AUTO-WELF: Automating Welfare – Algorithmic Infrastructures for Human Flourishing in Europe In a world where automation is thought to increase productivity and efficiency with less effort and at lower costs, what happens to human flourishing when this logic is deployed to support decisions in the welfare sector? AUTO-WELF investigates the extensive implementation of automated decision-making in the welfare sector across ...

DIDE - Digital Death: Transforming History, Rituals and Afterlife How do the dead live among us today? What kind of relationships can be established between the living and the dead in today’s society? How can we achieve immortality in the present-day digital society? The consortium Digital Death: Transforming History, Rituals and Afterlife (DiDe) is an interdisciplinary research consortium that addresses ...

DIGeMERGE: Digital Emergency Communication During disasters and emergencies, good communication is of vital importance to life-saving efforts. In recent years, numerous digital tools have made their way into emergency management, initially simply to warn the public about imminent risks and hazards. As societies become ever more digitalised, such tools are increasingly used to collect data from the public and those ...

DigiFREN: Digital Aestheticization of Fragile Environments It can readily be observed simply by looking around or listening attentively in any natural setting, that people’s engagements with their surroundings are different from a decade ago. Today, in the mountains, by the seaside, and in the forests, it is hard to find anyone who is not tapping on their smartphones, flying drones, ...

DigiPatch: Moving From A Networked To A Patchworked Society: Motivational Underpinnings And Societal Consequences With the rise in usage of digital media, people now have myriad ways to inform and express themselves and share their opinions with a global audience. This digitalisation of communication leads to new and multiple social ties which, while strengthening democracy, also has a dark side. ...

DIGISCREENS: Identities and Democratic values on European digital screens: Distribution, reception and representation At a time when streaming platforms provide access to film and television from all over the world, DIGISCREENS focuses on how these platforms contribute to transform social and cultural dynamics in Europe. The project asks how the increased possibilities for audiences to watch audio-visual content from a ...

DIGITISLAM: Digital Islam across Europe - Understanding Muslims’ Participation in Online Islamic Environments European Muslim communities (and indeed all communities) have been transformed by the digital revolution and new processes of knowledge creation, acquisition and dissemination that erode traditional structures of authority. While many Muslims remain marginalised from European hierarchies of knowledge, digital platforms provide novel ways to create and ...

GEiO: Gender Equitable Interactions Online - Supporting gender equity in work-based videoconferencing The GEiO project investigates the role of gender in online work meetings across four nations (Germany, Iceland, Spain and the UK). Research exploring how gender becomes relevant to videoconferencing at work remains in its infancy. Existing investigations suggest that with the exponential rise in digitally mediated working patterns ...

New challenges for occupational safety and health in times of the digital transformation in Europe: the role of digital labour platforms Digitalisation is transforming labour markets and altering labour relations. This has laid the foundations for the rise of digital labour platforms, which connect the supply and demand for labour. The growth of digital labour platforms has created additional income-generating ...

HuLog: Humans in Digital Logistics The Humans in Digital Logistics (HuLog) project investigates how digital technologies shape work and employment conditions in warehouses in Europe. Today, warehouses are profoundly affected by rapidly evolving digital technologies along the whole supply chain, which facilitate the online purchase of goods, harmonise systems for tracking parcels and optimise warehouse operations to reduce the time ...

JUSTHEAT: Looking back, moving forwards: a social and cultural history of home heating Home heating is a major source of greenhouse gases, therefore reducing the carbon footprint of our heating systems is a priority in the context of the climate emergency. This will be achieved through the introduction of low carbon heating systems to our homes, controlled through ‘smart’ systems ...

MEDEP: Media and Epidemics: Technologies of Science Communication and Public Health in the 20th and 21st Centuries What is the relationship between technologies of communication and social and cultural change? This collaborative project between humanities researchers and art practitioners proposes to explore this question in the context of public health and illness. More specifically, it seeks to document, from historical ...

PlatFAMs: Platforming Families – tracing digital transformations in everyday life across generations Digital platforms have penetrated deeply our everyday life, affecting people’s informal interactions, ways of living and understanding of the world, as well as the institutional structures that underpin these. Increasingly, digital platforms provide an infrastructure for learning, social connections, gaming, commerce and engagement with news, and their impact ...

