Looking for Love? Over the past decade, the market for online dating has been booming. And this did not leave the offline city unaffected. Listen to Sam Miles’ sharp account on what online dating is all about and what it has to do with the urban. Far from being an innocent tool of the lonely hearts, online dating has been accused of a range of real life issues such as racism, lookism, the casualization of sex, or the de-queering of the city-scape. And Sam tells us like it is.
Our guest:
Sam Miles
Sam is a Research Fellow at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK. He researches sexual and reproductive health and rights for marginalised people in low- and middle-income settings worldwide, including adolescents, sex workers and LGBTQ communities. He is interested in how digital technology mediates spaces, sexualities and health. His PhD in human geography at Queen Mary University of London examined the impact of locative dating apps including Grindr and Tinder on how men seek male partners for social and sexual encounters. Sam’s research on technology, geography and health has been published in Critical Public Health, AREA, Geography Compass, and Gender, Place and Culture. Digital technology has a lot to offer to urban citizens, but we need to think more about the less developed social codes we use to navigate this rapid growth in online-offline hybrid spaces.