Doctoral Researcher, Centre for Consumer Society Research, Research Master’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Amsterdam
Laura is a doctoral candidate in Sociology at the Consumer Society Research Centre (KTK), University of Helsinki, where she works as a part of the Data, Self and Society research group. Laura holds a Research Master’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Amsterdam. In her dissertation research, Laura applies concepts and research foci of material culture studies – such as waste and breakdown, infrastructural labor and maintenance – to critical data studies. In addition, she has researched activist and political self-presentation in social media, using mixed and computational methods.
Places and populations that were previously digitally invisible are now part of a ‘data revolution’ that is being hailed as a transformative tool for human and economic development. Yet this unprecedented expansion of the power to digitally monitor, sort, and intervene is not well connected to the idea of social justice, nor is there a clear concept of how broader access to the benefits of data technologies can be achieved without amplifying misrepresentation, discrimination, and power asymmetries.
We therefore need a new framework for data justice integrating data privacy, non-discrimination, and non-use of data technologies into the same framework as positive freedoms such as representation and access to data. This project will research the lived experience of data technologies in high- and low-income countries worldwide, seeking to understand people’s basic needs with regard to these technologies. We will also seek the perspectives of civil society organisations, technology companies, and policymakers.
