Conference Agenda

This work addresses the rise of synthetic data in finance as one of the many disruptions that go hand in hand with the expansion of digitalization, platformization and AI capabilities in this sector. In the first part of this paper we deconstruct the narratives of the ‘synthesis of synthetic data’ into financial infrastructures – the institutions, information, technologies and rules enabling financial intermediation, this paper points to possibilities for developing much-needed counter-fictions through democratic deliberation, and the needs concerning both financial inclusion and participation in the global financial assemblage in Global South contexts. The second section contrasts the ambitious promises of synthetic data with their more gradual, fragmented, and uneven integration into global finance. We show, drawing on interviews and documents, how synthetic data in global finance has been taken-up in more piecemeal manner as their less-publicized drawbacks. Thirdly, we address the ruptures in governance stemming from the narratives of global finance and synthetic data when these are examined from the lens of global south players. Our findings are in line with the wider discrepancies between technological promise and realization, as earlier studies for instance of ‘big data’ in finance noted (Campbell-Verduyn et al 2017). On the other hand, the case of synthetic data reveals a growing governance role of previous back-office technology firms and other tech actors, providing potential new narratives from non-mainstrem tech and geographic actors.

Digital labor is undergoing profound shifts with the rise of AI-powered "digital twin" technologies, which promise to commodify identity and generate passive income through virtual human avatars. While scholarship on digital labor has largely focused on precarious gig work, this study examines how highly-paid 'elite' tech workers in New York conceptualize and justify their participation in digital cloning industries. Through in-depth interviews with software engineers, designers, and strategists in AI avatar startups, alongside discourse analysis of marketing materials and investor pitches, I explore the ideological and economic frameworks shaping the labor ascribed to AI-produced 'digital twins'.

Positioned within Platform Studies and Creator Studies, this study theorizes digital twin labor as a rupture in both work and embodiment. By decoupling labor from direct human effort, digital cloning introduces a new model of economic extraction that extends market logics into identity itself. Findings reveal three dominant narratives: (1) the valuation of passive income, where digital cloning is framed as a clever and convenient expansion of individual agency; (2) technological inevitability, which normalizes digital twins as a natural progression of technology; and (3) self as intellectual property, positioning identity as an asset to be monetized. These narratives illustrate tensions between empowerment and new forms of digital exploitation.

By critically analyzing these ruptures, this research contributes to broader discussions on automation, platformization, and digital sovereignty, shedding light on the ways digital labor is restructured in the age of AI-driven identity commodification.

This paper assesses the content creation of #GRWM videos by tween girls as a site of play and exploration under the commercial conditions and platform logics of TikTok as a digital play space. The paper explores the ludic possibilities of commercial digital identity performances and considers how tween girls navigate the digital by focusing specifically the #GRWM genre, and the creation of such videos by the multitude of tween girls with few followers.

This project engages in two research methodologies. 1) a critical genre analysis of the top GRWM influencers. 2) a) semi structured interviews and media-go-alongs with 20 tween girls, and b) through team based workshop where the 20 girls collaboratively and collectively reflect on their media creation practices and envision how these practices are articulated and understood to a wider public.

The purpose of this methodological form is to centre the voices and experiences of girls themselves as co-creators of knowledge, and to establish them as experts in their own their lives by inviting them to co-create research and share their multi-storied voices.

It would be easy to dismiss these videos as merely being imitative forms of aspirational labour of girls dreaming of becoming influencers but this would overlook the ludic possibilities of girls in these creative spaces of digital culture. Instead the project explores the complexity of girls’ play with commercial imaginaries in digital capitalism the paper draws from the fields of Play Studies, Girls’ Studies, Creator Studies, Critical Advertising Studies and Critical Digital Studies.

This paper critically analyses social media strategies for datafied exploitation. Our case study is the annual Insights (Year in Review) reports released by pornographic platform Pornhub between 2013-2024, on which we conducted detailed content and discourse analysis. The reports are extensive — the 2023 report, for example, contains 60 infographics and is 8,000 words long. We show that the reports are characterised by strategies of legitimisation, which work to actively celebrate not only the often-exploitative video content uploaded to Pornhub, but also the platform’s choices to harvest and exploit personal data from every user who accesses the site. These dual levels of exploitation are enabled by Pornhub’s platform infrastructure and use of social media logics. These findings lead us to argue that Pornhub should be recognised and researched as a significant player in the social media environment, rather than quarantined for analysis in specialist research on pornography. The celebration of data exploitation within the Insights reports thus illuminates parallel practices carried out by other social media platforms.