All Outputs (12)

The decentralised finance of synthetic data: assets, infrastructures, subjectivities (2025)
Journal Article
Rella, L. (2025). The decentralised finance of synthetic data: assets, infrastructures, subjectivities. Finance and Space, 2(1), 396-410. https://doi.org/10.1080/2833115x.2025.2565528

Decentralised finance (DeFi) is often conceptualised as unregulated, disintermediated and distinct from traditional financial institutions, commonly referred to as ‘TradFi’. This paper, focusing on the case studies of JP Morgan’s FedSyn and WeBank’s... Read More about The decentralised finance of synthetic data: assets, infrastructures, subjectivities.

Politics of the prompt: Government in the age of generative AI (2025)
Journal Article
Amoore, L., Bennett, S., Campolo, A., Jacobsen, B., & Rella, L. (2025). Politics of the prompt: Government in the age of generative AI. Economy and Society, 1-24. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2025.2560177

This paper addresses the politics of the technique of prompting in machine learning, at a time when bureaucratic and democratic government is undergoing transformation. Drawing on the case of the UK government’s AI Redbox technology, we argue that pr... Read More about Politics of the prompt: Government in the age of generative AI.

A stack made in heaven? Exploring AI-blockchain intersections and their implications for labour and value (2024)
Journal Article
Rella, L., & Campbell-Verduyn, M. (2024). A stack made in heaven? Exploring AI-blockchain intersections and their implications for labour and value. Progress in Economic Geography, 2(2), 100026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.peg.2024.100026

How have socio-technical practices in blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) communities shaped one another and society more widely? This article explores the different and overlapping materialities, practices, spaces and places that the two mos... Read More about A stack made in heaven? Exploring AI-blockchain intersections and their implications for labour and value.

Hybrid materialities, power, and expertise in the era of general purpose technologies (2024)
Journal Article
Rella, L., Hansen, K. B., Thylsturp, N. B., Campbell-Verduyn, M., Preda, A., Rodima-Taylor, D., Xu, R., & Straube, T. (2025). Hybrid materialities, power, and expertise in the era of general purpose technologies. Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory, 26(1), 138-157. https://doi.org/10.1080/1600910x.2024.2414312

This article proposes three distinct perspectives on and approaches to the study of hybridisation across society, industries, and academia enabled by General Purpose Technologies like AI and blockchain. The term hybridisation is frequently invoked to... Read More about Hybrid materialities, power, and expertise in the era of general purpose technologies.

A world model: On the political logics of generative AI (2024)
Journal Article
Amoore, L., Campolo, A., Jacobsen, B., & Rella, L. (2024). A world model: On the political logics of generative AI. Political Geography, 113, 103134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2024.103134

The computational logics of large language models (LLMs) or generative AI – from the early models of CLIP and BERT to the explosion of text and image generation via ChatGPT and DALL-E − are increasingly penetrating the social and political world. Not... Read More about A world model: On the political logics of generative AI.

The material geographies of Bitfury in Georgia: Integrating cryptoasset firms into global financial networks (2023)
Journal Article
Wyeth, R., Rella, L., & Atkins, E. (2024). The material geographies of Bitfury in Georgia: Integrating cryptoasset firms into global financial networks. Environment and Planning A, 56(3), 816-832. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518x231211789

Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, have garnered significant attention in scholarship and beyond. Geographical work on cryptocurrencies has focussed on how their energy demand interacts with local communities and economies. Less is said about the org... Read More about The material geographies of Bitfury in Georgia: Integrating cryptoasset firms into global financial networks.

Close to the metal: Towards a material political economy of the epistemology of computation (2023)
Journal Article
Rella, L. (2024). Close to the metal: Towards a material political economy of the epistemology of computation. Social Studies of Science, 54(1), 3-29. https://doi.org/10.1177/03063127231185095

This paper investigates the role of the materiality of computation in two domains: blockchain technologies and artificial intelligence (AI). Although historically designed as parallel computing accelerators for image rendering and videogames, graphic... Read More about Close to the metal: Towards a material political economy of the epistemology of computation.

Machine learning, meaning making: On reading computer science texts (2023)
Journal Article
Amoore, L., Campolo, A., Jacobsen, B., & Rella, L. (2023). Machine learning, meaning making: On reading computer science texts. Big Data & Society, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231166887

Computer science tends to foreclose the reading of its texts by social science and humanities scholars – via code and scale, mathematics, black box opacities, secret or proprietary models. Yet, when computer science papers are read in order to better... Read More about Machine learning, meaning making: On reading computer science texts.

Problematising density: COVID-19, the crowd, and urban life (2022)
Journal Article
Joiner, A., McFarlane, C., Rella, L., & Uriarte-Ruiz, M. (2024). Problematising density: COVID-19, the crowd, and urban life. Social and Cultural Geography, 25(2), 181-198. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2022.2143879

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically transformed the fundamentals of city management and everyday life. Density has been at the centre of this transformation. But how were densities managed during the pandemic? What are the political implications? And... Read More about Problematising density: COVID-19, the crowd, and urban life.

Steps towards an Ecology of Money Infrastructures: Materiality and Cultures of Ripple (2020)
Journal Article
Rella, L. (2020). Steps towards an Ecology of Money Infrastructures: Materiality and Cultures of Ripple. Journal of Cultural Economy, 13(2), 236-249. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2020.1711532

Money’s materiality produces an ontological conundrum for social theory: should the analysis of money foreground the objects used as money, or the abstract relations that underpin it? Provoked by the emergence of cryptocurrencies, this paper develops... Read More about Steps towards an Ecology of Money Infrastructures: Materiality and Cultures of Ripple.

Blockchain (2019)
Book Chapter
Rella, L. (2020). Blockchain. International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (2nd Edition). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-102295-5.10514-1

A blockchain is a distributed, time-stamped, append-only ledger of data connected with addresses, simultaneously kept on all the nodes within a decentralized network. Blockchain technologies vary depending on their openness, consensus algorithms, and... Read More about Blockchain.

Blockchain technologies and remittances: From financial inclusion to correspondent banking (2019)
Journal Article
Rella, L. (2019). Blockchain technologies and remittances: From financial inclusion to correspondent banking. Frontiers in Block Chain, 2, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbloc.2019.00014

Since their emergence, blockchain technologies have shown potential for financial inclusion and the formalization of remittances. Recently, regulators and practitioners have studied the capabilities of blockchain technologies to streamline and, poten... Read More about Blockchain technologies and remittances: From financial inclusion to correspondent banking.