Mathieu’s research focuses on the communicational, political-economic and organizational aspects of commons-based and oriented peer production, such as free and open source software. He is currently leading an international team investigating the co-production of free and open source software by firms and projects as well as how this co-production is represented in IT media (Critical Digital Infrastructure Fund, Sloan and Ford Foundations, 2019-2020). Mathieu has played a key role in developing the field of peer production studies by founding the Journal of Peer Production; editing four issues of this journal; and being lead editor of a Handbook of Peer Production (Wiley, 2020).

Mathieu has also made significant contributions to the development of innovative online research methods and concepts through his work with the ANU's Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online Networks, a world leader in computational social science, web science, and big data analytics. Mathieu was a member of the team which obtained ARC grant SR0567298, a Special Research Initiative (e-Research Support) to set up the Observatory. His subsequent research on social movements, risk issue diffusion and the adoption of innovation in the online environment brought together conceptual frameworks such as social network analysis and the sociologies of fields and controversies. The quality of this research was recognised when Mathieu and his co-author Robert Ackland were awarded the 2012 Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology (CITAMS) section of the American Sociological Association Paper Award. They are the sole recipients of the CITAMS Paper Award outside North America, which recognises an ‘outstanding published paper or book chapter related to the sociology of communications or the sociology of information technology’.

Mathieu's research has been published in two books and in peer-reviewed journals such as Social Networks, Information, Communication & Society, Réseaux, New Media and Society, and Organization Studies, amongst others. He previously held academic appointments at the Université Stendhal - Grenoble 3, the Australian National University and the Université Paris Sorbonne. He has also worked as a magazine editor and exhibition curator in Singapore, and as a researcher for the Australian Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.

Mathieu is a Graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Fontenay / St-Cloud. He has worked as a magazine editor and exhibition curator. In 2000-2003 he lectured in American Society and Politics at the Université Stendhal - Grenoble 3. Mathieu was appointed Visiting Fellow at the ANU's Centre for New Media Arts in 2004-2005. He joined the ANU's ACSPRI Centre for Social Research in 2005, where he contributed to the founding of the Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online Networks (VOSON).

In 2008-2009 Mathieu worked as a researcher for the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy on a project to survey digital identity management practices across the Australian Public Service. In 2009-2013 Mathieu lectured in sociology of communications at the American Society and Politics department, Université Paris Sorbonne (Paris 4). In October 2013 he was appointed Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Canberra.

Journal of Peer Production

http://peerproduction.net/

Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online Networks

http://vosonlab.net/

Mapping the co-production of digital infrastructure by peer projects and firms

https://www.canberra.edu.au/research/faculty-research-centres/nmrc/research/mapping-the-co-production-of-digital-infrastructure-by-peer-projects-and-firms