Dr Jean-Christophe Plantin is Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. His research investigates the politics of digital platforms, the evolution of knowledge infrastructures, and the rise of digital sovereignty.
His research investigates the increasing infrastructural role that digital platforms play in society. In his first book, Participatory Mapping: New Data, New Cartography, (Wiley, 2014) details the use of web-based mapping platforms (exemplified by Google Maps) by non-experts to participate in socio-technical debates, focusing on radiation mapping initiatives after March 11th 2011 in Fukushima, Japan. In 2017, he co-edited the volume Les données à l’heure du numérique. Ouvrir, partager, expérimenter (FMSH, 2017), in which international scholars design a critical theoretical framework to investigate the increasing reliance on big data in science and governance. He is currently writing a monograph on infrastructural investments by large tech companies (such as data centers, satellites, undersea cables).
His work has been published in leading Media and Communications journals, such as Media, Culture & Society, New Media & Society, Big Data & Society, Chinese Journal of Communication, and International Journal of Communication. His research has been funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the European Regional Development Fund, and the University of Michigan MCubed Program.
Before joining the Department in 2015, he was Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan (Department of Communication & School of Information). He holds a PhD in Communication Studies & Information Science from the Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France, and MAs from the Université Paris 8, France, and from the European Graduate School, Switzerland. He was Visiting Scholar at Northwestern University (Fall 2018) and Fudan University (September 2019).
At the LSE, Jean-Christophe was programme director for the MSc Media and Communications (Data and Society) in 2017 (Lent term) and 2018 (Lent and Summer Terms), and the programme director for the MSc Media and Communications (Research) in 2017-2018. He is currently the convenor of the Social Theory Network (with the Department of Sociology).
View CV.