Technology, Power, and Domination

With the growing influence of digital technologies, the mechanisms through which social order is established are changing. The research group focuses on two structuring mechanisms that characterize the contemporary socio-technical transformation. On the one hand, it investigates the organizational structuring principle of platformization, affecting markets, communication, and social relations. On the other hand, the group looks into the epistemic structuring principle of AI, that is, the automation of knowledge production and decision-making. These two structuring mechanisms are shifting power relations and altering forms of domination – apparent, for example, in the dominance of global tech companies and states’ attempts at regulating them.

The research group’s work is based on two key questions:

1. Which forms of power and domination are facilitated by platforms and AI systems, which social conflicts arise, and how do digital technologies become objects of regulation?
2. How can the changing forms of power and domination be democratically contained and how can digital infrastructures be designed in a way that meets societal demands for individual and collective autonomy?

The research group investigates these developments on a theoretical and empirical level, drawing on approaches from political science, law, sociology, and computer science. It takes an international comparative approach and puts different technologies, platforms, as well as regional or national regulatory and development policies into relation. This provides new impulses for the political shaping of digitalization and expands the established repertoire of regulatory approaches.