David Morley’s interdisciplinary work spans media audience/technology studies, cultural geography and globalisation. He has held visiting Professorships/Fellowships at universities in Australia, China, France, Mexico, Spain, Sweden and the United States. His work has been translated into 22 languages.
As a member of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in Birmingham, he worked with Stuart Hall to develop empirical research based on the paradigm-setting encoding/decoding model of media audiences. He has subsequently co-edited two critical collections of Hall`s work ('Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies`, 1996 and `Conversations, Projects and Legacies` 2016), and most recently he has edited the two-volume set of Hall’s `Essential Essays` (Vol 1 `The Foundations of Cultural Studies`; Vol 2 `Identity and Diaspora`) to be published by Duke University Press in 2019.
At CCCS he pioneered the development of anthropological and ethnographic techniques in audience/technology studies (see `Towards an Ethnography of Media Audiences` 1974). His work helped to set the conceptual agenda for the study of media consumption internationally, focussing initially on questions of class (in the widely influential `Nationwide Audience` ,1978), and later on questions of gender and domesticity, in studies of the household uses of information and communication technology (`Family Television` 1986)
His subsequent work in cultural geography (`Spaces of Identity` 1996, ; `Home Territories` 2000 and `Media Modernity and Technology` 2006) encompasses macro questions about the role of satellite television , the Internet and the mobile phone in the constitution of the electronic landscapes within which we now live. His latest book `Communications and Mobility : the Mobile Phone, the Migrant and the Container Box` (2016) investigates the changing articulation of virtual and material geographies It seeks to offer a grounded critique of the paradigms of `nomadology` which have come to dominate contemporary work on phenomena such as `techno-globalisation` and `de-territorialisation` and re-examines ideas of home, community, place and territory, in the context of the spread of identity panics and the tightening of borders, across the globe.
He is the editor of the Comedia book series for Routledge and is on the Editorial/Advisory Boards of a number of journals, including Cultural Studies, The European Journal of Cultural Studies, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies and Television and New Media
A dialogue on domesticationMorley, David G. and Hartmann, Maren. 2023. A dialogue on domestication. In: Maren Hartmann, ed. The Routledge Handbook of Media and Technology Domestication. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9781032184142
Introduction Part IMorley, David G.. 2021. Introduction Part I. In: Annette Hill; Maren Hartmann and Magnus Andersson, eds. The Routledge Handbook of Mobile Socialities. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 19-21. ISBN 9780367543976
The Politics of Theory and Method in Cultural StudiesMorley, David G.. 2018. The Politics of Theory and Method in Cultural Studies. In: Julian F. Henriques; David G. Morley and Vana Goblot, eds. Stuart Hall: Conversations, Projects and Legacies. London: Goldsmiths Press, pp. 47-53. ISBN 9781906897475
Can Western Europe be at home in the Balkans? Drakulić, Slavenka; Morley, David G.; Krajina, Zlatan and Blanuša, Nebojša. 2016. Can Western Europe be at home in the Balkans? In: Zlatan Krajina and Nebojša Blanuša, eds. EU, Europe, Unfinished: Mediating Europe and the Balkans in a Time of Crisis. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, pp. 217-238. ISBN 9781783489787
Electronic Landscapes: Between the Virtual and the ActualMorley, David G.. 2011. Electronic Landscapes: Between the Virtual and the Actual. In: M Christensen; A Jansson and C Christensen, eds. Online Territories: Globalisation, Mediated Prartice and Social Space. New York: Peter Lang, pp. 273-290. ISBN 978-1-433-10797-9
Canons, Orthodoxies, Ghosts and Dead SatuesMorley, David G.. 2009. Canons, Orthodoxies, Ghosts and Dead Satues. In: Ladina Bezzola Lambert and Andrea Ochsner, eds. Moment to Monument: The Making and Unmaking of Cultural Significance. Biedenfeld: Transcript Verlag, pp. 209-222. ISBN 978-3-889-42962-6
The Alternative Press - Press and PublishingMorley, David G.. 2007. The Alternative Press - Press and Publishing. In: Kate Coyer; Tony Dowmunt and Alan Fountain, eds. The Alternative Media Handbook. London: Routledge, pp. 47-58. ISBN 978-0415359658
`Unaswered Questions in Audience Research`Morley, David G.. 2006. `Unaswered Questions in Audience Research`. In: Isabelle Charpentier, ed. Comment sont reçues les oeuvres : Actualités des recherches en sociologie de la réception et des publics. Paris: Editions Créaphis. ISBN 978-2913610736
The Politics of Theory and AbstractionMorley, David G.. 2014. 'The Politics of Theory and Abstraction'. In: Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies 50 Years On. University of Birmingham, United Kingdom 24-25 June 2014.
Technologies, Territories and MobilitiesMorley, David G.. 2011. 'Technologies, Territories and Mobilities'. In: Lecture at Centre for Research In Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Communications and MaterialismMorley, David G.. 2010. 'Communications and Materialism'. In: Annual Van Zelst Lecture. School of Radio, Film and TV, Northwestern University, United States.
Communications and TransportMorley, David G.. 2008. 'Communications and Transport'. In: Towards a Materialist Communications Studies. Cultural Research Centre, University of Western Sydney, Australia.
New Times and New Spaces?Morley, David G.. 2008. 'New Times and New Spaces?'. In: New Times and New Spaces. School of Communications, University of Melbourne, United Kingdom.
Technologies of MagicMorley, David G.. 2006. 'Technologies of Magic'. In: Dept of Radio-Film-Television, NorthWestern University. Chicago, United States.
Globalisation, Borders and TechnologiesMorley, David G.. 'Globalisation, Borders and Technologies'. In: Globalisation, Borders and Technologies. Hsinchu University, Insitute for Social Research and Cultural Studies, Taiwan, Province of China.
