Megamachines That Inhabit Your Phone
About
The Department of Marketing is delighted to welcome Professor Donald MacKenzie (University of Edinburgh) for his talk: Megamachines That Inhabit Your Phone: The Material Political Economy of Digital AdvertisingUp to two trillion ad auctions occur daily, operating at ‘megamachine’ scale with major carbon impact. These vast networks rely on countless physical machines, including your phone, anchored to a 32-digit identifier (e.g., Apple’s IDFA). Drawing on 119 interviews, Professor MacKenzie explores how Apple’s IDFA restrictions disrupted the digital ad economy and reshaped mobile advertising.
A sociologist of technology, Professor MacKenzie’s research on financial markets pioneered the use of philosopher John L. Austin’s performativity theory in business studies. His latest book, Trading at the Speed of Light (2021), examines ultrafast financial algorithms. He is co-authoring Inside Digital Advertising: Platforms, Power, and Material Politics (2025).
Date
Wednesday 12 March 2025 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM (UTC+00)Location
Lancaster University Management School
Lecture Theatre 3, Lancaster, Lancashire LA1 4YX
Contact Form
Megamachines That Inhabit Your Phone
Resend recently purchased tickets to our events to your email.
Enter email to start search
You can review the event organiser's terms and conditions here.