PolarVis: Visual Persuasion in a Transforming Europe - the affective and polarising power of visual content in online political discourse The PolarVis project examines the role of visual content in processes of political polarisation and belonging in the digital age. The visual dimension is increasingly salient online, where it underpins both conflict and connection. Photos, videos and memes offer a ...

PSM-AP: Public Service Media in the Age of Platforms For almost 100 years, public service media (PSM) have played a central role in European culture and society. However, over the past decade the rise of global platforms and streaming services has transformed the environment within which PSM operates. PSM organisations have to compete with global streaming services, such as Netflix ...

QSHIFT: Decision-Making in the Age of Quantum AI Advances and investment in quantum computing (QC) have the potential to significantly affect how we solve complex problems across industries. While still in its infancy today, QC could, for instance, significantly increase the computational power of existing machine learning systems, resulting in Quantum AI. This evolution, which we call the QShift, contrasts ...

ReCoVirA: Religious Communities in the Virtual Age While, historically, religious life has been something of a refuge from the digitalisation of society, the COVID-19 pandemic changed that. The social restrictions imposed by the pandemic rapidly accelerated religious communities’ embrace of digital tools and structures in order to continue their essential social and psychological work during this crisis. As our preliminary ...

 REDACT: Researching Europe, Digitalisation and Conspiracy Theories Digital communication technologies enable the exchange, adaptation and adoption of conspiracy theories at an unprecedented speed and scale, facilitating the creation of counter-publics connected by a propensity for mis- and disinformation. The REDACT project will analyse how digitalisation shapes the form, content and consequences of conspiracy theories, including online sociality and offline actions ...

ReDigIm: Redistributive Imaginaries: Digitalisation, culture, and prosocial contribution Redigim examines the impact of digitalisation on European citizens’ understanding of what it means to contribute to society. Taxation, philanthropy, charity and mutual aid are redistributive forms that enable individuals to ‘pay in’ to their societies. They invite or compel citizens to make payments with a view to sustaining their social worlds, ...

Reimagining public values in algorithmic futures REIMAGINE ADM research consortium studies how public values intertwine with algorithmic systems and futures. The novelty of the project lies in mobilising anthropological and sociological perspectives to examine how values are deployed in situated practices rather than in the abstract. We develop methods and comprehensive frameworks for exploring values in socio-technical systems, and study ...

REMEDIS: REthinking MEdia literacy and DIgital Skills in Europe Adopting an evidence-based approach to REthinking MEdia Literacy and DIgital Skills in Europe, REMEDIS seeks to provide a framework for evidence-based evaluative research of media literacy and digital skills. REMEDIS aims to inform practitioners and policymakers about so far severely underdeveloped evidence that links interventions around different types of media literacy ...

SMARTUP: Smart(ening up the modern) home - Redesigning power dynamics through domestic space digitalisation What happens to home when it becomes smart/er? What does “smartness” at home mean? What are the various consequences of home smartening? SMARTUP targets these questions as it explores how digitalisation affects our homes. Home has long been positioned by means of particular dichotomies such as ...

SoLiXG: The Social Life of XG - Digital infrastructures and the reconfiguration of sovereignty and imagined communities Post-pandemic recovery plans in the EU and the UK involve an unprecedented expansion of digital infrastructures that promise to strengthen the resilience and sovereignty of the European Union and 'upgrade' the UK respectively. These new technologies will be part of the social fabric ...

TEtrARCHs: Transforming data rE-use in ARCHaeology Today many organisations collect and manage archaeological data to document and preserve our cultural landscapes, sites and objects. Unfortunately, our current methods can make it difficult to re-use the data to tell stories and share findings in ways that are democratic, engaging and just. In fact, although a lot of work has been done ...

TIMED: TIMe experience in Europe’s Digital age During the last two decades, there has been a significant increase in the use of digital technology in our work, social and personal lives. As a result, many people now live in a state of “permanent connectivity” which enables them to be contacted at anytime, anywhere, and to seek information and stimulation with ...

TRAVIS: Trust And Visuality - Everyday digital practices The ongoing crisis of trust in specific institutions (government, media, healthcare system) is often blamed for many of the social, cultural and political problems European societies are currently facing. While many researchers are exploring the relations between trust, technology and misinformation, we need to understand how trust is practiced in our everyday, ...