type="main" xml:lang="en" <title type="main">Abstract</title> <p>This essay suggests that hip-hop music may reasonably be thought of as a form of urban and regional research. The essay draws upon a recently published book by hip-hop artist Jay-Z, which provides biographical information alongside translations of the lyrical...</p>

<italic>The Wire</italic> has been viewed as a panoptic and institutional dissection of the dysfunctions of late capitalist urbanism. The accomplishment and totality of this vision has perhaps provoked introspection by academics pondering their internal efficacy (engaging students through teaching) and external...

This article uses a range of media sources to \'follow\' or \'trace\' the well-known celebrity Miley Cyrus. Through the development of the concept of a new melodramatic imagination the case study develops the methodological potentials of the types of online archives that now exist. In this...

This paper introduces the idea of Web 2.0 to a sociological audience as a key example of a process of cultural digitization that is moving faster than our ability to analyse it. It offers a definition, a schematic overview and a typology of the notion as part of a commitment to a renewal of...

The BBC has recently announced that Top of the Pops, the long-running weekly popular music programme, will broadcast its final episode in the summer of 2006. This brief \'rapid response\' article considers how the conclusion of Top of the Pops\' 42 year history may be understood as...

This article asks if it is possible to use commercial data analysis software and digital by-product data to do critical social science. In response this article introduces social media data aggregator software to a social science audience. The article explores how this particular software can be...