SDS#3: How to Encourage Active Digital Citizenship in a Datafied Society? Visit by Dr. Arne Hintz
Participation and democracy form the basis of SHAPE’s seminar series, the Socio-Technical Data Studies Saloon, on multiple levels: with inspiration from the Danish ‘assembly hall’, the ambition is to facilitate presentations and open discussions on digitization, democracy, and citizenship. At our latest seminar, Dr. Arne Hintz, Co-Director of the Data Justice Lab at Cardiff University, presented his work on digital citizenship and social justice.
Dr Arne Hintz is Associate Professor at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture and co-Director of its Data Justice Lab. Apart from extensive academic experience from various universities across Europe and Canada, Hintz has a background within journalism and experience from media institutions.
In his research, Hintz is dedicated to investigating the intricate relationship between datafication and social justice. His focus is on the practices and conditions of digital citizenship, combining work on participation, digital policy, internet governance, and datafication. His recent books include the co-authored Digital Citizenship in the Datafied Society (2018) and Data Justice (2022).
Data Collector vs. Datafied Citizens
At SHAPE’s Socio-Technical Data Studies Saloon, Hintz presented some of the key questions informing the research of the Data Justice Lab; the Lab is first and foremost concerned with datafication within broad areas of governance and the public sector, and how this creates an uneven and opaque relationship between the data collector (state) and the data carriers (citizens). One main concern raised by Hintz in his presentation was exactly the consequences of this uneven power dynamic and what it means for the concept of (digital) citizenship.
Democratising the Datafied Society
As such, Hintz - and the Data Justice Lab - is especially concerned with promoting civic engagement and democratic innovation in order for citizens to gain more control of and knowledge about the increased datafication in the public sector. The Lab has in fact examined “avenues for civic participation and interventions in increasingly datafied and automated forms of governance, exploring promising mechanisms for enhancing people’s voices, but also highlighting many limitations and obstacles which lead to serious challenges for the future of democracy in a datafied society” [1].
The Lab invites fellow researchers, practitioners, activists, and community groups to take part in these discussions and challenges regarding participation, datafication, and social injustice at the coming Data Justice Conference at Cardiff University (and online) on June 19-20, 2023.
[1] https://datajusticelab.org/democratising-the-datafied-society/