feminist, postcolonial, and queer interventions. In doing so, it introduces two guiding logics—“difference” and “convergence”—and highlights emerging methodological clusters such as meta-activism, participatory experiments, and boundary-crossing practices, calling for a historically grounded, methodologically plural, and politically engaged STS.
Issar, Shiv. “From Paradigms to Pluralities: A Comprehensive Review of Science and Technology Studies.” Communication Research Trends 44, no. 2 (2025): 4–28. https://www.proquest.com/docview/3224960155?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true
2024: The Social Construction of Algorithms in Everyday Life: Examining TikTok Users’ Understanding of the Platform’s Algorithm
This article explores how TikTok users socially construct the platform’s algorithm through narratives rooted in their everyday experiences. It frames the TikTok algorithm as a cultural artifact—shaped by psychosocial, socioeconomic, and sociopolitical factors—and employs a qualitative analysis of 100 TikTok videos to trace variations in users’ “algorithm awareness” and its effects on their understanding of, engagement with, and trust in the algorithmic system. The study’s findings underscore the importance of cultivating algorithmic literacies and offer critical insights into the broader dynamics of algorithmic culture in contemporary society.
Issar, Shiv. “The Social Construction of Algorithms in Everyday Life: Examining TikTok Users’ Understanding of the Platform’s Algorithm.” International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction 40, no. 18 (2024): 5384–5398. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2023.2233138
Media Coverage
- Molloy, Laura. 2024. “Could TikTok tarot fix your broken heart? Is it a ‘message meant for you’? Is it the algorithm? Or is it both?” Dazed Digital. Retrieved January 22, 2024, from https://www.dazeddigital.com/lifeculture/article/61767/1/could-tiktok-tarot-fix-your-broken-heart-readings-card-claim-psychic-algorithim
2022: Walking Simulators and an Ethics of Care: An Essay
This article examines “walking simulators” (e.g., Dear Esther, Firewatch, Death Stranding) as games that subvert conventional play by centering slow, reflective “walks” as sites of embodied, affective experience. Drawing on sociology, queer theory, and communication studies, it argues these titles act as awareness spaces where they enact an ethics of care through care-oriented labor practices and queer modes of engagement with virtual worlds.
Issar, Shiv. “Walking Simulators and an Ethics of Care: An Essay.” Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds 14, no. 3 (2022): 313–330. https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw_00064_3
2022: What Is Algorithmic Governance?
This co-authored article offers a unifying framework for algorithmic governance by tracing its lineage to the architecture of the Universal Turing Machine. It identifies three areas—surveillance (power), discrimination (social bias), and identification (system identity)—where automated systems shift contestable social issues into spaces of reduced negotiability, and discusses the resulting social asymmetries and inequities.
Issar, Shiv, and Aneesh Aneesh. “What Is Algorithmic Governance?” Sociology Compass 16, no. 1 (2022): e12955. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12955
Doctoral Dissertation
2024: Drone Society: An Abductive Analysis of Civilian Drone Culture
Through an abductive, multi-sited investigation of drone pilots’ experiences, this dissertation provides a sociologically-informed understanding of the processes that structure the identities and social practices of civilian drone pilots, as well as their role in shaping technonatural knowledge within the rapidly expanding “Drone Society.” By positioning civilian drones and their pilots as central components in an emergent social order—beyond militaristic, regulatory, and other technical domains—it examines the process of “becoming” a drone pilot, the nature of work and play within the drone society, the relationship between precarity and drone use, and the influence of drone media on perceptions of built and natural environments.
Winner: 2025 Media Ecology Association’s Harold A. Innis Award for Outstanding Thesis or Dissertation in the Field of Media Ecology.
Issar, Shiv. Drone society: An abductive analysis of civilian drone culture. PhD diss., University of Oregon, 2024. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/drone-society-abductive-analysis-civilian-culture/docview/3122916227/se-2?accountid=201395
Peer Reviewed Teaching Resources
2024: Issues in Science and Technology Studies
Issar, Shiv. 2024. “Issues in Science and Technology Studies.” TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology, February. Washington, DC: American Sociological Association. https://trails.asanet.org/article/view/issues-in-science-and-technology
2022: Teaching and Learning Guide for “What Is Algorithmic Governance?”
