Business Corporations and Data Power: Towards a Political Theory of Corporate Data Power by Dr. Chi Kwok

The Platform of Markets and Corporations is happy to announce the second meeting of its informal platform meeting series. During this meeting, Dr. Chi Kwok (postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies) will present his paper on data power, as written within the context of the ERC project "The Business Corporation as a Political Actor".

The meeting will take place on Tuesday 2 February, from 16:00 until 17:30, via Microsoft Teams. During the meeting, there will be room for a short discussion about Dr. Kwok’s presentation, as well as about ongoing research (projects) of other meeting participants.

Chi: “Drawing on the recent literature on “regulatory entrepreneurship”, my paper explores a relatively underexamined dimension of corporate political power in normative political theory – data power. Data power is distinctively problematic in liberal democracy because, instead of imposing external pressure on the democratic state, it enables business corporations to influence democratic outcomes from within the democratic procedure. The paper discusses various mechanisms through which data power is normally exercised and their respective normative problems.”

About Dr. Chi Kwok
Chi Kwok is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Utrecht University. He is a member of the ERC project "The Business Corporation as a Political Actor". He specializes in political theory and comparative development studies. He obtained his PhD in political theory from the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto in 2020. His current research examines theories of the corporation and the political legitimacy of the political power of business corporations. His work has appeared in international peer-reviewed journals, such as, among others, Philosophy & Social Criticism, Review of Social Economy, Space and Culture, Contemporary Political Theory, and China Perspectives. He can be reached via email (c.kwok@uu.nl). Click here to visit Chi’s university webpage for further details.