Paula Bialski. Middle tech: Software work and the culture of good enough. Princeton University Press, 2024, pp. 224. ISBN: 9780691257167

Abstract

In a landscape increasingly preoccupied with the societal implications of digital technologies, from the pervasive influence of artificial intelligence (AI) to the dynamics of platform power, Paula Bialski’s Middle Tech: Software Work and the Culture of Good Enough (Princeton University Press, 2024) offers a timely intervention that looks at the nature and technical origins of these issues. Amidst different narratives that often oscillate between techno-utopianism and dystopian alarmism, Bialski’s ethnographic study provides a counter-narrative that reconsiders the foundations upon which digitalization is built, together with the digital communication tools and platforms that dominate it. For researchers trying to make sense of the opacity of “black box” technologies (Carabantes, 2020; Olesen, 2025), the vulnerabilities inherent in digital systems (Ananny, 2023; Barassi, 2024), and the complex interplay between human agency and technology, Bialski’s book is a valuable contribution to the field of media and communication studies, science and technology studies (STS), and digital sociology.