Are you looking for a challenging position in a dynamic setting? The
Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) currently has a vacant PhD position as part of the
Gravitation program Public Values in the Algorithmic Society (algosoc), led by principal investigator Prof. Dr. Natali Helberger. The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis is one of the five Research Schools within the
Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research.
ASCA is home to more than 100 researchers and more than 140 PhD candidates and conducts world-leading research in Cultural Analysis. ASCA researchers share a commitment to studying culture in all its forms and expressions within an interdisciplinary framework, and to maintaining a close connection with contemporary cultural and political debates.
What are you going to do?The growing role of algorithms in media has brought fundamental advantages for democratic procedures and democratic values, for instance regarding political information and certain kinds of political communications. On the other hand, some values might be under threat, such as privacy and civic participation.
This project analyses which democratic, public values are at stake when algorithms play an ever-growing role in the media. These might include privacy, agency, autonomy, equality, non-discrimination, and others. Which democratic values are particularly under threat in a technological democracy? How might they be safeguarded? And which values only come to the fore as a constitutive element of democratic procedures through technological advances? The project will draw on the ongoing empirical research on new media technologies and their impact on democratic procedures, and connect these insights to debates in political philosophy.
It will address questions such as: In what ways have these procedures been transformed (or could they have been)? How should the values at stake, and their changes in time, be contextualized? How can we bring out impediments for citizens' autonomy, new forms of discrimination through algorithmic racism, and the values specific to the profession of journalism? And how should we deal with potential conflicts of values?
This project is part of the
Gravitation program Public Values in the Algorithmic Society (algosoc). The Gravitation program is an initiative by the Dutch government to support excellent research in the Netherlands. The funding is reserved for scientific consortia that have the potential to rank among the world's best in their field. Algosoc is a response to the urgent need for an informed societal perspective on automated decision-making. Funded by the ministry for Education, Culture and Science for a period for 10 years, research in the algosoc program will develop a deep understanding of the systemic changes that automated decision making entails for core public institutions, for society, and for how public values are realized. The research will focus on three sectors: justice, health and media. The program brings together researchers in law, communication science, computer science, media studies, philosophy, public governance, STS, economy and social sciences from five Dutch universities (Amsterdam, Utrecht, Tilburg, Delft and Rotterdam). Together, the algosoc community will develop solutions for the design of governance frameworks needed to complement technology-driven initiatives in the algorithmic society.
Tasks and responsibilities
- conducting research in political philosophy and technology leading up to a finalized dissertation;
- participating in other activities of the project, such as bi-weekly colloquia
- contribute to the public debate and organize outreach activities of algosoc;
- participating in activities of the Philosophy and Public Affairs Group in the Department of Philosophy
- organizing workshops and conferences;
- help co-supervising research projects of students working on related topics.
- collaborate with other researchers within the algosoc consortium;