Technology, power and democracy

Today we are witnessing significant ethical, societal and political challenges related to the technological revolutions in the early 21st century, including datafication, mediated forms of experience (e.g. via ubiquitous screens, cameras, audio interfaces) and the increasing use of forms of automation and artificial intelligence.

Our work examines algorithmic governance within attention economies and surveillance capitalisms and the impact of technological developments on the conditions for forms of power. We are interested in theoretical, methodological and empirical work that illuminates, questions and challenges our relationships with algorithms, forms of mediation, and data. How do information technological innovations shape the social world, organizations and institutions? How do the politics of algorithms transform the conditions of democracy in society? What kind of ethical questions emerge in new sociotechnical assemblages of the modern digitalized world? How do mediations (e.g. visual, sonic) alter our phenomenal experience of the world?

Keywords: algorithmic governance, artificial intelligence, automation, datafication, digitalization, democracy, mediation, politics, tech ethics, sociotechnical assemblages, surveillance capitalisms, visual technologies

Contact persons: Jaana Parviainen and Asko Lehmuskallio

Researchers: Laura Eilola, Anne Koski, Asko Lehmuskallio, Thomas Olsson, Jaana Parviainen, Virve Peteri, Nelli Piattoeva, Juho RantalaMarko Teräs, Sini Teräsahde

Selected publications:

2025

  • Olsson, T. (2025) Understanding Moral Lapses in Design: Cultural Biases, Beliefs and Narratives as Factors of Accidental Evil. In: Dovbysh, O., Laaksonen, S., & Pantti, M. (Eds.) Platforms and the Planet: Big Tech, Digital Platforms and Environmental Responsibility. Emerald Publishing, 2025.

2024

  • Harjunheimo, F., & Peteri, V. (2024) Organisational dressage: Conflicting embodied rhythms of a health station. Health & Place87. (Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1353829224000753).
  • Niiranen, S., Lätti, J., & Teräsahde, S. (2024). ‘We Treat Everyone Equally, but…’—Gendered Attitudes and Perceptions in STEM. teoksessa W. Fox-Turnbull, & P. J. Williams (Toimittajat), Locating Technology Education in STEM Teaching and Learning: What Does the ‘T’ Mean in STEM? (1 toim., Sivut 273-290). (Contemporary Issues in Technology Education; Vuosikerta XII). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-1995-2_18
  • Parviainen, J. & Coeckelbergh, M. (2024) Sophia the Robot as a Political Choreography to Advance Economic Interests: An Exercise in Political Phenomenology and Critical Performance-Oriented Philosophy of Technology. In: Diachronic Perspectives on Embodiment and Technology: Gestures and Artefacts (Eds.) Thiemo Breyer, Alexander Gerner, Niklas Grouls, Johannes Schick. Springer, pp. 57-66 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-50085-5_4
  • Rantala, J., & Muilu, M. (2024). Simondon, Control and the Digital Domain. Theory, Culture & Society, 41(4), 23-40. https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764231201337

2023

  • Lehmuskallio, A., Haara, P. (2023). The Passport as a Medium of Movement. In: Eisenmann, C., Englert, K., Schubert, C., Voss, E. (eds) Varieties of Cooperation. Medien der Kooperation – Media of Cooperation. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-39037-2_7
  • Parviainen, J. & Koski, A. (2023) ‘In the future, as robots become more widespread’. A phenomenological approach to imaginary technologies in healthcare organisations. In: The Oxford Handbook of Phenomenologies and Organization Studies, eds. François-Xavier de Vaujany, Jeremy Aroles, and Mar Perezts. Oxford University Press, 277–296.
  • Teräs, M., & Teräs, H., & Suoranta, J. (2023). From Official Document Utopias to Collective Utopian Imagination. In A. Weich & F. Macgilchrist (Eds.), Postdigital Participation in Education. Palgrave Macmillan. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-38052-5_9