Weizenbaum Library (Weizenbaum Institute)
Not a member yet
864 research outputs found
Sort by
A feeling of complete speechlessness – buzzwords are supposed to orient us in the “new“ territory
Get PDFIn his lecture, Wolfgang Coy discusses buzzwords like digitalization, algorithms, Big Data or Artificial Intelligence. These buzzwords have two major properties: They are often used in a very fuzzy way in the everyday life of journalism and politics and they therefore overarchingly serve not to clarify matters but to obscure them. Moreover, they are taken from complex scientific and technological contexts that are not fully understood by the users – who, for this reason, cannot assess their potential and their limits realistically. Instead, opportunities and (mostly economic) potentials, but also fears and risks are brought into the discussion, are financed and are used as a foundation of consequential decisions about the future
Data Governance and Sovereignty in Urban Data Spaces Based on Standardized ICT Reference Architectures
Get PDFEuropean cities and communities (and beyond) require a structured overview and a set of tools as to achieve a sustainable transformation towards smarter cities/municipalities, thereby leveraging on the enormous potential of the emerging data driven economy. This paper presents the results of a recent study that was conducted with a number of German municipalities/cities. Based on the obtained and briefly presented recommendations emerging from the study, the authors propose the concept of an Urban Data Space (UDS), which facilitates an eco-system for data exchange and added value creation thereby utilizing the various types of data within a smart city/municipality. Looking at an Urban Data Space from within a German context and considering the current situation and developments in German municipalities, this paper proposes a reasonable classification of urban data that allows the relation of various data types to legal aspects, and to conduct solid considerations regarding technical implementation designs and decisions. Furthermore, the Urban Data Space is described/analyzed in detail, and relevant stakeholders are identified, as well as corresponding technical artifacts are introduced. The authors propose to setup Urban Data Spaces based on emerging standards from the area of ICT reference architectures for Smart Cities, such as DIN SPEC 91357 “Open Urban Platform” and EIP SCC. In the course of this, the paper walks the reader through the construction of a UDS based on the above-mentioned architectures and outlines all the goals, recommendations and potentials, which an Urban Data Space can reveal to a municipality/city. Finally, we aim at deriving the proposed concepts in a way that they have the potential to be part of the required set of tools towards the sustainable transformation of German and European cities in the direction of smarter urban environments, based on utilizing the hidden potential of digitalization and efficient interoperable data exchange
Boulianne, Shelley (2021). Pathways to Environmental Activism in Four Countries. figshare. Dataset.
No full textYouthEnviroActivism Sept2021.sav
YouthEnviroActivism Sept2021.sps
YouthEnviroActivism Sept2021.spv
YouthEnviroActivism Sept2021.xlsThe project was funded by Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) as an Insight Grant (435-2019-04-94
Jahresbericht 2018–2019
Get PDFDer Berichtszeitraum war für das Weizenbaum-Institut geprägt vom weiteren Aufbau des Instituts, aber auch vom Eifer, mit dem unsere Wissenschaftler*innen in den einzelnen Forschungsgruppen an interdisziplinären Themen gearbeitet haben. In diesem Jahresrückblick berichten wir von den institutionellen Entwicklungen, von Formaten unserer Nachwuchsförderung, vom nationalen und internationalen Wissenschaftsaustausch sowie vom Wissenstransfer und Dialog mit Gesellschaft, Politik und Wirtschaft
Digidem Digest - Issue 10 (January 2019)
No full textThe Digidem Digest literature radar was a monthly curated overview of the latest publications with relevance to the research group "Democracy and Digitalization" at the Weizenbaum Institute. Their research focused around the interrelation of digitalization and democratic self-determination, asking how liberal-democratic societies appropriate digital technologies and how democracy is changing within the digital configuration. The present articles and publications were chosen by observation of leading journals within the field - a list can be found at the end of each newsletter
“You are too Old (Not) to Learn” - A Critical Reconsideration of “Older Employees”
Get PDFTodays working environment faces the major challenges of demographical change and digitalization. Deficit-oriented stereotypes question the ability of older employees to keep pace with these technological innovations. Consequently, the elderly are perceived as less valuable for the company leading to fewer vocational training offers. Facing this dilemma, this contribution aims at uncovering the prevailing stereotypes against older employees and present a new approach of looking at older generations. Focusing existing experienced-based knowledge instead of assumed deficits as a starting point for further didactical work and research, basics of age-appropriate vocational training get pointed out in order to raise target group specific potentials in the context of the challenges of digitalization.This work has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) (grant no.: 16DII111, 16DII112, 16DII113, 16DII114, 16DII115, 16DII116, 16DII117 – „Deutsches Internet-Institut“
