Human capabilities in a datafied society
Empirical approaches to studying the interplay between digital communication and internet infrastructures
Public Defence of PhD Thesis by Signe Sophus Lai.
This dissertation is about the relationship between individuals and technological systems. It contributes to emerging understandings of the impact of digital infrastructures on individuals’ abilities to live the lives they value and to make their own futures. The dissertation deals with a three-fold problem of understanding: what individuals are capable of in and through digital communication; how this communication is enabled, constrained, and negotiated in a datafied society; and, in turn, the implications for individuals’ everyday lives, the choices they (do not) have, and the inequalities they live with.
To approach this problem, I introduce, in the first part of the dissertation, a perspective on communication as capability. The capabilities perspective (the Capability Approach, Sen 1980) offers a conceptual and normative lens through which to approach and understand what individuals can and cannot do, why, and with what implications, and it sets the agenda for the articles of the dissertation and for future research. Part II comprise a total of seven articles, and follow a trajectory that moves from the micro level of engaging with individuals’ capabilities – what they are and what they do – in and through digital communication; to the macro level of large technological systems that these beings and doings are embedded in; and back to the implications of these systems for individuals’ everyday life. Article 1 offers a research design for qualitative comparative studies of digital communication in everyday life. Article 2 and article 3 focus on the infrastructural, economic, and political conditions that frame everyday communications in different societal contexts.
The first develops a comparative framework for mapping digital communication systems, and the second applies that framework in a comparative, historical analysis of the evolution of the internet infrastructure in Denmark. Article 4 and article 5 approach the political economy of surveillance infrastructures by analyzing the use of third-party services on the web and in apps. And article 6 and article 7 return to the fieldwork data introduced in article 1 and look into the implications of digital infrastructures and datafication for individuals’ abilities to make their own future and to counter digital infrastructures and datafication for individuals’ abilities to make their own future and to counter persistent and exacerbating inequalities. Finally, Part III features the dissertations’ conclusion.
The dissertation makes three key contributions: a theoretical, a methodological, and an empirical one. First, it develops theoretical frameworks that combine critical data studies, infrastructure studies, and political economy of communication, and by offering a systematic way of understanding connections between digital communication and capabilities. Second, it contributes with developing new tools and methodological frameworks for analysing and monitoring nascent and fast-moving phenomena like datafication and digital business models in comprehensive ways and at macro, meso, and micro levels of inquiry. And third, the dissertation adds to existing research through empirical and systematic studies that uncover central mechanisms of big data, make otherwise invisible surveillance infrastructures visible, and interrogatethe tenets of infrastructural power.
Afhandlingen ’Human Capabilities in a Datafied Society: empirical approaches to studying the interplay between digital communication and internet infrastructures’ er en undersøgelse af forholdet mellem individer og teknologiske systemer. Gennem en række teoretiske, metodiske og empiriske analyser belyser afhandlingen, hvordan digitale infrastrukturer rammesætter individers muligheder for at leve et værdifuldt liv og øve indflydelse på de måder, deres data høstes, distribueres og anvendes. Undersøgelserne kredser dermed om et overordnet problem, der består i at forstå: hvilke handlemuligheder individer har for at kommunikere digitalt; hvordan deres kommunikation muliggøres, begrænses, og forhandles i et dataficeret samfund; og med hvilke implikationer.
Del I etablerer en fælles teoretisk ramme for afhandlingens artikler ved at introducere et perspektiv på kommunikation som ’capability’. Capabilities perspektivet (the Capability Approach, Sen 1980) udgør en konceptuel og normativ optik til at undersøge og forstå, hvad individer kan og ikke kan, hvorfor, og med hvilke konsekvenser.
Del II indeholder i alt syv artikler, der bevæger sig fra et mikro-niveau, der fokuserer på individers handlemuligheder, når det kommer til digital kommunikation; et makro-niveau, der beskæftiger sig med de teknologiske systemer som disse handlemuligheder er indlejret i; og tilbage til implikationerne af disse systemer for individers hverdagsliv.
Artikel 1 udvikler et forskningsdesign til kvalitative og komparative feltstudier af digital kommunikation i hverdagen. Artikel 2 og artikel 3 fokuserer på de infrastrukturelle, økonomiske, og politiske forhold, der rammesætter digital kommunikation ved dels at opstille en komparativ systematik til at kortlægge digitale kommunikation systemer i forskellige nationale kontekster, og dels at applicere denne i et komparativt, historisk studie af internettets udvikling i Danmark. Artikel 4 og artikel 5 undersøger overvågningsinfrastrukturer og digital politisk økonomi gennem analyser af tredjepartstjenester i web- og app-baseret tracking. Artikel 6 og artikel 7 vender tilbage til data fra feltarbejdet, introduceret i artikel 1, og undersøger implikationerne af digital infrastrukturer og dataficering, med fokus på mobilkommunikation og samfundsmæssige uligheder. Endelig præsenterer Del III afhandlingens konklusion. Afhandlingen har dermed tre nøglebidrag – et teoretisk, et metodologisk, og et empirisk.
For det første bidrager afhandlingen med teoretiske perspektiver, der kombinerer og udvikler forskningen indenfor kritiske datastudier, internet infrastrukturstudier og digital politisk økonomi. For det andet udvikles nye metoder og værktøjer til at undersøge og forstå fænomener som dataficering, digitale forretningsmodeller og infrastrukturel magt på tværs af makro- , meso- og mikroskopiske undersøgelsesniveauer. Endelig bidrager afhandlingen med en række empiriske og systematiske analyser, der afdækker centrale mekanismer i Big data, synliggør ellers usynlige overvågningsinfrastrukturer, og muliggår fremtidig monitorering og regulering af digitale infrastrukturer og markedsaktører. og regulering af digitale infrastrukturer og markedsaktører.
Assessment Committee
- Associate professor Anne Mette Thorhauge, Chair (University of Copenhagen)
- Professor Hallvard Moe (University of Bergen)
- Faculty associate Fernando Bermejo (Harvard University)
Moderator of defence
- Associate professor Andreas Lindegaard Gregersen (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)