Collaboration
Steering committee
- Jose van Dijck
- Koen Frenken
- Rutger Claassen,
- Giorgio Monti
- Barry Rodger
- Spencer Waller
- Nicolas Petit
- Eva Lachnit
Focus Area: Governing the Digital Society
Governing the Digital Society is one of Utrecht University’s focus areas that promotes research on the social processes of datafication, algorithmisation and platformisation. The basic research inquiry revolves around the question: How to develop and apply principles of (good) governance in digital societies? Such principles often include tradeoffs between conflicting (public) values, such as privacy versus security, accuracy versus democratic control, fairness versus efficiency, etc.
Central to the research effort is the strengthening of independent and public institutions in the digital era by making them more transparent, accountable, and responsible. These value-negotiations are studied within and across societal sectors, trying to discover general rules for fair governance at various levels: institutional, local, national, and transnational (EU).
GDS PhD Network
The Modern Bigness research project team works closely together with the focus area on Governing the Digital Society (GDS). The three PhDs take an active role in shaping an interdisciplinary GDS PhD Network and its activities, which is aimed at exploring the intersections in the members' respective disciplines around topics of datafication, algorithmisation and platformisation, as well as fostering a supportive and productive PhD community.