Martin French

Research Program

As a sociologist, I study the social dimensions of technology with an empirical focus on communications & information technology (CIT). My research emphasizes the broader social and political contexts of CIT, focusing especially on risk, surveillance, privacy, and social justice.

The aim of this research program is to create an evidentiary foundation for understanding the relationship between information flows, the practices that nurture or impede them, and the resulting configurations of governance that they enable or disrupt.

Recent Publications

• Hastings, Colin, Martin French, Alexander McClelland, Eric Mykhalovskiy, Barry Adam, Laura Bisaillon, Katarina Bogosavljevic, Marilou Gagnon, Saara Greene, Adrian Guta, Suzanne Hindmarch, Angela Kaida, Jennifer Kilty, Notisha Massaquoi, Viviane Namaste, Patrick O’Byrne, Michael Orsini, Sophie Patterson, Chris Sanders, Alison Symington, and Ciann Wilson (2024). “Criminal Code Reform of HIV Non-Disclosure is Urgently Needed: Social Science Perspectives on the Harms of HIV Criminalization in Canada,” Canadian Journal of Public Health 115: 8-14.
• Hoebanx, Pauline and Martin French (2023). “Interpassive Gambling: The Case of Slot Machine Vlogs on YouTube,” Critical Gambling Studies, 4(1): 66–76.
• Murch, W. Spencer, Sylvia Kairouz, Sophie Dauphinais, Elyse Picard, Jean-Michel Costes and Martin French. (2023). “Using Machine Learning to Retrospectively Predict Self-Reported Gambling Problems in Quebec,” Addiction, 118(8): 1569-1578.
• Spieldenner, Andrew, Martin French, Venita Ray, Brian Minalga, Cristine Sardina, Robert Suttle, Marco Castro-Bojorquez, Octavia Lewis, and Laurel Sprague. (2022). “The Meaningful Involvement of People Living with HIV/AIDS (MIPA): The Participatory Praxis Approach to Community Engagement on HIV Surveillance,” Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, 14 (2): 1-11.
• French, Martin, Dani Tardif, Sylvia Kairouz and Annie-Claude Savard (2021). “A Governmentality of Online Gambling: Quebec’s Contested Internet Gambling Website Blocking Provisions,” Canadian Journal of Law & Society, 36(3): 483-504. ( Canadian Law and Society Association Prize for Best Journal Article of 2021).
• Whitson, Jennifer and Martin French (2021). “Productive Play: The Shift from Responsible Consumption to Responsible Production ,” Journal of Consumer Culture, 21(1): 14-33.
• Zanescu, Andrei, Marc Lajeunesse, and Martin French (2021). “Speculating on Steam: Consumption in the Gamblified Platform Ecosystem ,” Journal of Consumer Culture, 21(1): 34-51.