Algorithmic Governance
Get PDFAlgorithmic governance as a key concept in controversies around the emerging digital society highlights the idea that digital technologies produce social ordering in a specific way. Starting with the origins of the concept, this paper portrays different perspectives and objects of inquiry where algorithmic governance has gained prominence ranging from the public sector to labour management and ordering digital communication. Recurrent controversies across all sectors such as datafication and surveillance, bias, agency and transparency indicate that the concept of algorithmic governance allows to bring objects of inquiry and research fields that had not been related before into a joint conversation. Short case studies on predictive policy and automated content moderation show that algorithmic governance is multiple, contingent and contested. It takes different forms in different contexts and jurisdictions, and it is shaped by interests, power, and resistance
Unifying the Detrimental and Beneficial Effects of Social Network Site Use on Self-Esteem: A Systematic Literature Review
Get PDFPrevious research offers equivocal results regarding the effect of social networking site use on individuals’ self-esteem. We conduct a systematic literature review to examine the existing literature and develop a theoretical framework in order to classify the results. The framework proposes that self-esteem is affected by three distinct processes that incorporate self-evaluative information: social comparison processes, social feedback processing, and self-reflective processes. Due to particularities of the social networking site environment, the accessibility and quality of selfevaluative information is altered, which leads to online-specific effects on users’ self-esteem. Results of the reviewed studies suggest that when a social networking site is used to compare oneself with others, it mostly results in decreases in users’ selfesteem. On the other hand, receiving positive social feedback from others or using these platforms to reflect on one’s own self is mainly associated with benefits for users’ self-esteem. Nevertheless, inter-individual differences and the specific activities performed by users on these platforms should be considered when predicting individual effects.This work has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) under grant no. 16DII116 (“Deutsches Internet-Institut”)
Mediated democracy – Linking digital technology to political agency
Get PDFAlthough the relationship between digitalisation and democracy is subject of growing public attention, the nature of this relationship is rarely addressed in a systematic manner. The common understanding is that digital media are the driver of the political change we are facing today. This paper argues against such a causal approach und proposes a co-evolutionary perspective instead. Inspired by Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Communities" and recent research on mediatisation, it introduces the concept of mediated democracy. This concept reflects the simple idea that representative democracy requires technical mediation, and that the rise of modern democracy and of communication media are therefore closely intertwined. Hence, mediated democracy denotes a research perspective, not a type of democracy. It explores the changing interplay of democratic organisation and communication media as a contingent constellation, which could have evolved differently. Specific forms of communication media emerge in tandem with larger societal formations and mutually enable each other. Following this argument, the current constellation reflects a transformation of representative democracy and the spread of digital media. The latter is interpreted as a "training ground" for experimenting with new forms of democratic agency
Technological Opacity of Machine Learning in Healthcare
Get PDFRecently, a host of propositions for guidelines for the ethical development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) has been published. This body of work contains timely contributions for sensitizing developers to the ethical and societal implications of their work. However, a sustained embedding of ethics in largely algorithm-based technology development, research and studies requires a precise framing of the origins of the new vulnerabilities created. Recently, scholars have been referring to ethics associated with technology that is in some way “opaque” to at least part of its associated stakeholders. This “opacity” can take several forms which will be discussed in this paper. There are various ways in which such an opacity can create vulnerabilities and, hence, relevant ethical, societal, epistemic and regulatory challenges. This paper provides a non-exhaustive list of examples in healthcare that call for educational resources and consideration in development processes that try to reveal and counter these opacities.This work has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) (grant no.: 16DII111, 16DII112, 16DII113, 16DII114, 16DII115, 16DII116, 16DII117 – „Deutsches Internet-Institut“