Issar, Shiv, and Aneesh Aneesh. 2022. “Teaching and Learning Guide for ‘What Is Algorithmic Governance?’” Sociology Compass, no. e12978. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12978
2020: Environmental Sociology (300-Level)
Issar, Shiv. 2020. “Environmental Sociology (300-Level).” TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology, November. Washington, DC: American Sociological Association. https://trails.asanet.org/article/view/environmental-sociology-300-level
Book Reviews
2023: Worn Out: How Retailers Surveil and Exploit Workers in the Digital Age and How Workers Are Fighting Back
Gooptu, Subhalakshmi, and Shiv Issar. 2023. “Book Reviews: Worn Out: How Retailers Surveil and Exploit Workers in the Digital Age and How Workers Are Fighting Back.” New Media & Society 26, no. 1 (2023): 596–598. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448231199176 (Original work published 2024)
2021: Men in Place: Trans Masculinity, Race and Sexuality in America
Issar, Shiv. 2021. “Book Review: Men in Place: Trans Masculinity, Race and Sexuality in America.” Teaching Sociology 49, no. 3 (2021): 306–309. https://doi.org/10.1177/0092055X211023694
2021: Chasing Innovation: Making Entrepreneurial Citizens in Modern India
Issar, Shiv. 2021. “Book Review: Lilly Irani (2019), Chasing Innovation: Making Entrepreneurial Citizens in Modern India.” Science, Technology and Society 26, no. 1 (2021): 170–173. https://doi.org/10.1177/0971721820960016
Interviews
2022: On Building a Field: An Interview with the Co-Editors of the Routledge Handbook of Art, Science, and Technology Studies
Issar, Shiv. 2022. “On Building a Field: An Interview with the Co-Editors of the Routledge Handbook of Art, Science, and Technology Studies.” Society for Social Studies of Science. Retrieved May 30, 2022, from http://bit.ly/4m7AZAV
2021: Q&A with Janet Vertesi, Author of Shaping Science: Organizations, Decisions, and Culture on NASA’s Teams
Issar, Shiv. 2021. “Q&A with Janet Vertesi, Author of Shaping Science: Organizations, Decisions, and Culture on NASA’s Teams.” Official Website of the Science, Knowledge, and Technology Section. Retrieved September 3, 2021, from https://bit.ly/3Qn0wqk
2021: Q&A with Kathleen (Casey) Oberlin, Author of Creating the Creation Museum
Issar, Shiv. 2021. “Q&A with Kathleen (Casey) Oberlin, Author of Creating the Creation Museum: How Fundamentalist Beliefs Come to Life.” Official Website of the Science, Knowledge, and Technology Section. Retrieved April 25, 2021, from https://bit.ly/3xjjipO
2021: Q&A with Jeremiah Morelock, Author of Pandemics, Authoritarian Populism, and Science Fiction
Issar, Shiv. 2021. “Q&A with Jeremiah Morelock, Author of Pandemics, Authoritarian Populism, and Science Fiction.” Official Website of the Science, Knowledge, and Technology Section. Retrieved February 10, 2021, from https://bit.ly/3MPwB7h
2021: Q&A with Fernando Domínguez Rubio, Author of Still Life: Ecologies of the Modern Imagination at the Art Museum
Issar, Shiv. 2021. “Q&A with Fernando Domínguez Rubio, Author of Still Life: Ecologies of the Modern Imagination at the Art Museum.” Official Website of the Science, Knowledge, and Technology Section. Retrieved February 7, 2021, from https://bit.ly/3xu2MTN
Funding
My research has been supported by a variety of fellowships and awards from:
- Office of Research, Scholarship & Innovation at Nazareth University
- Department of Sociology at the University of Oregon
- Global Studies Institute at the University of Oregon
- Center for Asian & Pacific Studies at the University of Oregon
- Center for 21st Century Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
- Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.