Research

 Research

This Research Platform brought together researchers from the social sciences, law, and operations research to study and improve the governance of digital practices.

Digital practices refer to all social, political, scientific and economic practices that create, use, or modify digital technologies. Our focus on the governance of digital practices enabled us to analyse both how digital practices themselves are shaped and regulated, and how people, places and populations are governed through digital practices.

The platform’s doctoral projects followed this approach. They did so by exploring the governance of digital mental health care, the FAIR data principles, and data-intensive scientific practices in marine biology. Our affiliate doctoral researchers focused on ethics in computational social sciences, on the digitisation of education and the right to personal development of children, and on the governance of digital health platforms.

Members of the platform worked on analytic and normative questions related to knowledge work, digital platforms and digital health. They studied the factors that give shape to digital practices and also worked towards developing new solutions for governing digital practices.

This is particularly important in cases where digital practices lead to inequities, exclusion or discrimination. At the same time, good governance of digital practices has the potential to enhance equity and strengthen democracy.