Paula Bialski

Professor for Digital Sociology

Middletech: software ​work and the culture of ​good enough

An ethnographic story of neither the tech giant or the ​flashy startup, but the run-of-the-mill Middletech: a place ​where software is built to be just “good enough” to ​function and workers create and sustain a complex culture ​of good enoughness.


The book is now available with Princeton University Press.


I am an Associate Professor for Digital Sociology at the University of St. Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland. I am an ethnographer of digital technologies, looking at contexts of usage as well as production, and I frame my research within science and technology studies in particular. My previous book, “Becoming Intimately Mobile,” (Peter Lang: 2012), ethnographically researched hospitality networks (Couchsurfing.com), and ride-sharing websites (Mitfahrgelegenheit.de) in order to understand how platforms that mediate intimacy and trust between strangers are designed and used. I am also a musician with the band Paula & Karol and mother. I live in a small village in eastern Switzerland.

Public Talks & Gigs


The following is a list of upcoming lectures and public speaking events scheduled for Middle Tech


Lectures


3rd of September 2024 - STS Switzerland, University of Lausanne

3rd of October 2024 - Department of Sociology, University of Neuchatel

8th November 2024 - Copenhagen Business School

19th of November 2024 - Digital Transformation in Society & Culture

Public Lectures, University of Fribourg

20th of November 2024 - Zentrum für kulturwissenschaftliche Forschung (ZKF), University of Konstanz

30th of January 2025 - RUST Lab, University of Bochum

10th of February 2025 - Department of Anthropology, University of Oxford











Radio & Podcasts



Techtonic, WFMU